Six years ago today……

Six years ago today Laila Ann came to stay!  Happy Gotcha Day Laila!  What a journey.  What a rollercoaster.  What a joy.

Laila has been doing pretty well lately.  Charlie is working and though feedings are slow and she is tied to the pump, we have been able to keep vomiting at  minimum.

The last few months I have been reading back through the first family blog that we had before this website was created.  Today I thought I would share with you an entry I wrote the day we met Laila.  We had been doing respite foster care for about a year and this week we had back to back respite placements and this one special girl came for a weekend……

*From May 31, 2010*

So we made it through the week and Thursday came and these three left and 45 minutes later “L”, the two year old little cutie came to stay for the weekend.  This was by far the best respite placement we have had yet.  One of the first things that made it so nice was because it was set up ahead of time and the current foster mom actually kept in contact with me and even emailed over some instruction the day before she came.  She has medical issues so it was necessary to have things written out but even so, I haven’t had that kind of communication from any of the other foster parents.  The other thing that was nice was that her foster mom called and checked in and enjoyed me sending pictures via cell phone.  It was just very nice to see how much they cared.  Some of our other respite placements didn’t even call one time and sometimes it was for two weeks!  I know they need respite help to be able to get a break but I would still have a hard time not calling for that amount of time!  I call my mom to check on the kids when she only keeps them for the weekend!  To each their own I guess.

We took this sweetie with us to Jackson’s preschool graduation the night she came and then out for McDonalds

Friday night we had a campfire and had a few friends over.  They all just kind of stared at Jack and I with these smiles on their faces.  They all said afterward that they couldn’t believe how we just worked together as a team to take care of her.  That was definitely one thing that I was so thankful for.  It was like a dance that neither of us knew that we knew the steps to but yet when the music played we just picked up and did it. (OK, there’s my poetic moment for this blog! ha!)  I wondered how much responsibility he would take with her and how much he would leave as “mommy duties” but honestly he was just so excited about her that he jumped right in.

“L” pretty much spoiled us in every way over that weekend.  She slept through the nights without getting sick which normally doesn’t happen, we decided to take her to the lake on Saturday to stay overnight and the whole 45 min drive there and back she didn’t get sick, she just looked at the kids and laughed and smiled as they sang her the ABC’s.  My dad tends to hold back a bit when we have foster kids for respite because he knows he’ll probably never see them again but after about half a day this little one just tugged at his heart and there he was making a whistle out of his hands trying to get her to smile at all his kooky bird call noises.

I think we have found our calling.  Our office asked us last fall to pick a specialty and we prayed and chose medically fragile children.  We went to every training we could get our hands on because neither of us have a medical background (except helping out with grandparents) so we weren’t sure what God had in mind and we’re not sure what the future holds but again, we’ve found our calling.  Not many people are willing to take on this challenge but we’re thankful that God has given us different eyes and different hearts for this.  It is truly a blessing.  We didn’t want to see her go.

“L” – you definitely have a special place in our hearts.