In March of 2008 we had been foster parents for about six months. We'd had several children in our home and none of them had stayed very long. On March 11th we took two boys who were brothers back to their parents. We'd had them since January. We were glad they were able to go back to their parents and figured we would get a phone call that day for another child. That's how things had happened before. Whenever we had a child leave our home, we would get a call a few hours later to see if we wanted another child or children. This time it was a week before we got a call.
On March 18th we got a call for a newborn who was born on March 11th. So when we were taking the two boys to their parents, this girl was being born. She was born drug exposed and was a few weeks premature. We said we would be happy to take her. My wife went to the hospital to pick her up. She was given some stuff to wean the baby off the drugs.
When we took her to her first pediatric visit, we were told she would probably need physical therapy and occupational therapy. The doctor told us most drug exposed children needed some of both and sometimes they needed speech therapy or audio processing therapy. She told us that so we would know what to plan for. It seemed overwhelming. We wondered if we were up to the challenge of raising a drug exposed baby. We knew God wouldn't have placed her with us if we couldn't handle it so we just trusted him.
In July of that year my wife's niece came to live with us while she went to college. She was twenty-four and had been a nanny for several years. He last nanny job was for a family that had a set of twin girls who were special needs. So my wife's niece had plenty of experience with special needs kids. Her living with us was an obvious way that God helped us with learning some things about how to care for our daughter. I don't think it was a coincidence that she came to live with us for a few years.
Another obvious blessing was my own biological daughter. She was eleven and was a tremendous help. Shortly after my wife's niece came to live with us, she wanted a cat. We had two cats. Bonny and Clyde. They were brother and sister. She wanted a cat of her own so we told her we were fine with that. She got this kitten and named him Dewey. She got a cat gym thing and would take videos of him climbing all over that thing and talk about how Agent Dewey was getting his secret spy training in.
After a few years, she got an apartment at the college she was going to so she moved there and she couldn't take Dewey with her so he became our cat. We had adopted the girl and she was two years old. We had been through some physical therapy with her and knew we would have more to do with her. Now, Bonny and Clyde would run for the hills whenever our adopted daughter came anywhere near them. She didn't seem to know where her body was in space and she was very clumsy. She wasn't very gentle either. We were told that was because of her drug exposure. But Dewey didn't seem to mind. He wouldn't run when she would come around.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Our daughter is nine now and we were upstairs doing some coloring and she starts crying for no apparent reason. I asked her why she is crying and she said she didn't know why. She's done that before. Just starts crying and doesn't know why. So we went downstairs sat on the couch and I started rubbing small circles on her back. That seems to help her calm down. It wasn't long and Dewey showed up. I wasn't surprised. He shows up whenever she's upset. He jumped on the armrest and traipsed over me to get to her. He lowered his head and nudged her arm and rubbed up against her. He then walked a few circles on her lap and then sat down. He started purring and she started petting him. She calmed down soon after that.
It was then I realized that Dewey has been a secret blessing all these years. Right in front of me and I never even thought about it. For years he's always comforted her and helped her to calm down. He hangs out with her and they are best buds. He's been here all this time going about his secret mission of being an emotional support cat for our daughter. I would see him with her all the time helping her to calm down but never gave it a second thought. He's what she's needed and he's been here this whole time.
I thought about how somethings are obvious blessings but sometimes there's people or things in your life that have been there all along and have been a blessing that you've never noticed. This Easter Weekend think about what might be a blessing in your life that has been there all along and you've never even noticed it.
