5 Months by the Numbers

5 months ago today I got a call about a little baby boy that was two days old and needed to be picked up at the hospital. With no hesitation at all, I said yes and a few hours later I was walking out of the hospital with an emergency foster placement who was so small, that when he scrunched himself up as little babies do, he was barely bigger than my hand.

Over the past 5 months I have been lucky to raise this little boy and watch him grow and progress into an incredibly happy, smiley, and easy going little guy. I told someone just yesterday that he truly is perfect.

Today it hit me that despite all my love for him, all my family, friends, and neighbors love for him, that I am a foster parent. There is no guarantee that I’ll be able to adopt him and today that is really hard to swallow.

There is nothing more in the world that I have ever wanted so bad as to be a mom. And  I’ve enjoyed it so much with this little boy.

Over the last 5 months we have had 88 appointments consisting of…

• 48 mom visits
• 2 grandma visits
• 15 doctor’s appointments
• 11 home visits
• 4 health nurse appointments
• 4 WIC appointments
• 4 social worker meetings (separate from home visits)

We’ve also had…

• 13 social workers we’ve worked with
• 2 child abuse investigations (completely unnecessary…those are another blog for a later date)

Foster parents are asked to do a lot and not all of it is easy. To think that after all of this, little man could go back to his mom in October is heartbreaking.

The village has been wonderful from day 1 of my journey in February 2016. Please keep the positive thoughts and love coming. The village needs this perfect little boy as much as he needs us.

(The picture above is not baby boy. It is a stock photo.)