What we've been waiting for!

After 15 months of training, praying, preparing, and wondering...here is the blessing that came from it all:

This is Airiis.

And this is her big sister, Destiny.

And, for 6 days, we got to take care of them, love them, and do our darndest to show them Jesus!

This sweet baby girl (pronounced "Iris") captured our hearts immediately. She was an absoulte JOY...and to be honest it hurts my heart a little to even look at these pictures. Geez...it was only 6 days...but, man, can you fall in love with a child in 6 days! Kevan put it this way: "I don't really start bonding with our kids until after they are born, so getting Airiis felt like bringing one of our babies home from the hospital. And then giving her back felt like handing over our 6-day-old baby to a complete stranger." Not to mention, she was absolutely angelic in every way...yeah, we miss her!!

Airiis and Elijah are only 8 days apart! We had two 5-month old babies!

And, THIS is how your car looks when you have two 5-month olds, two 3-year olds, one 4-year old, and an extra 7-year-old cousin (who spent one night with us while her mom and dad went away for their anniversary...and was SUPER helpful!):
We took the kids to go look at Christmas lights one night and decided to get the older ones hot chocolate from Starbucks when we ordered our coffees. Yeah, there were a few spills, but they loved it!

When the girls first arrived, Airiis didn't smile for a couple days. Here she is on day 3...wow, a different girl!

We even braved a Pump-it-up birthday party and Home Group at the Zuniga's one night (in the pouring rain!). It was nothing short of an adventure...but we did it!

Here's the "twins" at Home Group:

And Super Man at Pump-it-up! (Kind of a goofy picture of the Babe, but he's Super Man none the less!)

Bekah Jane and Destiny...we bought Destiny this little outfit to go to church on the Sunday before Christmas with us. She and Bekah Jane looked so cute together!

So, what was it like? It was wonderful, and reaaallly hard, and completely and utterly fulfilling and joy-giving, and surreal. And that just about scratches the surface of describing this experience.

On Friday night, December 17th, when it was raining cats and dogs, I got the call from our social worker. It was a 5-minute conversation in which she told me these two girls were in the process of being removed from their home and they needed somewhere to go immediately. It only took a second for me to agree that we should take them...this was exactly the call we'd been waiting for. Kevan was at work and since I can't usually get a hold of him at work, we had already agreed that I could make these decisions without talking to him first. Thankfully, he happened to call about an hour later and I was able to tell him that two more little ones would be sleeping under our roof when he got home! (PS: You would have thought I told him he just won the lotto.) And, two hours after getting the call, these sweet little girls arrived on my doorstep.

What an incredibly weird and surreal moment that is. And it is EXACTLY like you probably picture it (at least it was for us!). I'd wondered if maybe we'd made it more dramatic in our heads....what it would be like when the kids first showed up. But, reality proved to be just as heart-wrenching and emotional as we'd ever imagined. Destiny stood there with her hood pulled way up over her head, looking very shy and scared. When she saw the kids behind me, she got braver and walked in and said "Hi, I'm Destiny!". I melted. The social workers were super frazzled and left a small backpack with barely anything in it, and very little information on the girls. And then they were gone, and I was left with 5 kids all wondering what in the world was going on!

Thankfully (and I can't emphasize my gratitude enough!!), my mom came and stayed that first night. I seriously don't know what I would have done without her. The girls arrived at bedtime, so we gave all the kids a few minutes to play and then started to get everyone ready for bed. It was chaos. Both babies were crying and mom was tending to them. I managed to get Ezekiel and Bekah Jane in bed, but all hell broke lose when I suggested that Destiny crawl in her comfy pink bed. This girl was terrified and it was absolutely heart-breaking. She cried and cried for her mama, her poor little body just shaking. She seemed to cling to my mom right away, and that first night Destiny slept on the couch with my mom snuggled up next to her.

We had several more experiences like that with Destiny, some stemming from her heart-breaking fear and grief, and others stemming from her anger and defiance - both resulting in us holding her tight, reassuring her that we love her and would take care of her. It was really, really hard. And sometimes Kevan and I didn't always see eye-to-eye. Which made it messy. It proved that there are some things you simply can't prepare for, and that you have to learn as you go. But we were figuring it out together and, at the end of every day, we knew we'd made a good team.

It was the kind of experience that made us fail to recognize the record-breaking rain or the fact that ordinary people were out hustling and bustling doing last-minute Christmas shopping. I felt like I was in an alternate universe, with tunnel vision to just keep my head above water and care for these 5 tiny people. It required everything I had, in every way possible, and as exhausting as that sounds....it was amazing.

At the end of every day, I was so completely fulfilled and could rejoice at all that God was doing. There was victory every day...because every day involved battle! And God was so good to reveal Himself to us throughout the day, reminding me that He had prepared us for this very thing, and that He would sustain us. We felt the prayers of so many! And we KNEW that we were not doing this alone! In both a spiritual sense - through the power of prayer - and in a physical way - through TONS of hands-on help - we knew there was a team of people caring for these precious girls.

Their time with us was much shorter than we expected, but our peace comes from trusting that God remains in control of their lives. And we will continue to pray for them, since they have permanently left their imprint on our hearts. We eagerly await our next foster placement (AFTER my trip up to visit Kristen in Washington!), and can't wait to see what God has in store for us next! (And I'm sure you won't get a post like this with every placement but, hey, the first one is a big deal!!)

If you feel compelled to pray for us, please pray specifically:

1.) For our kids. The most difficult part of this placement was the dynamics between our kids and Destiny. After the novelty of a "new friend" wore off, they really had a hard time getting along. We did not expect this because our kids love to play with everyone! But, of course, this was a completely different situation than what they were used to. Please pray that God prepares them to welcome the next kids that come into our home, that they would be full of love and forbearance, and that Kevan and I would have the wisdom to coach them through these experiences.

2.) For unity in our marriage. Our first go-round was a huge boost in our confidence that God can unite us and make us stronger in this endeavor (even though we were not always on the same page, we loved the process of learning together!). Please pray that God keeps us united and strong as a couple!

I leave you with this sweet and funny story: One morning while the girls were with us, Bekah Jane crawled in my bed while the others were still asleep. She says quietly, "Mama, my friend is mad." "Mad?," I ask, "Why?" "Because she wants her daddy." My heart sank a little when I realized even my 2-year-old was aware of the deep emotions Destiny was going through. Then Bekah Jane looked around the bed and realized Kevan was not there "HEY!" she said with her little lip pouting, "I want my dad too!!" "Um, honey," I tell her, "Your dad just went to run an errand. He'll be right back." "Oh."