When the sun sets in the evening.

After tons of paperwork, background checks of every kind, major communication with DHS, home visits (we had to baby proof our entire house), and prayer... we finally got approved to be a provisional foster home for Lexi. That Wednesday, they called to tell me that they were bringing her to our house. I was in my office at work, started jumping up and down, and laughing and crying at the same time. I was so happy she was coming "home". But I had no idea what I was in for. Nate and I aren't parents, we have no children of our own. Just us and Gus Dog. So many people were in and out of my house that day that I don't even remember who came over and who didn't. Lexi had no routine, she wasn't in daycare, she had one outfit and one pair of shoes with her. I don't think I got any sleep that night.Or the following month. She was up all night screaming and crying for her Mom and Dad. And Nate and I could do nothing to console her. And how do you explain to a 2 year old that mommy's bye bye? The next morning, we went to daycare. I was so nervous to leave her there. What if something happens, what if she doesn't make friends, are they going to feed her enough, etc. The kid barely spoke. But we picked her up after work, came home and really began our new lives as a family of four (I count the dog). I feel like this has been so long ago, but only yesterday at the same time. I don't remember what we had for dinner, but she probably didn't like it. I was told she liked mac n cheese, corn dogs, and blueberries. Turned out, not really. She likes chicken, bananas, yogurt, toast, tacos, red beans and rice, tomato soup... not just... crap. So in March, we learned what it was like to be parents. It is tough. I remember calling my friend Amanda asking her if I could Lexi children's tylenol, calling Cendy at work because Lexi is apparently allergic to cinnamon, calling Kayla to come over because I don't think this is just diaper rash. Our support system is out of this world y'all. April came around and a friend at church was like "hey, is she going to dye eggs?". Well, Lex and I went to Tiffiny's and learned how to dye eggs. She became a huge part of our church, and then in June, Melissa threw her a "welcome" party where she got a lot of clothes, toys, and stuff she needed that we hadn't gotten to. After all, we were basically winging it day by day. Oh, we need a thermometer, and a bath plug... text my brother Kyle and he picked them up at WalMart for us. My parents were taking her every weekend in March since they were before when my sister wasn't in jail. We didn't want to change the little routine that she did know. Then she only went every other weekend, and then we kinda pushed it to every third, and now it's more of a they get to be normal grandparents and take their granddaughter when they miss her, wanna do something fun, and not HAVE to take her every weekend to make sure she is okay. We had to find babysitters for youth group (thanks again to the worlds best brother), had to figure out who was going to be our "FFSS" which is Foster Family Support System. You can have three families, and we have my parents, my grandparents... and no third. In June, Lexi turned 3. She had her friends at the park- her friends have become all of my friends kids, our family, and friends she has made at church. She loves church so much, it makes me so happy. Actually, we pulled in one Sunday recently and she goes "Me Happy!" because she loves it so much. We started making her go to bed at 8:30pm every night when she first came to live with us, and taking a nap every day from 12-2 (same as daycare). We read a lot of books, we researched potty training, we became consumed with how to help her grow (physically and mentally), we basically lived and breathed Lexi and nothing but Lexi. One Sunday we skipped a nap, moved bedtime to 8pm, it happened again on another Sunday, and now we are in bed at 7:30pm. And when we wake her up in the morning, usually around 650am, she is still tired. She prays every night before dinner, and we all sit at the table together and enjoy dinner as a family. We had to go to the doctor a lot, she was pretty consistently sick. Felt like every week, we either had a stomach bug, or strep, or a really bad cough, or another stomach bug. It was awful. But now she takes a paw patrol vitamin every day and has gotten much better. She used to wheeze really bad, that has basically disappeared. All in between this we are also attending court dates, meetings at daycare, state required doctors appointments, having her case worker stop by, her CASA worker stop by, keeping in touch with her attorney ad litem, getting her started in speech therapy, making sure we were CPR certified, attending therapy sessions, buying the right fire extinguisher because the first one was wrong, getting locks for medication, moving up our laundry detergent, and we had six months to do this all in. We officially "opened" 08/31/2017, I turned 30 the next day. But in July, my heart got broken, very bad, very deep. And I haven't recovered from that yet, every day is a new day, but the sun sets in the evening and I get up the next morning for the 3 year old all over again.