Seven Years Later

I burned the crap out of my arm today.  I was waiting for the water to boil for the tea I was making when I noticed my tea organizer needed a little organizing.  As I was reaching over the electric kettle to pack the tea bags in a little tighter and put some away that were still sitting around in a box, the water finally boiled, sending a sudden puff of steam up the spout of our cheap kettle and onto my forearm.  It will probably be fine, but right now it hurts.

Life has felt like that these past few years.  Try to take a step forward.  Get burned.  Jump back.  Repeat.

A couple weeks ago I was reading a book--an old book I happened upon in 2nd & Charles, written by a lady whose blog I used to read--and I got inspired to start writing again.  I was going to start a new blog, and actually I guess I did.  I had it named and a first post written and published.  Then things just sort of fell apart.  I don't have time to make it look nice or do any of the new blog stuff, and I don't much care if people read it or not anyway.  So I decided to just come back here to Babyfingers.

A lot has happened since January of 2016.  First, in May of 2016 we moved to a much bigger house on the same street as my mom.  The move has been great for all of us.  Most of all, the extra space allowed us to become foster parents, and we became licensed in June of 2018.  We began fostering a sibling group of five in July of 2018 and adopted them two years plus a day later, in 2020.

And then in January of 2021, I got pregnant with Stevie.  We now have nine children ages 18 months to 18 years, and eight of them live at home with us.  In addition to two older minivans, we have a non-fancy Ford 15 passenger van.  When we pull up to a fast food place, people think we're a church youth group.  I actually love it.  When I saw the prices on the fancier vans, I loved it even more.  I love all my kids and I love the big family life, too.

But it has been messy and hard, for lots of reasons.  In a minute I have to drive a couple of our kids to theatre rehearsal, but I'll be back to write again soon, hopefully with pictures.  I need to write, and I want to be able to come back here in a few years and read Stevie all the cute stories I wrote about her.

And you know one of the many things I love about Stevie?  She has the sweetest chubby little Babyfingers.