Baby update...

I promised pictures in my last post of sweet baby L. It's been a while since I last posted. So much has happened. A few of you already know what happened but this post is for those that don't know.
We picked up baby from the hospital on Monday. She was a very sweet, gentle baby and she loves to be held. She rarely cried (just when getting her diaper changed or during her sponge bath, or if I took too long getting her bottle ready). She has such a sweet spirit and we just fell in love with her. Wednesday we had a court appointment for baby to be officially placed into foster care with us, even though the social worker was working hard to find another home for baby. Thursday we got the sad news that baby would be going to a different family. Kaitlyn and Jared cried when they heard the news.

I forgot to mention in my last post that baby is part Native American. It is because of this reason alone that we couldn't keep her with us. The federal government signed an Act that protects children of Indian descent. This act says that if a child is part Native American Indian (it can be as little as 1/8) they must find suitable a suitable home from this list: 1- immediate family (brothers/sisters, aunts/uncles, grandparents, etc.). 2- Native American family of the same tribe as the child. 3- Native American family of a different tribe. 4- licensed foster family that is Native American. 5- foster family licensed with the local Indian Reservation which in our case is the Fort Hall Reservation and finally 6- state licensed foster family. If they can't find anyone available from number 1-5, then they go to the state foster family which is what Eric and I are. Even if the child doesn't look like they're Indian, if it is mentioned/documented at all, the state must follow these guidelines mentioned.

When the social worker came to pick up baby, we asked about what it would take to keep her (we really wanted her to stay with us). She said that unless we have Indian heritage, it won't be possible. That's when Eric mentioned that his father was 1/4 Cherokee Indian. That would put us at number 4 on the list (which is the same as the family Lakota went to). Since we can't prove it, baby went to another family who is Native American. (That's a good motivator to us to finally do Eric's family history!) This Act stems from years of government interfering with the Indian culture. They just want to keep their children close and make sure they know of their noble heritage. We met the foster mom who baby went to (the father was away on business at the time). We had a chance to visit a couple of times so I know she's in good hands. It still doesn't make me miss her less though.

My only regret is that I didn't spend enough time holding her. She was almost never put down, she was held all the time by Kaitlyn, Jared, my friends, and SIL. I tried to hold her as much as possible during the day but I had some serious competetion (from Kaitlyn). At least I had her to myself at night (and those were the sweetest times).