As you might imagine, our home study has been put on hold.

We still have Christmas decorations up, and now we’ve added piles of mementos, boxes of linens, stacks of papers from MIL’s home to ours.

In other words, our place is a mess.

I’d love to run out and hire someone to ‘handle all this for us’, but actually, it is just going to take time. We are the only ones that will know which mementos to keep. Hubby (an only child) is the only one to go through all the papers and file signatures and death certificates and make decisions.

We have given a lot away to our local foster adoption agency for the birth mothers working to get their children back from foster care. These mothers often have lived in cars, or on the streets or shelters, and are in need of everything.

A few days ago someone came and picked up the kitchen stuff – dishes, silverware, microwave and so forth. I hope MIL would have liked the donation. I pray that the mother who gets the new start in life can take the boxes and the advice and help from various agencies and actually make a go of it.

All too often these moms are in such denial, or stuck in patterns, that they can get on their feet for a few months, but old habits, (bailing out a boyfriend from jail, - saying yes to meth) sets them all the way back to homelessness – or worse.

I wish it were different. One of the families that we’ve kept in contact with over the years has done pretty well. They’ve been in the same house for over two years – the children are all in school. Great stability.

Another family has moved eight times in one year, and we’ve given our throw away items to them again and again over the years. I don’t especially mind – I was going to donate or throw away anyway, but it makes me sad the children will be have a stable life.

There are worse things I suppose. – War, famine, extreme abuse.

So, MIL’s possessions have gone to a good cause – we hope.

May her spirit live on in a these new homes.