Toddlers

Word is out and we have been doing long-term respite, mainly when foster parents go on vacation.  Since April, we've had 3 and its been a lot of work, but very fun!  We had our first girl, little L was 15 months old and she was so amazing....smart, a good sleeper and eater and overall she was so easy and made us laugh a lot.  She was a dancer and if she had a beat, she was moving (even while eating!).
We've had little M two times now and he is 14 months.  Also, easy peasy and so chill, but he is way behind on walking/talking, but he has been in foster care for almost 3 months and has come along way in a very short time.  We almost got him to say ball!
None of these pictures or videos are great due to privacy, but you can get a little flavor of our fun:

Even the cat liked her!

And, we've had baby C (hopefully, soon to be baby T when he is adopted!) several times since we first got him in December.  His foster mom is a single mom, so I asked her to please let us help when we can.  He was supposed to go to family this month, but that didn't work out and it looks like she is going to adopt him and we are all very excited about that :).  This last weekend was really crazy, we had baby T and little M all day Saturday.  Thankfully, we didn't have much going on and it was a lot more manageable than I thought.  We often sit around and just hang with all the kids (and laugh a lot) and for me it was more restful than our normal crazy weekends.  It is really fun to see our kids and their interest.  We got a call today for a 9 month old and Reggie said we should go get him, but I reminded him we are leaving next week, so that's a no go.  We have to make sure we have balance and rest, as Ryan has had a little bit of a hard time with the life interruption and lack of freedom.
I've started to realize that this path we're on might be more about others, than ourselves.  We don't plan to adopt again and I've asked myself what is the point of what we're doing, but I have been reminded that there's lots of purpose.  The foster parents are so appreciative that they can have a nice vacation without worrying about their little ones and I can't tell you how many conversations we have had with people about fostering, maybe planting a seed or just opening their eyes about the foster system.  We went to a birthday party when we had baby T and the host really didn't know that we fostered and she opened up about their failed adoption recently and how she needed this to give her direction!  God is amazing!!!