A Baby for 2 Nights

Thursday night was the first emergency call we’ve received for fostering.

The worker brought a little 18-month old boy to us very late that night. He and his mom are from out of town, but are in Red Lake right now at the women’s shelter. She was intoxicated and they thought he was sick. So they needed a place for him.

She brought him into the house and I took him as she ran back out to get his bag. He quietly looked around. I felt like crying. How scary for him.

It was strange to get him so spur-of-the-moment like that. No list outlining his routine. No details about bottles. No idea of what he liked to eat. No information about allergies. Does he sleep with lots of clothes or just with a t-shirt? Does he lie in his bed to go to sleep or like to be rocked to sleep? Does he like his milk warmed up or straight from the fridge? Is that actually milk? Because the milk in the 2 bottles that came with him looks yellow, like evaporated milk, which is commonly given to babies up here, but tastes quite different.

Well, 2 days later and I still don’t know the answers to most of those questions. He didn’t like being put in his bed awake. He really liked Kendall, so Kendall held him that first night until he fell asleep. He gagged on the whole milk I gave him, so I think it was evaporated milk in his bottles. But then again, he gagged on bread with jam, on a chunk of sweet potato, on a kidney bean, and on vanilla pudding (which looked suspiciously like tomato soup).

That first night after the social worker left, he crawled around to couch to look at Kendall. Kendall held out his hands to the little guy and he shot across the floor to Kendall. He was so cuddly. The next morning when Eli and Evan got up I told them that a baby was sleeping in our spare room. When I got him out of bed, he crawled out to the living room and looked at the boys. I told them to hold their hands out to him. They did and he shot across the floor to them.

This is how they sat for awhile after that:

Eli and Evan, of course, loved having a baby around. Especially one who seemed so eager to hug them and be held.

So we had this little guy for 2 nights. Someone came this morning to take him to a different home until other arrangements are made. It was sad to see him go and to wonder what’s ahead for him and his mom. I found myself praying for and thinking about his mom this weekend as I prayed for him.

Eli and Evan told me that they wish he would be their brother. They wish there were more than just the 2 of them. Tonight when I asked the boys who they wanted to pray for, Eli said he wanted to pray for this little guy. He prayed that he would be safe and that he would remember us for awhile.

Please don't pay too much attention to how casually and absently Eli elbows his little brother in the head. (And sorry I don't know how to turn this the right way.)