Friendless?

The most difficult part was the lack of help I had.  I am surrounded by great people...so I don't want you to think that it was the fault of others.  It was due to the circumstances of our placement.  The support system that I had been planning to use was my church family.  However, since we went to church with their biological family, we needed to do our best to keep things confidential and to keep things neutral.  We didn't want to have any hurt feelings or misunderstandings because of us sharing too much.  I'm glad we did that because we were able to continue a good relationship with their family.  My mom lives about an hour and a half away but she was pretty much bedridden due to extreme pain in her lower back and hips for the first couple months after we got our children.  We found out later that her tailbone was turned backwards.  It certainly made things hard on us.

The Wednesday after our children were placed with us I had been dealing with an infected wisdom tooth for two days and had to have it removed.  I couldn't leave my kids with anyone so I made the appointment and a dear friend of mine agreed to drive me there and watch Connor and Christian in the waiting room while I had it pulled.

When I got home I went to get Emily from school.  Emily's teacher couldn't believe I was out there waiting in the cold after just having my tooth pulled.  Every time I met with her she would shake her head and repeat how impressed she was over that.  I didn't think anything of it.  I was in survival mode and I was pretty tough.  The Lord doesn't give us more than we can handle, right?

Thank goodness for Mrs. Miller!  I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't been Emily's teacher that year.  We spent many meetings together with tears streaming down our faces.  She is another angel God sent to us.  I'm overwhelmed with gratitude when I think back to the understanding and compassion she showed Emily.  Emily didn't have a single friend that year except for Mrs. Miller.

Emily wasn't the only one who felt alone that year...