Respite and a new placement...

Happy New Years to our friends and family! Tony and I just started back to work today from a two week break...in a lot of ways it didn't feel like a break at all though! We kept busy celebrating at different events with family and friends, as well as bringing some kiddos into our lives! Here's the lowdown...

We got the call on Friday, December 19th that we are officially licensed! I got another call about an hour later from our foster care agency asking us if we would consider taking a respite placement from December 27-30 for a foster family who greatly needed a break from their 6&7 year old kiddos, brother and sister. We celebrated Christmas looking forward to the excitement that kids would bring into our home afterwards. We got another call on December 22 about a more permanent placement too...but we'll get to that in a minute :)

We hosted 6 year old boy "D" and 7 year old girl "B" for 4 days - and boy was it a whirlwind. The kids were sweet and we had a lot of fun with them - we went to the park, watched them ride scooters, went to Magic Mountain, read stories together, cooked together, watched cartoons, and played board games. As much fun as we had, we also had a very difficult day with "D" on Monday. Think of the worst tantrum you've ever seen, multiply it by about 10, add aggressive behavior, and repeat it three times - that was our day on Monday. Tony and I loved and disciplined him through it and came out only a little worse for the wear on the other side. This served as a reminder for us that foster care is not easy, and we have to rely on God every step of the way to give us strength and courage to love kids well even through the rough days. It also reminded us of the spiritual warfare going on for these troubled kids' souls - pray for "D" and "B" when you think of it! We will continue to support their foster family through prayer, monthly respite, and a listening ear when needed.

And now on to the news about our more "permanent" placement (I say permanent because we never really know how long we will have them - it's a crazy system)! I got a call from our foster agency a few days before our respite was set to start, asking us if we would consider taking a 9 year old boy into our home who is being discharged from a residential treatment center within the next few weeks. After receiving as much information as we were able about him, we prayerfully decided to pursue this. His case worker wants to transition him slowly from his current placement, as "J" doesn't do well with change. The day after our respite kids went home, we drove about an hour east to meet up with "J" for lunch as McDonalds. "J" was shy and took some warming up, but he is a very sweet kid. We learned that he is athletic, artistic, and enjoys superheroes and video games - a typical 9 year old boy! Two days later we drove to his residential treatment center to take him out for a day of fun and get to know him better. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed seeing his little personality shine as he warmed up to us. Our next visit with him is scheduled for this weekend, when he will come to stay with us for a night or two! We are very excited and love him already.

Sorry for the long post, but this is what you get when I don't have time to write due to a busy kid-filled schedule (as I'm sure many of you can relate to)! More updates to come when we have them!

Love,
Tony & Emily