Guess What?

It's a BOY!

Tomorrow I am picking up a 5 day old preemie to come live at my house. I only found out yesterday that he needed a home. That didn't give me a whole lot of time to nest! But I managed to dig out the cradle(yes the same one that bears the name of several Niverville infants) and round up a car seat.

I went to the hospital to visit him today. He is perfect. His mom did no drugs, didn't drink, didn't smoke and took good care of herself and the baby. Nice change! He is big enough to be discharged.

I am trying something new. I am going to be fostering his mom as well. We have one month for mommy to show she has what it takes parent her little guy. After that they will determine a long term plan for him.

I am very excited, but a little wary as well. As I work full time, there will be a daytime supervisor for mom and baby that will be coming to my house. I'm not sure how I feel about strangers roaming around when I'm not there. Also, what will it be like to have another woman living in my house? The baby has to be in my room and I have to supervise every feed, will this make me too tired to work? AHHHH, my head is spinning!

When I first heard of their story, I tried to not get involved. My life is pretty easy right now. My kids are older, I can get away pretty much whenever I want. I have stability and am comfortable.

But the voice in my heart said,"You have room for her. You are good with newborns. You are a good teacher...It just makes sense" And it does. I love newborn babies soooo much. I often wondered why God made me supersized, with rough man hands, if he planned for me to make my lifes work holding babies? Should I not be tiny with delicate, moisturised hands? Apparently not!

Behind this arrangement is a social worker who is going the extra mile. She had 3 days to come up with a placement for this baby. But she did not want to break the mom's heart. So, she could have just taken him from his mom and put him in a foster home. And let them visit once a week. But instead, she spent all day yesterday and today filling out forms, checking out my house, interviewing me, checking my references, finding a day time support staff AND making her supervisor go along with the plan.

So, we do have a shady child welfare system, but there are some who are willing to be creative and take a chance in the name of doing the right thing.

Anyways....I guess fear and excitement go hand in hand. The excitement is outweighing the fear at this moment. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

WISH ME LUCK!