So it Begins

Hey there! First let me say welcome to my blog, Fostering Miracles. If you’re reading this you probably have an interest in foster care, adoption, or finding out how loony I really am. Any reason is okay really.

My name is Cheyanne Shatto, I live in Nashville, TN and am married to Justin Shatto, the love life of my life (enter corny crowd AWWW!!). This blog is covering our journey to becoming foster parents… the good and the tough stuff!!! I promise I will give you a real life perspective; I’ll celebrate the successes, and not sugarcoat the challenges. I want to dedicate this blog to my future children (please know where ever you are your loved and wanted.) This also goes to anyone debating on being a foster parent.

How it all began: I was born and raised in a small farm town that had very little going on. The main surpluses for our town were drugs and coal, in that order. The only traffic light in my town was leaving it. However, I was lucky and my parents were not sucked into the drugs and kept me and my sister sheltered from most of it.

I was nine when my parents decided that fostering was going to be part of our lives. My parents explained that these kids would be staying with us while their parents were getting better, and we would have to share our toys with them, and we would have to share a room. As a kid, the hardest part was hearing I had to share my stuff with more people than just my sister (who was bad enough at the time in my mind). However, I got over it. I remember my parents going to the classes and things starting to change around the house. Like everything had locks now. I mean I couldn’t sneak anything anymore with the cabinet locks. Some things were good though, like no more spankings… thank God for timeouts!!!

Our first kid was not what I had prepared for. She was a teenage girl who was no beginner to foster care. Let’s call her “BB” for privacy. I actually knew BB because she was once a foster child at my Nana’s house before going home to her family. I will never forget her, because she was the beginning to my life of being a foster sister. During the time my parents were foster parents, I was a sister to over a dozen kids. My parents fostered until I met my little brother “D” in 2004. He was the cutest little boy I had ever seen. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was a tiny little thing. He had just turned two and had a mullet down his back like you wouldn’t believe. He looked like a little girl honestly. I will definitely explain his story and how it affected my decision later, but that’s another post all its own. For now, just know we adopted D when he was 4 years old, and so ended my parents’ journey as foster parents. Our family was complete.

PCOS: Fast forward to me at sixteen. I remember this like yesterday. I was at home and had felt a sharp pain most of the day but my mom as all moms do hit me with the phrase “you probably just have to poop” (Oh yeah were getting that honest). Well she was wrong, at 8’oclock that night my mom was rushing me to the hospital because I had doubled over in pain. I couldn’t walk and was just crying out. My mom got me to the hospital and they rushed me back as they were sure my appendix had just burst. They ran test after test and it was finally decided at 3 A.M. that I had polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Meaning that I had cyst on my ovaries and one had just burst, which was causing the pain. I was informed that my treatment option was birth control and that my chances of ever having children was lowered substantially…

But more on that next time. Were just getting started….

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