I used to have 5 kids

Ok, that title may be a little misleading.  They weren't actually "my" kids...but for a season of our life we did in fact have 5 children that lived in our home.

I'm pretty sure that only another foster parent would appreciate what it means to have some sort of continuing relationship with children who spent 8 months in your home, even if it's just seeing Facebook pictures once in a while.   It means a lot...but it's not typically the case....at least not for the other babies we've fostered.  

Knowing that reunification sometimes works as planned, that kids are thriving, and actually having any sort of knowledge about where they are and how they're doing is so encouraging to a foster mom.  

It does help that these kids are distant cousins, little twigs on my big old spread out family tree.   

After leaving our home 4 years ago they moved across the country.  I didn't know if we'd ever all be in one place again.   

We were thrilled to have them stop in for a quick visit on their summer road trip.

It was so great to see these 5 kids together again.  

Our little visit brought up all kinds of great memories of my time loving on these kids.  

It was a crazy, busy, bustling household.  When they arrived, I had five kids, five and under.  

Silas was just a baby back then!  

I had two babies.  

...and two mischief making super heroes.

When I shopped for groceries I had one in the cart, one strapped to my back, two little boys strapped into the shopping cart "car" and a little girl trailing behind.  

One was still breast feeding, two being spoon fed, 2 crawling, 1 potty training, 2 in day diapers, 4 in night diapers, 5 children who never stopped moving, and only one able to effectively dress herself.  

When I start to stress over wondering how I will survive with 5 children again,

 I just think back and laugh. 

These two were such little Loveys.  Some of my best memories was just sitting on the living room floor and letting them crawl all over me.  Having so many little ones forced me to engage....I couldn't do anything but sit and play with them.  No computer, no tv, no time to shower or some days even eat... it was BUSY and hard...but I loved it.  

 They've all grown and all our lives have changed so much since then...

other than our ugly couch.   Unfortunately it hasn't changed...other than become a little more worn.  

It's fun to look back and remember how much I loved these kids!

Even though I really don't know them anymore, and  I'm totally ok with being a virtual stranger in their lives (that's what we do), I wish them all the best and continue to love and pray for them.  

I smile when I think of how God used that time to open our hearts and home to continue fostering. 

  Some people ask why and how we started fostering.....these kids are it. 

We saw a need, we decided to give it a try and even though we were desperately green in our knowledge, training, and experience God used that time to change our life course. 

I love how God writes our stories, and uses even unfortunate circumstances for his purpose in our lives. 

Oh, remembering the cuteness is almost too much!