trying not to shock anyone

by posting twice in one week....goodness what happened?

She is 1....Rose that is. A little over a year ago if you had told me I would have a newborn in my home I would have laughed and then looked really scared. We had wondered if there was a Rose, for a few months before the actual announcment but chalked it up to rumor. About a month before she arrived the county confirmed that there was a baby, but I think at that time everyone still believed the parents would leave and therefore no baby to place. The call came the day she was born saying mom was in labor and the a placement would be imminent. I think throughout that time I just didn't believe it was possible (mental block, or denial if you will) but reality hit home later in the afternoon on July 7th when the call came saying it's a girl (somehow I knew that, the few things I had purchased just in case were all girl things) (so much for denial)
we were told to be at the hospital on the 9th to pick her up. ok nothing, and I mean nothing can prepare you for a newborn, it really doesn't matter if you have raised 3 children of your own, or that you have taken care of countless babies/children..... a newborn is simply amazing and exhausting. (there is something to being pregnant for 9 months honestly it does prepare you for no sleep) Waking up one morning to a newborn well, it isn't pretty, exhausted didn't begin to describe how I felt, did i mention I didn't take any time off, kept right on working...let's not forget the other 5 children in our home, no none of them took a break from needing us. Yeah it really was an amazing ride. We have weathered much this past year, adjusting to visits with her birth parents, adjusting to life with 6 kids, just simply adjusting. And through out it all in the back of your mind is the question will we still have her at 3 months, or 6months, or will we celebrate her 1st birthday. Well here we are a year later, we have reached those milestones and so many more, celebrating Rose's 1st birthday was an amazing event, made more special just simply because she was still with us. She has woven herself into the framework of our family and enriched our lives in ways I can't begin to count. She is unlike any other child and yet compliments us so wonderfully. We still have uncertainity, will we see her walk, will we celebrate a 2nd birthday... those answers I don't have, but I plan to keep enjoying what I do have and that is the time right now to be with her, the rest we will know when the time is right. no matter the outcome I am always grateful that at this time in my life I have rose. life is truly good.