Daycare and other thoughts

Here we are a week after Gracie started in her new daycare. I must say that I pretty much couldn't be happier. Gracie's new daycare provider is great. She went 2 days last week, and did great. And DH took Gracie on Monday because he needed to get some paperwork, done so we all went to pick her up around 5. She was playing at the table with another child around her own age, looking content and happy as could be. Jean was sitting on the floor back in the back of the room, while her DH was in the larger room where Gracie and the other children were. It was really a comforting site to see. When Grace saw us, she came running over to me. She said "Mommy" when I picked her up, and was patting me on the chest. I guess she was telling everyone that I was her mommy. How cute is that?! AND how wonderful that she really knows that I'm her mommy. Of course, I still don't know if she understands what a mommy is yet, but she's got my name down and understand that I am "Mommy".

Jean seemed very excited to tell us all about Grace's day. She said that the kids were decorating shamrocks because it was St. Patrick's Day, and Grace was saying "green". She said she almost had Grace saying "yellow", but not quite. She said how smart Grace is. Of course I could've told her that yes she was very smart :-)! She also told us that she's excited to see how Grace will interact with another little girl from China that will be there during the week of spring break. We're not sure if Grace will be going to daycare during that week, but I too would like to see how she does.

Oh, and on another note, unrelated to daycare, my friend Jan left for Beijing this morning to get her daughter. She and her DH get their daughter on Monday morning. She is 8 months old. This is Jan's first child. Her LID is 12/20/05, so her LID was about a month and a half later than ours. That month and a half turned into almost an 8 1/2 month longer wait to actually get their daughter. Wow! Who would've thought that adpopting from China would take this long back when we started this journey in April 2005, 3 years ago!!! Anyway, I pray that Jan and her DH have a safe journey to ther daughter, and that God prepares their daughter for the changes that are coming in her life. Please Lord give Jan and her DH confidence in their parenting abilities, and let their daughter bond quickly.

Update on the search for daycare

It's been something of a roller coaster ride here at our house with daycare. As you may recall, right after our daycare provider came back to work after a bought of pneumonia, she informed us that they were building a house and were selling their house. Their new house is to be built several miles away, to where it would impractical for us to continue daycare with her. I was sad we'd be losing Meredith, but understood. Meredith told us that they had 4 months to sell their house, so we took that information and thought we'd have at least 3 months to find new daycare.

Mind you, the housing market is reportedly so slow right now, we thought we'd have plenty of time before we'd have to really get serious about this situation. Well, we were big time wrong! Sometime during the latter part of last week, Meredith's house went up on the market. Over the weekend, her realtor had an open house. According to Meredith, 3 families came through. The very 1st family came back later and offerred Meredith and her hubbie full asking price for their home. I think in this market that just doesn't happen, but it did! So they have until April 1 to get out their house. We found this out on Tuesday (less than a week after finding out that we'd have to find new daycare), when DH called to get Meredith's SS number in order to file out taxes. On Wednesday, on dropping off Grace, DH asked when Meredith was going to stop daycare. Her response was that she wanted to be done by the end of THIS week! Okay, so that means we had 5 days to find new daycare!!!

Thankfully, we'd been thinking about calling the woman down the street that has apparently had daycare in her home since we moved here over 13 years ago. We didn't know her, but knew she had a daycare in her home because every once in awhile when she had openings she hung a sign in her window. As her home sits pretty close to a main road in town, I guess that's her form of advertising. Luckily (or maybe providencially) she has the sign in her window now! So DH called her Wednesday and explained our situation, and asked her some questions. She said she'd be happy to take Grace and happy to talk to us whenever we wanted. DH called yesterday and set up an appointment for us to visit last evening. We went over after 6 which is when she closed her daycare, to see the facility and chat. I just have one word to describe her. Jean is Wonderful! She is about our age, 50 ish, and has been doing daycare for 19 years. So you know she's good. She is Christian. She has a cute dedicated room that she uses for daycare. It looks just like a daycare center. She has a fenced in backyard with playground equipment where the children can play, and she's licensed. The entire time we were there, Grace was running around laughing and smiling and really enjoying playing. She was a little shy, but really seemed to like the surroundings. I was pleasantly surprised.

During the course of our conversation, DD2 who came with us, asked her if she had a granddaughter named Txxxx, to which she replied "Why yes I do? How did you know that?" DD2 said she saw the photo of Txxxx's uncle up on the wall in his military uniform. Txxxx's uncle had come to school to talk and visit with the kid's in DD2's class before he went to Iraq. Turns out this is Jean's son and DD2 is friends with Txxxx. How funny is that?! Anyway, Jean is willing to have Gracie part time, seems to love children, has way more experience than anyone else we've ever used for daycare, and charges less per day than Meredith! God is GOOD!

We have paperwork to fill out, need to get copies of some papers, get an emergency medical permission form notorized, and then Grace can start daycare next week. This is such an answer to prayer! We had asked that we find loving, Christian daycare that's affordable in a timely manner for Gracie. And as always, God provides. Thank you Lord for being so faithful!

A Baby Asks God

I found this on my hard drive as I was looking for some other information. I don't remember where I got it or why I saved it. But I thought it was sweet. Enjoy!

A Baby Asks God

A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow,
but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"

God said, "Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of
you."

The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have
to do anything but sing and smile to be happy."

God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you.
And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."

Again the child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand
when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"

God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet
words
you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will
teach you how to speak."

"And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?"

God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach
you how to pray."

"Who will protect me?"

God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its
life."

"But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore."

God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach
you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to
you."

At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth
could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave
now, please tell me my angel's name."

"You will simply call her, "Mommy."

How many 5 year olds could you take?

I thought this was cute! Try it yourself and see what you come up with. I apprently can take twelve 5 year olds in a fight.

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