And boy, am I ever thankful I asked for Friday, November 7, 2014 off.
Not because I had to work the night before (actually morning of) until 12:02am-ish due to a work related incident. Yeah, I of course thought in that moment "oh my goodness, sleeping in is well deserved."
Not because of the day filled with "nothing to do" that I had planned out ahead of myself, but didn't come to fruition.
I am soooo thankful I took this last Friday off because of the call that came at 10:31am Friday. But let me back up really quick, because I truly think that this weekend was God-orchestrated from the very beginning...
Yes, I got home early Friday morning just shortly after midnight from a work-related matter. I intentionally turned off my alarm that is usually automatically set for M-F mornings. I made sure my phone was set on silent - I was bound and determined to wake up when my body woke me up, and I was going to settle for nothing less. I was successful in this endeavor until around 8:55am, when I woke up and noticed my mom had tried calling me, asking me to meet her (she was in town for part of the weekend), my sister, and my nephew for breakfast. I agreed, told my husband (who was up getting ready to go to his office), and asked if he wanted to join. He said he would like to join us, so we got ready and met them for breakfast.
The plan was for me to spend the rest of the time with my family (shopping, of course!) and for Andrew to go on to work. We met up for breakfast around 9:40am. We rehashed our plans for the day over our meals, and were starting to pay and leave - then came the call. The call wasn't saved in my phone under a specific contact. It showed up as a "Gastonia, NC" phone number - I thought it was work related (silly me) and rejected the call.
But then, Andrew's phone started ringing. Same phone number (strange). Then it hit me. I told Andrew I thought it was our DSS case worker since the number had just tried me. He answered. It was her. Andrew, who usually isn't short on words, looked at me in surprise and told our caseworker, "um - just a minute, let me let you talk to Lindsay..." I had no clue what was going on. All I knew is that we were a week and a half away from our county review for foster care licensure (that's coming up on the 18th) - she could only be calling with complications or bad news, right?
Wrong. Oh, so wrong.
We were asked if we would consider taking in two littles for the weekend to provide their current placement with respite so they could celebrate a special occasion just the two of them (Respite is just a fancy term for extended babysitting, essentially). The littles were both under the age of 5. And we were asked if a 2pm pick-up time that day was ok.
Andrew and I talked quickly about it, and determined that we would take advantage of this opportunity. We saw a lot of benefits to this scenario: it got us used to having (multiple) children in our home, it got us connected with at least one other foster family, it was time limited (Friday-Sunday), and it got us used to personal emotions associated with and the process of helping the children we take into our care transition back to the family from which they came to us. There were definitely many other benefits to our weekend that we acknowledged beforehand and throughout, but these were the "biggies".
So, at 10:45am we start scrambling. Andrew was no longer going into the office to work, and I was no longer going shopping - we had to go home and get our house ready for two littles!!! This included picking up around the house, converting our crib to a toddler bed, installing a car seat (we borrowed another from their family), and making sure to have snacks and food on hand that little kiddos like to eat.
Top: What our "kiddo" bedroom looked like within an hour of us finding out we were going to have two littles over the weekend!
Bottom: We figured out how to install the carseat we got recently pretty quickly. Yay us!
By 2pm, we had two littles in the backseat of our car. Woah. Literally, one minute it was just the two of us, the next we were matched with kiddos. They were quiet somewhat at first - it took the younger one a little longer to warm up - but by a little longer, I mean they were both laughing a clicking their tongues in amusement in our backseat within 10 minutes of us heading to our house. They were adorable. Seriously - not even kidding. Cutest. Things. Ever.
Our Friday was spent playing dress-up, watching kid shows on Netflix, going to Monkey Joe's, and pizza at CiCi's (and shout out to my mom and sister for their extra help during the last two excursions that evening!). The littles were drained by the time we got back home. Actually, one was tuckered out at dinner - so much to the point that they had to prop their head up on their hand to finish eating their pizza (again, I reiterate: Cutest. Things. Ever.). I was exhausted myself. I fell asleep around 8:30 that night - no lie!
Saturday and Sunday were great too - they went with us on Saturday down to SC on an excursion to go to a Christmas event with my mom, sister, and mother in law while Andrew stayed with his dad, brother, and our nephew and watched football. Again, they were great - so well behaved, so sweet, and again, so cute. That night ended with spaghetti at home and watching a movie. Sunday we went to church, came home for a quick lunch, and packed up and met back up with their placement family.
This weekend was such a blessing. It honestly couldn't have gone better - and we know that this is not necessarily the "norm" of parenting - no matter the context of that role. We by no means are assuming it's all sunshine and rainbows because of this weekend's interactions - trust me, I know how nitty-gritty some scenarios can get...I may not have had the children living in my home specifically, but I've worked intensely with them in the past. But we had such a good time. The roles of us being caretakers to small children just fell into place so naturally. And most of all, we felt as if we bonded so well with them (as well as their placement family).
Yes, the drop-off today stung a little, not gonna lie. But I am thankful at the same time - we needed to experience this, because it is going to happen in the future, guaranteed. I am so thankful they have such a loving, gentle, stable family to go home to. I am so thankful that they even talked to us about potentially providing respite to them in the future. And I am so thankful to have been able to pour ourselves into two precious littles for a period of time, even if for only a weekend.
Also, can I just say, I am we are so ready for November 18th?!?! Seriously!!! I honestly texted our case worker once we left drop-off stating how ready we were for licensure. This weekend only solidified our calling to this area of ministry, and we couldn't be more excited!
Love reading these posts. Thank you for sharing.
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