A lot has gone on over the last 10 days. First of all we have officially had baby N for 3 months! Where has time gone? We have had him since he was 2 days old and it has been amazing to watch him grow. This little boy is pure joy. He is such a happy little man. He is sleeping 11 hours a night and eating like a champ. His mom is still pumping breast milk and I am so thankful for that. We love watching him grow and become more alert and smiley. The relationship with his mom is going great. She is working so hard for him. She is at our house 2 times a week and meets us at church on sundays. I continue to pray that the Lord builds our relationship. Each morning he wakes up with his big toothy grin I fall more in love with him and I praise Jesus for his sweet life.
Little Lady M. Wow what do I say about this little girl. She is such a beautifully sweet 3 year old. Each of my kids have taken to her in different ways. Allie has definitely became the "older sister" and helps her throughout the whole day. Jake is the "crazy silly brother" who is always playing games with her. Izzie is the "little sister" who sometimes can drive each other crazy, but they love to play together, especially jumping on the trampoline.
We have had a lot go down this week.
lemonade stand
Last wednesday she was able to go to our homeschool cottage school with us. We meet 4 times a month at our school. She was extremely excited to put a school uniform on and go with us. All morning she wore her back back saying in Spanish, I get to go to school! She did great all day, despite the language barrier.
A fun nature field trip!
Friday I called her worker asking for her siblings foster moms number so we could get a visit scheduled. The worker said "Yeah that would be great. If you can even just get one in a month we think that is plenty". Um what? No I think I will get them together as much as I can since they are sisters....
Saturday we picked her siblings up at their foster home. It was great to see that they were in what I can see a healthy foster home. We had a great time at an easter egg hunt with them. The girls all had a great time. But we experienced a first. We never understood other foster families that would say visiting siblings or family members is just not worth it. It sounded so mean, but I learned to never judge till your in their shoes. Like I said visit went great, saying goodbye was traumatizing. Once Little Lady M realized that sisters had to leave she burst into tears. The 30 min drive back to the girls foster home all three were in the back seat not only crying, but screaming. They were extremely upset. Once we got there I then became the bad guy forcing the girls out of the car. Little Lady M was back in her trauma spot, we were back to square one. Crying, screaming, didn't want to be consoled by me. It is so hard to describe the awful feeling of watching that pain go through a 3 year olds body. Once we arrived back home 20 minutes later she had started to calm down. Thankfully the rest of the day went smoothly, but its so hard to see if its worth putting her sweet little body in that trauma. But we know its best to see her siblings so we just pray that these visits get easier because today just didn't seem worth it.
3 days later I had a therapy appointment for Little Lady M. So blessed to have friends who are willing to take in my kiddos for the morning so I could go to the appointment with her. What makes me so sad is these sweet kiddos in foster care have foster parents that aren't willing to go to these appointments with them. The kids will have either social workers or a transporter come and pick them up to bring them to these appointments. Can you picture your 3 year old going to a medical/therapy appointment with someone they didn't know? So scary for them. I can't go into details, but in all honesty this appointment was horrific and I again feel like there has got to be a different way for these kids. During the appointment I just kept thinking "I can't imagine her being here by herself surrounded by people she doesn't know or trust". Its just trauma, after trauma, after trauma, and sadly the last two weeks are unneeded trauma on her and what I feel is trauma that could have been avoided.
some much needed hot chocolate/ coffee therapy
So now we are to wednesday night. Pumped for tomorrow because my parents are flying in for Easter and this whole crew is excited! We have cleared almost every day of visits so we can soak in the 4 days my parents are in town.
Thank you to the village that has been surrounding us in prayer. We honestly have felt more peace in chaos than we have ever known. We are learning how to be a family of 7, but it is smoother than I had anticipated and for that I am so thankful for those prayers. I absolutely love putting a different face on foster care. I love that everyone we come in contact with realizes this crazy need surrounding each of our cities. My prayer, as I have experienced such awful ways the system does things, is that amazing families will overwhelm the system and cause change. That going to therapy appointments and requesting visits with siblings wouldn't be abnormal but the norm. My prayer is that every church would stand up and fight for these kids that need someone to fight for them in this broken system.
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