We Babysat Tali Today

Wow. It feels weird to say that (to say the word "babysat" in reference to a child who's been ours). But we did. We had her from 11 this morning till 6 tonight while birth mom had a job interview and a dr.'s appt. It was a blessing and so much fun to get some time with her... though I could tell she was having a hard time. She was pretty emotional, lacked the ability to cope emotionally with things that normally wouldn't have phased her much. :( Poor baby bug. That was hard for me to deal with. She was so sweet to us (between meltdowns), cuddling and telling us she loved us (I yuh you!), giving us kisses...Ugh. My heart.... I gave her a nap while she was here and that helped a decent amount with the melty-downy-ness.

We're trying to figure out how to work with her on learning to call us something besides "mommy" and "da-da." That is trippy...feels so strange. And we didn't quite get it figured out today...so she called us mommy and da-da... and half the time we called ourselves and each other mommy and da-da to her, and the other half the time we tried "Aunt Dana" and "Uncle Stan," which just feels WRONG but it HAS to be that way. Argh.... hate this. But yeah, so we tried to switch back and forth between the two, tried introduce those terms to her, just to start familiarizing her with them, trying to help her understand.... So weird.

Anyway, she did well when we dropped her back off with her birth mom, so that was good.... and honestly, I think Stan and I both handled it okay also. It's gonna take some MAJOR getting used to for Tali and for Stan and I - this adjustment of roles, only having her for short periods of time occasionally and then having to send her home, etc. And as a friend of mine mentioned to me today, there's no manual that's been written on "how to remain a part of a child's life after foster care" or anything like that.... So we will have to figure this stuff out, a little bit at a time, and trust God to protect Tali's heart in the process.

Specific prayer request: Tali's mom got a job today in a call center of some sort. She has requested a day shift but may end up stuck with a night shift....every night (my understanding). This would be really terrible for Tali for several reasons.... She'd be in someone else's care EVERY night, would almost never be at home in her own bed.... and her mother would be tired during the day and have little or no opportunity to sleep, which would not exactly aid her in doing a good job parenting Tali. All of that was to say.... PLEASE pray that they will give her a day shift on this job, or that Tali's mom will use wisdom and continue to look for another job as opposed to taking one where she'd be working every night.

In other news.... I am still very pregnant.... Due date is this coming Monday, LABOR Day. Would really like to go into labor BETWEEN now and then since it's the weekend and Stan will have Monday off work anyway.... it'd just be really good timing for us if Isaac would come SOONER than later. :) Praying for God's perfect timing and trying not to be too impatient....

Thanks to all of you for reading and praying for our Tali-Bug. We love y'all.