Emergency Foster Care | A peek into our family's weekend

It started w/ a text that said something along the lines of "you're going to think I'm crazy, but we cannot find a home for this little guy. I know you already have your hands full, but can you take him?" I ran outside to talk to Superman who was planting grass seeds because our lawn guy did just as requested, he got rid of our weeds...but apparently, our yard was ONLY weeds cause all we have is dirt now. Superman contemplated. But w/in a few minutes he said "yes". I texted back "yes". We only knew he was close to a 1 yr old. No details. We said "yes" regardless.

Taking in a foster child for just a few days is known as "Emergency Foster Care".  It's a VERY short term commitment to be everything that little precious angel needs until a more permanent foster home can be found.
He was delivered to our door a few hours later.
"Smiley"
He was smiling.
Happy.
Ready to play w/ the smiling strangers in front of him.
And play we did!
He just needed a safe place for a couple of days until a foster home could be found for him.
He needed a temporary family to provide him w/ hugs & kisses, a full belly, clean diapers, tickles, more hugs & kisses and a few age appropriate toys.
(His favorite toy we had were the little toy rings that you attach toys to.)
Silly baby!

Our whole family pitched in.
Sunshine girl attached to him right away since they come from similar backgrounds.
It was beautiful to see the Lord do more healing in her heart as she loved on Smiley.

Saturday bedtime rolled around and we were a little worried.  We didn't know his bedtime routine.  All babies are a little different and have their own quirks about how to best fall asleep.  So I prayed like crazy. I applied Cedarwood oil to his feet mixed w/ coconut oil, and then I added some to a diffuser cause I'm a crazy oil lady. I prayed over him. And then I just started rocking him. And he was fast asleep in less than 15 minutes.

Our entire weekend went like normal, but w/ an extra baby.  We worked on the garden. We had family time. My brother came from out of town to visit on Sunday, we all sat in the living room and played w/ the babies.  We just loved seeing Smiley play w/ Tiny & enjoy himself.  My sister-in-law helped watch them while I helped Matt prep dinner.  Sunday night bedtime rolled around and since everything worked the night before, we repeated it again..and he was fast asleep again. Praise the Lord! Ya'll know what I'm talkin' about right?  If momma can get some sleep, she can tackle just about anything the next day!

He woke up around 8am in the morning, had a good breakfast, played happily, took a 45 min nap about 3 hours later, had a good lunch, took a 45 minute nap about 3 hours later, played, giggled, chewed on things, let me have a photo op, drooled and baby talked.

He was picked up by a Worker this evening and delivered to his permanent foster home.

And that's a peek into our family's experience w/ Emergency Foster Care.
Why am I sharing this w/ you?
Because maybe you want to be involved in Foster Care, but don't feel like you can commit months/years...what if you just took in Emergency Foster kiddos once or twice a month?
There's always a way to help, if you really want to!

Sick babies...

He's sick.
So is Josiah.
And it seems there is no rest for the weary...
The girls are going to stay up to watch the Eclipse & Blood Moon.
We've been studying the moon in Science.
Guess I'll join in that fun too.
Sleep is overrated anyway!

...quietly sobs because she is beyond tired!

Answered Prayer Request! {Full Size Van}

Hey everyone!
I just finished editing a session whilst white noise plays in the background & wanted to give you a quick update between holding 2 sick babies to let you know that we were blessed with a full size van today!
As you all know, this has been a HUGE prayer request.  Bigger vehicle means we can all drive together as a family again.  A couple of months ago, a bigger vehicle was going to give us the opportunity to take in another foster child.  We decided to quit caring about the vehicle space & said YES to a foster child who we have fallen madly in love with, even though we DID NOT have enough vehicle space. However, we have trusted that the Lord would provide our larger vehicle in His perfect timing!
Matt & I had a Date Night this past Thursday (thank you RR!!!). So we went to Diffee  in El Reno. They are a Christian based car dealership that cares about orphan care.

We found out SUV's are not big enough for our family. Period. They aren't very wide inside. You cannot fit 3 teenagers & a 10 year old in them along w/ 2 car seats. Humanly impossible unless said children are stick children. Our children are NOT stick children. Even though sometimes when life is unbearably unfair, I wish I had stick children since I hear they don't talk back.  And I am SO thankful for that!

We are now the proud owners of a white full size van. You know, the kind that churches drive, or ax murderers, but ax murderer vans don't have windows and ours has nice BIG windows. The kids are THRILLED. Apparently all of them were hoping for a church van vehicle as opposed to an SUV. Who knew?!?!?!

Oh THANK YOU JESUS for our new van!!!

I could NEVER have imagined 2 years ago, that on this Saturday, April 12th, just 2 weeks before my birthday, that I would be humbly thanking my Provider for a large white van.
I also never thought my weekly grocery bill would be $300. So we are working on reducing that in order to pay for our new van payment! LOL!!! We are also accepting financial donations, grass-fed beef or organic produce!  :p  I kid, I kid!

Thank you to those who continue on this wonderfully wild journey with us! We are now praying for Sunshine's Bubba...
Pray with us?

Foster Care Video

http://www.upworthy.com/heres-a-story-about-what-foster-care-is-like-for-an-abused-child-removed-from-her-home-2?c=ufb1

Quick Prayer Request

Could ya'll please pray we find a larger vehicle that runs excellent and that we can afford?Thank you!

Specifics:
It needs to, at the very minimum, fit 8 people and have trunk space for a double stroller.
It needs to run excellent...Matt is not handy w/ cars.

Fostering a Teen, Week 3

Week 1:
Everyone is deliriously happy w/ the decision to say yes to God to take in another child.
Everyone IS genuinely enjoying the bonding time.  Every day revolves around BONDING, BONDING, BONDING, FUN, FUN, FUN, JESUS, FAMILY, JESUS, FAMILY TIME.

Week 2:
Ditto week 1, but towards the end of the week, exhaustion is starting to set in.
Mama saves all her chores & editing for AFTER kids are in bed and a mama can only go on little sleep before she hits a wall!

Week 3:
Slap those happy faces on kids!

So thankful we are on Spring Break!!!  We need major down time w/ NO school!!!


Our Sunshine girl is such an immense delight!  But the I'm-going-out-of-my-way-to-give-her-the-best-of-myself attitude that one of the kids had, is GONE.  And said little person has requested we have a mommy-daughter date, just the two of us.  That's scheduled for TONIGHT folks!

Everyone else (the mature ones) are still totally digging this and we can't believe how un-hard it is, except for the house being a little less quiet, which means less reading time for the Readers in the house.

Sunshine girl claimed to not really like little kids when she first arrived...which made us laugh because she had 2 little kids she would need to start liking pretty soon!  Now she is madly in love w/ The Littles and jumps in to play & join in the giggles.  :)

We're still trying to figure out meals we can all agree upon, but this was the case before her arrival.  The other kids in our home all have different ideas of what a good, balanced meal is and Miss Sunshine's most recent foster home had a mom who cooked amazing southern meals, fried fish & all.  We don't eat like that... but we HAVE cooked several of her requests already including sunny side up eggs on top of pancakes. Apparently, I didn't make the pancakes large enough. But I got an E for effort!  :)-

Still can't believe this is my life. I can't believe I have been blessed with such a beautiful family. Their hearts are so pure, so loving, so giving, selfless, gentle and kind.  This includes Sunshine girl. I kid you not, she is already a Morrow!  The Lord takes my breath away by how He TOTALLY does put the lonely in families...the PERFECT family for them!

And how is Matt, really?
AH-MAZING.  But would you really expect anything else?  When a man fully surrenders himself to the Lord in EVERY SINGLE ASPECT...he yearns for nothing more than to live fully for the Lord & to bring Him glory in every area of his life, including parenting...especially parenting.  We are raising the future, right now, one day at a time, with smiles, hugs, "I believe in YOU!", "we all make mistakes & it's okay!", worship times, family time, dinners - together, silliness, I love you's, quick WalMart trips w/ 3 teens & buying chocolate...
That's my Matt.
He takes my breath away.
I NEVER imagined I would get this lucky.

Adoption & Fostering has brought a new depth of immense joy to our marriage & family.  We are getting to take part in something HUGE for His glory.  And I am daily humbled we get to be a part of this.

This life wasn't meant to be lived selfishly for ourselves, to store up treasures for our own happiness. This life is a gift from the Lord, to be shared with others, to make His Name known among those who don't know Him.

When we die and we stand before God, all that's going to matter is what we did with what He gave us, with our life (did we surrender it to Him?), with our children (did we teach them about Him?), with our talents (did we use them for His glory?), with our finances (did we allow Him to lead us in how to use them?).

We can't take the new game system with us to heaven, or the sweet, new SUV you just financed, we can't even take our pretty shoe collection to heaven, even if it does sparkle.  Where are YOUR priorities?  Maybe it's time to re-evaluate?  I know He has definitely had our family re-evaluate what we're living for over the last few years and continues to do so, daily.

Ps. I won't get to blog much after this week. My Home School load has increased w/ our Sunshine girl, almost doubled. When a child is bounced around from home to home, district to district, they fall behind on school.  Different teachers teach out of textbooks differently. Some chapters aren't done in order. Some chapters are skipped. A child that moves several times a year from schools doesn't have time to catch up. It's not rocket science, it would happen to any of us. So we are working diligently to get her as caught up as possible before next school year. Yes, we get to do Summer School. Sobs.  Thankful she has one on one help now. :)

Thankful Thursday | Personal

Today I'm thankful for... too many things, but here's a few things that will bless you :).

• beginning the adoption process of "Tiny"
• seeing him learn to scoot during tummy time
• welcoming another daughter into our home
• and seeing the rest of our crew welcome her with open arms & hearts
• and feeling like my heart is going to burst
• having the faith to know sometimes we have to obey, before the Lord provides... so we wait on our larger vehicle and a few other things that He knows we need & we trust 
• piano lessons for our new sunshine girl
• ukelele lessons for Sara
• continued violin lessons for Gabi
• Freezer Swap Group
• a surprise meal for my SIL & our kids while Matt & I were away at a Foster Care Marriage Conference
• God is good, all the time!

Night, night!