Echo!

On Wed, January 30th, I got a phone call from Matt Watkins, the head of DCFS placement here. He said he had a weird situation that had only come up once before. There was a baby in the hospital, and he needed someone to go sit with her. The parents had been arrested for an altercation in the hospital, and they'd both had meth in their possession. Extended family members had come a few times, but the baby was now alone, and the hospital staff couldn't be with her all of the time. (Although they'd all taken turns and were in love with her.) Matt said that they needed me to go sit with her for as long as I could and then take her home for a few days until the extended family members came and got her. I was a little concerned about the situation, but I went. She was so sweet and fragile, but I was inexperienced with a newborn after years of older kids. Echo was one month old, and so tiny. I felt self-conscious taking care of her around others in the hospital. When I brought her home, I forgot to bring blankets for her in the winter, so they gave me a couple. Again, I felt a bit inadequate.

When we came home, she was on oxygen, and so I mostly stayed upstairs in Jonah's room where we were keeping her. (Later, I would unplug and go downstairs to use the portable tank there. We got better at it.) The oxygen was such a pain as I took her to visits and appointments. I hated it. But we adored her- right from the beginning! It was so fun to pick out dresses with the girls. And my kids got to see and hear all of the things a newborn does - arm and leg movements, little sounds, and sleep smiles. (She actually did smile twice when she was two months old!)

That big headband was one that a nurse bought her. Kind of odd.

I had purchased this bassinet and the saucer seat below
 when we first started thinking about foster care.

She didn't love the bath seat, so we got a little tub.

I couldn't post any photos of them on social media, so I took these to show.

After a few weeks, they said that Echo's uncle was going to get her. Then the mom and dad said they wanted her, so we did weekly visits and waited to see what would happen. Eli worried early on that maybe we shouldn't get too attached, because we'd just get hurt when she left, but then all of us just fell in love - with both kids. How could we not?