Best 8 bucks ever...

Madi has always loves to go to the car wash with her Mimi.  My mom makes up stories while in it about dancing girls in fringy skirts and flirty octupusses waving to the mermaids.  And it doesnt help that my mom is crazy and makes weird noises and voices and just generally could paint drying fun and exciting for a kid!

The last couple of times I have gone, its been alone or just with Madi... before that, everyone was in school.  So last night, I told Mike to stop and go through the wash because the car was nasty and the girls got excited... turns out the other 2 have never been through an automatic car wash!!!

Let me just say... that was THE BEST 8 Bucks I have ever spent.

They truly had a blast.  5 mins of wonder and laughter and lots of questions.

It really is the little things that get me as a foster parent.  Never having been through a car wash.  Never going out to a sit down resturaunt.  Never eating fresh fruit picked straight from a tree. 

We have really been trying to prepare these two for life outside of our home.

We have taught them to properly do dishes.
How to do laundry and get out stains.
The best way to dust and clean a floor.
How to fix things... how to change a light bulb (SAFELY)... how to live life.

We fully expect them to go back to a home where they may have to parent themselves and I hope (i hope i hope) that the skills we have taught them carry them safely through.
And the experiences they have had with us will show them what a family is.  And someday will be able to parent their children like we have parented them.

(This is how we choose to foster all of our kids.  This is the model and plan we have set up for every kid that comes here.  Teaching kids to SAFELY be self-sufficiant while be watched and cared for and monitered here... this is not just specific to our current kids!!)