An Update: Part 2

When Little Man and Baby Girl arrived, Grant and I, despite our best efforts to appear calm must have looked totally frenzied.  We took the kids downstairs to our play area right away because all kids want to do at 6PM is play, right?  We usually eat at 7 or 7:30 and have for years, so the thought that they'd be hungry didn't cross my mind.  Grant left to go get food, formula, diapers, a car seat, a baby monitor and other goods we'd decided to wait to purchase until we knew the ages of our first placement.  This left me alone, in the basement with two babies.  After exactly eight minutes I called Grant.

"I can't do this.  I can't do this.  What do I do with them?  Please come home quickly."

He hadn't even arrived at Target. 

I'm not sure what he said, but I wasn't hearing anything then.  About eight hours later (not really, it just felt like it), Grant returned with bags and bags and boxes of stuff.  He helped me feed the kids and then it was off to bath time. 

The scene I'm about to describe is not one from a Ron Howard movie, however if he would like pointers on recreating the following, I'll gladly give them because I'll never forget this part of our first night as parents. 

Bath time sounded fun and easy to us because we'd have two kids corralled into a three-by-five foot space.  I got the water running and disrobed Little Man.  Once I'd done so he informed me he needed to potty so I put him on the toilet.  Awesome, I thought, he's potty training!  He promptly freaked out and screamed as loudly as he could.  He didn't want me to take him off the toilet but being there seemed to be just as terrifying. He told me with his shrieks.  Water running, toddler screaming.  (We would learn about four days later that Little Man requires a laxative in his morning juice.  Poor guy was in pain.) 

Grant was in the other room changing Baby Girl out of her clothing.  You see, we thought then that since we had a changing pad, it was the only suitable surface for diaper changing.  In the next five hours we'd learn that any flat surface is good for changing diapers (don't worry, Mom, we've never changed a kid in the kitchen or on our dining room table.).  Grant rushed into the bathroom, naked baby in arms, to see why Little Man was wailing.  While I tried to convey my confusion to him over the screams and the rushing water, Baby Girl must have been moved by the Spirit to complete the movie-esque nature of the moment because she peed all over Grant.  Water running, screaming toddler, peeing baby, exasperated/shouting husband. 

Grant handed me the baby, who I immediately placed into the tub.  I decided that water would be a good distraction from whatever was ailing Little Man so I plucked him from the pot and into the tub, shut off of the water and began toweling pee from off the of the bathroom floor.

Quiet. 

I sat on the toilet next to the tub and let my eyes glaze over for a moment.  I'd give myself thirty-seconds to think all of the self-doubting, defeatist thoughts and then it was time to get back to reality.

Bed time was easy.  Grant took care of the boy and I took care of the girl.  Even now this is our nightly system.

The first weekend with the kids was unbelievably challenging.  In addition to this entirely new lifestyle, I was scheduled for three work events on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon.  On Sunday night dear friends Todd and Hayley came over for a few hours and sent us out the door to eat supper and be away.  I didn't know how necessary that was until we sat down for supper.  Grant and I were able to talk, fill our gullets and begin to process what was happening.  They were truly instrumental in maintaining our sanity.  Upon returning from our outing, Luke and Laurel came by with a giant box of girls clothing (which Baby Girl needed BADLY as very few of the clothes that came with her fit.)  So many blessings!!!



Baby Girl



On Monday night more dear friends, Ty and Brandy came over with dinner and hands ready to work.  Our case worker had just dropped of two more duffel bags of the kids' belongings and while this was hugely helpful, the volume of stuff overwhelmed me.  Ty went to work getting a face mask necessary for Baby Girl's nebulizer (she'd been with out it all weekend and was sorely needing it) and came home successfully with one as WELL as a bat and ball for Little Man!  All the while, Brandy sorted clothes, organized them in drawers (she appreciates organization just as much as I do and this is one of a million reasons we're friends), and provided a calming presence which soothed me.  I worked to clean and put away "stuff" which after the long weekend was everywhere while Grant occupied the kiddos.  By 8:30 the kids were asleep, our house was back in order, and Ty had assembled the goods Brandy had cooked onto plates for us.  We sat down and ate together and then proceeded to laugh and laugh and laugh.  That night we all slept well.

Little Man

The coming week we had the best type of problem.  We were bombarded with phone calls, texts, and emails from friends and family wanting to hear about our kids, offer help, pray for/with us and asking what they could send or give us that would be of help.  The problem was that Grant and I were struggling to find time to use the restroom, never mind catch up on texts. 

It was awesome.

I'm not being facetious either. We felt/feel so supported and loved and even now on into week three we have been overwhelmed with love and support.

Thank you to all of you who have lent a hand, given us encouraging words,  brought us dinner, given us your child's old ______ (hand-me downs and Craigslist are officially my favorite things) and prayed for our household.  I'm not sure where we'd be without all of it.  Our God is so, so good.  He is merciful and has been so gracious to the Mankin household!  Here is a song I've been singing to Baby Girl as I put her down at night.  It's been a favorite of mine for about a year now, but in the last few weeks it's taken on new life.

Thank you, Father, for NEVER leaving us alone!

*Very little focus was put on Mr. Mankin in this post, but I look forward to documenting how incredible he is as a Pop.  More to come on that, because I pretty much can't NOT talk about it.