Updates

Congratulate me, I've hardly yelled in the past week. :)
The nightly clean-up ritual is an absolute God-send (literally, I think). It's amazing what a difference it makes in my crazy life.

And now for the most important update... and the reason I haven't posted in, oh, a week or so... AND the reason I'm up this late tonight. I'm waiting for the baby to wake up to eat. Yep, that's right, the baby. We now have 2 foster sons. And 3 daughters, wait, that makes FIVE KIDS. Yeah. We have filled our mini van to capacity. I need to be careful about what I post on the internet, but I will say that last week we picked up a newborn baby boy from the hospital (let's call him BB for Baby Boy). He is precious. And he needs to eat every 3 hours, round the clock. So I'm a little tired. The nice thing about bottle-feeding is that the feeding can be shared. Derrick and I take turns with the night feedings. When Aunties and Grandmas and friends come to visit, they can have a turn. The girls even like to take turns feeding him. And, it's a LOT easier taking care of a newborn when I'm not recovering from child birth. I don't feel the need to "rest" all day long. I have energy and ability to stay (somewhat) on top of things. I love it.

The first day or so I kept thinking "am I crazy? I'm crazy." But, I'm telling you, I feel so much peace. I mean, every day is pretty chaotic. Lots of driving around, and everything else that goes with taking care of 5 kids (4 under 4). But somehow, amidst the chaos, I feel at peace. I feel very fulfilled. This is something I've been waiting for for a long time. And having already had 2 babies of my own, I feel pretty confident in my baby-caring skills. I even have a few tricks up my sleeve for making things a little easier.

So, you may think I'm crazy. But I don't care. I don't feel crazy. I feel happy. And a bit tired. But I got a 2 hour nap today! What are the odds? I don't know, but it was a gift, that's for sure.

So, sometime in the next few days or weeks, I'm going to try to get some pictures posted. Sage was a flower girl in our friend Kelly's wedding a couple weeks ago, so I have some great pictures from that. And then some other things, like the 5 kids. I may even get some up tonight, if BB doesn't wake up soon.