Then, at my work Christmas party, each employee was given an envelope with $250 cash in the envelope (for a grand total of $47,000) to go and PROJECT Good into the world.
Yesterday, my lovelies had their bio parent visit. The first visit was such a bust, I've really drug (dragged?) my feet to let them meet again. Lovely is just blooming and being such a trusting, sweet girl, that I don't want to revert back to the old negativity. Poor LB had nightmares all night, prior to the visit.
Their caseworker, I'm going to call her Elastic Girl (EG), because she is just so amazing and constantly moves mountains and works miracles, and is 3 places at once at all times, so That is Her New Name. EG.
EG picked up BB (Baby Brother, at his foster home about 40 minutes east of OKC), and met us at the agreed upon meeting place, and headed over there for the meeting.
Parents never showed.
They called and gave some lame excuse about not knowing how to get there, so EG loaded up the lovelies in the DHS van and headed to them. I had made Mom a frame with the kids pics in that we took at Thanksgiving, and EG said she cried when she opened it.
I took some good advice from fellow foster moms and had laid out the PLAN for the AFTER visit, to give them something to look forward to, and They knew that BB was coming back to our house with them and EG, and we were going to celebrate birthdays (Lovelies on the 20th, and LB's on the 26th) and give BB his gifts.
It was so much fun. They are so THANKFUL for ANYTHING! (Look at that bow!!!) that it is so humbling.
I've been super in tune with God's voice in my head, and EG was on my heart big time a couple of weeks ago, so I dialed her, and she was so down and so out. I don't think there is a more thankless job in the universe than that of a DHS worker. You break up families (rightly so, usually), you have to place helpless children in overcrowded shelters, or sometimes even worse, less than stellar homes (if you've ever been to foster home training, you will know EXACTLY what I am talking about) ... you have to be everything to everybody, and do it with a smile on your face. I know for a fact that EG spent 42 of the first 48 hours of Lovely's first 2 days with us, on the phone or doing something just for US. She was incredible. She's a rebel and doesn't like to hear no. (I dig that A BUNCH about her). She stubbornly wouldn't let them say NO to us about bringing LB to this house and allowing him to be here with us... she has just been AMAZING.
I have read example after example of people sharing their stories with me about how incredible it felt to unexpectedly do something amazing for someone. There really is no better feeling.
I am so looking forward to seeing these kids faces tomorrow when they see the bicycles that "santa" (code for: anonymous donor in NY) called in to Toys R Us and had me pick up.
I am so jazzed I don't even have words for the fun that will be tomorrow. Lovely got a purse in her Foster Wishes, and she won't even take it off. She has carried it on her shoulder with her pj's on, and sits and watches tv with it on her shoulder.
Over the years, I lost the joy of Christmas. I was a grinch and a ho-hummer and really wasn't into Christmas. Then we had the joy of Laynie and I got to see a Christmas tree through her precious eyes and understood the Christmas story for the first time in a personal way.
It's such a miracle.
God sent his son. And not a full grown warrior, but a tiny baby. A baby that a VIRGIN bore. She didn't say, "Oh, Lord, I am so afraid that all my friends will whisper behind my back, and I'm not sure I have TIME for that, and well...it's just NOT what I want to do right now".... She said, "YES, I will do this very special thing, and I won't ask questions, and I will do it, KNOWING I will have to sacrifice him someday""
That right there is cause for pause. WOW.
I remember when we lost Laynie, and people would say to us, "I just can't even imagine losing my child." and Lacey would say to them, "We signed up for this". Yes, we knew going in that our little journey with Laynie would be brief and precious. I felt this pain again yesterday, as a fellow miracle child, gained her heaven wings, and the heart pain I felt for the parents and the grandparents and the whole family, losing their precious girl, right at Christmas, the most joyous time of the year.
And as hard as that was, I remember Lacey making the connection and saying, through tears to me, "Mom, I get it.... I can't imagine the depth of God's love for us that he sent his OWN SON, to be born of a virgin, to bear the weight of our sins and die on a lonely cross, forsaken by the world he came to save. HE LOVES us so much, because NOTHING can be harder than losing Laynie, and GOD did it willingly." Nothing can be harder than losing....(you fill in the blank with your loss)....and GOD sent his SON WILLINGLY.
Whoa.
This is one of my all time favorite songs, sung by my all time favorite singer, David Phelps, and just let this song sink into your heart..... and the quick words before he sings.....
Merry Merry Christmas friends.....
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