I know what day it is. Really.

Did anyone notice the "wordless wednesday" post from, um, today? Can anyone say BLONDE. :) Or busy new mother, one or the other. Yesterday was so non-stop the entire day that by the end I was talking to people like it was already Tuesday, thus I guess I thought today was Wednesday. I've reset the post to go up TOMORROW.

Well anyway, there's been lots of big news around here! The young single mother of the triplets came yesterday to visit them, accompanied by social services. It's not looking too promising for the babies to go to her soon, but we tried to encourage her. Only time will tell!

Yesterday morning an adoption rep for Italy came by and handed me the pictures of little girl C's new parents!! Sooo exciting! They will meet her in just 13 days if all goes well. Now to practice mi Italiano...

Today I drove stick shift for the very first time! Since my parents taught me how to drive and I never even took a driving test with a stranger, this was the first time someone else had taught me, none less than our irreplaceable jack-of-all-trades accountant and administrative assistant, David! He's a very brave patient instructor and in an hour I pretty much got the hang of everything. Now to squeeze in practice time! The reason I had the sudden need to learn is that we have a (stick shift) vehicle on loan for the next year. I could really use a bigger vehicle this weekend for some activities with the street kids, but they are a super distracting group so I need to be top notch before I load it up.

Then this afternoon was the triplet's first outing since arriving 12 days ago - to the pediatrician, woo-hoo! There were no surprises there; they are doing just as well as we thought.

Here's a question to any mother reading: currently, they are taking 32 cc of formula every two hours. Now we can go up to 35-40 cc, up to every 3 hours. When and how should we make the change? After just 1 1/2 hours, someone always wakes up and starts complaining, which usually makes the other two start complaining (the future is looking NOISY!!) and at least one is wailing by 10 minutes till as we frantically prepare the bottles. How are we going to stretch them to 3 hours?! I'm considering starting with 2 1/2 hour increments, but honestly I'm not sure it will work because there are so many of us programmed now to feed them every two hours, I'm afraid a feeding will fall through the cracks if we change it to odd times...like every 2 1/2 hours. Besides which, it's my night, and I'd rather not rock the boat until this is very well thought out for the least suffering of all parties! :)

And just thinking out loud...some good, small pacifiers might be a life saver.


Tonight I drove an approximately 15 year old street kid to a home for boys. [Thanks to Savannah for taking a triplet feeding for me so that I had time to do this!] As I stood there chatting with the kids and one of their educators who seems to really love the boys, I just kept marveling WOW, they live in a home! They have a roof over their head, some sort of bed to sleep in, regular meals and a schedule, protection, surrounded by people who care for them - and they go to school! Furthermore, they are not being used by manipulative drug/glue dealers, they do not owe large amounts of money to anyone, they do not crave drugs that slowly kill their minds and bodies, they are not fathers by age 15, no police rough them up, they are not cutting themselves and fighting.

I was just so HAPPY for them! And although not surprising, it was disappointing to have the kid I brought change his mind about staying, saying he already needed glue again and wasn't going to be able to make it. And to have another friend, who checked into the same home just this afternoon, give me a bag of his dirty clothes to put back under the bridge whispering "who knows, maybe I won't be here much longer".

But for those who were "saved" in time, who are able to adapt to life in a home...how wonderful!!

About an hour later as I was still feeling so glad after seeing these boys, many the ages of those I visit on the street, in a happy place, I realized..... This is not my usual reaction!! You know, you go to "orphanages" and feel sorry for the poor kids. This just shows how much I've been changed by working with the street community so intensively this year. THOSE are the "poor children/teens" who are at so much risk for everything in the book, and definitely much abuse and an untimely death. The children in the homes, even bad homes, are blessed! The alternative is just so much worse.

So anyway, a small sampling of the highlights from our week so far, and now I need to finalize the song list for this weekend at church...before the next triplet feeding!