We were expecting a call last Monday from our agency regarding the sibling group mentioned in my two previous entries, but we were not expecting them to present us with another completely different opportunity. The call came at about 11:30am that there was a beautiful and healthy infant in need of a foster placement, and the child's case was very likely to move toward removal of parental rights and adoption. This is very rare. What's even more rare is that we were, at that moment, the only foster parents that had been called with this opportunity.
We said yes.
The next 4 hours were torture waiting for the call back to confirm that the child would be placed with us. Both Jeremy and myself were about to lose our minds. The excitement and immediately pending changes were just looming over our heads.
At about 3:30pm we got the confirmation and I rushed home to meet with our agency caseworker and sign all of the paper work with Jeremy. There was a slight delay and we were able to make an emergency target run for things like diapers and wipes and such.
The CPS caseworker arrived with our new little one at about 8pm to a welcoming party of our neighbors waiting in the driveway. I love our neighbors! This is only one of the many ways that they've blessed us.
By 9pm we were on our own. First time parents with a tiny baby. We had a pac n play that one of our friends at church had given us, a few things from my always prepared mother in law, a few things from the hospital, a few things from our agency, and the things we quickly purchased before he arrived, and that's it. There was no 9 month preparation. There was no decorated nursery and neatly organized changing table. I had been reading up on attachment at adoption for toddlers and young children, not about caring for an infant. Our preferred age range was 0-5. We honestly never thought we would actually get a 0 rather than a 5 year old.
We made it through the first night. My employers were so accommodating and let me take the week off to adjust. We sent out an email to our neighborhood Google group, posted our situation on Facebook, and then watched a flood of hand-me-downs and baby things come through our door over the next few days. Our friends, family, church, co-workers, and neighbors have really blessed us. We now have pretty much everything we need and enough gift cards to cover the remaining items.
Its been a crazy week full of change, chaos, love, faithfulness, miraculous provision, and very little sleep. We're loving every minute of this! Though I am more than ready for things to level out a bit and for us to get into a more consistent routine. I think I've probably lost about 5 lbs, just because we keep forgetting to eat. If our friends, family and neighbors hadn't been bringing us food, I probably would have lost at least 10 lbs by now.
Week 1 down... there shall be more to come...
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