Dinner salad

Foster parenting is so amazing and I learn so much from these little kiddos who steal my heart in an instant. We had a sweet friend stay with us who was about 11. We we're told he had extreme behavior issues and was so naughty they had nowhere else to put him. We were asked to take him for 5 days or as long as we could stand whichever came first.  

 On his second day with us he was sitting, watching as I made dinner so I asked if he wanted to help. He washed his hands and jumped right in.   When we were finished he came over to me and said "do you guys do this every night?". "Do what?", I asked. "This", he said. It took me a minute to figure out what he was referring to, because nothing we'd done was out of the ordinary....or seemed to be worthy of the excitement in his voice. 

He must've seen the confusion on my face, cause he explained further, "do you guys always have dinner like this, with everyone helping" same excitement in his voice. 

 I wouldn't say that we take that time for granted cause we definitely know how important family dinners are. They are pretty non negotiable... In fact it's never really even come up.. because it's just something that just...is.

 But what I will say about this interaction is that it made me realize that these every day things that we do without even thinking about .. Foster kids do not. Never have..  this kid doesn't have a family to eat meals with, or help cook. There are many things like this... This is just one that seemed so basic.  It caught me off guard. 

 My little friend became the family salad maker that night. .. He enjoyed every second of it.. and though I cannot post a picture of him, I can post a picture of the wonderful salad he helped make the next night. 

Oh and if any of you were wondering if foster parenting is for you, let me tell you that a positive change in someone's life can be done over dinner..