The Reality...A Few of Our Funny "Post Adoption" Stories

The Reality... is a series of posts that give expression to what life is like

 going from being a family of four with two small children,

 to instantly becoming a family of seven 

when we adopted our three oldest children.

We are just FOUR days from celebrating our one year mark of being a family of seven! It has been a FULL year for SURE and thinking back to those first days and weeks makes me laugh. In this "The Reality..." post, I thought that I would share the joy and laughter with you! A look at  what leaping ahead in parenting can do to a person when you are lacking any sense of knowledge in certain areas. So without further ado here are a few things that you quickly learn when you jump from having only parented a one and three year old to instantly having a 1, 3, 3, 6 & 7 year old!

Social Workers WILL CALL, IF YOU DON'T! ~ When our older three first moved in with us we were living about 15 minutes from their school which was outside of the bus route. In a morning frenzy where things were anything but normal yet and we were trying to figure out how to get kids ready and off to school (with no prior experience at this ourselves) the kids were tardy a few mornings. On a different occasion our oldest came down with a fever and so I did what I thought any responsible parent would do...I kept her home. Fast forward about a month later and I received a phone call from the school social worker. Wait, I am a foster parent, why is a school social worker calling me?!? Apparently they were calling because of the tardies and the fact that I hadn't called the school hotline to let them know when our daughter had been absent. I clearly remember thinking, "WHAT, no one told me that I was suppose to call the school hotline if my child was sick? I thought letting the teacher know was enough?" Chalk it up to having never sent a child to kindergarten and going directly ahead to second grade. I apologetically explained our current situation and how we were sorry about the tardies and would do our best to get the kids to school on time. I now also have the school number on speed dial and call ASAP whenever the kids are absent...for ANY and all reasons! Why? Because the school social worker called me.

Wait... size 1 comes after size 13? ~ In early January we told the kids that Sam and I would be adopting them but they were still living with Joel & Beth for a few weeks until they would officially be moving in with us on the 21st. Our oldest son was invited to a birthday party and Beth had given the child's mom my email. The mom emailed me asking what size shoe our son was because it was a bowling party. I did what any mom would do...I asked Beth. I had no clue what size shoe "my" child wore (such a weird thought not having any clue what size shoe your child wears...the reality of adopting and learning along the way). Beth said, "his current shoe size is 13.5 so probably just get him a size 1 since they don't have half sizes." Call me crazy, but I was confused! Wait...1 comes after 13??? Another thing that you learn when you suddenly jump ahead in parenting...apparently kids shoe sizes start all over after 13. I've also recently learned another thing in the shoe department topic. Those brand new shoes that you bought for your son for school, back in September...well, they now look like this four months later. Oh yeaaaaahh! And that is after already super gluing them back together once already. They now have been replaced and sit at the bottom of the kitchen garbage can.

How do parents do that?!? ~ I don't remember when it happened but it happened shortly after the kids moved in with us...at some point soon after the transition our oldest son lost a tooth. I had no time to brainstorm and decide what our plan was concerning the tooth fairy, it was after all just minutes from bedtime (and just a few months prior we had only dealt with teeth coming in, not coming out!)  "I guess you'll just have to put your tooth under your pillow", I told him. I remember thinking...I can't let him down. Ok, how much are we going to give him? Ok, I think he is sleeping now. Ok, I'm going in. Ok, HOW IN THE WORLD DO I GET MY HAND UNDER HIS PILLOW AND FIND THE TOOTH without waking him up? Failed, I have failed! So the next day when he asked why the tooth fairy hadn't come I did what any parent would do...I told him that the tooth fairy had forgotten. His reply, "Maybe the tooth fairy didn't know that I moved out of Joel and Beth's house, because before when I lived there the tooth fairy came." :-) Oh yeaaaahh, you are probably right! I bet she will remember to come tonight...just make sure you leave your tooth on the dresser so that the tooth fairy doesn't miss it! :-)

I'm tellin ya, I wouldn't know what boring was if I tried. At least we are able to look back and laugh at the things that we've learned along the way!