Why I Wanted a Baby for Christmas

If you see me relatively often, you probably heard me say, "I just want a baby for Christmas!" more than once over the past two months.

No biological babies for Brian and I for a few more years :) But I really hoped to have our foster license by the holidays. I wanted a little one to share Christmastime with us. Some (including sometimes my husband) don't understand why I'd want to make a chaotic time even crazier. This coupled with the fact some of you may have heard me rambling about babies as I pranced about the law school, makes me think I should explain myself a little.

My family is big - both my immediate and extended. For the past 4 or 5 Christmases, my parents have had at least one foster daughter staying with them through the holidays which grew our family even more. When I was living at home, I loved seeing my sisters' faces when they ran out of their rooms in the morning to check out what Santa has brought them. There was something even more special about seeing the joy in my foster sisters' eyes.

Now, I realize that presents and Santa are not the true reason behind Christmas. I myself love me some baby Jesus, but it's much more than that, in my opinion. There's so much opportunity to spend quality time with family and remember how blessed we are to have everything we do. Christmas music on the radio, holiday parties, and hearing Jesus' birth story at church - it all comes together to create what I think is a magical time for many kids.

I have heard some sad, some amazing, and some hilarious stories from my foster sisters. A and M are two of my foster sisters that are also biological sisters (confused yet?). I'm thankful every day that they were removed from the horrible conditions they had been living in. Last month, A and M were telling me about Christmas with their biological mom. M said, "Yeah, my mom gets all the good deals on Black Friday. She got an iPad for a dollar! And Ugg boots for basically free..." to which A replied: "Umm she stole all of that. That's why it was free." We laughed about it at the time, but when I thought about it later, I was really sad. Sad for my sisters that Christmas had been filled with abuse, violence, and dangerous men. Sad that their mom felt the need to steal in order to provide a Christmas for her kids.

My sisters' situation is what many children in foster care come from. Homes where Santa forgets to come, and they have to listen to their classmates talk about the neat toys they got. Homes where mommy is too drunk to get out of bed Christmas morning. Christmas Eves filled with dad's scary drug-addict friends instead of candle-lit church services. No matter how you celebrate Christmas, no matter what you think the reason for the season is, and whether or not you've already told your kids about Santa, we can all agree this is no way for a child to feel during the holidays.

This, my friends. is why I wanted a baby for Christmas. I wanted to show my foster child that the holidays can be incredible - filled with love, family, hope, and a little bit of Santa :)

Maybe next year <3