Monday, June 05, 2017

Resetting

Have you ever had a stage of fight or flight? I feel like I've been running on adrenaline, coffee and prayer for three months and now I can exhale and breathe. Along with the regular hustle and bustle of two boys in a busy ball hockey season (five nights a week between them), we added two extra kids to our crew as an emergency placement. As of this weekend, these two kids in care now have a long-term loving home (which was a daily prayer for us–so thankful) and we can get back to resting and recovering and preparing for summer.

What is my current plan for the next few weeks?

Reading in king size bed


1. Plan a day of rest. My hope is to take a day to go to the Scandinave Spa in Whistler for the day as I've never been and have always wanted to go. I will stop in Squamish and hike the Chief on my way up as hiking is therapy for me.

2. Plan our summer road trip. We are taking three months off of fostering so that we can travel this summer! We have one road trip booked on Vancouver Island already which includes: Parksville, Tofino, Strathcona Provincial Park, and Sooke. The second trip will be from Vancouver across to Waterton Lakes National Park, down to Yellowstone National Park, across to Craters of the Moon  and then back up to Vancouver. I have not booked or planned our stops yet for this second trip so if  you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it!

3. Declutter the house. I've been able to stay on top of housework but not anything more than the basics. It's time for the yearly declutter of closets and toys and that garage of ours.

4. Invest in some quality family time. Other than church and playgrounds, we haven't been able to spend a lot of time together as a family as it was just too tricky to navigate all of the relationships. We hope to enjoy some time outside, use our annual Grouse Mountain pass, and go see Cars 3 together.

5. Plan a date with Gary. We are taking our CPR Level C together tomorrow night–does that count? I would love to have a day hike with him so hopefully that can happen next weekend!

6. Read. Oh, how I love to read. I just finished my At the Water's Edge and while I'm awaiting my next Book Club book, I'll be reading Self Regnot very exciting but I do love learning.

7. Sleep. The past two morning I slept until 7 AM and it felt so lovely! I could lay in bed and not have to rush downstairs at 5:00 AM to keep two kids quiet so that the others could sleep  (let's be honest, Gary did a lot of the mornings).

In just two weeks we will be hosting a Foster Parent Information Session and have nine couples committed to coming–isn't that awesome? What have we learned from fostering over the past two years that will help us moving forward? We know that we can only have four kids in our home and that there are specific special needs that do not work with the make up of our family; this is a tricky one as many of the children do not yet have a diagnosis. Our final lesson is that we would prefer the child to be between the ages of 0-3. It's easy enough to say "Set boundaries" but if you don't know what all of the variables are or how it works with your own children, it's difficult. With each experience we learn a little more and adjust to ensure that it is as ideal as possible for all involved.

What are your plans for the next few weeks? How would you reset? 

Love,
Louise

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