A Tale of Two Mommas

As I'm eagerly anticipating the birth of Baby Tallie, I find myself thinking about Momma J. A lot. More and more the closer we get to the big day. I try to put myself in her place and find that it is simply too painful. The closer we draw to meeting Tallie and taking her into our arms and our hearts, the closer Momma J draws to saying goodbye to this tiny one that she's cared for for the past nine months and handing over an enormous piece of her heart. What utter selfless love it must take to take a long, serious look at your life and decide that  your child should be with another family.

There is a lot of talk about heroes these days, and it seems as though it doesn't take too much to earn such a label. Toss a ball around a court or field better than the other guys, or make a public statement about your private life, or simply do what you're supposed to do and bam, you're slapped with a big ole hero sticker on your chest.

At least for me, whenever the word hero is mentioned, I'll forever think of a sweet, quiet young momma in Georgia who chose life and a home for her baby girl and who, though I may never meet her, will always be woven inextricably into the heart of our family. 

What's next for us...

So, it has been a little over two weeks since Dora & Diego left us to join their new foster family. Crazy how time moves so quickly and at the same time feel like it is standing still. The kids and I were able to talk to them last week, so much fun! Diego and IZ were so excited to hear each other's voices...they just kept saying each other's names over and over again. Absolutely precious!

Where are we going from here? 

At this point, we are anxiously awaiting the birth of our sweet baby Tallie. Momma J is due exactly 3 weeks from yesterday. We have finished all our paper work and have a home study scheduled for this Friday with our SW, Bess. As far as we know, things have been tidied up on Momma J's end. She wants for us to take over in the hospital so for now, I guess we just wait on the call that baby Tallie is on her way. 

We are also preparing to move into our new house. There is a lot of mainly cosmetic work to be done, new floors, painting, etc. It is turning into a race against the clock because we're scheduled to move in the same week that Tallie is due! 

As far as fostering goes, our plan is to do respite care for a while once Tallie is settled [read sleeping through the night.]  As we have seen first hand, fostering is tough and can be emotionally draining. Foster parents need times of refreshing and renewal and reconnecting with their bio families. We are so very excited about serving full-time foster parents in this way! I'm also really, really excited about something I've planned for the end of May....

My friend, Katie, is a 31 rep, and I'm hosting a party for her on May 30th with all the hostess bonuses going toward providing Journey Bags for kids coming into care! Here's a little blurb on Journey Bags from The Forgotten Initiative website....

http://theforgotteninitiative.org/initiatives.html

Those are our plans....we'll see what God's plans are. ;)