An intro to my crazy life....

My name is Tara and I am a proud mama to 10 1/2 kiddos!  Tomorrow we finally the adoption of 2 of our girls which makes me LEGALLY the mama to 9 kiddos.  Hoping #10 becomes forever ours in the spring.  The "1/2" a child is bio sibling to our three girls.  He lived with us for 15 months but we had to disrupt his placement due to extreme violent behaviors/meltdowns.  He was a danger to other kiddos.  The ultimate goal would be for him to be able to come back home but it seems he may do better permanently in a smaller household.  He is believed to have RAD (reactive attachment disorder). None of our children are biologically ours but they are ours none the less.  If I were to birth a child tomorrow I couldn't love that child anymore than I love my kiddos now.  When I was little I always knew I wanted to be a mom.  I KNEW that was going to be my "job".  I wanted to be a stay at home mom and have 99 kids.  :-)    As I got older, got married, and settled down we were trying for a baby and it wasn't happening.  After lots of testing we discovered due to infertility issues of my husband AND myself having a child biologically would be impossible.  I didn't let that get in the way of my dreams.  My husband was reluctant at first to foster.  He wanted to adopt a child but he didn't want to be a foster parent.  In my heart I KNEW fostering was my calling.  Shayne didn't want to foster because his parents were once foster parents and had a little girl for 4 years before she was ripped from their loving home for being biracial, and they were white.  After some convincing and researching that laws are in play to prevent that (unless the child is native american) he finally decided to hop on board and we started our journey.  We could NEVER agree on the number of kiddos we wanted.  I wanted 6 and he wanted 3 and here we are with 10 and we still don't feel that we are "done" for good.  While we will be taking a break and enjoying our family while they grow I feel in my heart that god still has more in store for us.  Shayne and I have been happily married for 8 1/2 years.  Within 4 years of being foster parents we have 10 kids aging in range from 2-10.  People think we are nuts, sometimes we think we are nuts, but we love this kind of nuts!  Our kids are happy and THRIVING and we couldn't imagine our lives without them in it.  Along with all this joy does come a full list of issues that our children have.  We deal with many many emotional, behavioral, and medical issues.  We have a few children with attachment disorder, sensory processing disorder, speech delay, Neurofibromatosis type 1, a son with autism, EoS (eosinophilic esophagitis), a kiddo on a feeding tube because she has a hatred for most foods, drug exposed kiddos, FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome, TBI (traumatic brain injury), ADD/ADHD, ODD, OCD, PTSD, gender identity issues.  We deal with a leg brace, special shoes with wedges, tumors, glasses, glasses, glasses, eyepatches, wheelchair, speech therapy, occupational therapy, feeding therapy, group counseling, art therapy, family counseling, EMDR therapy, Habilitation, GI doctors, pulmonologists, neurologists, orthopedics, ophthalmologists, dermatologists, geneticists, allergists, nutritionists, and MRIs.  Phew.  I've most likely left some things out but I think you catch the drift.  My life is crazy.....it's crazy busy...but I'm crazy in love with my brew!  <3