The first...

Every foster parent waits impatiently for the phone call to get their very first placement.

Daddy putting on her corsage for her first Daddy/Daughter dance.

We completed all required steps and were ready to be foster parents in September of 2016. I was cleaning up my classroom preparing for the next school day when my phone rang. It was my case worker from Children's Hope, and immediately my heart started beating out of my chest. This was our fourth phone call for a placement, but none of the others had worked out. Jessica, our caseworker, explained to me that there was a little two year old girl who needed a home. She told me her name, age, and the reason she was getting removed. I said, "Yes, bring her to us!" Then a picture came through on my phone. Standing there in a sad little playroom, at the CPS office, was a blonde headed little girl with a big bandage on her cheek. She was absolutely beautiful! She had such a broken little look in her eyes though. I fell in love just looking at her. I ran next door to my co-teacher's classroom to share the picture and news with her. Jessica then called me back. She explained to me that all the information that she had given me for the first little two year old girl wasn't the same girl in the picture I just received. While she had been submitting our home study to get the placement for the first little girl, one of the CPS workers she knows well had called her and was in urgent need of a home for the little girl in the picture, who was almost three years old. She explained to me that I had two choices. We could submit our home study for the first little girl and pray we would get picked for the placement, or she could call the CPS worker back that she had just spoken with and get the little girl in the picture. (Now, if placed in this situation I would just say bring them both! HAHA I didn't know any better then! My husband would tell you the same...I can't say no.) The little girl in the picture was a for sure placement, but the first little girl wasn't. To get a placement, your home study is submitted and the CPS workers usually place in the foster home that is closest to the case for convenience reasons. I didn't want to take a chance by submitting our home study and waiting, so I said yes to the little girl in the picture. She was going to be delivered to our house in about two hours. I quickly scheduled to have the following day off from school. I looked at her picture a million times before she arrived at our house. Brody and Eric were so excited to meet her as well. Jessica, from Children's Hope, came to our house to walk us through this first placement. I remember asking Jessica, "What do I say to her?" "How do I introduce myself?" Jessica just explained to welcome her, make her feel comfortable, and I didn't have to introduce myself with any particular name. After what seemed like hours, a black Tahoe pulled into our driveway. I walked nervously out to the passenger side of the car where the worker was unbuckling this sleeping little baby girl. She had just been released from Children's Hospital after being treated for a horrible pit bull bite to her precious face. She was a little clingy to the CPS transporter at first, but soon came to me. Oh...the feeling of holding this sweet girl in my arms. I took her to her new bedroom where she sat in my lap listening to me read her books. She was very quiet, but content sitting with me. After about 20 minutes of paperwork we were left with a small bag of brand new clothes that were all too big for her, her antibiotics from the hospital, and this sweet baby girl. Was she allergic to anything? Was she potty trained? Was she scared of the dark? All these things we didn't know. Soon she and Brody started playing with each other. They chased one another around the house, jumped on the bed, and rolled around the living room floor. Baby girl had horrible speech and was very hard to understand. This didn't mean she wasn't talking! She talked away and never got upset when we didn't understand her. She ran back to Brody's room while they were chasing each other around, and all of a sudden I heard her call out "Momma!" I looked at Eric with huge eyes and said, "Oh my gosh, she's calling me!" "Is she really calling for me?" My heart exploded! I had only known this baby just a few hours, and I was Momma! I ran to the back where she was laughing and playing. She just looked at me with the sweetest little grin. I think she just wanted to see if I would come when she called. From that night on I was "Momma" and Eric was "Dada." We showed her where she would sleep that night. She rubbed her bed and said, "My bed?" And crawled into bed with no hesitation at all. We tucked her in, kissed her goodnight, and walked to our bedroom where we were unable to fall asleep. Was this for real? We just had a little girl in the bedroom next door that we had never met before? Would she sleep through the night? Would she pee the bed? Would she wake up and freak our during the night? We didn't know. After hours of talking in bed and checking on her off and on, Eric and I were able to get a few hours of sleep that night. Baby girl slept all through the night and was fully potty trained. She woke up as happy as could be the next day. This was the beginning of our foster care journey. This is a day that I could never forget for the rest of my life. This was the beginning of Loving on Borrowed Time.