I got bored and decided to have an 11 month old baby...
Ok, so it really didn't happen quite that way. The hubby and are foster parents. Last month they called and asked us to take in a little boy. Stupidly we said 'Sure'. And they believed us!
The caseworker dropped him off at 4 pm on a Thursday, handed me a few garbage bags of clothes, some toys and a couple of car seats. Then he left. The kid and I just kind of stared at each other, both with the same 'now what?' look on our faces.
Now, I am not a fool. I know babies don't come with instruction manuals or care labels. But seriously? To have someone just drop off a kid and leave without any kind of hint as a suggestion or two? Needless to say the kid quickly learned that we are total morons and it is up to him to whip us into shape.
Overall, he is a pretty easy going baby. It didn't take him long to teach us the 3 rules of baby. Food, sleep and diaper. Those are the main mantras of our daily lives now. If it isn't one, then it is one of the other two. It only took us two weeks to get a routine down that he thinks is acceptable. I figure he will change the rules on us next week. We are so screwed...
The first question everyone asks is "are you going to adopt him?" Yes, if it becomes an option then we will certainly adopt him. We just don't know if that is going to be an option yet, and probably won't for awhile.
The second question everyone asks is "How can you do this? How can you give him up?"
That' s a toughie. We have actually had a newborn foster child. We didn't have him long and knew right from the start that we weren't going to be keeping him. That was easy to handle since we looked at it like it was a babysitting job. This one will be a little bit different. Who am I kidding, it will be a lot different. I tell myself that it is just an extended babysitting gig, and I think in the beginning I really believed that. But as each day passes, the babysitting gig slowly fades into the background and he becomes more and more a part of us.
The hardest part of all of this is the not knowing. Not knowing how long he will stay. Not knowing if he will go back home. Not knowing if he will get to stay with us. Not knowing how long we will not know anything. Because we don't know, we don't think in terms of the future. I bought a shirt for him for St. Patrick's day. I even had a thought of a small cake for his birthday at the end of the month. But nothing farther than that. All because we just don't know.
And so we go on, not knowing. It sucks, I won't lie. And to be honest I am not sure if we would do this again should he go back home. But for now, he is here.
I wouldn't change that for anything.
