I had the chance last weekend to play mom. My church supports several orphanages and one of them wanted to close for two days to plan for the upcoming year. That meant that all of the kids had to have a place to stay. So I had two girls, Juana (15) and Yeraldine (7) come and stay with me. It is usually a family that takes kids but I thought it sounded like a neat thing to do, so I was my own family.

Now I have stayed with kids, babysat, nannied, hung with my nieces and nephew, but none of that compares to having your own kids so I have to give props to all the moms I know. Their job is never ending. I only had their job for one night and it shed a whole new light on things.

I picked the girls up after work on Friday. We came home and I was beat to say the least. A week before the semester is ending and I had about as much energy as a dead battery. Go moms, I know you are tired way more than you realize or admit! We did our nails and talked. I have a fooze ball table downstairs and that was a hit. Then Julie called and invited us over for Harry Potter. She had the projector from school so we watched it on the wall in the living room just like the movie theater. Big hit! The girls slept late on Saturday and when they got up we had pancakes and continued the conversations. Even Yeraldina, all 7 years of her, bless her heart, helped me find words I didn't know in our talks. We spent the afternoon at the zoo and then had a picnic in the plaza. All in all a great two days. The girls are so polite and enjoyable to be around. Just cute as can be. It is hard to imagine they come from families who are unable to appreciate such loving little girls.

My time with the girls got me thinking about adoption. Don't worry, I won't be coming home with new kids this summer or anything, but I'd really like to provide a home for kids that need it. Yes, kids, I realize two might be a little easier than one. Maybe it is because I come from such a big family, but I can't imagine just one kid and me. Two for sure. The single biggest challenge was language. I know I have learned a lot in the last year but I'm nowhere near fluent. I'm like a 4 year old, if that, more like a 3 year old in my vocabulary. But I'll tell you, not an ounce of impatience passed from Juana or Yeraldine. Patient souls for sure. I think the sweetest thing was Juana praying at bedtime, thanking God for opening up my heart and home to her. Now if that doesn't make you want to keep them, I'm not sure what would!

Pictures:
-Yeraldina playing with Jake (Julie's dog)
-Standing on my patio
-Lighting the barbeque with Julie
-Watching Harry Potter on the big screen.