It's been a year since I've been at home! Wow! I was sitting on the floor this morning watching some Seasame Street with Birdie sharing some popcorn from a get together last night and thought, "ahhh, this is the life". While it's not always like a Norman Rockwell painting, I am so glad we had the courage a year ago to take a leap of faith and make that move for our family. I'm also really thankful that God has sustained it for a year.
Our cruise was great! I texted a friend that the first day was hell but it did nothing but get better and better after that. And then, it was over and we didn't want to come home. To briefly recap, Carnival was having computer problems when we were going to board so it took longer, coupled with the fact that my uncle wanted to get there super early, did not play to Birdie's strengths. We were "that" family with "that" wild, screaming child in the stroller. I wanted to find a hole to hide in. Beatle started getting sick and was feeling queasy in line. Poor Beatle was so sick by the time we were learning about the lifejackets. I almost went Momma Grizzly standing, packed in there with a wild child and another one crying with sick, pleading eyes. I took her to the ship's dr before we even left Galveston and she had strep and got meds. In our room, Beatle threw up in and on our bed. Once she started holding down her meds, that situation improved greatly. But trying to get situated in those tiny rooms proved to be tricky. Birdie kept trying to walk around but she hadn't got her sea-legs yet and she was getting frustrated and bumps on the head. BR took her to the pool in an effort to give me and B some time in the room and they were outed by a loud, obnoxious dad that she wasn't potty-trained and shouldn't be in that pool (like his 3 year old ever got out to pee! please!) I stripped Birdie down to hand her to Brent in the shower to rinse the salt-water off. I tended to something else and turned around and she had pooped on the floor. I think that's when I about cried when Brent reminded me we had 7 more days. That day, it felt like we had bit off WAY more than we could chew by bringing both the girls. (The whole week, it still felt like it might have been too much to bring Birdie but it worked out and we do have some great memories with her but I would HIGHLY recommend waiting until your child is 2 before going that way you can use the pools and the free childcare when you need it.) Needless to say, things could go nowhere but up after that first day. Learning your way around the ship is huge! Once we started getting the hang of that, our days at sea were great. Every excursion we did was awesome! Some adults zip-lined in Jamaica, our family swam with dolphins, held sea turtles and went to the 7-mile beach (A-MAZING!) in Grand Cayman, and snorkeled at Chankunaab in Cozumel. Great time! Great memories! Great pictures!
Ok, to update about Baby...we didn't feel like we could take baby brother (that the new foster family has dubbed "Timmy". Really??? Not even close to his real name.) Honestly, I didn't really even see it coming when the case worker called and just stated matter-of-factly (liked we had talked about it before) that Baby was moving to the other foster home to be with brother. That caught us off-gaurd and kind of hurt my feelings. That family watched her while we were on the cruise and it went well. We got a call yesterday that the move could happen as soon as tomorrow! The timeline we thought we were working with was at the end of summer. When things like this happen, we know that God has all of this in the palm of His hand and we have been giving it to Him in prayer constantly. Our fleshly side gets stirred up, however, because in classes they speak like we are all a team but it really just feels like we get our marching orders and are allowed no opinion for a child that's been a part of our family for 5 months. We are trying to be positive and supress these feeling, knowing that God knows all--her future, our future, our hearts, our anxieties and demands of summer, and the needs our own children have right now. It will be really sad to see her go; like when you finish a gripping novel--you feel lost for a day or so, reliving all that you just read but then you realize you have lots more free time and throw your efforts into something else. :) We love her and will still get to see her occasionally. We're not done fostering but we are going to take this summer to be the 4 of us again. I say all of this with the prediction that she will be moving tomorrow but nothing with DHS is ever 100% so we shall see.
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