Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Counting the days

635 days ago there was a knock on the door and a woman walked two precious dear skinned children into our lives.  They were visiting for respite care.  We said yes knowing we had two biological children and one bonus foster baby.  It was only to be an 8 day visit and we could fit 5 children into our Volvo XC-90.  Thank the Lord we bought that third row seating 9 years ago before a single baby was a twinkle in our eyes.

It was an adventure to be sure.  One that included a paternity test if I recall correctly.  They also screamed terribly every night at bed time.  But Buddy Boy and his sister Ladybug arrived with smiles and ratty hair but with no inhibitions about staying with complete strangers--which bothers me every time.  They just seemed happy to have children and toys to play with.  Brother and Babydoll are the gateway to our home for so many hurting kids, I tell you what.  God is using them in our family ministry in a mighty way.

The week came and went and My Love and I took a deep breath and gave each other a high five.  We survived the week.  The kids were a joy but it was nice to return to our termporary family of five again with our easy going bios and low key infant.  Never again did I expect to see them.

A month later the phone rang again.  Another respite was being sought as their caregivers would be traveling again.  We said yes for continuity sake.  They were precious after all.  The case worker sort of let on that the situation might be changing with their current foster home where they were living with a youngest baby brother of the five siblings.

Buddy and Ladybug spent another fun filled week with us.  I think we went to pumpkin patch.  It wasn't long after that when we had a meeting with all parties involved in their case.  After praying about it, we agreed it was best for the two of them to come live with us.  Baby J would stay in his current foster home.  Seriously, what were My Love and I thinking?  I mean, five kids?!  Five kids?!  There was something in us that felt like God opened the door for us to love on these children and who were we to say no out of fear now.  It wasn't until six months later that Punky Pie left our home to live with relatives who later were able to adopt her.

So much has happened in these past 635 days.  It has been a long hard journey for our little son's heart.  Ladybug of course eventually left our home too to live with her biological father.  I think that shook Buddy the most as I don't believe he ever dreamed they would be separated.  But about six months ago it became official that he was going to be able to stay with us and we were free to pursue adoption.  As much as he longed for his first family to get things together and make it right he knew in his heart and mind pretty early on that he was right where God wanted him to be.  The anxiety and stress he had been carrying around in the unknown had disappeared and he was finally free to just be without fear.  The case worker and lawyer have been busy checking all the burecratic boxes but for all intents and purposes Buddy is our forever son.  We couldn't be more humbled to hear him call us mom and dad.

Last week we were sitting on the couch and Buddy turned to me and said, "Mom, if I grow up and be like Dad, I would like that."  Cue tears.  He has come so far and really we are still sitting in awe watching God do miracles in his heart and mind.

635 days is far too long to be living in limbo.  How excited we are to have a reason to stop counting up those days and just moving forward into our future together.

1 comment:

Aryan Gupta said...


This is really nice post works well and easy to configure...thanks for all info.
carpets underlay in abu dhabi