A few things...

I'm feeling quite a bit more like myself this afternoon. Not so sobby. [She says, embarrassed.]

Thank you, each one of you, for your kind words of encouragement this past week, and for your prayers. I appreciate you all so much. Mark, too. He was reading through my comments with me on the couch last night, and said, "They're all so nice."

You are all awfully nice. Thank you for your friendship. (And for putting up with my raw, emotional self over the past few days.) I'm hoping that much of that is due to sleep deprivation and is not the new me. ~smile~

I'm sure you're all wanting to know more news about the little girl we get to adopt.

So do we!!!

But we've heard nothing. I've tried not to be pestery with our agency but at about 4:00 this afternoon I finally called, and was told, for the second day in a row, that the baby's caseworker is still out sick, so... "when she gets back into the office..." Yeah, yeah. So we wait. (You'd think we'd be good at this by now, wouldn't you?)

I don't like it one bit that this precious little girl of ours now has a mommy and a daddy but hasn't been able to hear our voices or be held by us. But we'll have plenty of time for that in the future. At least we don't have to meet her and then turn around and leave her for six months like we had to with Isaias.

A few things have come up in emails or comments that I'd like to clarify:

1) We have only one foster child in our care right now. For one [loooong] day we had both the 6 week old and her 13 month old sister in our care, but I was in way over my head with those two, in addition to my three. The 13 month old was a very YOUNG 13 months, and spent much of that day whining and fussing and needing to be in my arms.

But you see, that's where the baby spends much of her time, so then, that wasn't working so well. It was very apparent that this older girl needed a foster home where she could be getting more attention. Maybe one with less than four children. Our house was so chaotic that day I cannot even aptly describe it to you. My mom was here with us- she stopped in to see how things were going and she immediately saw the wisdom in staying for a good part of the afternoon. And we were *both* overwhelmed. And I would say we are both of the competent-mother variety. (She, especially.)

2) Homeschooling. A couple of you have mentioned that you don't know how I'm doing it; what with the foster care and the regular care of our kids and the house and meals and the homeschooling.

We haven't cracked open a "school book" for weeks. What we're doing for school right now is this: Learning How to Care For a Baby and Learning How to Love and Care For One Another When There's a Baby in the House. And we do actually consider that school around here. Throw in a bunch of stories on the couch and some outside play and chores? A wonderful day of school.

The kids have been absolute gems. (Er, aside from the recent bead incident and a few normal hiccups that come with having a new person in the house.) Our Ella? I could write fifteen posts on that girl. She is *great* with the baby. She chooses the baby's clothes every day, helps with EVERYTHING, including diaper changes, bottle feedings, burping, holding, and distracting the baby until I can get that bottle ready. Here's a common sight around our home lately:


(When I told her the other day I was so enjoying watching her be a little "mama" to the baby, she shrugged and said, "I'm just practicin'!")

And when she's not doing that, she's doing this: