It's been a while, I imagine most people are feeling this way, but March and April have kind of been a blur. It's been an ongoing joke when I try to recall what's happened since then, I say, "That was four kids ago..."
In case you missed it, we were placed with 2 week old twins in early March, but with the coronavirus causing chaos and quick changes, they were moved pretty quickly to a family member 10 days later. Just days after, we were placed with a 2 year old and a 4 year old sibling set. So I'm a little behind, but who isn't right now?
We were empty nesters, as my husband likes to joke, for 4 months, with an open foster home for three of those months. We took a month off to travel to Arizona to fulfill my dream of going to the Antelope Canyon and the Grand Canyon. It was just what we needed to piece together our broken hearts after our first 2 foster girls went home.
When we decided to open up our home in December again, only one month after our other two went home, someone... actually many someones... asked me if we were ready to open our home back up after our first "loss." They wondered if we had given ourselves enough time to mourn, grieve and mend. All very important questions to consider.
My hubby and I knew we were ready...
...And then we waited for three more months for a call for more kids.
You may ask, "IF the system is flooded with kids needing a home, then why would a foster home be left open for three months?" My answer is, I don't know. I'm not sure why we waited that long and where the kids were. I couldn't tell you what goes on in the inner workings of CPS. But one really important thing I do know is that God opened the door of our home just when He knew we were ready again and not a minute sooner or later. You see, all Kevin and I can do is follow what we think is right or next in our life. We prayed and waited til we were ready to say "Yes" again and that was one month later. The Lord however wanted us to wait for another three months. God's plans will come to fruition at just the right time. In the middle of waiting, a lot of the time it's hard to remember this. When I ached to have a child in our home for Christmas, it was hard to wait on the Lord. When the months grew longer and our home stayed quiet, it was hard to wait on the Lord.
In March, we were blessed with a set of twins that were teeny tiny - 4lbs and 5lbs. The funny thing is that I thought I was saying YES to 3 month old twins, but come to find out, they were 2 weeks old. Even after all that waiting, I was a nervous wreck immediately following my YES to take them. I mean, we had just four hours to prepare after all.
They were the sweetest little babies and our easiest placement yet! Like I said before, just 10 short days later, they needed to be moved just as the Coronavirus was taking over.
Three days later we took another placement of a 2 and 4 year old. It became apparent to us that older brother was struggling and needed extra attention. They were going to move both together, but it didn't work out despite CPS's best efforts. He moved to one home (where he seems to be healing - we get to hear about him weekly) and 2 months later, little sister is still with us.
We went from four months of waiting, to four more kids placed with us in a matter of 2 weeks. I can say it's definitely emotionally and physically exhausting.
But one silly thing you don't consider when you have 6 children in your home in the span of 4 months is trying to remember names and birthdays. I have to take them to the doctor within the first three days of placement, so within that time, I had to make phone calls, go to the actual appointment or pick up medicine. As soon as I'm asked the birth date of the child, I have to think hard about it, "Was it 2018 they were born? oh wait, no, 2017! What year is it now? What's my name? Oh, you mean his name? I don't actually know her middle name..." and please don't get me started on when the twins each had 6 names to remember! We even call little girl in our home now by our foster girls names that we had last year.
We have officially lost our minds... four kids ago...