"Ma'am this is placement calling I have a two year old girl in need of a placement, would you be willing to take her. She is being split from her two older siblings because we have no home able to take all three".
I look at my kids running around and the dinner on the stove... I say a quick prayer of wisdom... pause... "Yes that would work".
"Okay thank you so much the worker will be calling you about details".
I try to get dinner finished and on the table for my kids waiting to hear from worker. I start to clean up the house a bit, change the sheets on the beds, vacuum etc. I start preparing my kiddos for a new toddler in the home with which they of course reply "YAY!!!!".
I get a call from the worker an hour later.
"Yes hi I am calling about the little girl. She is three years old and just to let you know she only speaks spanish, no english."
hmmmm thats funny I heard she was two and no one informed me of her not speaking my language?? ok Lord you have got to show up here. My spanish is pretty spotty and this sweet little girl is getting ripped from her parents and her siblings all in the same day and being placed in an english speaking home!
"Okay", I say "How long until you get here?"
"Another worker is bringing her and should be there in 30 min"
I hang up the phone and ask my kids to get their pajamas on, brush teeth and be ready for bed. All the while letting them know that this now three year old only speaks Spanish and she will be scared.
I see the car pull up and walk out to help.
Social worker looks at me. "She is very traumatized from being pulled from family. She screamed all the way here and finally just fell asleep"
Opening the car door I reach in to unclip her carseat she looks at me terrified. In my best spanish I am attempting to tell her who I am and that I will take care of her. I carry her inside the house as she is sobbing. We walk in the front door as the social worker looks at me and says "I can't make eye contact with her or I will start to cry, she just breaks my heart".
We sign the legal papers as I am trying to calm her down. The worker starts to leave and Little Lady M starts to panic and run after her. We decide it would be best if I give her a tour she that the social worker can sneak out. I carry her around showing her the rooms but as she realizes that the worker is gone she runs to the door unbolting it and tries to run out. I keep saying, I'm sorry and Its okay. Even though deep down for her it was not okay. This is not okay. The next hour and a half was probably the roughest I have had in a very long time. I have never seen such fear and terror in one little girls face. She was throwing herself against the walls. Slamming her head in the floor. Screaming at me. I sent my kiddos upstairs to read some books so they wouldn't be scared as I closed the windows around the house so my neighbors didn't wonder what was going on. I was so scared that I would end up needing to bring her to the emergency room from hurting herself. I started to go through different things I had heard to do during things like this, I started coloring next to her (still screaming), I gave her some water and cheerios (still screaming), I tried to find cartoons on tv but none in spanish (still screaming)... Then I had an idea I sat in the living room where I could see her but she couldn't see me. She started calming down. Pulling out the movie Frozen I asked her if she liked it. She looked at me "si". yay! A word. While sticking it in the DVD player she snuck around the corner and plopped herself on the couch. Seeing the menu bar I can play the movie in Spanish!! The newer disney movies actually speak in spanish! The movie began and her body relaxed. My kids started to walk down the stairs and I told them to join us. I sat on the floor next to Little Lady M feeding Baby N about 20 min pass by and we make eye contact and she smiles at me. BABY STEP!
About an hour later I put my kids to bed and let her finish the movie. In the mean time trying to get her to eat something and drink something. After the movie is done she agrees to put some pajamas and brush her teeth. The crazy oil lady in me started diffusing some good sleep oils in her room. I put her in bed, tucked her in, and lay on the floor next to her. She looks at me and laughs. I tell her in my best spanish that I will sleep here so she can fall asleep. After many pops out of bed she finally drifts off into sleep. The thing running through my mind is "Joy comes in the morning, Joy comes in the morning". I pour over her sweet body with prayer. For her sleep to be full of peace and rest. That her body and mind, that are going through turmoil, will be rested. I slowly exited the room fully thinking she would never last all night in there. That night a cloud of people were covering her with prayer and it was felt. Rob got home at 2:30am to a new addition in our family. Little Lady M didn't wake up till 6:45!! Prayers were answered! The morning went very smoothly. Sweet Little Lady M didn't want to eat any breakfast, but once we left the house and walked to the park she was all smiles and laughter.
The sweetest is that every time she built something in the sand by the park she would run to Rob and say "look! look!" I love that she felt peace around Rob too. So yes Joy certainly came in the morning. The day went amazingly well. Lunch came around and thankfully she ate a great lunch. She actually took a 3 hour nap after that, the sweet girl was exhausted from the previous day. The evening went just as smooth.
The next morning we decided to go the beach. Have some fun and make it a less stressful. I love that play needs no language. She loved every minute of the beach. The water was SOO cold but of course Rob and the kids still went in! LOCO!
My sweet tender hearted Allie loves to care for Little Lady M and does not mind that she doesn't speak her language. She even will nap just so Little Lady M feels more comfortable with her in the room. Love feeding her gifts she has been given.
Fitting in some hill climbing before getting into the car.
The weekend was crazy chaotic full of different events, but never once did I feel that it wasn't exactly what we were supposed to be doing. The Lord was moving in all of it. I went and dropped off a friend at the airport on sunday (yes we had a visitor stay saturday night too!) and came back home where our front door flew open and out runs Jake and Little Lady M yelling for me and giving me monster hugs. Pure Joy fills me. She is happy here, comfortable here, and comfortable with me. Thankful.
Sunday night rolled around. Rob and I put the kids to bed, baby N on my lap and we just took a big sigh. We survived 3 days of chaos... and I think pretty well. I look down at Baby N and thank the Lord that His Joy comes in the morning. After thursday night and how awful it was with Little Lady M. I was just imagining how horrible it would be with her, but I was limiting what the Lord is capable of doing through many many people surrounding us in prayer, she was full of laughs, smiles and playing all weekend. Don't get me wrong this language thing is making it much harder, but we are trying to make the best of it and my kids are now learning spanish, as am I, and she is learning english! win win situation I think.
Headed to court Monday, thanks to a rockstar foster mom friend who came and watched her two and all my kids so I could go. Little Lady M has next court date May 7th so she will be here until at least then. So for now we pray that Love shines through language barriers when we can't understand what she wants or fears. And we pray that the Lord fills in the gaps that we can't fill. This is definitely a new chapter for us. A bit harder chapter, but so sweet. This little lady is just full of sweetness and joy. Her sweet smile can brighten anyones day and each day that passes she gets more and more comfortable with her surroundings. I am excited to see what the Lord does in her and through my children in this process.
Right now we are dealing with a lot of emotions.. Emotions in each one of my children. It always happens. Its like adding a new baby to the family. They all are not so sure what to do with it. So a lot of tears and arguing, but we are growing in the process and I know characters will be built through it. Just lots of patience on my part and extra snuggles.
Thank you for your prayers they mean more then you would know and are felt each and every day. The Lord is moving and I am thankful. Our family is growing not just in numbers but in who we are and I'll take any struggle if we come out stronger as a family in the end. And I will always be remember that yes Joy Comes In the Morning...
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