Actually, We're Downsizing

A year ago this month, Jode and I had worked six months, spent many hours and over $30,000 to prepare our home to adopt seven children we had previously fostered.  We had three kids rooms created which could sleep all ten kids comfortably, and I must say, they were adorable.  The whole house had been rearranged.  The den became our bedroom, our bedroom became the boys' nursery, the nursery became the girls' room, the future-kitchen become the dining room, the dining room become the living room and the small back-porch-kitchen gained some amazing cabinets and counter tops created from heart-of-pine barn wood, a new stove and a much larger refrigerator.  It was awesome, and we accomplished so much in a short amount of time.  However, it was not to be.

It seems that, as teens do, one of the two oldest children (ages 13 and 15) said we had too many rules.  At the age of 13 here in the great state of South Carolina, a child can make the decision as to whether they want to be adopted and by whom.  So the one teen made the decision for the whole group, and they were placed with another family.  We were devastated, but thankful we knew why it happened.  The irony is, we didn't have a list of "rules" for our foster kids until that particular group of kids moved in with us.  You know, things like "If it's not yours don't touch is unless you ask" because one of them had the tendencies of a ferret.  But life moved on, they continue to email and text us, and we pray for them and their parents. 

So keeping in mind that we planned, made preparations and put everything in place to accommodate ten children, we now find ourselves with way too many beds in the children's rooms.  So tonight we began down sizing.  The rose colored triple bunk bed is now in Gavin, Ian and Caius's room ready to be painted John Deere green.  Ian still has his crib, but will most likely be out of it by the time Cauis is home at which time Caius can use it until he no longer needs it.  The small captains bed Gavin slept in will go into the shed to be sold as soon as we're able to get our yard sale together. Flora's room now only has two twin beds in it and a nice corner set up for school and homework.  It's large enough that should Hattie still need a crib, we can pull our extra one into the girls' room and still have plenty of room to play. 

I said all that to say this, for those of you who are wondering why in the world we would adopt two more kids at once, this is nothing compared to seven at once.  Five total kids is much less than ten total.  Actually, we're downsizing.