An Unexpected Surprise...

We had an unexpected surprise this week and my heart is happy. D and A were supposed to be going to live with their grandma by August 15th. They have been staying with her on weekends for the last few weeks to prepare everyone for the transition. We had some concerns about them living there and had expressed these but basically the plan was to still have them live with Grandma in 2 weeks. However, this past week grandma came forward and told our case worker that she couldn't care for them full time. She will still have occasional weekend visits, but they will be living with us for now. We are so excited to know that they are staying with us for the time being. We didn't feel good about them leaving because of some things we knew about where they would be living and this is a huge relief. I'm glad that they get to continue their relationship with their grandmother, it had been estranged for about a year, and that I know that they will be taken care of the rest of the time. I know our role as foster parents is to foster them and allow the families to fix problems so the children can go home and I actually feel like the system is working the way it should right now.

We are really excited to get the chance to be "real" parents to these kids. They have been here just over 3 months, longer than any of our other placements. They will most likely be here for a few more months at the least. We have enrolled A in daycare, D in after school care and will be enrolling D in her new school and soccer on Monday. She is so excited to be going to the school that is in our neighborhood and to be playing soccer this fall. She seems really excited to be staying here and getting to visit grandma on some weekends. I'm excited to go back to school shopping, school supply shopping, soccer practices and soccer games, sleepovers for D, birthday parties for their friends and more, all the things they deserve to have. I feel like we have been given the biggest gift by the grandmother recognizing that she is not capable of caring for them. I really just want to give her a hug and tell her thank you! Thank you for not being selfish. Thank you for knowing what is best for these two precious children. I know she has made an incredibly hard decision and I am so grateful that she was able to do so.

Thank you God for continuing to provide for D, A, Jonathan and I. Please continue to help their family make good decisions, work hard to get their children back, and give them a peace of mind that D and A are being cared for and loved.

~until~