You'd better believe "better moms make a better world!"

Tiffany Nevil actually encouraged me to write this, in response to our super speaker we had at MOPS on Tuesday, Sarabeth. The topic was "Finding your identity during motherhood" (or something like that . . . ) All of us mothers were encouraged to remember to take time for ourselves and foster those skills/talents/hobbies that we all have that have nothing to do with being a mom. In addition, we were all encouraged to truly believe that "Better moms make a better world" (the MOPS motto for this year) and, when that part came up, I turned to Tiffany and said to her, "which is totally evident when you have foster kids in your home."

By this point, I think most of my friends have probably figured out that staying at home all day with kids is difficult for me. I am the one who is calling people every other day, looking for opportunities to get out of the house and with other people. I go to the YMCA almost everyday as part of my routine, and I have been a frequent visitor to Target, Fred Meyer, and sometimes WalMart, partly to just have something on my agenda for the day. Just on Sunday, Jeremy was making his "To-do" list for the week during the sermon at church (which, I know, is terrible for the Youth Pastor to be doing . . . shame on him!) and I, as a joke, made my own to-do list that said:

Monday: Take care of the kids
Tuesday: Take care of the kids
Wednesday: Take care of the kids

. . . you get the point. Anyway, I am a type A personality to the max. I love to have things to do, I love to have a list of things to accomplish, and I really NEED to get out of the house. All this to say, I wouldn't trade staying home with Clara and, at this point, Darius and Xavier, for the world. I think that my hyperactive personality has probably just given them a lot more opportunities to do fun things and be with other kids. I don't know when I'll be returning to teaching . . . maybe next school year, maybe not for a while . . . but, in the meantime, I do like to think of staying at home as my "job" and work my hardest at it.

Ok, back to the thing about the foster kids . . . so, here's my encouragement to all of you out there who stay at home and don't think you're necessarily making a difference. I've got two little boys here right now who absolutely ADORE their mother, and she has obviously made some mistakes and is not able to have them right now. There are a LOT of kids out there who don't get to be with their mommies, and, sometimes that means that they don't turn out so well. There are other kids who are with their mommies, but don't get the love and attention they need and they end up in Reman hall or worse. As a teacher, I can definitely vouch for "Better moms make a better world" because you can tell which students have a great mom and which ones don't. The ones who don't are looking for love and affection somewhere else, whether it's in a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship, in their friendships, or even in a gang. Taking care of little kiddos who want their mommy to get it together so that they can return to her as soon as possible makes you very aware of what you're doing as a mother to your own children, and makes you very grateful that you have the Lord on your side, giving you the patience and love that you need to be a great mom everyday.

On that note, once again, be praying for our boys, and for foster care in general in Pierce County. Sorry this is getting long, but I have to put this out there. There are, like, NO long-term foster care homes around here right now. Like NONE. The boys are on a list of kids needing to get out of short-term care and into a long-term foster home, but Youth For Christ is struggling to find a place for them. Please pray about what you as a family can do to help, and who you might know that can help. That's all I'll say about that.

Also pray for Darius in particular . . . he had a "psychologist-supervised" visit the other morning with mom and brothers and came home in hysterics. He has two visits/week with mom and comes home just fine most of the time, but this time was different. Because the psychologist was there, taking note of how she interacted with the kids, mom was on the ball in terms of her time spent with them, and, according to Darius, "she played blocks with me the whole time" which made it very hard for him to leave at the end. In addition, he told Jeremy on Monday evening that he was going home on Tuesday, and, when Jeremy told him, "No, honey, you're not going home, you're just going to visit with mom" he insisted that his mom had told him that. So, needless to say, this little five year old was pretty upset when the case worker said it was time to leave mama and go home.

Makes you thankful to our Lord that you get to spend each and every day with your kids, huh? I guess being stuck in the house with these guys isn't so bad after all . . :)