Behind the Curtain: Honest Conversations about Foster Care and Adoption
Each episode will feature a conversation between host Rebecca Harvin and foster/adoptive caregivers or members of the community who support foster care and adoption.
Behind the Curtain: Honest Conversations about Foster Care and Adoption
Finding Joy in the Everyday of Adoption
Our conversation today dives deep into the joys of foster care and adoption, sharing heartfelt stories of connection and triumph amidst the challenges. We explore the significant moments that define our experiences as foster parents, offer practical parenting strategies, and celebrate the little victories that shape our family narrative.
• Navigating chaos after the holiday season
• The power of positive stories in foster care
• Celebrating small victories with our kids
• The importance of family travel and experiences
• Embracing patience and understanding in parenting
• Powerful family systems: the tradition of Sunday Sundays
• Welcoming a new puppy into our family dynamic
Hey guys, thanks so much for joining us today. On Behind the Curtain I'm your host, rebecca Harvin, and today my guest is Brad, my husband. He has joined us for a conversation where we keep things a little bit lighter and a little bit on the brighter side of life with foster and adoptive children. It was exactly the conversation that Brad and I needed to have. I hope that as you listen to it, you walk away knowing that you are exactly where you were supposed to be and maybe with an idea or two of systems that you can put in place in your home to make things a little bit smoother. So, without further ado, I hope that you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.
Speaker 1:Okay, so when we're recording this, it is the end of January. It has been a hell of a month. Absolutely, we could absolutely talk about how families recover from the holidays, what that's like, what it's like to go back to school, finally, and then have a three day weekend and then get one more day back at school and then have a snow day that's not a snow day and then go back to school for two more days and then back to the weekend, and what kind of just absolute ping-ponging that does to a family like ours. We could talk about how, when we show up at a social and somebody says, hey, how's it going? And we're like it's rough, how those two words mean something completely different to us than they typically do to the people To someone else saying that yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that we're talking to, but I was just at a podcasting conference last weekend oh yeah, throw that in there of like, I was out of town for three days at the beginning of a three-day weekend.
Speaker 1:So I was at this podcasting conference and I was in this class listening to a speaker talk about how to tell a story and she said you know, like, when we're using emotion, sad isn't the only emotion that you have, and trauma isn't your only story. Trauma isn't your only story. And I think for us right now, in the middle of really still recalibrating from December, I would like to spend some time telling stories that are not sad and that are not about the trauma that is in our house. I would like to talk about foster care and adoption from a lens of hope and triumph and the good things that we have been able to experience over the last eight years of doing this. So, brad, can you think of a time like what's a story that comes to mind of a kid that we've had, or one of the kids in our home right now where you had this moment where you thought I'm in the exact right place at the exact right time?
Speaker 2:For me, rebecca, it goes back to the first placement with the little girl Sweet pea. Yeah, my sweet pea. She would have some trouble sleeping at night or get up rather early, and I was on duty and she loved Peppa Pig.
Speaker 1:Loved it.
Speaker 2:Loved it. She loved jumping in muddy puddles and I mean just ear to ear, would just stare at Peppa Pig. And there was a time when I want to say, it was 3.30 in the morning. I of course would rather be sleeping, but I was out there with her because she was having trouble. We had Peppa Pig on and I reached over and grabbed her hand and she squeezed my hand back. That definitely pulled on my emotional strings pretty well. There I was no longer tired, I was in the moment and I was sharing the moment with Sweet Pea. No longer tired, I was in the moment and I was sharing the moment with Sweet Pea, and I will never forget that was probably one of the first times in this foster and adoptive adventure that I truly felt that way.
Speaker 1:Like you, were in the right place.
Speaker 2:I was in the right place, she was in the right place and I was in the right place.
Speaker 1:She's one of my stories too. She was in the right place and I was in the right place. She's one of my stories too. Okay, she was sick and she remember we had gone. Oh my gosh, listener, discretion advised. Yeah, we had been at your mom's house for one of Zoe I think Zoe's birthday Might've been and your mom had served Superman ice ice cream um, which is multi-colored, fluorescent. Kids love it kids love it absolutely.
Speaker 1:It changes the color of things, you know. Yes, and she got sick the next day and I was washing her up in the bathtub and it was a crime scene is what it looked like. And I just thought, man, what an absolute honor that I get to be the one that's helping her get cleaned right now To comfort her. Yeah yeah, faye was our first caseworker and when she dropped those kids off, it was this moment of identity shift for me. I could feel it happening in real time, that my identity was changing and I think so many times with that first placement, I was so aware of that identity shift and I was so thankful for it. Okay, what's another one?
Speaker 2:Wow, let's see what is another one I would have to say. I mean, I don't know if you've talked about this, but our family we like to travel. Rebecca likes to get out of town as much as as uh possible, uh trying to try to do things, so mine would certainly be uh. Most recently, about a year ago, our current family uh took a road trip up to uh, up to new york, and uh, hold on pause.
Speaker 1:You said our current family, our family is not changing right. This is our family. Correct our family our family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry, just trying to set the stage, but yeah sorry, post-adoption, post-adoption Big trip up the East Coast and we wanted to get to New York City on, I guess, the day before New Year's Eve. We thought maybe it wouldn't be that crowded.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were dum-dums Don't do that if you're doing that. So. But we got there after waiting in line for several minutes maybe close to an hour to go to the bathroom at Whole Foods. We left there and made our way to where all the action was and really just kind of walking around there, knowing the craziness that happened leading up to it For instance, I was in shorts and it was 20 degrees, but there was a reason for that.
Speaker 2:I mean just pulling into the city. So I've never driven into the city. So here I am, driving into the city feeling like Clark W Griswold from the vacation movies and I got the big trailer on the back and I almost get plowed by a bus. Everybody's like freaking out, but we made it to the parking garage anyway. So, and but really just walking around. We, knowing that we cared enough and we're concerned enough with all our kids we're wearing these little orange beanies, uh, to try and keep an eye on and um, yeah, just kind of walking around there, just seeing the smiles on their faces and, um, and the joy that, that that I truly felt emotionally, uh, going through that, uh, which is probably a lot of different for some people that are walking around New York city with six kids. Um, at that age, I mean I was, I mean there was only one scary time, um, but uh, people thought we were crazy, yeah, oh.
Speaker 1:I'm sure I'm sure Everybody that we told that we were doing this, they were like you guys are absolutely crazy, I'm. And, to be fair, we were yeah, absolutely, that's how we roll sometimes. That is how we roll sometimes, but it was really important because we wanted to take them out west.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we wanted to prove that we could travel, not prove I wouldn't say prove that we could travel.
Speaker 1:We need to teach them how to travel. Yeah, like. But the kids, the joy on their face to go into New York City at Christmas time. It was really important, like in all of my research that I did. I did not see that there would be gigantic crowds between December 25th and January and December 31st, but what I did see is like when the light displays would be done Right and so when did you get there before that first? But, um, what I did see is like when the light displays would be done right and so when you get there before that we wanted to get there before.
Speaker 1:What I thought the crowd drop was like the crowd was going to be for the ball drop. Um, incorrect, it is a. It's a nightmare, right? Um, and I wanted the kids to be able to see the lights there. They were obsessed. They are kind of obsessed with New York city, so um, thank you, Elf.
Speaker 1:the movie elf had a lot to do with that and home alone, and so, um, they still talk about it, though knowing that they have gone means something to them. Yeah, core memory, core memory, for sure, oh, we were dumb, for all of us.
Speaker 2:I mean for all of us. I mean it was, it's definitely, it's a core memory, it's definitely stories. I mean you can definitely tell some stories about that entire trip. Yeah, and I think we have. Yeah, what about you? Is there another instance or time?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was this moment with one of our kids that this was before we adopted them, that this was before we adopted them. It was like a year-ish after they came to us, our oldest came pretty significantly developmentally delayed. That's in fact how we got them. It's also like my niche in foster care and so I've been working with him pretty diligently and there was a day he came home and he ran upstairs and when we were foster parents, our names were Mumsy and Bubsy and he came running upstairs and he said Mumsy, mumsy, look at this.
Speaker 1:And he had taken some kind of test I think it was a math test, because he was more delayed in english and reading um, and he had, he got a 100 on it and he was so proud of himself and I was so proud of him and I was standing there in this room and this, I just had tears streaming down my face and I just was like, oh my gosh, we get to do this, like we get to have these moments where we know, because of the work that we're doing in our home, we get to have these other incredible moments of absolute victory, you know, and in foster care, like that victory belongs to a lot of people and I was able to, like, I texted their biological parents, I texted the caseworker, I texted our guardian light of and I just was like, look what he did, look what he did, it was very fun. Like, look what he did, look what he did, it was very fun. Um, what do you think has changed about you, in a way that you like, over the course of the last eight years?
Speaker 2:Something that I like that has changed. Uh, I guess, like in the past, I've been told that I was patient. I don't feel it sometimes, you know, trying to get out the door, whatever the case may be, but having conversations, doing homework, going over a worksheet, something like that I feel like I've learned to have a little bit more patience and I think that has become helpful. I'm not as rushed, I don't have concerns about what's, you know what's going on. Probably another thing would be certainly just just watching, watching, enjoying somebody grow and develop. I mean, we've seen, we've seen a couple of kids take their first steps, but but some of that is also, you know, tied to a little bit of grief.
Speaker 2:I wanted to kind of, you know, follow up with with what you said. As far as you know, in the foster care, I mean, they had their first steps with us and it was all very exciting. Everybody was, you know, great. But you know, at the same time, you know, um, their, you know their biological parents weren't part of that. I mean, I like part of that, like kind of stuck, you know, tugged at me and like, oh man, you know that's kind of rough for those parents not to see that, but you know, we got to experience it and that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Um so, yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's one of the harder things about um, foster care, I think, is that we get to stand in a in the middle of something but at the same exact time, and you get to, we get to do this incredible work and you get to do um, you get to move kids from point a to point B, developmentally and and all kinds of things, but at the same time you know that you're getting things that should not be yours Right, and or would not be yours under different circumstances and um, um, it can be really hard to balance. Yeah, for sure. I think in the recent years for me, not even years, I think over the course of this last year like learning to let go of, and it's a practice. Oh, my gosh, is this a practice? Learning to let go of the outcome? Learning to let go of the outcome, learning?
Speaker 1:to let go of my timeline. Yeah, and I'm using the words learning there really intentionally and I'm using the word practice there really intentionally because I do not do this beautifully. In fact, the other morning I got locked in with one of our kids over something that was just really dumb. And you know what happens when you're locked in and you know you're locked in and you know it's dumb, but you're still locked in and you don't know how to get out. And the whole time in the back of my brain was this practice of you could let this go. You could just let this go. You don't have to do this this morning. You can have a different timeline for this particular behavior to ease its way out of the family.
Speaker 1:And oh, I didn't do that well yesterday, or not yesterday, a couple days ago, I think I did it well at some point yesterday where I was like I don't have to force anything to be right now. This can just be imperfect. I've talked many times on this podcast now about, like, my practice of allowing things to be imperfect on from Saturday at five 30 to Sunday at five 30. And if that doesn't tell you everything that you need to know about how we approach this, but it's really, it is really impactful and it's really reminds me in those moments that this isn't going to get fixed right now and healing is not my like, it's not my job, being present and being loving and, um, I'm loosening my grip on things and I and I think I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like I, I I think I know what you're talking about. And to go back to that day I don't know if it was the same day or the the day after the way you beautifully handled um, being an advocate for one of our kids over the phone. I mean you were talking about, you know you were locked in on maybe something that was silly, but then you came to the defense of one of our kids where a teacher or an after-school worker was being locked in on her. You know, for something as well, for something as well, but just just to watch, you you know advocate for the kids and and and show, you know, show your caring and your, you know your pursuit that you know our kid is a person too, and and you know they have I don't want to say rights, but I mean they, they have the ability to express themselves as well and and to try and steer the other person on the on the other end of the phone, to to kind of realize that I mean just watching that. That that's one of the joys for me in this relationship. I mean, I mean, eight years in, I still, I mean, even with our own kids, I, I can sit back and watch and learn in amazement.
Speaker 2:As far as the advocacy part, when it comes to watching you, whether it's our older kids or the younger ones and that's obviously a huge part of being a parent not just a nuclear family, but also an extended or an adopted family, foster family, something like that I think that it's crucial because they don't have the voice for themselves. I think there's times when we're teaching them to have a voice. I mean, we've gone through that a little more than a month ago. But just watching that materialize and how that dichotomy when you were saying you were dealing with it in the house, you were focused and you knew you could have stepped away, but just how you stepped in with the advocacy for one of our kids is great. I love watching how that works and I certainly learned from it.
Speaker 1:You do yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I definitely do. Do I put it in practice as much?
Speaker 1:as I should?
Speaker 2:No, absolutely. But when I'm in that situation, I certainly pull from it. But when I'm in that situation, I can, I certainly pull from it and I'm doing better as far as it goes. As far as you know, with any of uh, you know, uh, looking at them and and finding out what they need, where, where the shortcomings are, you know what, what systems we can put in place for them, I feel like I'm I've get it, I'm trying to get a better grip on it and, uh, I mean I would definitely like to uh move it into practice as well, a little bit more, instead of just kind of learning from it. I definitely need to take that step forward.
Speaker 1:To be fair in the example that we're talking about, I took the phone from your hand.
Speaker 1:You did I was like give me the phone. This is not. This is not that Brad was doing a bad job, but that what was happening on the other end of the line was annoying me to such an extent that I was like I'm getting involved now. Okay, keeping in line with this, that sad isn't the only emotion and trauma is not the only story that we have to tell. But in narrowing it down and taking that practice into right now, what system do we have in place that works? Like if we were sitting with another couple, another adoptive couple, and they were like hey, what do you do here? And we're like, oh, we could totally tell you that we have this really good system that works.
Speaker 2:I have an idea for one but I want to see what you say first. I feel like it's for us it's definitely the communication over-communicating. You know kind of what needs to be done when it comes to parenting. Rebecca's certainly more of the I don't want to say authoritative. Yeah, yeah, she's more authoritarian, you know she, she's the disciplinarian. I, my role is to kind of keep the house moving a little bit, whether that's Let me clarify I am it's not a democracy in our house, and also I'm not a dictator.
Speaker 1:so we do a lot of choices, I do a lot of choices with the kids yeah, for instance, like I do a lot of choices and I do a lot of um, um, front loading, hey guys, bedtime's going to be in 10 minutes. Hey, just so you know, guys, bedtime's in five minutes. Now's the time to get a drink. Now's the time to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 2:Hey guys, bedtime's in two minutes, Um.
Speaker 1:So when it is bedtime, I'm like it's bedtime right, Like that, those kinds of things, Um, but I do very firmly believe that the parents are the parents and kids are the kids, and so it's not a democracy. And yet your voice matters. It's just not the final thing that matters. And you do the um, you do the practical cooking, cleaning, laundry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, uh, yeah, that's pretty much what I do. In a nutshell, I mean I definitely. I try, I try. Some days are easier than others.
Speaker 1:We've touched on that, like briefly in the last podcast that we were on together, but in terms of like systems in the house that we do, um things that really have seemed to matter for our family, um, I'm thinking Sunday, sundays, oh yeah. I'm thinking um like we need. First of all, we should do that again. It's been a long time since we've done it, but our kids love it and our family really thrives. So do you want to talk about Sunday Sundays, yeah that is definitely something that we we've tried to do.
Speaker 2:We we kind of got off on track, but basically what it is is the first first sunday of every month around. I don't know, it can be it can even be before dinner, it can be after dinner, uh, sometimes it's more fun before dinner. Uh, and basically, uh, everybody gets a nice bowl of ice cream. You can, you know, you can uh doll it up as much as you want, whether it's uh having some, uh, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, uh, it, you know, sprinkles sprinkles are, are always fun Uh, so everybody gets some, uh, some, ice cream and we just kind of sit around and we kind of discuss what is going on for the week, uh, whether it's uh mom's going out of town for a couple days on this day, I don't know Doctor's appointment, eye appointment Kind of a baseball tournament Field trips at school, field trips, and not just the week, but the month.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, sorry for the month. Yeah, that's what I meant. So the entire month. So go through there. We try and fill out the calendar or you can even list it out, whatever the case may be. We also kind of take uh requests for food, for food requests, dedication shout outs for food. You know what do you want? Uh, typically it's always uh, mac and cheese, uh one of our kids loves mac and cheese pizza, you know all that good stuff.
Speaker 1:Hamburgers is always a pretty good one, yeah, and we do this, though, specifically for a reason. Like everything about Sunday, sunday happens for a reason the food one is because our kids Give them a voice. Well, to give them a voice, but also because they annoy the crap out of us with their requests for daily content, like, oh, can we have this, can we have this, can we have this, Can we have this, can we have this, can we have this, can we have this, can we have this. And so Sunday, sundays, is a great time to have a menu board, and one kid is the scribe and we say go for it. Like now's the time, shout it out, like whatever you want to have. And they say put steak on there every time. Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1:We had one foster placement who was like I want lobster. We're like, bring this back down to like a Monday night dinner. Yeah, but it helps them. It helps them. And then, like, you can go through and some kids will be like oh, I want pan, I want breakfast for dinner one time this month. And so, when that happens, like you go and you put a check next to the box, like, hey, we did breakfast for dinner. And they're like oh, this is amazing. Like we did breakfast for dinner and they're like oh, this is amazing. Like we did breakfast for dinner because I asked for it and my parents heard me and they did the thing that I asked them to do Um. It gives kids a tremendous sense of um ownership and belonging in the family. We really need to do Sunday.
Speaker 2:Sunday again, we do Um, and then we have a third section of it and that is goals for the goals for the month, and it could be that you want to do 10,000 steps a day or go to the, go to the gyms, you know three times a week times a week read a book. Yeah, 100 push-ups, yeah anything.
Speaker 1:nobody's putting 100 push-ups on there. I read a book. Yeah Well, somebody listening might put a hundred pushups on their thing, but it has certainly never been on ours. No, you did have pushups on it one time. I had pushups.
Speaker 2:I had steps or stairs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you did it. Yeah, and all of the kids put this. So, like our younger kids will say go to a park. They'll say yeah, they'll say like oh, I want to go to we kind of had to have nicknames for different things and they'll say, oh, I want to go to treasure park, which doesn't have any treasure at it, but that's fine. And then after that, like once you get it on the board, it's it kind of guides the month from there.
Speaker 2:And do we get to everything? No, but we certainly.
Speaker 1:Some things carry over. Some things were like, hey, we didn't make it to the beach this month, let's go, because it's.
Speaker 2:January that will never stop a kid Right.
Speaker 1:Let's go, because it's January. That will never stop a kid, right? Yeah, we should get back into some Sunday Sundays. Our recent thing that has worked is our shoe buckets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have gone through so many iterations of keep your dang shoes off the ground, and this one is, yeah, we moved yeah, we moved it from one spot to somewhere else and it's I don't know if it's more accessible or I don't know what it?
Speaker 1:yeah, it is. So last year I created what I thought was a perfect system. Um, and it's not a perfect system. I've learned if people don't use it correct, if people don't use it, it doesn't matter how well designed this thing is, something about it is not designed well because people aren't using it. Um, that's a little soapbox.
Speaker 1:For a different time I went to the store and I was like I am so done with the mess that is in my house and other moms were laughing at me in Walmart and I didn't care. I was on a mission and I replicated what our kids experienced at school. So, like, when they walk in, you have a place to hang up your backpack, you have a place to put your folder, you have a place to put your water bottle, you have a place to put your shoes in the shoe bucket, in the shoe, like, um, and it's like college dorm stuff is what I got and you know what I'm talking about. There's a little plastic um, um, they're just plastic dressers, basically Right, but they were kid height, um, and there were six of them, six kids, six drawers.
Speaker 1:You put your shoes here. Every single kid had a bin for their for socks to go in the same exact drawer as their shoes. You put your school shoes in here because we have this big old thing with, like, where are your school shoes? Get your school shoes and they're like, oh, this is my school shoes and it's like a flip-flop. But you can't wear a flip-flop to school. No, not even so. Then in the living room we had a tower. It was supposed to be a fruit basket, but it was for the shoes.
Speaker 2:That are not the shoes, shoes that are not.
Speaker 1:It was once a fruit basket, yeah, and I also put a laundry basket in the living room, again just trying to get things off of the floor. This is my daily like get your crap off the floor. Okay, it didn't work. It didn't work at all. And a couple months ago I was like this it took me a year and a half of going like use my system, use my system, use my system. Before, I was like they're not going to use my system. It doesn't matter how much I love my system, they're not going to use it. I need to create a system that they will use. And so we took those plastic drawers out of the closet and we moved it into the living room behind our couch. This is not ideal, you guys. I don't love that. These are in my living room even though they're not like.
Speaker 2:It's not a complete eyesore, but yeah, it's not a complete eyesore but it's yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not a complete eyesore, but it's yeah. So all of their shoes go into their drawer. And then also, because our kids go to an art school, they have dance and so they have to dress for ballet, and all of that is also there. It's kept there, and socks have their own drawer.
Speaker 1:All the socks that they got for Christmas loads and loads of socks are all in there where they have to go, where they have to go, and so this system has worked. Yes, yeah, astonishingly, this system, like their shoes go into this bucket. It's not by the front door. I want it by the front door. It's not by the front door. We still cannot get backpacks off of the ground. No, jackets are on the dining room table. Front door. It's not by the front door. We still cannot get backpacks off of the ground. No, um, we don't. Jackets are on the dining room table. They have no place to go in our house. It's a disaster, but the system that is currently working is shoes have a home. Yep, for the love of god.
Speaker 2:Next, up jackets and backpacks. Got it all right.
Speaker 1:So wow, oh, if anybody else is having like a visceral reaction to the idea of shoes being on the ground like I do, I just swear to you, all you have to do is multiply something by six and it just skyrockets.
Speaker 2:Everything about how you feel about that thing skyrockets absolutely yeah, and when I'm having a bad day, whether coming home from work or whatever the case may be, everything about how you feel about that thing skyrockets. Absolutely yeah. And when I'm having a bad day, whether coming home from work or whatever the case may be, and I trip over somebody's shoe, that just puts me in the red, tremendously.
Speaker 1:It can be anybody's shoes. Oh, 100%, even Rebecca.
Speaker 2:I will, although I will not snap it, rebecca. I will grumble and calmly pick up the shoe and find its pairing and walk it back to our room and probably put it in the wrong place in the room.
Speaker 1:But I don't know what you're talking about, but yeah so the yeah, the shoe, shoe thing Next up? Yeah, sorry, sounds like we literally just spent 10 minutes talking about shoes.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, it is what it is. I mean, uh, I'm sure there's other people out there that uh feel the same way.
Speaker 1:I think, going back to my comment, like take anything and multiply it by six, yeah, and it becomes. It's a whole different universe, like good and bad, right, like when our house is joyful, it's really joyful. When it's working well, it is really like it's. We don't take it for granted. And in the moments where it's not, it's like multiply that by six. It's not. It's not just one kid ever. Um, when it's chaotic, all of those things, and then when it's chaotic, all of those things, and then you know, I think the other day I was looking at the dogs oh, is there something that you would like to tell our audience, who maybe listens to the last podcast that you were on? Is there a confession that you would like to make about how there's a new heartbeat in the family? And then we're going to end on this, yeah, so wow, was wow.
Speaker 2:Was that recorded before? It was recorded before? Okay, yeah, Bradford, yeah. So we have a new heartbeat in the house and I'm sure a lot of people out there probably thought that Rebecca was part of it, but it ended up being me. We knew that this puppy was around. Good friends of ours.
Speaker 2:We went and visited the puppy, I guess I don't know weeks before and, yeah, just before an event, we were sitting in traffic. I'm like, hey, can I, can I see a picture of that? Oh, let me, let me see a picture of that puppy. She's so cute. And I was like, oh, wow, she is really cute and it had been coming up on a year since, uh, my claribel uh, passed away and so so after we did our shopping that day, we went and went and met the little puppy and that was that was it for me for sure. I mean, she definitely melted my heart. We ended up picking her up a few days later, three or four days later. Her name is Cornelia. She is a standard poodle, white standard poodle. She's been with us since November 10th the 12th wait.
Speaker 2:The gala was on the 10th, so 12th yep so Tuesday, the 12th, and it is when we picked her up and she's been part of our family since then.
Speaker 1:Wow, that doesn't just two months, it doesn't seem it seems much longer um, but uh, yeah, she's.
Speaker 2:Uh, she's absolutely yeah she's officially zoe's.
Speaker 1:Yes, and in both her heart and zoe's she's officially zoe's. It's very cute. And also the other day she and chase Chase's dog, susie, were roughhousing underfoot on our not snow snow day. Yes, and I was like son of a biscuit eater here we go, oh you guys, anyhow, okay, well, I think that that does it for today, so we can talk about the hard and the recovery a different day, but I am very thankful for this conversation, because I think it's what we needed.
Speaker 2:I agree.
Speaker 1:Before we started recording this, this version of it, brad and I had started recording a different version, and we are still so much in the middle of recovering from Christmas break that we just kind of sat here and we were like we don't even know how to talk. So accurate. Yeah, this conversation was exactly the thing that I needed today to same as well.
Speaker 2:I think it was good for us yeah.
Speaker 1:So all right, well, we'll see you on here next time.
Speaker 2:Thanks for coming forward to it. Thanks.