The Best Part of Christmas

This year was the first year that the girls really understood holidays. During Hanukkah Josie was very excited to be able to light the Menorah herself. This Christmas Lili wasn't even afraid to sit on Santa's lap and they were both soooo excited Xmas Eve.

The best part of Christmas was making that dream come alive for them. While Mommy was upstairs reading Twas the Night Before Christmas. I went outside under their windows and shook jingle bells. They couldn't wait to go to sleep because they didn't want to miss Santa. I even put reindeer "hoofprints" on the front porch and took bites out of the carrot they left for Rudolph. LOL I loved it! They ran downstairs Xmas morning and before the presents they wanted to check and see if Santa ate his cookies and if Rudolph ate his carrot.

CJ had a great first Xmas and loved opening presents. He went from toy to toy and checked everything out.

Christmas Hair Do's

I finally got my holiday order in from Snapaholics.com and finished the braids that the girls have been wearing for a week. I hope you can see in the last picture....I finished off some of the braids with little jingle bells. It is too adorable! The girls just love it.

You Tubin

I found a great You Tube video about doing criss cross cornrows. Jo is wearing them for the holidays. If you feel like trying your hand at it take a look:

Little Wishes

Our local foster parent organization, The Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition, has a wonderful program that provides toys, clothes and special event funding for kids in state care. Little Wishes is a year round program but during the holidays it grows even bigger. Baggage wrote a great post about it here. But I want to give you, fellow foster parents, another special reason to think about fulfilling a foster child's holiday wish.

I love the Little Wishes program for one secret, selfish reason. Healing.

Vivi was our second foster child, the first child that I loved so completely and fiercely and then lost her forever. If you are a foster parent, you know that ache, that grief, that forever longing and wondering. She may be where she is supposed to be, but that doesn't always keep the pain down. She is my daughter, I had the wonderful honor of caring for her during her first 7 months of her life. I quietly remember and honor every birthday that she has. I wonder what she looks like and how she is doing now. I wish I still had some connection, something that would make me know that she is safe, loved and happy.

I know I may never have that...but I do have Little Wishes. Every year as early as possible I scour the site....looking for my Vivi. I have been so elated to be able to buy her special Little Wish every year since she left me. It may not fix the ache but it makes it so much better for a little while.

If you are a foster parent, consider this request, find a child on the site that might remind you of a special foster child that left, and grant their wish. The child might be the same age, or have the same name, anything that might give you a connection to your little one. Take some time to honor and reflect on the wonderful little souls that we've had the honor of knowing, even for a short while. I'm always surprised at how healing one little present can be.