Foster Mom Role Reversal

     When human foster children lived at my house 30-plus years ago, things happened in the blink of an eye. Just at supper time, you shoved one bed against the wall and added another from a friend's spare room, set another place at the table, and during the silence of little strangers figuring out whether to be friends and new siblings for awhile, you wondered how to stretch the budget for new clothes. Almost always, the most foster children came with were the clothes they wore and maybe a bedraggled blanket.
     Just as suddenly a case worker would call and say, "Pack Mary's bags; the court is sending her home." No time for goodbyes, explanations, or to compose yourself to hide the tears.
     It sees that some things don't change much, even when the comparasion is like apples and leashes. Sweetness (my grown daughter) is a pet lover from way back but we've only been able to have cats for many, many years. You know... cats are easier; aloof; independent. When her Sassy died last spring, I promised we would get a new pet as soon as we finished with the three major parties happening on our hill and we got settled from taking several major family trips.
     That lull has now come about and after a few deep breaths, we began looking. She and Dear Heart decided a dog would be the right thing for her this time. Odds stacked against me. It's kind of a funny thing, too, because over the last two years, two black labs mysteriously showed up on our front porch. One was only months old and adorable. The other was many years old and had seen better times but stole our hearts. In both cases we searched long and hard and did find their owners which left us with little holes in our hearts. Like when our foster children left us.
     This week, while idly searching through http://www.petfinders.com/. low and behold there was Ava.
     Ava has been at a foster home for quite a while. Her Foster Mother thinks Ava and my Sweetness will make perfect companions. It all happened TODAY. We ran to Walmart and grabbed a pink collar (large) and a pink leash, filled a clean gallon jug with water, threw in lots of plastic bags for 'pooper-scoopers,' found the directions for the 1 1/2 hr trip on mapquest, and tried to explain to Cocoa (our son's 8 year old Chocolate Lab who is visiting) that her mama and daddy will be home tomorrow, and promised each other that all SHALL be well.
     A friend who exercises in the pool at the same time Sweetness and I do-- and who has white hair like mine-- commented today, "Remember: dinosaurs are extinct because they would not adapt."
    She didn't know about the huge change in our life-style [nor did we at the time :-) ] so I'm not sure why she said that. In fact, she repeated it TWICE.
    Well, we are ready to take off in the morning and I can assure and promise you this much: MOTHERS will never outgrow their ability to adapt!!!!!!!!!!! Instantly. Turning on a dime.

Check back for pictures.

     Oh - and please add to your prayer lists my friend fighting cancer, and for two mothers whose DAUGHTERS have deployed to war zones, and for a young friend whose husband has deployed.

Now I'm off to see what God is up to! I hope you will do the same!
~~Liz ~~