Today, we remember...

“Mommmyyyy!” I heard a yell as I bounced quickly along the pitted road that leads to our program in my 16-passenger van. I stopped quickly, turning the van around to go back for Prossy who had been walking home to get something.

“How did you see her?” said my Dad who was visiting at the time.

“I didn’t! I heard her yell, ‘Mommy’” I replied.

“But everyone calls you Mommy. Even people we don’t know call you that around here,” Dad questioned.

“Yea, but I know when it’s mine.” I explained matter of factly..

And then I thought about what I had said and tears began to well. How incredible, what God has done for me. For us. It is true, hundreds of people in this area call me Mommy. Even people who I have not met before recognize me as the woman who cares for the children in this area and call me Mommy before even having made my acquaintance. On any given day, I can drive down the road between my home and Buziika and if it is the right time, when kids are heading home from school, I will hear “Mommy! Mommy!” being shouted about every two seconds as I pass all the children on the road. I smile, as I hear them yell, Mommy.

But for 14 “Mommy”s, I stop. I can hear the difference. I know.

My family is all things unconventional. But it is real. Real because God has knit our hearts together in a way that only He can and real because no matter what anyone says or thinks, I am their Mommy, and they are mine.

Three years ago a doe eyed 5 years old looked at me and asked, “Can I call you Mommy?” And life changed forever.

I wrote then:

She called me, “Mommy.”

My heart swelled up into my throat. I have only known these little people 4 weeks and I feel a love for them that is different than my love for anyone else. This is love that wants to protect, and comfort and take away all pain. Thisis a love that consumes my every move. She called me, “Mommy.”

Could it be that the God of the universe would choose little inadequate me to be the mother of these three beauties? Yes. Dear blog world, I am officially a mother.

Sometimes God gives me these assignments, and I wonder if He knows what He is doing. Shouldn't He choose someone older, or at least wiser? Someone smarter or more patient or.. something. But I offer all that I have to the greatness of His plan.

Our God is a God of miracles. About an hour ago, my oldest daughter was discharged from the hospital with the diagnosis of a broken collarbone and some soft tissue damage. Of all things that could have happened to her (she was under a brick wall for goodness sake!) she has only these injuries, both of which will heal just fine with sometime and care. Tonight she will spend her first night with her sisters at my house. Unfortunately, my bed was crammed enough last night with only myself and two of my girls in it, there is no way all three of us will fit in there. So they will sleep in their very own room across the hall.

Today after church we went out to lunch and Scovia andMary tasted ice cream for the first time. The faces they made were priceless; I guess they didn’t expect it to be so cold. They also discovered the joy of the bathtub a few days ago, and I think they have taken about twenty baths since they havemoved in.

Maybe I will never sleep past 7:00 in the morning and maybe I will never have time to brush my hair and maybe I will never be able to eat a full meal without getting up anddown a million times. It’s worth it. Maybe it will always take me twice as long to do everything and maybe I will never have a really clean house and maybe my days of staying out late with friends are over. It’s worth it. Anything I have togive up is worth just that one minute when they look at me and call me, “Mom,” when those little hands grab mine and those big eyes look at me as if I hold the keys to the world. It’s worth it.

Because I have finally fulfilled the stipulation of the law that a foster parent live with their children for 3 years before they are granted an adoption order, and because I have finally finished writing the book which will allow me to pay for these adoptions, we have filed our court paperwork and are waiting on a date. So soon, we will all be related on paper! I will no longer be their ‘foster mother’ or their ‘legal guardian’ but their on-paper, real-deal, adoptive MOM! Legally, this means very little is different, and to my heart it means nothing, I have already been their mom there for ages. Still, it feels like a milestone and I wanted to share so that you could praise God with me.

I don’t have many words. I look at my life, at how far we have come since that first morning when Scovia called me Mommy, I look at my daughters, and I AM THANKFUL.

2008...

Today...

He sets the solitary in families...

If you have never considered the miracle of adoption, I would highly reccomend it.