Foster #2

When we started the foster process I said, "NO BABIES!"  Of course, we've been getting calls for babies like crazy and not just 6 month old little ones, brand new babies, just a few days old!  After the second phone call, in just as many nights, we decided to start saying yes to the infants (for now).

Foster baby #2 was 3 months old but was born at 25 weeks so she was a little miracle.  Mark and I spent the day at Grady being "trained" on how to care for her...which basically meant feed her slowly.  She was precious and we were immediately in love!!  We were told by several different sources that we would have her with us for a while but that was not to be.  At her 72 hour hearing, DFCS argued that she should stay in our care but the judge overruled and placed her back with her mom. Our family consultant was shocked, as were we.  I will say that the sadness that came with her leaving was really a surprise.  I'm not real sure what caused the sadness but I think it was a combination of the surprise, the fact that she was just a little snuggle bug and the emotional roller coaster of planning life around a foster child.  We were all so sad to see her go.   

Caroline is doing well overall but she has such a tender little heart and she LOVES the babies.  She literally would sit still as could be for 30 minutes and just hold her and rub her little head.  She told me over and over how glad she was to have this new little sister in our home.  

I'll probably say it a million times but I'm so sad we cannot post pictures.  If you could see a picture of Caroline loving that little girl or Mark holding her for the first time in the NICU like  a proud father anxious to bring his daughter home then you could see the love!  We were so honored to bring this little girl home from the hospital for the first time.  God's been so gracious to grant us this opportunity.  

Since we were all sad to see her go we decided to have a big family night after she left.  God has been so gracious to allow Mark to be home for our first two placements.  We joked with our family consultant that we were only going to accept placements once a month...when Mark was in town!  

Anyway, we decided to hike Kennesaw mountain with the girls.  It was so good to be outside and soak up some of God's goodness.  As we got started on the trail, the path diverges and you can take the easy or hard way.  We asked Caroline which one she wanted to take and she chose the hard way.  Mark and I just smiled at her little adventurous heart but I think we smiled knowing that it kind of reflects the roads we've chosen recently.  :-)

Libby was a trooper as usual and huffed and puffed the whole way up!  (We didn't actually make it to the top but about 2/3 of the way before we decided to head back.)  

Mark then carried her down.  She got a kick out of messing with his hair.

 After our trip up the mountain, we went out to dinner and then went to the neighborhood pool for a quick swim before bed time.  I was so thankful for this fun night with family!