Today was hard. I sat with two little girls for 5 hours. They were only 3 and 5 years old, but so sweet and full of constant energy.  We cut out paper hearts, colored, cut and pasted, played with toys, and put puzzles together. The girls wanted to go play in the snow, but we could only look at it through the windows into the parking lot.  It was a long time for them to be stuck in an office, but Child Welfare couldn’t find a home for them to go to.

“O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here — that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.” – Walt Whitman

A Jew and a Christian walk into a bar.
…have I got your attention?  Good.  Because it wasn’t a bar, it was a child welfare office, but that felt too wordy for an opening line.

My little boy turned five last weekend.  Each day leading up to The Big Day we fiercely debated what the words “today”, “tomorrow”, and “not yet” meant.

Director’s Notes is pushing pause today to hear from one of the newest members of our OMD family.  As Volunteer Coordinator for our Caldwell, Idaho office, Sarah Wicks has written the story of her first experience as an Office Mom.  It is a beautiful tribute to the raw heartbreak of volunteering, the richness of parenthood, and the abundance found in the middle of it.