Today we welcomed into our house the most adorable little 8 year old girl. But perhaps I should back up a bit since this is the first time I am talking about a journey we began a couple of months ago when we decided to become foster parents.

After many hours of training and extensive background checks which lead us many places including to the police department to get finger printed, doctors office for TB tests, and a complete home inspection. Which I might add, I feel is considerably safer than some of the places I remember growing up in. We finally became licensed by the state to care for children who were in situations where their parents are unable to provide basic levels of care and nurture.

Of course not 3 hours goes by from when our license becomes official and we get a call about this little girl who needs a home. Now in our fantasy world we had decided that we would only do a sibling group aged three to six. But we couldn’t say no to a little girl who was full of life and desperately needed a place to call her own.

We were so nervous heading down to the DSHS office to pick her up today, not knowing what she would be like or whether she would even like us. And then bustling through the office she flew with her brothers and sisters, looking back over her shoulder probably realizing “oh those are the next strangers I get to live with”.

We got home, showed her around, had spaghetti and meatballs (which she couldn’t get enough of with extra helpings of Romano cheese). Hello budding foodie… I might add as she announces later “oh Kiwi’s! I love kiwis!” when she saw those green fruits on the counter. What 8 year old knows about Kiwi’s let alone loves them?

We then decided to stretch our legs and go for a walk to the park, she confiscated my camera and proceeded to take the most amazing pictures. Fascinated by the new flowers emerging along the way she took a dizzying array of shots of these multicolored gifts of nature.

All in all it was a really good first day. She was very well behaved and full of energy and spunk. While we know it’s just the honeymoon phase and there are bound to be a few bumps over the next couple of days, we are hoping that the little girl we had with us today remains as cute and delightful for as long as she is able to stay with us.