Febuary 1st-19th

Febuary had a rough start.

We were waiting, none too patiently for our tax return.
Our power was shut off. (Thank you Obama's Going Green Initiative for that!)
Calls in the middle of night asking, "We have twins, they are white and 21mos, that's all we know. Do you want them?"    Or, "We know that you prefered to have under three yrs, but we have a baby and an 8yr old." 

Let me pause here and explain something.  We had been praying, agonizing over every phone call.  Call them back with , "Yes, we'll take them." and somewhere between waking up our children, or going to Walmart to buy diapers they were re-routed for one reason or another.  After the third time we decided we would wait for more diapers, or to tell our children until they were in the driveway. If you take a "placement" after business hours the state will pay you double for your middle of the night trouble.  So, although it was a drag we stayed on the "call anytime" list. 

Finally things began to look up.  We payed our DOUBLED power bill.  Had heat again.  ;-)
Our tax return came back.  While I was out paying EVERYONE off with our tax return the call came.

"We have two boys, 'Alex' is two and completely non-verbal, and his baby brother 'Isaac' who is 3days old." You could have heard my heart pounding through the phone!  Focus Danielle, the lady is still talking, "The mother is home-less, was living under a bridge, and a repeat 'offender' so I was told that you wanted to adopt!"  I could barely speak at this point.  God had given us extra money on our tax return, and now he is giving us two babies that we will adopt!!!!  Back to the social worker, "What do you think?"  "WHAT DO I THINK????"  I practically scream into the phone. . . "I'll be right there!  We're on our way!!!!"  I called David next, totally ecstatic, and tell him that THE call came, and we were going to be a family of 7 by dinnertime!  :-D 

I think I floated all the way to the hospital, on the phone with sisters, and a wonderful friend.  Going over and over the short little background that I had been given.  Almost to the hospital it dawns on me that the social worker was going to be walking me to my car, and would see the terrible dis-array!! Had to pull over and clean out the car.  Maybe she would get to the mini-van, see the extra pair of shoes from the day before when Trey had gotten new shoes and couldn't wait til we got home to try them on.  What if she saw the banana peels that Abi and Benji had so carelessly let fall on the floor!  What if she got to the car, babies in hand, saw the mess and changed her mind?????   HA ha ha ha ha   Seriously these were the thoughts going through my mind.  They say that some women mid-child-birth worry about the stove being left on, or curlers left plugged in.  Small mental breakdown narrowly avoided, thanks to a well executed (if not a little panicky) car clean up.  We headed to the hospital.  The social worker was running a little late. (Try to stifle the giggles)  I went up to the nursery, introduced myself and was buzzed back into the mothers area.  They brought me the most beautiful, mocha colored baby I had ever seen.  He was so tiny, I think the blankets weighed more than he did.  5lbs 2oz, and I was in love.

An hour later the social worker and 'Alex' were buzzed back and in came this cute little black boy.  Closely cut hair, and a mouth full of white teeth.  He immediately began talking, talking quite alot actually.  I'm sure that Abi and Benji being so excited about their new brother's was what drew him out so quickly. A few well placed signatures, and we were out the door, into the snow and walking to the car.  The social worker did come to the car, but I don't think that she even looked inside, it was re-markably quick, and "painless".  I kept thinking, this can't be all there is!  She reminded me that the mom was home-less and they weren't sure how they were going to get ahold of her, so there would be no visitation for a while.  Then we were off.