Duffel of Dreams

Foster Spotlight: The Baudin’s

Here’s the story of how we went from a family of 2 to a family of 4 with one phone call (and a lot of paperwork as I like to say).

It all starts with 2 people that decided to take a leap of faith, and follow God’s plan for our livesand parenthood.

I met Brelan in December of 2013, we got married in June of 2016, and it wasn’t long before we began the conversation of wanting to start a family. Around April of 2018 God laid it on my heart
to adopt. Brelan and I had been discussing wanting to have kids for about a year whenever Idecided to share with him my desire to adopt. I did some research about adopting from foster care and decided that I wanted to learn more. One night I was online looking at orientation dates
and it just so happened that our local orientation was scheduled for the next night. I told Brelan that we should go, and once we went my heart was filled, even more so, and I knew that this
was God’s plan for us. Over the next year we would attend foster parenting classes, participate in home studies, and complete what felt like endless amounts of paperwork. In May of 2019 I
received the call that Brelan and I were officially certified foster parents. Now all that was left to do was wait for a placement call.

Just 5 weeks later, that felt like forever, I was laying on the couch one evening, Brelan had left for an overnight work shift as a police officer whenever I received the call. It went something like
this, “This is _____ with DCFS, we are calling because we have a 2 year old girl and a 1 year old boy that need a placement. Would you take them?” Brelan and I had already agreed that I wouldn’t accept a placement without talking to him first, but something told me not to hang up
the phone. So I quickly tried to add Brelan to the phone line and text him. He responds through text with a simple 3 letter word “YES”. Two hours later we were greeted at our front door with 2
of the most beautiful kids I have ever seen. (Yes I am a little bias)

On June 27, 2019 they were placed with us and 2 years later we were able to officially adopt them and become a forever family on July 15 2021. Though it was scary and hard at times, I never regret our decision to trust God and his plan for us. I have always heard people say, “ I couldn’t do foster care, I would get too attached.” The truth is, yes, you do get attached and not everyone’s story is like ours. However, every child deserves to be loved and cared for, whether
that be temporary or forever.

I believe that Duffel of Dreams is an amazing charity that is blessing children in foster care in a tremendous way. When my children were placed with me, all they brought from their home was a walmart bag with a few things in it. Duffel of Dreams gifts these children with a suitcase just for them and I know that means a lot during the heartbreaking time they are going through. During my time as a foster parent, I fostered 4 kids, 2 came with a shared walmart bag, and the other 2 came with absolutely nothing. Duffel of Dreams makes it possible for all children in foster care tohave the things they need when being placed in a new home.