Fostering The Love In Kansas

Today I celebrate having Little Man for 90 days.  In those short amount of days, I have learned this: 1. In the past, I would have argued you can't fall in love with someone that quickly.  How wrong I am. You can give someone your heart in a relatively short amount of time. 2. Sometimes, not knowing how to deal with behaviors means you're open to advice, opinions and trying unorthodox things. 3. Real fear is when your child is hurting and you can do nothing about it. 4. When I am told that the chances of Little Man going back to his mother are ZERO, my heart overflows, and my hope is reignited that this little man is going to be mine. I just need to be patient. 5. Christmas is a foreign concept to Little Man (as was Halloween and Thanksgiving), but I am thoroughly enjoying seeing holidays through his eyes. Little Man is getting more and more comfortable with me, his home, his doggie and his family.  He loves his Amee and Papa.  He loves his Fi.  He l...

This morning, I was reminded that Little Man is not always going to be a typical 5-year-old and some mornings are hard.  He woke up in a bad mood and non-verbal. Not sure what prompted it but I kept us to our schedule as though nothing was different. I needed him to know that the world that we have together is going to continue whether he is in the mood for it or not. He made this one day at school a few weeks ago so I put it on him and told him it was his protection from the world. I don't know if he understood it, but he held my hand tight on the walk to school and asked for a 'kiss hug' before he went in.  He hasn't let me walk him all the way to the school doors since, like day 3, so I knew he was feeling a bit vulnerable. My heart aches for the pain I see in him sometimes but I have to believe that after 85 days with me, the pain is a little bit less.  He came home in a better mood and it was made even better because we took a walk with doggy, we saw Am...

While Shan is taking a break from blogging to clean the vomit off of herself and deal with a streppy Lil’ man, I, Fi, have taken it upon myself to stick my nose in her business like any good friend should and write a post for her blog. Introductions, Hi everyone, you can call me Fi. I have been a foster aunt to Lil’ man for a little over 2 months now and a friend to Shan for about 3 years.  By far, both have been a most rewarding experience. I say this because I have had a front row seat to watching Shan and bub fall in love with each other. I remember when Shan first solidified her plans to go through with the foster parent training. She often told me about her classes and what she was learning and what she expected out of the experience. As most things go, the training still didn’t prepare her for what she was about to go through. I knew that I was going to be there for her, but I have the advantage of leaving, clocking out and saying bye-bye .  Shan does not. ...