As I mentioned I have two awesome daughters.  Both I adopted after being their foster mommy.  Annie is 7 and Chloe is 4. 

 Chloe is the anti-annie.  TRUTH!  Of course they each experienced very bad beginnnings, but Chloe came to me at 7 months and never left....Thank God!  (Annie is a whole other, quite sad storey ).

When Chloe arrived she was so very undernurshised, long and skinny.  Her little face was rashy and raw.  The system being what it is never told me until much later that she had been scheduled for surgery. Apparently the poor angel could never keep what little food given her in her tummy.  That is why her face was so raw and rashy. The stomach acid on her face.  Well, it is a good thing I did not know this and of course the caseworkers never followed up.  What that child needed was calm, loving, security.  The night she arrived, with her hair all matted down with dirt, my mom held her and fed her while I worked with the caseworker.  Do you know she never threw up that night.  The only time that I witnessed what they diagnosed as a physical problem, and planned on cutting into that 7 month old, was two weeks later when I attended court and met her biological family...at least the faternal part.  That day, as I watched them pass her, shake her up, not once speaking softly to her, she started screaming in the hall as we waited for our case to be called.  Again they kept passing her around, each one stating oh I can quiet her. Yeah right.    I finally had enough, took control and  told the bio-family to hand her to me,  I walked away, down the hall and in about five minutes she was calm.  Which was good because they called our case just then.  As we stood in court and I held my angel, that was the only time I witnessed this spitting up: all over me, all over my nice clothes, in front of the judge.  What could I do but laugh.  Of course when I got home I documented all the above.  Good thing.  Two months later, as the third or maybe the fourth caseworker we had told me of the surgery and wanted to re-schedule....can you imagine, I filled her in.   Thank God for such miracles. 

Otherwise they were going to cut this child open.

 It took about three months before she truly looked healthy, the rashes all gone, her hair shiney and her cheeks chubby...just like the cherub she was created to be.  My little angel Chloe.  Turned out she had been in five or six other foster homes before mine, had already suffered a concussion, and the last foster home before she came to me was shut down and all the children were taken out that night.   can only imagine why. 

I am so grateful Chloe came to me.  I love her like I never knew I could love.

 

But she came at seven months and like i titled the blog above she was and still is a spitfire....she was in survival mode.  At seven months she could already run across the room at quite a fast speed for one so weak and young...she did not crawl but walked on here feet and hands...reminded me of a monkey, one minute she was there and the next there and the next thing she was biting my little foster boy as she took his bottle and gulped it down. Guess she learned to get the bottle and finish it quick, never knowing when the next one might arrive. No wonder she kept spitting up. 

 It is amazing how affected she is to this day from the first seven months of her life.  Of course there is the question nature versus nurture...in her case we will never know. 

 

She is now four and so very smart.  Too smart.  As a foster mom, I had never experienced one like her and to this day she challenges me not just daily but several times a day.  Here is an example, she was fighting with her sister, the sweet, calm one....so I re-directed her to the TV...I said here you go, one of your favorite shows in on Rugrats, to that she got on the couch laid back and told me, "See, you don't know everything, that is not Rugrats, that is the Wild Thornberries!"  Of course I did not let her see me laughing at her wit and wisdom....but yes, she is my challenge, my spitfire...but still one of my two great loves.  I guess she will keep me on my toes for many years to come.  I so look forward to the teenage Chloe..lol

Chloe also never stops talking. I mean NEVER, from the moment she is awake to her last moment before sleep.  Her voice is deep which is so cute and as she keeps up her never ending talking she actually has mastered the ability to breathe in while still talking and breath out while still speaking.  My older daughter and I crack up when that occurs, perhaps I should send a video to a Hollywood director, she would be a great star.  Heck, she already is in her own mind and of course to me, her Mommy.

 

After writing the above, I went into her room where she had fallen asleep, as she does everynight with her head where her feet should be.  My nightly ritual is to pick her up as she sleeps and place her in her bed, on her pillow, under her covers.  These moments she looks like such a sweet child....as I pray over her each night I forget all the tough moments she threw at me today.  Don't we all look so sweet as we sleep.

 

Okay, it took me awhile to get back to finish this, I had to finish the mommy chores and then get ready for the 6 am wake up.   So again, my eyes are drooping and my mind is hitting air pockets, so I will bid you all Good Night.

 

I hope you all have sweet dreams and a Super-Dooper day tomorrow.

 

Remember,

You are,

I am,

We are,

 

IN HIS GRIP

 

jansie