Long Distance Family

For the next twelve months our family will be on a new journey.  We will be living life and loving each other over sometimes long distances.  My solider is home from his deployment, but he will still be taken away from home for many months at a time due to trainings and duties he must perform away from where our family lives.  We will see him MUCH more often, but many bedtime hugs and soccer games will be missed.  As I said goodbye to him this morning after 12 glorious days all together under the same roof, I cried.  I love him!  I really actually like him!  I need him!  He is my partner in this life and it makes it so difficult to say goodbye, but I must stay strong!  We have twelve months to go.  We just started this.  Today is day one of our new journey.    

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Big News!

Such a perfect day!!!  I can’t wait to tell the world our wonderful news, but can’t just yet.  I have faith.  I know God is working and moving in the life of our Baby Girl!  There is also a team of people working to make permanency happen for her and soon.  But, foster care is weird and crazy stuff happens.  So, for now I will just say… I am SO hopeful!!!

They come on Monday.

We will have a social worker visit on Monday.  Our agency worker and the worker from the county will both be here.  It will be be the first time our new worker will meet my husband.  I’m excited for the visit.  This past month many things have been being done to bring Baby Girl’s case to a close.  She needs permanency.  She has no idea she is in foster care.  She doesn’t have visits and hasn’t since September 2014.  All she knows is us.  She was six months old when she came to us and she is two years old now.  She is Baby Girl, she is our daughter.  So, yes I am excited about this visit.  I can’t wait to hear what the next step is to get our Baby Girl into her forever family! 

She never forgot him.

After ten long months of my husband being deployed, he surprised us and showed up at our house this week, ringing the doorbell.  Baby Girl ran right to him and raised her hands for him to pick her up.  There was no shyness, no worry, no fear.  He is daddy and he is home!  

I give my husband so much credit.  He spent hours playing peekaboo with her on FaceTime while he was away.  He didn’t go months, he didn’t go weeks, he did not even go very many days without being able to say hi to his baby.  Because that is who he is, he is her daddy.  

He’s home!

He’s home!  He came home two days early!  Two bonus days with my soldier!  Goodness, it feels good to have him home!  

I’ve slept through the night for two straight nights!  My heart rate has decreased.  My stress level is near zero and I just feel so HAPPY!  

It’s over!  The long deployment that seemed it would never end is over!

18 months and 18 things I love about you!

Dear Baby Girl,

Although I am your foster mommy, I have been the only mommy in your life for the last 18 months.  During that time, I have grown to love you more and more every day.  I cannot imagine my life without you and today as I celebrate our 18 month mother-daughter anniversary, I want to tell you the 18 things I love about you.  

1.  The way you sing!  You sing in the car, you sing in your highchair, you mimic the songs you hear on the radio.  Your voice is so precious and I love to listen to you to sing. 

2.  Your smile!  You have a cheesy grin and it is so cute!

3.  Your voice.  Daddy said it best when he said that your voice is the most angelic voice he has ever heard.  

4.  Your hands.  You love to hold hands, sometimes holding both of mine with both of yours.  Even as I type this, you are holding one of my hands as you sit in my lap.  

5.  Your eyes.  You have the biggest most beautiful brown eyes.  When you get surprised or really excited your eyes get even bigger and we all laugh at your silly surprised expression!

6.  Your smell.  As you sit in my lap I smell the top of your head and it is the sweetest mix of coconut oil, baby lotion and your soft precious baby scent.  

7.  Your words.  You use the cutest words for things.  Our entire language at our house has changed since you arrived because we all use your sweet words.  

8.  Your energy.  You have more energy than most toddlers and it is just so fun to see you get excited and happy about things.  

9.  Your run.  You have the cutest little run as you swing your right arm back-and-forth as you go.  It is your signature run. 

10.  Your favorites.  You love the color yellow, tutus, preschool, fruit, playing outside, and swimming. 

11.  Your games.  You love “patty cake,” “hide and seek,” and “the wheels on the bus.”

12.  Your hair.  It has taken mama awhile to learn how to properly care for your hair, but oh how I love your beautiful black curls.  

13.  Your determination.  Your favorite phrase nowadays is, “I do it!”  You want to try to do everything by yourself.  You are going to go very far in life sweet girl.  

14.  Your laugh.  Your giggle makes everyone smile.  Our family does pretty much anything silly to get you to laugh! 

15.  Your relationships with your siblings.  You have changed our world, Baby Girl.  Watching your siblings love you and care for you has been one of this mama’s greatest joys!

16.  Your memory.  You remember people and places very well for a two year old.  You keep Little Man and his memory alive in our house as you talk about him daily.

17.  Your stubbornness.  Even though it drives me crazy at times, I love that you stand up for yourself and know what you want.  I don’t win many battles with you once you have decided that you want something and right now!  Ha ha! 

18.  Your love.  You love your family.  You love to cuddle, to hug, and to just be in the same room as us.  Your sweet words of, “I wuv ooo mama,” make my heart melt!  

I hope and pray that you will always know without a shadow of a doubt that you have been loved and wanted from day one.  You, my precious daughter will always be my Baby Girl!