WOW WOW! God's timing is CRAZY! (AKA: WE WERE ON A BREAK!)

A lot of you saw our VERY surprising news Tuesday on Facebook - so here's the full story of how it all went down.

We have a new addition. Yes. A new addition. 24 hours after the twins and their Big Sister left our home.

While we are not allowed to share names, significantly identifying details, or pictures at this point, we can officially share that we are now parents of Little Guy, Miss A, and foster-to-adopt parents of The Tank. (The Man of the House's Name. I just went with it.)

The Tank is a year-and-a-half old, birthday in December. He is a healthy, happy, sweet toddler - who almost weighs more than Little Guy! (Which if you know LG, you know it's probably not that hard to accomplish! Sorry, buddy! I'm not on the tall side either!)

I'll back up to Tuesday morning.

I was at the children's museum with little guy and one of his little buddies, spending the day, enjoying their joyful energy. I missed a phone call from our foster-adopt caseworker and noticed that she had left a message. At the same time, she also texted me. She said, "Angela I didn't know that the kids have left your home – when did that happen? Also please call me ASAP about a potential placement."

So, actually, I had heard about two potential placements that we were being looked at in the relatively near past - which is so strange because we still had five kids in our home. Two weeks ago, there was a baby boy who needed a home, but of course we weren't finished with the case and couldn't say yes. Last Thursday, I got a call from a different case worker about a 2 1/2-year-old girl with a baby brother but in this case there were some moderate to serious health issues that I had asked to get some more information about. My husband and I, when we discussed this, were not completely sure that this would be the right time for a case like this, having just been through so much ourselves. The worker did know that we had current placement, but she was willing to hold the kids in a foster home temporarily until we could have them. I had given her the go-ahead to send me some information about the siblings, but hadn't heard back at that point. (I will note that The Man of the House and I only spoke in private about these calls, not wanting to appear especially to Big Sister that we were already moving on and hunky-dory with their departure, even before it occurred.

Now, let me say that The Man of the House and I were not quite confident that we were wanting to continue going ahead with future foster care placements. This last case, especially the last month or so, has been extremely difficult, very stressful, and very draining. We definitely knew we needed a break of some sort, but we had not yet decided if this break would be permanent or temporary.

The last we discussed it, we had kind of come to the conclusion that maybe we would stay licensed and available for a month or so, but at that point if nothing had come our way, we would consider that the sign that we needed to move on and make our break from foster parenting more permanent. We also said that we would be pretty picky and only take a case that seemed "easy" - or at least easier than this last case.

And then here comes this phone call about a placement again.

I found a quiet minute in the museum as I watched the boys play, and called the caseworker back. She discussed with me for a few minutes the twins and their big sister leaving, gauging how were were handling it and recovering. Then, she said that a caseworker would like me to call her about a potential placement for a little boy. The basic info that she knew was that he was about 18 months old and was healthy and that parental rights had already been terminated, but that I needed to call the caseworker for more details.

Now, the fact that parental rights already been terminated really intrigued me, which meant that we wouldn't have to go through a whole foster case, so I agreed to get the number and call the caseworker.

This little guy was removed at birth from his birth mother, for reasons other than substance-abuse, which is why the majority of newborns are removed the hospital. Suffice it to say that it would not have been a good situation for him to go home with the mother at that point. Both the birth mother and birth father lost parental rights last fall. He had to be removed this month from the foster home, in which he had lived his entire life, along with nine other foster children, none of whom are his biological siblings. He had been in the respite care for three weeks, a holding place until in more permanent home to be found for him. The department wanted a foster adopt home, because with parental rights already terminated, they need a home to adopt him.

The caseworker said that the previous foster family is trying to appeal the decision, which made me think exactly of the twins case - and obviously not in a good way. Could we endure another drawn-out, nasty court drama? But, as she quickly pointed out, they are not family, so they do not have the automatic rights that relations would have. Plus, she said the evidence against them and the safety of their home is too great to merit even going through an appeal, in her opinion. She said is confidant that their case will be dismissed pretty quickly, in her opinion. I asked what she meant by quickly: Is that only a few months? Six months? She said, "Oh, no - one hearing, one afternoon, boom! It will be done." In Texas, you can legally adopt a child after they had been in your home for six months, so she told me, "Although I of course can't promise anything, it's sounding as though you will be able to adopt him six months from now."

At this juncture of the conversation, you'll all be happy to know that I did for once actually get off the phone and call The Man of the House. He was at school, monitoring lunch recess. Here is literally what our conversation went like.

...ring... ring... ring...

TMOTH: Hello?

Me: How quickly can you get one of those cribs put back together?

TMOTH: (split-second-pause) What time will they get there to drop the kid off?

He knew. Bam. He was on board. And it was simple as that.

It's so crazy to think that having gone through so much in the last months, that both of us just immediately felt right with saying yes and jumping right into another child's life. God is so good to heal wounds, or at least begin the healing of them, and allow us to find the path that will most be of benefit to Him and to us as we continue to grow.

After the typical pre-placement whirlwind trip to Target with the two boys - promising Icees in lieu of the fun afternoon they wanted to spend at our house after the museum time - I got home. I threw our bin of 2T clothes into the washer along with our boy crib bedding. I grabbed the pieces of the crib from the garage and the mattress, but - aw man - couldn't find the screws to put it back together myself. I was attempting to be hardcore and efficient and have the whole room set up by the time either the boy or my husband got home, but I had to wait and let him put it together. Don't let it be said that I'm not handy, though. I know my way around building anything from Ikea.

His super sweet caseworker brought the little boy over about 6:30 that night. As I said, the new name with which he has been christened for the blog is The Tank. He is an adorable, chubby little ball of curly, dark hair. And, as I said before, pretty big for his age. His personality is sweet, calm and cheerful. He fussed for only about 10 minutes while the caseworker was here. Once we hit bath time after she left, he was completely comfortable and had a great time splashing around with Little Guy in the bubbles. Bedtime was phenomenal; he laid right down and fell immediately asleep. No fussing, no crying. He must've been pretty tuckered out with all the changes.

It all happened so quickly - one minute you're just trying to catch a breath to recover from what's been happening; the next minute, life has totally changed once again. We both felt such a peace in agreeing to this placement, like it was the most natural thing, and completely what we were supposed to be doing, in the plans all along.

Apparently, there was a court hearing to update on the current placement of the Tank that morning, and the judge told the caseworker to find him a foster-adopt home THAT DAY - not even another night in respite care. And someone there in the courtroom - the caseworker didn't know who it was - said, "Call the Ericksons - they just came available again and they'd be perfect." And so the caseworker found OUR caseworker and asked her to pass along the message for us to contact her.

Just so weird to think about how we said we'd only take another placement - a) if it happened pretty quickly and b) if it was pretty "easy". Bada-bing. Someone up there heard us.

So amazing to think about how God was protecting and watching over this little fellow. We had no idea he existed until Tuesday, but He's been in God's care the entire time. There is a plan for him, and whether or not we're a permanent part of it, we know in Whose Hands the story is written.

We all really appreciate your rejoicing with us - and for not saying you think we're crazy (at least out loud!) for taking this on so soon after our last case. God loves to surprise us. Blessed are the flexible, amiright?

Please keep the case in your prayers. We hope and pray for God's will to be done, and the human side of us says, "That means he stays with us!" But, we know to just live in the moment, love each other as best as we can, and leave the ending up to Someone else. We pray for Miss A and Little Guy to continue to be as enamored with the Tank as they have been the past few days - we've all just fallen in love with him. So proud of them for their resiliency as well.

Please also keep the twins and their Big Sister in your prayers as they transition, begin school, and create new connections. We don't know if we'll hear from them someday, but, if we do, we hope it's good news.

Thanks, all!