Monday, November 12, 2007

Love Fest

I was reading another blogger's comments and saw something that hit home for me. They were commenting that a foster blogger had not said one nice thing about a particular child in their care. They only focused on the negative about the child the county they work with. To me, any foster parent saying or complaining about the system or a child's behavior is venting. This life is tough, we need to vent. It had not occurred to me that they may not have any nice things to say. Just to be sure you all see the good side of my family I wanted to be sure to say a few things in their favor.

Cyr is smart and very helpful. She is a good student and needs little help motivating herself. She is open to bettering herself. She wants to be liked and feel normal. She is pretty and doesn't know it. She is always helping without being asked. She is quick with a shower and to clean up her room. She loves to journal. She will accept hugs from me when we watch scary movies. The girl loves to sing and dance around the room.

Patches is gorgeous and has no idea why the little boys in her class want to be her boyfriend. She is truthful to a fault, LOL. She loves school and learning things. She is very funny and is proud to be the laziest child in the world. She would much rather watch you do her chore and take the consequence than actually do the chore herself. Now while that doesn't sound like a compliment, in her eyes it is. She does this with a smile. She is very loving as long as you come to her (that laziness again). She is a big time tom boy and loves to be knee deep in dirt and bugs.

Ruthie has struggled so hard in school until coming to us and is terribly proud to have started reading this year. She is always smiling and goofy. She will do anything you ask of her. She is more than willing to clean the house to be near me. She is convinced she is funny and that makes her funny. She is a very dainty, attractive girl. She could spend her day talking about nothing with me.

Michael is the tiniest 7 yr old boy, he is extremely charming, not to mention too cute to be real. He is funny and quick witted. He likes to play tricks on me. He loves to sneak up and spank me on the rump and run away before I can catch him. While this is not particular fun for me, he lives to "get" me. He can be the biggest defender of his sisters and takes his role as a gentleman very serious. He will actually yell at anyone that tries to hold the door for the rest of us, not very gentlemanly but the thought is what counts here.

Emma is as beautiful as her Mother is and has every feature in miniature. She will be quite the beauty as she continues to mature. She is smart and helpful. She is flexible on everything but a rule. She does tend to be a bit OCD about the weather but if that is her only negative she will be easy to raise. She is a social butterfly and loves to take care of people. She is the best sister and adores her siblings regardless of their issues. She was built to help her new siblings adjust to a real family. Her insight has been mature beyond her years. I have no doubt she will grow up and adopt a large family or help in foster care in some way, she is called to it.

Ella is beautiful and resembles Patches a great deal. She can talk herself out of any chore. She knows how to bat an eye at her Dad and get what she wants. She is the cutest just as she falls asleep and cries when I move her from the living room floor to her bed claiming she is not sleeping. She is a trickster with a future in S&M. The child begs to be beat, this is a fun game and the harder the better. She will hobble (due to her CP) away as fast as she can screaming I can't catch her. She makes up jokes and thinks she is a magician when she throws the penny over her shoulder and asks me where it went.

Ava has come so far. She is the smartest kid and loves to learn. She is shy and playful. She is content with just hanging out with me. She likes to clean and if you give her a rag she will go at it for hours. She loves to socialize and wants to befriend anyone that will slow down. She is kind and gentle. She is the youngest now but longs to be an older sister, I will have to keep a close eye on her with a little one b/c her desire to help may backfire. She is strong willed and stubborn when she wants to be.

I am the luckiest woman alive. I will never get such cool kids again. They have come so far and are dedicated to going all the way. Their minor setbacks are just that. They are going to be amazing adults. I love every one of them more each day. I look forward to them waking me up before dawn every morning for the rest of their childhood. I even look forward to the many interruptions in the middle of the night when they are caught sneaking out.

Thursday they are mine forever to vent about or to brag about. They are adored and I will spend the rest of my days making sure they know it.

4 comments:

Crayon said...

I've been lurking the last few days, trying to take all of your blog in and learn the back story. Wow, you've been pretty busy with these kids! I don't know how you manage it. I can't even keep all the names straight. I’m in the process of becoming a foster parent [well, hopefully. I still have the inspections and homestudies to do. I just finished the 27-hrs of training].

Anyway, nice post about all the children's good qualities!

Anonymous said...

Your love for them and your amazing strength shines through no matter what you are writing about - the challenges, the joy, the pain - even when you are "venting" it is really clear how much you love each one of them, and how lucky you feel.

Just wanted to let you know that I have never felt that you were "too negative" - on the contrary, sometimes I am in awe of your optimism!

Kerry said...

That was really nice.

We went through a rough patch and decided that at the dinner table everyone would need to say something nice about the person next to them. When my husband and I realized that there was a particular child that even we were having trouble finding something nice to say, we started a list. When you change your focus, your focus changes and you start to see more positives.

Mongoose said...

It's always been very obvious how much you love these kids. It's also clear that you are doing the right thing by them - they all seem to be progressing tremendously with you, even since I started reading your blog which wasn't that long ago. You rock. :)