A Year Ago Today

I had other things I wanted to write about, but I would be remiss not to note that it was a year ago today I was laying on the couch, sore and emotionally exhausted.  Shel was stumbling around the house still reeling from the shock of losing his job and dealing with his wife having a cancer diagnosis.

The phone rang right around lunch time.  Strangely, it was from our local Ministry of Children and Family office.  A familiar voice was on the other end of the line.  "Jen" she said, "I know you are off work, and I am in a desperate situation.  I have two babies here and no where to place them locally, would you even consider becoming a foster parent again while you are off on medical leave?"

WHAT?!!??!!?? 

We hadn't been foster parents in years.  Our file long ago shut down by our choice.  We had zero interest in EVER dealing with the government agency and its craziness ever again.  We were done. 

DONE. 

Completely and totally DONE I tell you.

So we said we would talk about it.

And then we called back and asked for more information.  Two baby girls.  They would be separated tomorrow because there were no open homes with two available infant beds.  This was a last desperate shot as the social worker went through a list of people she knew in the community that might be interested in foster parenting.   Need lots of love and support.  Would probably be going home by August.

So we said we would have to talk it over with the boys when they got home from school.

Now, you have to understand how many "serious family talks" we had had with the boys in recent weeks.  First there was sitting them down to tell them that their Grandma Nan had died.  Then there was the whole "Papa is very, very sick" talk.  Then just a few days later there was the "This is a big surprise but Mommy has cancer too and needs surgery right away" conversation followed shortly by the "Crap, Daddy lost his job" chat.  Our kids had been through alot.  We all had been through alot.

So when those boys got home from school and we said we needed to have another family talk, a look of shock and horror but mostly deep fear crossed all their faces.  Babies were a breeze to talk about in comparison and the phone call was made to the social worker one minute before her office closed for the day.

Caden's bed was shoved against the wall and a playpen set up next to his bed.  He would be bunking with Tanner for now.  A cradle was placed carefully in my room. I put the call out on facebook that I might be needing some baby girl clothes and friends came by with box after box.

The babies arrived shortly after supper.  Precious, perfect and stunned into complete and total passiveness.

Our family had grown by two.