Guest Blogger Kathy Hagler / A Day in the Life of a Single Adoptive/Foster Mom

Kathy Neill Hagler

April 6 at 8:24pm · 

Today was simply...unbelievable. It all started with a phone call from day care. It seems that some small unwelcome guests had been spotted on the baby's head. So home we head to treat and comb, and comb, and comb. Well, two year olds are not particularly interested in sitting still and the uninvited guests are hard to see on her light-colored hair and scalp. So we head to the back yard where we can sit in bright sunlight with a cup of jelly beans for entertainment. But my back sliding glass door is a bit jinky. It you close it just a little too hard, the latch falls and you find yourself unexpectedly locked out. So now I'm locked out of the house in the back yard with a restless toddler (without shoes), no phone and no keys. As I push open my barricaded side fence door (barricaded to prevent the dogs from digging under and escaping), one of the old rotten boards breaks away, leaving a sizable gap in the fence. Did I mention that I only had slippers on my feet? So down the street I pad with my wet-headed, shoeless toddler. Luckily my good friend Sheila Lene Smith was home. I used her phone to call three different locksmiths, explaining the urgency of my need. No luck. The soonest anyone could get to me was sometime Tuesday morning. My only other option was to pad the rest of the way down to Goddard Jr. High, call Audrey out of class to get her house key, then pad back home, with the toddler who now is loudly proclaiming to the neighborhood that she needs to go POTTY! We get in the house and discover that, sure enough, our beloved Jake has disappeared through the gap in the fence. The toddler is now crying because she knows that Jake is missing and she won't leave the house until we find him. So we load up in the car for the search. A dumpster-diving lady helpfully mentioned that she had seen him "down that way" in the alley. But our search is fruitless. So baby girl is delivered back to day care, inspected and pronounced clean, and I go back to what little is left of my work day. I'm thankful for an understanding boss Shannon White, who has supported and encouraged me through so much time missed at work.
PS- we were blessed to get a phone call from a dog-loving neighbor who found Jake and returned him to us.

Please tell me that I'll look back on all this some day and laugh...please