Random Moments

So many things I need to record; so little time! This post includes random moments from the past few weeks:

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While getting ready for bed, I realized all clean jammies were downstairs in laundry baskets waiting to be folded:

Me: Ella Grace, go down and get Buddy some PJs! His clothes are in the brown basket.

EG: The brown basket? (thinking) I know what you did! You put all of us with white skin in white baskets and . . .

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Another laundry moment:

EG: What can I do?

Me: Go empty your laundry basket!

EG: What! I just emptied my laundry basket yesterday! You're killin' me with all this laundry!

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We were walking into Wal Mart a few weeks ago. A man walked by us and began singing: "Jesus loves the little children...Red & Yellow, Black & White!"

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In the car today:

Annabelle: Do you think we'll have another foster kid after Buddy?

Me: Yep. I do.

Annabelle: We're the foster kid family! We're not the Williams' anymore, we're the foster kid family.

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I was at Publix the other day with all four. That's right, crazy!! Here's how it looked: Ella Grace walked. Annabelle & Katie were in the misaligned "car cart," and Buddy was strapped to me in the Baby Bjorn. A spectacle to say the least.

The conversation in the check out line:

Random Lady: Your girls look so much like you!

Me: Yep, I can't really deny them! What about my little boy?

Lady: Uh . . . um, I don't know . . . I haven't seen his daddy.

Me: Yeah, me either!

Ha!

I did tell her that he was a foster kid after she stumbled around for a few seconds =)!

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Many have asked how it's going adding Buddy to our family. The truth is that it has been a major adjustment to our routine. Adding another kid to get dressed, fed, and out the door in the morning has been challenging. We are adjusting and figuring out a new normal--mornings and bedtimes are the hardest times.

He does have some developmental issues and was evaluated by BabyNet last week. He will be set up for therapy within the next few weeks! We are excited for him about this--hopefully he'll start moving soon and began to catch up with where he should be!

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Eric and I had the humbling opportunity a few weeks ago to share, along with a panel of other families, with our church a little of our hearts concerning fostering. We were very nervous, but, once again, the Holy Spirit showed up in tangible ways for us! We were asked to define foster care (in our answer we emphasized the temporary nature of fostering and the fact that we never know what to expect--we had one placement for 6 months and another for 6 days!). We were also asked, based on the temporary nature, why we would choose to foster when we already had three small children in our home and what we'd learned thus far:

We asked ourselves the same question! It didn't make sense to add another small child to a home already full of small children. As we measured the paradox of what we felt called to with what made sense, Brian spoke from Mark about the miracle of the man with the withered hand. You may remember, that Christ asked him to stretch forth his hand -- an impossible task for the man. The language in the text, indicates that as he obeyed, he was enabled to stretch forth his hand. In fact, in the process of his obedience, he was healed. This was huge for us as we embarked on what we felt was an impossible task.

What have we learned? We've learned that God is in the business of changing hearts. When we started foster care, we thought we'd be impacting the children that were placed in our home. Instead, we've been changed. Our view of God has changed. Our picture of Him has been made larger as a direct result of fostering.


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Thanks to each of you who have traveled this road with us over the past year!