Move In Day

June 13^th was a day that was unlike any other.  In many ways, I felt like a kid at Christmas.  I was unable to sleep the night before.  I am typically not a morning person, but I was up early finishing last minute tidying up around the house.  Looking back, I think it is hilarious how much I cleaned for two kids to move in.  In the words of my son, “A boy’s room is supposed to be messy…that’s just the way life works”. 

Any way, back to our story.  I drove out to pick up the kids from their foster parents one last time.  This was their fifth move in their short lives, so this part was unfortunately familiar to them.  Their foster dad had their stuff loaded in our vehicle in a matter of minutes.  All of their belongings fit into about 4 garbage bags, which is actually much more than most foster kids have. 

I picked them up alone so that my husband and father-in-law could assemble a basketball goal for my son to play with.  As I made the 20 minute drive, reality began to set in for me, but I couldn’t help but wonder what was going through the kids’ minds.  As I mentioned before, moving was familiar territory, but a forever home was something they had never experienced before. 

We began unloading, sorting belongings out and decorating their rooms.  There was tremendous excitement.  All of a sudden, Z began to tear up as she realized how much she missed her foster parents.  It started to sink in.  This was forever.  As exciting as it was, everything was new.  New house rules.  New Parents.  New friends.  New EVERYTHING. 

Reality was setting in for me, too.  I began to see how bittersweet this really was for these beautiful children.  Sure, it was great that they were now in their forever home after years of “being in the system”, but they were with strangers.  It’s memories like this that flood over me every time a well-intentioned friend tells me how “lucky” these kids are to be with us.  “Lucky” would probably be the last word that they would choose to describe this new living situation.

Even with all of these mixed emotions, it was still a pretty amazing day. Our house was a little less quiet and a little bit messier.  Our schedules were fuller and our budget was tighter.  But, our lives were incredibly blessed.