The Joys of Fostering

This is why I love fostering. You get to witness children of all ages experience their first of many different things. With a younger child it may be first foods, first steps, first words and with older children it may be first time following through on a goal, first A in school, or first time traveling out of the state. The Cheerleader recently experienced her first camel ride, her first giraffe feeding, and her first trip to the aquarium. The week-long smile on her face was so wide it made my heart swell with happiness. Adding to the joy of watching kids experience their firsts, is getting to watch The Daughter hold their hands both literally and figuratively through the process. "This is how you hold the giraffe food." Said the 5 year old to the 17 year old, and "Here is where you sit on the camel so you don't fall off." I took pictures until the batteries went dead and then I continued taking snapshots in my mind. BabyBoy and The Daughter rode the carousel 9 times, one was enough to make me queasy. Together they unearthed a Basilosaurus fossil and herded sheep into the corral, working cooperatively as brother and sister.

Another thing I love about parenting all these children is participating in the teachable moments. There were people working in a zoo exhibit and when I said "Look, there's a couple of Homo Sapiens!" The Cheerleader didn't get it so we had an impromptu science lesson. I challenged both The Daughter and The Cheerleader to tell me one fact about each animal. If they didn't know one, I would teach them. The Rhino's horn is made of the same stuff as your hair - keratin. Did you know the Hipoo can run up to 30 miles per hour? It's true. Que the song I like em big, I like em chunky. I like em round, I like em plumpy.

When at the zoo and aquarium, it's also fun to identify animals in movies. What kind of fish is Nemo? Clown fish. Let's see if we can find and name all of the characters from the movie Finding Nemo. Can you find Timon and Pumba from The Lion King? We couldn't pass the lemurs without singing "I like to move it, move it, MOVE IT" from Madagascar. The Red Panda is no longer known as "awe cute" but as the all-knowing warrior "Shifu" in Kung Fu Panda. We went to see a man about a Wallaby over in the Kangaroo Kountry exhibit.

"Then she looked at the wallaby, sprightly and small, Exactly like her only not quite so tall. She widened her eyes, And cried with surprise, A kangaroos life's not so bad after all. Marsupial Sue, No longer so blue: You're happy with who you are."

And sang Rescue Pack, Coming to the Rescue while on our journey to find Spider Monkeys and the Maned Wolf. The only reference that neither kid got was to Smegal from Lord of The Rings which they haven't seen, but perhaps the cotton top tamarin just wasn't a close enough resemblance.

This is why I do this. This is why I foster. For the children.