It's hard to wait

Our kids are leaving and we are entering a time of WAITING to see where our family is going next!

In our county, there are only 2 homefinding caseworkers that make calls to match kids with foster families (so we call them matchers). The way to up your chances of getting placements is to keep them updated with the status of your home and to be friendly enough that you come to mind when they get a placement that would be a good fit with your abilities. I've done that with monthly email updates that give some details about our kids and some thank you's for all they do.

Babies 2 &3 are going home Sunday (tomorrow) at 6pm. Respite 4 is leaving Monday at 7am. I called the matchers in our county last week after court to let them know we are interested in taking a new placement ASAP and I expected to be inundated with calls this week to take kids. However, my phone did not ring once. This means there will definitely be a gap between our boys going home and Baby 4 being placed with us. Baby 2 was placed with us 3 days before baby 1 went home, so we have not had an empty nest in 2yrs. Since I'm a stay-at-home Mom, this time of waiting will be pretty awkward for me. I'm going to have to figure out how to avoid sitting around missing Baby 2 & 3 or email-stalking the matchers. I can breathe for the weekend since we only get calls M-F for placements, but come Monday I'm going to be a ball of nerves.

I do have a plan for our time of waiting. We are going to SLEEP!! Sleep has been like gold since we brought baby 1 home, and resting up before a new baby seems wise. I will also be deep cleaning all our toys and baby apparatus, which I would like to say I do all the time, but the truth is we usually just do a quick rinse and wipe down before attending to the next mess the kids make. Lastly, I'm going to a movie- just because once a new baby comes to us I won't be able to.

We are also going to pray. Right now my prayers are for wisdom in the matchers, the baby 4's caseworker, and for us. We are praying for comfort and peace in baby 4. The saddest thought I've been having is that the baby that is placed with us next week is in a bad situation right now. I want to pray that Baby 4 is safe and cared for, but the fact is that there will be a Baby 4 and they will have been abused or neglected. So I pray the child we help next will be held close to the heart of our Father and placed with us quickly so they can be safe.