Away

I used to long for it to snow when I was a kid.  And growing up outside of Houston, that didn’t happen very often, or well…ever.  And now that I am older, I have an appreciation for the severe lack of snow in my life—especially after the four days I just spent in Washington, DC.

I had to make a business trip to our nation’s capital (and Capitol)– and boy was it a trip.  Little did I know how lucky I was to land at Reagan National Airport on Saturday—a mere 15 minutes before they shut the place down due to the blizzard.  As you might suspect, there weren’t any cabs to be found in the storm, so I got directions for how to walk to my hotel after riding the Metro (for those of you who haven’t learned the lingo, that’s the subway).  What should have been about a three block walk was much longer after I got lost and turned the wrong direction.  This was an especially terrible mistake on my part, given that I had 45 pounds of luggage in tow.  And here is my favorite part—the snow was so deep that every few feet I had to lift my bag up and over the enormous pile of white fluff that built up as I dragged (since it wouldn’t roll in the snow) my bag behind me.  Needless to say, I was more than ready to get back to Texas.

This was the first time that I have ever been away for this long (4 days) while I was fostering.  I am so blessed to have such a fantastic support network, and especially a very dear friend who stayed with Samuel the entire time while I was away.  She really is the best.  It was like I was never gone (except Samuel probably had more fun).  Since I was gone for so long, and gone out of state, Samuel’s caseworker actually had to approve this arrangement—so yes, this was all on the up and up.

Not only did my dear friend make the sacrifice to stay with Samuel, but she of course had her criminal background checked, a TB test, and renewed her CPR/first aid certification.  All that and she took Samuel to the basketball game on Saturday so they could both watch (to their dismay and my pure delight) Baylor defeat the Longhorns!!  Sic ‘em Bears!

I must also mention the dear friends in DC who I was able to visit (and meet for the first time) while I was there.  I treasured the time I spent with the Parker Family.