Special Gifts

There are gifts to be had in almost every life situation.  Although I deeply wish that my youngest girls could have avoided the turmoil and trauma of their early years, somehow they have become who they are today through all of their life experiences.  I want to embrace all of who they are and help them turn those stumbling blocks of their earlier years into stepping stones to deeper and richer understandings and life today.  We all have no alternative but to go forward, using all of our life for good now and in the future.

One of the gifts of spending many years in a full foster home with many babies is that our girls have had lots of exposure to different children and have learned how to care for babies.  Our three youngest spent the last two days with their foster family, helping to care for their younger kids to try to give their foster parents a couple of days of relative rest.  The girls are gifted in caring for little kids and relating to them.  They learned amazing skills of baby care and compassion from the years spent with their very wonderful foster mom.  For a couple of days they have helped play with an assortment of younger children, spending hours outside and watching out for their younger foster siblings.  It was a win-win situation.  The younger kids had a wonderful few days of play, our children got to learn responsibility and also lots of fun play too, and their foster parents had a bit of a break as all the kids entertained one another!  The girls are growing in compassion and understanding for other children as well.  They have known so many other children from situations like their own which has helped them reflect and process some of their own challenging feelings.

Spending time with their foster family brings a multitude of emotions back to our kids.  We will have lots of processing time and long hugs in the next few days.  There will be subtle dysregulation that  I know is from the emotions emerging from this time.  We will talk and process and hug with constant reassurance of our love.  This time away was a part of the children fully living life with people who we all love and respect.   Together, we will help them to not fear the mixed emotions that emerge, always using the challenges for those positive areas of growth and deeper understanding of themselves and others.