Full hands, full heart. Foster placements.
I am always amazed at how quickly our family and life changes as foster parents. 3 weeks ago, we picked up a 6 day old baby boy at the hospital. We went from 2 to 3 and sleepless nights. When I got the call I was super thrilled but anxious. The next day I drove to the hospital, met the birth family and left them with empty arms and me with their baby. It was so bittersweet and my heart was broken for them as I watched them weep over their baby they were going to have to say goodbye to.
Foster care is full of swinging emotions, I tell ya.
Baby J is super sweet, incredibly adorable and has a pouty lip that will make you want to scoop him up in an instant and smother him with kisses. He also has a head full of dark hair. He is chubby and is probably over 10 lbs by now at only 4 weeks old.
Then something else crazy happened.
While we were in the craziness and wonderfulness of a newborn, we got a phone call from DHS that our previous foster kiddo (the one we had from birth-16 months) came back into care. They were asking us if we could take him. I was full of faith and defense for him and yet fear creeped into the back of my mind. "Of course we would take him, we were the only family he ever knew." But other thoughts came in of "How the HECK am i going to take care of 4 under 5 and transport to visits and do therapy and make it to church when Jason is working and what if he gets a night shift job?"
Then I remembered something that my pastor had once said years ago in a sermon. God gives us grace for what we need; day by day, moment by moment. After talking with our family and counseling with our pastor we called our certifier back and said YES.
I am so glad that we did. Even though the long term plan is for him to be adopted by his biological brothers family, he is at peace and full of joy to be back in our home for now. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to care for him and precious Baby J. I am truly the LUCKY one. Several months ago, I wrote a post called The Third Pile and talking about how in foster care you just never know how many piles of laundry you may have on any given day. Well currently we have 4 (LARGE) piles and I couldn't be happier. These children are such a blessing to me and our family.
And just in case you were wondering, YES, we are still adopting our snowflake baby and are currently awaiting our tax return for a big chunk of cash to go to this embyro adoption. We are beyond thrilled for this season in our life. My hands may be (abundantly) full, but so is my heart (cheesy cliche, i know, but true).
xx, Naomi
Foster care is full of swinging emotions, I tell ya.
Baby J is super sweet, incredibly adorable and has a pouty lip that will make you want to scoop him up in an instant and smother him with kisses. He also has a head full of dark hair. He is chubby and is probably over 10 lbs by now at only 4 weeks old.
Then something else crazy happened.
While we were in the craziness and wonderfulness of a newborn, we got a phone call from DHS that our previous foster kiddo (the one we had from birth-16 months) came back into care. They were asking us if we could take him. I was full of faith and defense for him and yet fear creeped into the back of my mind. "Of course we would take him, we were the only family he ever knew." But other thoughts came in of "How the HECK am i going to take care of 4 under 5 and transport to visits and do therapy and make it to church when Jason is working and what if he gets a night shift job?"
Then I remembered something that my pastor had once said years ago in a sermon. God gives us grace for what we need; day by day, moment by moment. After talking with our family and counseling with our pastor we called our certifier back and said YES.
I am so glad that we did. Even though the long term plan is for him to be adopted by his biological brothers family, he is at peace and full of joy to be back in our home for now. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to care for him and precious Baby J. I am truly the LUCKY one. Several months ago, I wrote a post called The Third Pile and talking about how in foster care you just never know how many piles of laundry you may have on any given day. Well currently we have 4 (LARGE) piles and I couldn't be happier. These children are such a blessing to me and our family.
And just in case you were wondering, YES, we are still adopting our snowflake baby and are currently awaiting our tax return for a big chunk of cash to go to this embyro adoption. We are beyond thrilled for this season in our life. My hands may be (abundantly) full, but so is my heart (cheesy cliche, i know, but true).
xx, Naomi
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