A couple of months ago, the phone rang. Sure, it rings every day, but this call was different. You’ve probably heard people talk about a phone call changing their lives. This was one of those calls. There was a baby who needed help. He needed a safe place to stay. Could we possibly provide it? We talked it over and agreed. Yes, we would help this child. A couple of days later, a CPS worker showed up with a bouncing bundle of joy. He had been abused, and he was very clingy. Fine. No problem.
Over the last couple of months, we have gone through an insane process. There has been so much paperwork. In fact, there was about 20 times more paperwork, more prying, more intrusion into our lives than there was to get our government contract jobs. Go figure. We’ve also had to deal with constant intrusion into our lives and our home. We’ve dealt with people constantly dropping in whenever they feel like it, having to call in late for work because someone or other decided they need to stop by right now because there’s a deadline to get such-and-such done. Stressing over weekend daycare because we have to wake up super early to do 27 hours of classroom time to satisfy DHS requirements. Yeah, insanity.
Add to all of that the fact that the child likes to cry. Putting him down in his playpen is an act of war. Putting him down in the play yard in the living room results in the child wailing like a banshee. And putting him in bed at night? You’d think we were torturing the baby or something. Naps? Forget about it. We’re lucky if he naps for 20 minutes. And if he actually sleeps through the night without waking up at least once with a demand for attention, it’s a miracle. It’s very stressful. It’s very exhausting. It’s draining. So why do we do it?
I do it because he’s family. She does it because, as she says, when you love someone, you do whatever it takes. Will we continue to foster after this is all over? We might. We’ve briefly discussed it. We are already certified. We’ve already done the paperwork. We’ve already dealt with the intrusion. Maybe we can actually make a positive impact on another child who needs us. But if we do, it won’t be right away. And it won’t be an infant.
