Project 365, Week 47

I wasted spent some time this week recalling, with fondness, a time PFC (Pre-Foster Care), when we were a cute little family of five with three innocent children.  A time when I'd never stepped foot in a therapist's office, never been called into school to talk about inappropriate behaviors,  never had to be (weekly) accountable to complete strangers for the way we live our home-life, and the list goes ON.

I knew children were abused and neglected and subjected to all manner of ugliness, but I had the luxury of mostly ignoring it.

But this week, I was missing Shaun.  He is working more hours than you'd think were in a week and its the ripple effect of buying this house.  And we would not have bought this six-bedroom house if we weren't doing foster care.  And we would not be doing foster care if God had not so clearly laid it on our hearts.

And so, I asked WHY?  Why us, God?  Why were we asked to throw out all sense of normalcy and invite pain and hurt and disfunction into our home?  

In my questioning, this is the verse God gave me:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2

I'm so glad God doesn't give up on me but continues to work in my heart and through me, despite me.

November 17

We went back to see Extreme Impact on Sunday morning and everyone walked out with a souvenir, including this frying pan that they rolled with their bare hands.

November 18
Aiden was helping me make a birthday cake for my sister's special day.  Later that evening her husband hosted a small dinner party in her honor.  So grateful for her life!

November 19
So much raking/sword fighting this week!

Meg and I had out fifth year taking Christmas pictures at a teen mom's shelter.  Such cuties this year, including a set of identical twin boys.

November 20
Avery's such a good big sister to Aiden.  This afternoon, she was helping him help her do homework.  Also, she was SO excited to have her basketball jersey...she wore it everyday.

November 21
This kid is just too much.  All day long I hear I love you momma, I love you with my whole heart, You're dee only one I love,  Momma, you are da best momma in da whole world.  More sweetness than my heart can contain.

Attempt #2 of the week trying to find a "Happy Adoption Day" card (during National Adoption Month!), this time at a Hallmark store.  Nothing.  The best I could find was "A Special Day" card.

If you have just gotten a cat, lost a cat, had cat surgery...then there is a card just for you.

I also looked up "National Adoption Month" on Pinterest, thinking maybe I'd just make a card, and found the first portion to be about adopting children but then most of the rest was about pet adoption.

Admittedly, I'm not an animal person (at all!) but seriously??

The kids all had a half day and it was mild weather.  We heard the leaf vacuum truck a street over, so everyone pitched in (except for R who was doing his paper route).  The kids worked hard, and with happy hearts, spurred on by the approaching truck.

Teamwork!

Then we took R for a routine physical, but since he was a new patient, they had to go through all his history.

Dr: And what about your parents?  Do you know any of their medical history?
R: No.
Dr: Why were you taken from your home and put into foster care?
R: I don't know...no one has ever told me.

(insert lump in throat)

November 22
The business day of National Adoption Day and I had the distinct honor of witnessing the adoption ceremony of good friends of ours.  They brought her home straight from the hospital back in March and now she is officially theirs!  They've had ups and downs throughout the year but what a beautiful story!

Such a wonderful thing to celebrate!!  The judge said there were 44 adoptions happening over the course of the day in our little state.   That will help put a dent in the more than 100,000 available for adoption in the U.S.

November 23
We got to watch this little gem for the morning.  The kids were ecstatic to have a baby around.

Thanksgiving Day for my side of the family.  These '09 boys are getting SO big!