I?m not going to lie ? parenting is exhausting?especially if you?re starting to get a cold (two weeks of wiping aside snot and I?m finally starting to succumb). So hosting a party of 15 boys (under the age of 9) and 2 girls was definitely tiring ? and yet so much fun. Yesterday we had a party to celebrate Noah?s 4th birthday and Seth?s adoption. This brought together the 17 kids for the birthday and about an equal number of adults for the adoption. Today I reflect on how wonderful it is to be surrounded by so many people who care about my boys and our family.
For many people, families and friends celebrate the birth of a child. Friends gather around the new baby and the beaming parents, visitors come and go (and people make you food!), and gifts pour in. Mothers stay home from work for some time (and it would be nice if we let fathers do so too)? cooing over how gorgeous the baby is, who he or she looks like, and ?napping when the baby naps? (or at least that?s what people say they do!). It is very different when you adopt a child through the foster care system.
This week I have looked down at Seth every night as I plant a kiss on his forehead and say ?goodnight, my son.? It is the first time that I?ve been able to call him my ?son.? And it is the first time that I realize I can bond with him as my son. It is a very strange thing. As a foster parent, you are asked to ?love the children as if they are your own? and yet to ?keep your distance? as your job really is to hand them back to the biological parent (when at all possible).
So there?s this closeness of rocking them to sleep every night, and this guarding of your heart in preparation of possibly losing them. You pick them up when they fall and kiss the ?boo-boo,? and wonder how long they will still be in your house. You bounce them and tickle them. You praise their every milestone as they grow. You hold their hand and protect them. You take them to day care and pick them up. You take them to doctor appointments, you sit and pray over them as they recover from surgery, you worry about every cold or fever or wheeze. You ache, you agonize, you cry, you comfort?.you love. You know the baby needs a ?mother? and you play the role of the ?mother,? but you never know if you are the one who will be the forever mother. Until that very moment, years later, when a complete stranger in a black robe declares you to be the mother.
Then you sigh. Then you cry. Then you gather your friends and family around you and say ?Celebrate with me. Sing with me. Dance with me?.on the ?birth? of my son.?
Micah ? I met you May 22, 2006, and became your forever Mommy on February 26, 2008.
Noah ? I met you Feb 27, 2009, and became your forever Mommy on February 23, 2010.
Seth ? I met you on June 2, 2011, and became your forever Mommy on February 12, 2013.
Tonight I lay on Micah?s bed beside him as he snored and looked around the room at my sleeping family. My sons. Beautiful each one.
And I love each of them?.
now with my whole heart.
?
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Source: http://middleofthemadness.org/2013/02/25/celebrating-the-foster-to-adopt-completion/
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