A Long-Overdue Update
Hey there!
I realized a while ago that I haven't written a post since before New Year's, but I didn't do anything about it because I didn't have time. No one ever told me how busy having a two year old is. Just kidding. Kind of.
Yes, we have a two year old, and this is how it happened.
Foreshadowing: Shortly after midnight on New Year's we left our friend's house because we are old and ten o'clock is too late to be out, let alone past 10:30. As we were driving home Kyle said to me "Babe, I think 2015 is going to be 'The Year of the Baby'. What do you think?" It sounded nice, but I wasn't quite sure. We had only just finished our foster paperwork and hadn't even met our case manager yet. I probably said something like "well, we'll see".
At about 11:00 in the morning New Year's Day Kyle and I went to the mall to exchange some Christmas presents. As I backed out of the driveway Kyle read an email that would change our lives. It said something like: Hi Jacksons, I am your case manager. We have a two year old African American male who needs immediate placement. Would y'all like to take him?
Um…what? Is this how it works? An email? Good thing we have our emails on our phone and Kyle happened to check it when he did...
Kyle emailed her back and asked if we could speak over the phone. We did, and by the time we got to the mall we had a huge decision to make. They didn't have much more information than was in that email, and we were shocked. We weren't planning on getting a placement so soon, and weren't ready. We had just painted the room, and had nothing in it except a ladder and drop cloth. We didn't have any toys or clothes, and Kyle didn't even know what a two year old eats. As we were walking into the mall we prayed for God to give us peace about the decision. We called our case manager back and told her we were in.
Our next step was to send a message to The Best Small Group Ever. Not only is that the name of the group message on Facebook, it is the only way to accurately describe our small group. We immediately had our friends at our house. They helped prepare the room, set up furniture, brought food, vacuumed the floors, and brought clothes.
At about 4:00 we had a knock at our door. It was a CPS worker and the most precious little boy in the whole world. While we signed papers and heard a little bit of his story at the dining room table, he sat in my lap, cuddled me, and ate clementines. *As I just typed that last sentence he climbed in my lap and insisted "Momma hold you"*
The CPS worker was here for about 20 minutes and then left. Then it was just us. The Jacksons with a two year old. What do we do? Uh…hey? Want to play?
That evening and in the following days we had so many people bring by clothes and toys that I couldn't even begin to keep track of it. They would say something like "these are from us, and these are from a friend of ours. You don't know them, but they heard your story and wanted to help." I haven't thought about that first day in a while, and now that I am thinking about it, I am overwhelmed with emotion when I realize how loved we are.
These past 5 and a half months have been a huge learning curve. We have obviously never been parents, and had to figure it all out as we went. We tried our best, made a ton of mistakes, but fell in love with the most precious little boy in the world.
We love him so incredibly much and long for him to be a permanent member of our family.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that will be the case. The goal of CPS is always family reunification if at all possible. They have found a couple of options for him to go to, but no final decisions have been made yet. His next court date isn't for a couple more months, so all we can do is fall even more in love with him.
Kyle and I joke that, in the 5 months we have had him, we have given him more kisses than he has had in his whole life. He is the cuddliest, sweetest, funniest, most precious little boy. We cherish every moment we get with him, and pray that we can have years more. I wish we could post pictures of his face, but for his safety, we can't. If you've ever met him, you understand the preciousness that he is. If you haven't had the pleasure yet, you'll just have to enjoy these pictures of the back of his head.
Will you pray with us? Pray that what is best for him will happen- no matter where that is or how hard it is. Pray we can be the best parents we can while we have him. Pray the courts will have favor on us in all situations. Most importantly, pray he can know the unconditional love of Jesus who will never leave him.
Thanks team.
I realized a while ago that I haven't written a post since before New Year's, but I didn't do anything about it because I didn't have time. No one ever told me how busy having a two year old is. Just kidding. Kind of.
Yes, we have a two year old, and this is how it happened.
Foreshadowing: Shortly after midnight on New Year's we left our friend's house because we are old and ten o'clock is too late to be out, let alone past 10:30. As we were driving home Kyle said to me "Babe, I think 2015 is going to be 'The Year of the Baby'. What do you think?" It sounded nice, but I wasn't quite sure. We had only just finished our foster paperwork and hadn't even met our case manager yet. I probably said something like "well, we'll see".
At about 11:00 in the morning New Year's Day Kyle and I went to the mall to exchange some Christmas presents. As I backed out of the driveway Kyle read an email that would change our lives. It said something like: Hi Jacksons, I am your case manager. We have a two year old African American male who needs immediate placement. Would y'all like to take him?
Um…what? Is this how it works? An email? Good thing we have our emails on our phone and Kyle happened to check it when he did...
Kyle emailed her back and asked if we could speak over the phone. We did, and by the time we got to the mall we had a huge decision to make. They didn't have much more information than was in that email, and we were shocked. We weren't planning on getting a placement so soon, and weren't ready. We had just painted the room, and had nothing in it except a ladder and drop cloth. We didn't have any toys or clothes, and Kyle didn't even know what a two year old eats. As we were walking into the mall we prayed for God to give us peace about the decision. We called our case manager back and told her we were in.
Our next step was to send a message to The Best Small Group Ever. Not only is that the name of the group message on Facebook, it is the only way to accurately describe our small group. We immediately had our friends at our house. They helped prepare the room, set up furniture, brought food, vacuumed the floors, and brought clothes.
At about 4:00 we had a knock at our door. It was a CPS worker and the most precious little boy in the whole world. While we signed papers and heard a little bit of his story at the dining room table, he sat in my lap, cuddled me, and ate clementines. *As I just typed that last sentence he climbed in my lap and insisted "Momma hold you"*
The CPS worker was here for about 20 minutes and then left. Then it was just us. The Jacksons with a two year old. What do we do? Uh…hey? Want to play?
That evening and in the following days we had so many people bring by clothes and toys that I couldn't even begin to keep track of it. They would say something like "these are from us, and these are from a friend of ours. You don't know them, but they heard your story and wanted to help." I haven't thought about that first day in a while, and now that I am thinking about it, I am overwhelmed with emotion when I realize how loved we are.
These past 5 and a half months have been a huge learning curve. We have obviously never been parents, and had to figure it all out as we went. We tried our best, made a ton of mistakes, but fell in love with the most precious little boy in the world.
We love him so incredibly much and long for him to be a permanent member of our family.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that will be the case. The goal of CPS is always family reunification if at all possible. They have found a couple of options for him to go to, but no final decisions have been made yet. His next court date isn't for a couple more months, so all we can do is fall even more in love with him.
Kyle and I joke that, in the 5 months we have had him, we have given him more kisses than he has had in his whole life. He is the cuddliest, sweetest, funniest, most precious little boy. We cherish every moment we get with him, and pray that we can have years more. I wish we could post pictures of his face, but for his safety, we can't. If you've ever met him, you understand the preciousness that he is. If you haven't had the pleasure yet, you'll just have to enjoy these pictures of the back of his head.
Will you pray with us? Pray that what is best for him will happen- no matter where that is or how hard it is. Pray we can be the best parents we can while we have him. Pray the courts will have favor on us in all situations. Most importantly, pray he can know the unconditional love of Jesus who will never leave him.
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