NOW WHAT?

With our first placements happily home with their mom, we couldnt be happier ourselves. It's the strangest thing... neither of us (Josh nor I) have cried or been in a depressed state since they left. I believe my joy is complete. We could not have asked for a better outcome - the reunification was beautiful and the mother's joy was absolutely contagious. I've known the mom since she started having separate visits with the kids. We were already on a first-name basis and we shared stories, brief greetings, and she was sweet to offer us any of the kids clothes that they had outgrown. Josh and I liked her. It wasnt hard at all to see how much she loved the kids and was willing to do to get them back. She was a super mom... determined and purposed to get her act together and welcome her children back into her life/home. Big Brother never once showed signs of anxiety or disappointment in visiting his mom... it was always 100% excitement. He was pretty much 100% about EVERYTHING :-)

I have told our family and close friends, "I'm just so busy being happy for the mom, I can't seem to get sad for myself".

Josh's timely hospitalization has helped (oddly enough). The kids went home Friday, Aug 15th... and Josh went into the hospital (in Austin) on Monday, Aug 18th. Not much time to get depressed over an empty and quiet house... especially if you're not there. I've been with Josh at the hospital every day since and God really has a way "working all things" to His plan and our good. Being here has allowed me to focus on JOSH (for once) without having the distraction of two little ones dependent on me. I went from being busy and preoccupied with the kids and the house, to being busy and preoccupied (with lots of down time too) in the hospital with Josh. God isn't giving me any time to sulk, feel sorry for myself, or pout. :-)

So... NOW WHAT?

Well, our "plan" (haha...as if ANYTHING EVER goes according to plan) is to be in the hospital for about 10-14 days (that's normal time for Josh), get released, go to the FORGE Conference and have a blast (http://www.forgeministries.org/), and then be ready (and THRILLED) to receive placement calls again by Sept 8th!

Hope our plan works! (But the Lord's will be done, not ours)

Until then, I'm reading up on some more parenting books - as suggested by my new friend and favorite blog http://www.5kids6months.blogspot.com/  

 LOVING this book! Keep highlighting and reading parts aloud to Josh

I'm re-reading the top book, but all the others are new to me.