January??

Where did January go? I am telling you - it's like I blinked and January passed. Just the other day I was lamenting about the deer sized dent in my Honda. Then cablooey! It's almost February. Well, folks, I have a valid reason for my absence. Here goes...

Remember when I said "more on fostering later"? Now is later. Brian and I have spent what feels like every minute of this month focusing on getting our Foster/Adoption license. It was my dream (and subsequently my husband's) to foster infants. I have long wanted a large family. Good sense and advice from my mother prevented me from actually giving birth to said large family. I clearly remember telling my mom when I was probably 13 or 14 that I wanted a bunch of kids. Mom wisely told me to have my own children but to consider how many children there are in this world that don't have someone to love them. Since then, this notion of bringing more children into my home via fostering, has lain dormant in my heart until now. Something about turning 30 next month made everything feel much more urgent.

I attended an orientation for fostering last year but due to scheduling (aka. me working the night shift) we decided the timing was not quite right. We put it off until this month when Brian and I committed to trainings every Tuesday and Thursday nights (thanks Aunt Jenny for babysitting - we finally cashed in on the free childcare). Weekends have been spent attending behavior management classes and CPR re-certification (for Brian - rest assured, the nurse is current on her CPR). Evenings have been spent getting TB tests, fingerprints, background checks, home inspections, cleaning for said home inspections, acquiring and installing locks for medicine cabinets, fire extinguishers, rope ladders, and plug inserts, taking 3 dogs to the vet to document all up to date vaccines, and oh my gosh, I don't even know what else we had to do...

It's all worth it, of course. The longer I work in the schools and in the ER the more convinced I am that this was something I needed to do. All children must know that they are loved, and if I can do that, even if it is just for a short time, then I have succeeded. So, as you can imagine, January feels like it flew by. As I type, I have two kids in my lap and Brian is drinking a beer as he makes some dessert. It is a long needed break for us both (even though we thought about stringing Jenny along with some made up training we had to go to). I am exhausted in the most satisfying way. We can now approach February (and more importantly 30) with a greater sense of purpose. Just short of our home study, we are foster parents!

Now, as the kids say, all we need is a baby.