Party of 5

Over Spring Break we received over fifteen calls for placement from DHS. There were so many kids coming into care and so many foster families out of town on vacation. We said we would take a child for the week of spring break. We took a little 5 year old girl on Wednesday of spring break (after saying yes to several other placements that didn't end up coming to our house for one reason or another). We thought she might go home the next week Tuesday so we went ahead and kept her into the next week. It turns out they extended the case and DHS said she will stay in care until at least May. We decided we didn't want to send her to another home (she was in another home for two days before she came to us) and she is such a sweet girl that fits in very well with our family so we are keeping her until she goes home or until DHS says otherwise. I have given her the Facebook nickname of Belle because she had such a southern accent when she came to us. She also has such great manners. She called us Ma'am and Sir in the beginning. Whenever she talks to me or asks a question she starts with Ma'am. The only thing we had to work on was saying thank you when someone tells her how cute she is. She was saying, "I know". Too cute. She is such a smart girl. She can tie her shoes!!! She knows her numbers, shapes, colors, letters, and letter sounds. She is very ready of kindergarten in the fall. (She just turned 5.)

Now she calls Davin, Mr. Daven or Dad. She calls her mom, Momma. The other day she accidentally called me Momma and apologized. I told her she could call me whatever she wanted. (I was trying to get her to call me Miss Jenny instead of Ma'am.) She said, "Well, I already have a Momma...maybe I could call you mom." Talk about melt my heart. She now calls me Ma'am when she wants to ask a question or tell me something, and she calls me Mom when she needs something. She will occasionally call me Miss Jenny.

I emailed her caseworker this week to ask her about enrolling her for swimming lessons and if there was a chance she would be here that long. Her caseworker said to go ahead and enroll her. Who knows how long she will be here but we are all getting along really well. I took her to my school on Friday (I had a personal day) and her her screened for kindergarten and filled out the paperwork for her to start kindergarten. She was so excited to hang out in one of the kinder classrooms for a little bit. She knows she will go to my school IF she is still living with us and that she will go to a different school if she is with her Momma.

You would think that having three kids wouldn't be a shock to me since we said we would take them but just about daily I look around and think, "How in the world did I end up with three kids?" Being outnumbered does make a difference for sure. My brain is just always going. I didn't realize it until we got a babysitter last weekend and Davin, Alea and I went to dinner and a movie. We were sitting at dinner and I commented on how quiet it was with two less kids. Then I thought that wasn't true because the kids are quiet (I often have to have Belle repeat herself because she can be very soft spoken). I realized it was my head that was quieter. I wasn't thinking about how I needed to cut up someone's food, if I needed to make the baby a bottle, if someone was falling out of their chair, etc. It is just mentally quieter with two less kids. Davin agreed that it was quieter in his head too with only one kid.

Welcome to being a Party of 5 I guess.