TWINS! :-)

AHHH! So, it's official! There will be two new faces in the Erickson family on Monday afternoon. I received AN E-MAIL around 3:30 p.m. today saying:

"Good news! We can do placement at 4:00 on Monday afternoon!"

We didn't even know we were definitely picked to be a home for these girls!

On Friday afternoons, I work in the office up at the school where I used to teach. That's where I was when this e-mail popped into my inbox. I was so ecstatic that I ran right into the Man of the House's classroom and ran up to him to hug him. He knew as soon as he saw my face that we had good news.

My brother summed it up like a pro when he texted me this:
"Sometimes, it feels like God is saying 'No' when it was actually, 'Wait, I'm just about to give you the motherload!'"

The first half of this week, I was perfectly peaceful. I felt content with whatever happened with the sibling group we heard about last week. Even though the time had passed and it felt like too much time had passed for us to have been picked. Even though this week marked eight months since Baby Girl left us. My spirit was trusting and it felt good. When the CALL came on Wednesday about the twins, I was excited, but not anxious.

I had pretty much fallen off the "calm, peaceful, good attitude" wagon today. I was internally a nervous wreck and this situation was all my brain kept wanting to focus on. I was hitting the "refresh" button on the e-mail inbox way too often, just to see if I had a new message, or double checking my voice mail to make sure I didn't miss a call from the caseworker. I was debating with myself on whether or not to call to see what had happened, and at the same time, I was just annoying myself with all of my sudden anxiousness.

To finally hear that we had been chosen, that we have new additions coming to the house, was amazing. And this plan is where we are supposed to be. God is so good! He never forgets us.

So here's what we know about the 2-yr-old twin girls: they're 2-years-old, and they're twins, and they're girls.

Yup, that's it!

We don't know ethnicity, lots of details about family history, birthday, or even NAMES! :-) We will be meeting two brand new members of our family on Monday, and everything about them will be a surprise! When I read the e-mail this afternoon, I replied expressing my thanks, and asking for more information, but our caseworker must have left early because I didn't get a reply. Oh, well!

The plan is for the caseworker to arrive at 3:30 on Monday afternoon to sign the placement papers with us. We will get the binder with the children's background information that is known so far, the investigations report explaining the reasons the children were removed from their original home, court records of what's happened in the case, and anything else pertaining to the children themselves. We also will receive in the binder copies of paperwork we will be using for the duration of the girls' time as foster children with us: monthly report forms, medication forms (prescription and OTC medicine), doctor and dentist visit forms, etc. We keep these up to date and share with both our caseworker and the children's caseworker as we go.

We're just so excited to have good news to share, and a new journey to begin. The realities of being parents to multiples, and doubling the number of children we have with one blow, are of course in the front of our minds. We're stepping up our game in terms of communication and organization; you have to, to make such a drastic family transition. (I have a theory that, with us, the level of "with-it-ness" we have as parents is directly proportional to the amount of children we're caring for. I felt so organized and "together" during the times that we had three children, because we had to be. We're ready, and excited, and jumping in with both feet.)

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement as we move forward! We don't know where God will lead these two little sweethearts, but we will love and care for them as long as we can! Please keep them in your prayers as well, with the least amount of trauma possible as they also transition. What a huge deal to join a new family, and how much more amazingly earth-shaking it must be to do it at 2-years-old.