Lucy

 

oh the babies we love

It is a unique experience—falling in love with a child. Especially when you know that child will never be yours, and it will leave you at any moment. Seeing Dave cuddle is little girl this morning, seeing his face as he takes in her days old hands and feet, her curly hair, her perfect heart-shaped face, and knowing that he will never see her again, it’s like nothing I’ve experienced before. She is going back into the system because her family is still involved, though whether she’ll ever see them again, and whether that’s the best thing for her….it’s out of Door of Hope’s, and our, hands.

You think you would get tired of being around babies all day, that you couldn’t possibly want to go up and see them on your day off—but you do. I mean, being with 12 babies for 11 hrs a day is exhausting, and i do get TIRED, oh so very tired, but I still want to wake back up and see them the next day (though not quite so early if it’s my day off).

My daily grind when working goes a little something like this:
1) 7:00 am--get the bathroom ready for all the bathing (towels in place for everyone, enough wash clothes, lotion/oil for skin/hair ready, make sure there are wipes)
2) pick out clothes (I admit, I really like this part, and I take longer than most cause I want to pick out the cutest outfit for them to wear that day—most Aunties don’t even care if the babies are wearing matching, much less the right sex, outfits)
3) start bathing the one who’s crying (though leave them if it’s one of the crawlers as they’ll just crawl over all the small babies while we’re bathing the others)
4) once bathing is over (usually takes a little over an hour to bath & clothes 12 babies),
start the feeding process, again with the ones who are crying or youngest, we don’t feed the oldest till last as it is more likely they’ll take a morning nap that way
5) after the feeding process is over, usually takes about an hour and a half or so, play with the babies until 10:00 am, then send them off to bed for nap time (anywhere between 10 – 12)
6) repeat feeding process adding baby food for lunch and dinner with the older 7.
7) play, sing, read, dance, sometimes swim (with the oldest), and generally intereact with babies until 4:00. As well as constantly changing poopy & wet diapers, wiping up massive puddles of spit-up, and trying to keep the bigger ones from hurting the smaller ones.
8)4-5:30 repeat feeding process.
9) 6:00—end of work day. try and muster the courage to do something for dinner other than cereal or McDonalds.

I can’t wait to see his little face. He may be here today or tomorrow, but my Ilias (I’m pretty sure that’s what I’m gonna call him), I already love him. From the moment I knew I was getting to name a baby, an honor I never thought would be bestowed on here, being here such a short time, I was excited for his arrival. I may not get to see him too often as he might be at the other house, but I will go there as much as possible to see that little face. I cannot imagine that I will feel any differently about my own children. I’ve been told it is greater, the intensity, but if you could see how Beth and Stephanie (the baby care manager here) act towards these children, you wouldn’t say that. These ARE their children, and they love them so much the more because they know they will have to let them go, for better or for worse, in the near future. They are only ours but for a short while, so we love them, with all our hearts, while we can.

Shark diving day

 

For Landon--thought you would enjoy this

This is how our shark diving boat go into/out of the water :) Nothing runs like a deer eh?