Life does not always give you what you expect, but we have come to trust that we are always where we are meant to be and with faith, hope, and love we can conquer anything. Most importantly, it really is all about the journey...
Before Vince and I were even married or thinking seriously about starting a family, we agreed that ideally - if God saw to it to give us children - we wanted to grow our family through both biological children and adoption. This seemed natural and right.
Fast forward 10+ years of marriage and two amazing little boys later... Last year we started the process of becoming foster parents in hopes of being able to adopt through the foster program. And this past June on a Friday afternoon we became certified by our county to be foster parents. The following Monday morning we received a call asking us if we could take in 2 brothers - ages 3 and 5. It was that quick. And it was more than we felt ready to handle. We still had bedrooms to rearrange and impending house guests and mentally were not ready to commit - though it broke our hearts to think that there were two little boys sleeping in strange beds that night.
We turned down a number of potential babies and children over the next few weeks until we received another Monday morning call. A baby boy had been born at Crouse the previous Thursday and his mother, who had lost three children previously to foster care and eventual adoption, would not be taking him home. That was the extent of what we knew. When you are trained to be a foster parent you are told over and over and over that the ultimate goal of the foster care system is to return the children to their family. When that is not possible, obviously other options - adoption - are explored. We knew this.. Yet it was hard to go to the hospital, pick up this new tiny little baby and not start envisioning how easily he could be a part of our family forever. We fell in love. But in time we also learned more about his family and knew we had to root for them. It quickly became evident that this baby would not be ours to keep.
For one month exactly we were a family of five. We brought Baby Michael this morning to his discharge appointment at the county health clinic and he is now in the care of his paternal grandparents who are allowing his mother to stay with him at their house until she and Michael's father can take full custody. We do not know if this is the end of Michael's story because if we have learned one thing from all this it is that you never really know what is going to happen. And while this morning was very emotional for me, I am happy that things have turned out as they have. We know without a doubt that this is what is best for everyone: us, his family, and most importantly, Michael. We truly believe that everything happens for a reason. Those reasons may not always be clear, but for now we plan to sit back and see where our journey takes us from here.
1. When I woke up in the hotel room with my girls (the hotel our reception was to be held at later that day) and we could hear the sound of construction trucks paving the parking lot that would be filled with my guests cars in just a few short hours. There may have been more than a moment of panic and me rushing down the hall in my pajamas to question what was going on.
2. We were married in Saint Patrick's Church on Tipperary Hill in Syracuse. The same beautiful old church I was baptized in, made my First Holy Communion, First Reconciliation, and was confirmed in - in addition to having grown up just blocks away and attended elementary school across the street.
3. It was HOT. As in so stifling that even if we were dressed in typical summer garb we would have been uncomfortably warm. In formal wear in an unairconditioned church it was nearly unbearable. Needless to say, the multiple levels of tulle of my dress did not let heat escape and even after being in the air conditioning for hours I was still sweltering and at one point had my bridesmaid and good friend, Melissa, was on the floor holding glasses of ice on the backs of my legs and the bartender came over and put a cold cloth of my neck.
4. We had a BIG wedding party: 16 attendants, 5 flower girls, and a ring bearer.
5. We had pictures taken at the Thornden Park Rose Garden - and there were still roses blooming in August.
6. It rained shortly after we reached the reception - just enough to say it was good luck for us!
7. Our first dance was to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World.
8. Vince shocked many unsuspecting guests with his epic dancing to Michael Jackson's The Way You Make Me Feel.
9. Our best man - and more than one groomsmen - were not of legal drinking age. And of course they drank only water all night. :-)
10. There was a cake smashing incident. It may have started with Vince smearing a little frosting on my face, but it definitely ended with him having cake up his nose.
11. Checking out of the hotel the next morning and the woman at the counter exclaimed, "That was your wedding last night? You guys had a PARTY!"
We spent Ben's 2nd birthday celebrating with family and friends in our back yard with a Thomas the Train themed party. It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend his special day.
Vince turned our wagon into Percy and pulled the boys around the yard.
I don't know who was more excited - Ben or Vince... :-)
Cheez Doodle face!!
Serious conversations over hotdogs...
Leila enjoying the shade...
Big brother is great at helping with presents, of course!
I THINK he managed to blow it out on his own...
Face planting into a cupcake all for the sake of keeping his hands clean!
While Grammy and Grandpa were in town visiting we made a little road trip to Rochester and spent one very hot day at Seabreeze Amusement Park. I think it is fair to say that a good time was had all around. :-)
We took the opportunity to use some of the abundant snow we've had during one recent storm to make snow-cream. Evidently its a big deal in other parts of the country where snow is more of a rarity, but we enjoyed it just the same. :-)
We started with some nice clean snow...
And then added the cream and vanilla and stirred and stirred...
