Week One.

"Week One".

That's a good title for the first week of January AND the first week with our little foster princesses.

This New Year's was nice and low-key for us. Well, as low-key as things can be when you have two guests in your house on top of the three other kids you have. ;) We don't normally do anything for New Year's Eve anyway, and since New Year's Day was a "church day" for us, we went to bed at a normal time and got a good nine hours of sleep. Some might say "boring"; we say "bliss". Going to bed early and getting a lot of sleep = bliss.

Also, this year I made NO resolutions. What's the point? I always start out with good intentions in my resolutions, but I always end up giving up (or forgetting about them) after only a month or two. In many ways, it really is just another day. But on the other hand, I also love that feeling of getting a fresh start, a do-over per say. This year I'm looking to simplify my life in many ways (don't laugh -- it really is possible to simplify even with a house full of kids), so I just decided to go with the idea of picking a word for 2012. And instead of picking a word that is a bit more me-centered like I've done in the past, this year I picked the simplest of desires of my heart, to be "willing".

No more telling God what I want, no more telling God how I think things might work the best, no more asking God for stuff. I truly just want to be "willing" -- willing to follow what He wants me to do. 2011 didn't exactly turn out the way my husband and I wanted it to (although yes, we got two added blessings in our two new sons), but despite the things we went through, we are happier folk because of what we went through. And we definitely learned that letting go of all of those things we try so hard to control in life didn't end up making us miserable like we thought it would, but instead freed us and just added to our happiness and faith in God.

So there you have it. May the year 2012 bring out my most willing heart to be a woman for Him and not for this world.

As for how "week one" has gone with the girls, things are going better than expected. Their transition was much easier than I anticipated, probably due to the fact that at this point they are used to being moved around a lot and it's kind of their reality, bless their little hearts. I found a daycare with spots for both of them and they started yesterday. For gals who'd never been to daycare previously, they did fantastic! Their teachers gushed over how sweet and polite they are, and we couldn't be more proud. And I'm not going to lie -- while I'm at work, it's so nice to have some moments of quiet and adult conversation while they are being taken care of.

Overall we're settling back into a normal routine for us, and the girls are fitting right in. I haven't really changed the way I run my household, and I think that's been the best way (at least for me) to work this out. They're quickly learning all of our "house rules", and it's just life as usual, with two extra little people.

There are times I look at them and can't imagine the day when they will more than likely be moved out of our home. There are times I think my heart will break into a million pieces if they are. And there are times where I think, no, it will all be okay, and then we'll probably get one or two more little people who need a safe place to land and we'll probably love them just as much while we have them. I guess I won't really know how heartbreaking it might be until we cross those milestones, but I guess I'm also learning with this process to simply take it one day at a time and not worry about the next day. Right now my husband and I are looking at it as kind of a "grandparent" type of thing -- you know, how grandparents get to love on them for a little while and then send them back, haha, one of the perks of being a grandparent. It's also a good lesson in patience dealing with the state, and I'm learning to be consistent (read: borderline annoying) and make things happen, you know, to be the squeaky wheel when I need to. It's not only our responsibility to take care of these little ones and shower them with love, but it is also our privilege to be an advocate for them.

So that's our first week in a nutshell. I promise to return with more crafty posts at some point. Believe it or not, I actually squeezed in quite a bit of sewing in the last two weeks, but I need to download my pictures to share.

Oh yeah, and we had a snake in our bathroom. That will make any first week of the year quite exciting, don't you think?!