Look! There with the baby! It’s Super Mom!

We have had our new foster baby Ariana for a week now. She’s just 12 days old, and perfect in every way. Except she doesn’t sleep. At all. Okay, that’s wrong. She sleeps a lot, but never more than an hour, maybe two at a time. Those of you who have had newborns know all about that. Cry, eat, poop, sleep for an hour. Repeat until oblivion. It is hard taking care of a newborn.

And my wife hasn’t stopped smiling since this beautiful little girl came into our home. She sleeps, when she sleeps, in a recliner or on the couch. Usually with Ariana in her arms. She changes innumerable diapers, washes and fills formula bottles, keeps Ariana clean and well-dressed, takes her to doctors and the adoption agency, shows her off to everyone she meets, and still has the energy to smile and be the wife to me and mother to Rachel that should make her the envy of the entire world.

She is Super Mom! I am in awe. This is a woman who has raised three of her own children, but still has such a heart for infants that she is willing to sacrifice her time, her energy, her sleep for a new child. And she wants to keep doing this. We had two whole weeks between letting Rodie go to his new family and the call notifying us about Ariana. And Shan absolutely jumped at the chance to care for her. She has been looking forward to this for a long time, and she is giving Ariana the best care that anyone could ever hope for. Rachel is also on cloud nine, and I can see the kind of mother she is going to be one day. It makes me swell with pride. I am just the third string in this game. I love little ones, and I pitch in where I can, which translates to I get to hold Ariana when Shan and Rachel have to do something else.

So, here’s to Super Mom. And to Super Sissy. Children will bless your names for generations to come.