28

Today I turned 28.

While I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook, today it was making me feel the love!
Birthday wishes from friends and family.
While I know that most people only knew it was my birthday because FB told them so, it still feels good to have people take a moment out of their day and wish you a happy birthday.

Other than my phone dinging all day with texts and FB updates, my day was just like any other.
This afternoon I did a parent/sibling visit for a little guy.

Well, he's not so little, but in so many ways he seems so young.
Too young for the stuff that is going on in his life.

As we ended the visit (early, due to mom's negative comments about her sons and her situation), the little guy gave his mom a hug and told her that he loved her.

He stood there, waiting to hear those 3 little words that every child needs to hear from their mom.
Nothing.
She barely hugged him back.
I wanted to cry.

The day that I am reminded over and over how blessed and loved I am, a little heart broke.
All he wanted was to know is that he is loved, and all he got a rejection.

This typically active, energetic, happy, not a care in the world boy was crushed.
He walked to my car with shoulders slumped and didn't talk to me until we pulled into his foster parent's drive.
Thankfully, I had some fruit snacks in my car, and gave him a pack.
Something, anything, to try to make his day a little better.

I know that fruit snacks can not, in any way, make up for his heartache. But I wanted him to at least end his time with me knowing that someone cares about him.
We fist pumped and he walked inside.

Please pray for this little guy. And his 2 brothers that are currently living with mom. There is a court appointment coming up and most likely the 2 bothers will be removed from mom's home as well. This will be for the best, but it also has caused mom to give up. She knows that she has made so many mistakes that at this point, she has no hope of keeping her boys at home, or having my little guy return home.
But she doesn't really seem to care. And she has told the boys that too.
She knows her life will be easier without them in it (at least on a daily basis) so she isn't trying.

Pray that God's love can be shown to these 3 boys.
That healing can begin in their lives and that they can know that no matter what happens with their mom, they have a Father in heaven who loves them and desires a relationship with them.