Introducing Baby!!!

We got our first call on Friday. "We've just taken a sweet, 9-month-old into care. Do you want to take her?" BR and I were running around like the baby doctor just told us to go to the hospital. We tried to keep our composure and get more information about her from the caseworker and then sprung into action. We nested like crazy for an hour or so and then went to pick her up. It was so exciting to meet her...I can't really even explain it. We had no idea what she looked like or what she'd be like but she was going to be a temporary member of our family! I tried to keep my focus in the office to ask the right questions and sign the paperwork. Birdie was instantly taken with Baby and vice versa. We loaded her up in the car and headed to get Beatle from school. I know that she was hoping for someone a little older, more of a playmate, but she was way excited to meet her new sister and has been SO awesome with Baby.

Birdie and Baby are only 2 1/2 months apart. They wear the same size clothes and diapers so to streamline my life, I've just decided to treat them like twins--nap, bathe, eat, change diapers at generally the same time. The learning curve for having two little ones was tough--on Saturday, I got a little panicky that this was my future for a few months--but each day keeps getting better.

Baby is a really sweet and beautiful baby--a total cuddle bug! She already is coming to life more (thanks in part to her getting tubes in her ears this morning). She was left in a carseat far too often and lacks some motor skills most would have by now but given time and practice, she'll be catching Birdie in no time. She's an intelligent child and I know her mom loves her very much, she was just making poor choices for Baby.

Birdie has had her bouts of jealousy because she is a mama's girl. One time, she squeezed in between me and Baby and tried to push her out of my lap. The other time, I made Baby a bottle and Birdie wanted it so bad (but we've just broken the habit so these could be tricky waters to navigate). Birdie flung herself on the floor while I was feeding Baby and she finally pulled herself together and stood up. She took Baby's pacifier and turned it over in her hand and started walking around with it. Next thing I know, she's opened the trash can lid and tossed it in!!!

It was a little odd taking Baby to Wal-Mart last night. Every sideways glance I got, I wondered if they recognized her and we've even had a few near misses with the mom.

I'm so blessed to have such wonderful, Christian foster moms to talk to and be mentored by; it's made this experience far less scary!

Welcome to Rantville:
Since I'm the author of this blog, I get the opportunity to comment on TWO of the most frequent things I've heard since people have found out that we are foster parents. "Oh, I've always wanted to do that but my husband just won't." Personally, I don't get it when guys are all macho and want fruit from their own loins like their loins are SOO good! Any way you slice it, biological or adopted (or foster!), they are putting a stranger in your arms and you get the privilege of spending your life getting to know them better (or just a few months). But that said, after this weekend, there is absolutely NO WAY I would recommend doing this if your husband isn't on board with this just as much as you. So, I can respect that. I just think that maybe you ought to pray that God would burden your husband or take it away from you. Secondly, and this one burns me up, "I would do it but I just know I couldn't give them back." This gets me on different levels: first, it just sounds like a cop out but secondly, are you implying that you are more warm-hearted than the apparent calloused foster parent population? If you have had problems having children of your own and have experienced a lot of loss that way, then I don't know if fostering would be good for you because the goal of this is that THEIR parents get back on their feet to unify THEIR family. Truly, I'm already attached to Baby; I don't know how to care for her like I'd want mine to be cared for without giving it my all but to me, my broken heart is well worth a soft place for these innocent children to land during hard times.