Say Cheese!

DAY 4

So much to be thankful for today!  One year ago today, we accepted the current foster placement of 2 kids that are still in our house - Curly Sue and Dewey.  A month or so before that we had made plans w/one of Dave's co-workers.  She does all kinds of photography!  We were really excited to be getting a professional picture taken of our family...but then that weekend we got the kids and we went from one box of mac and cheese to two, a half-full van to an all-full van, one cart of WIC stuff to three, maybe one load of laundry a week to I-should-really-be-doing-three loads a week.  Needless to say, our family was happy but a little crazy that weekend!  So of course we canceled the photo shoot b/c how could we ask the co-worker to suddenly wrangle all of us in our new state of chaos?  I must tell you that I was pretty sad.  I know the costs of foster care (I don't mean financial) but I guess it had never crossed my mind that family pics would go by the wayside.  In the foster care circles we joke...You know you're a foster family if every year there are different kids in your family picture!  It's easy to laugh about it and we enjoy having them each year, but the fact that there was going to be no family photo was like getting hit w/the Grinch stick, you hear what I'm saying?  Anyway - (you're wondering where the thankful part comes in, right?  Hang in there...!) this past week, a former student of mine (the only person who is allowed to touch/cut/style my hair!) who also does photography sent me a message saying that she was doing a day of photo shoots on Saturday and would we like to come?  

*STOP RIGHT THERE*

Did you catch that?  Let me help you connect the dots a bit.  One year ago to the day, we took this foster placement and canceled a Saturday Nov. 4 family photo shoot.  Today, Nov. 4, TODAY!, we were able to get all sorts of family pictures taken!  God bless that girl, I don't think she even gets how huge this is!  God used her to bless us in a really big way...I personally think it is NO COINCIDENCE that this all went down one year TO THE EXACT DAY.

So I am so very filled w/thanks today!  Thankful for the bond Ms. Chang and I forged as a teacher and student.  I have no idea why, but from the day I met her, she was more like a friend than a student.  I mean, let's face it, I wasn't that much older than my high schoolers anyway.  But I watched that girl sing, dance, cheer, grow and mature, find her life-mate, cut my hair and just go through life.  She shared things w/me and I shared w/her.  Today I am thankful for her friendship and also thankful she is willing to serve my family in this way.  I am thankful for the timing.  I am thankful for these kids - all 4 of them - and their smiling faces!  I am thankful for my friend's fiancee, who is super supportive and involved.  He was so great w/the kids and he was right!  The squeaky bathtub duck is the best trick!  I am thankful I will have some no doubt gorgeous pictures of my family to hang on the wall, to share w/family and friends and also some pictures of the foster kids to share w/their birth family...I once heard the saying that doing something kind is like throwing a pebble in a pond.  The ripples that of happiness and further kindness spread out farther than we could imagine!  That's a perfect example for this situation...