At Home With Dot

This month we were given the gift of 10 days worth of childcare so we could celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. While we were away, Popop and Mimi mentioned school morning routines were a breeze!! "The kids knew exactly what to do and the mornings went so smoothly." I was thrilled to hear our morning patterns continued even though I wasn't their. You see, it wasn't always this way. There was a key milestone in our familys' life that completely changed how I structured our morning routine. That milestone was our third foster baby (our fourth child and our now adopted and youngest little girl). I remember our morning routines consisted of me cradling our newborn foster baby, packing lunches and serving out breakfast all while trying to bottle feed the little one in my arms. As seen below, I improvised by creatively managing the bottle feeding...BUT something had to change about our morning routines or I was going to end up needing more than just two

The following article was written in May 2017 for Flourish Motherhood Magazine's First Issue  Feb. 2018      This month my three year old has been saying "I love you mom" for the first time. This is a little boy that has come from a hard place. These are hard places that I'll never be aware of because he joined our family at 15 months from the foster system. We will never know what those 15 months were like for him but I think we see glimpses in his personality and behavior. "I love you." Those words are bringing healing we need. "I love you." Those words are continually breaking down pieces of a "wall" that is hard to describe and I can't fully wrap my mind around it. Even so, there is freedom felt in writing it down and sharing it here.  When our little guy first joined the family, there was love. There has always been love but there has always been struggle too. When a little one loses continuity in their primary ca