tiny bits of love

This little Valentine was just sitting around on the table beside the rocking chair in the family room where baby gets his goodnight bottle. Every once and a while he pops up from his bottle and points to it. I hold it up for him and he giggles or smiles or squeals. Then he reclines and resumes his bottle. Just a tiny part of our day but it's so sweet how much he likes this little Valentine.

He has also become such an avid reader. He loves "Lovey Dovey" (thanks, Cindy!) best of all and searches for the sleeping girl in the last picture. He hands me book after book and listens nicely while I read each page. I thought all of you friends who sent books would like to know how much he's enjoying them.

Jenny asked this week why we're fostering instead of adopting. The simple answer is that we haven't chosen one over the other. We are hoping to adopt someday. Maybe even through the foster program.

We were really guided to the decision to foster. Once we started looking into it, it seemed like everything was pointing that way.

When we were young, at about 4:00 every weekday when the whistle at the mill blew, we'd all pile into the stationwagon to pick my Daddy up from work. One day as he got in the car, dirty from hard work, one of his friends popped his head into the car window. He remarked at what a whole lot of children there were and said something about having enough love to go around. I'll never forget what my father said. "You've got it all wrong" he said "The love isn't subtracted, it's multiplied." As a young one just learning my multiplication tables, I understood what he meant. I think that's what we're doing too. The love we had, just the two of us, will be multiplied with every little one who graces our lives for how every little or long he or she stays. That's what I'm thinking anyway.

By the way, there weren't really that many of us (4) but people always seemed impressed by the size of our family. I can't imagine what it must've been like for Rich in his super-sized family of 11 children!

If you'd asked me a year ago if I would please take a little baby for a month or two, love him like he was my own, and then give him back, I would have told you that you were crazy and that I just wasn't cut out for that kind of thing.

As for now, I know I can handle the love part. In this short time, I've fallen completely head over heels for this little guy. There is a big heartbreak on the horizon, for sure. Maybe we're crazy for doing this to our tender hearts.

Baby is just about ready for his morning nap. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed, after a night full of tears and not much sleep. I hope he's in a better mood after the nap.