A Swimming Date with the Forever Home Girls

On my last full day at New Day, I was given the privilege of spending the day swimming with the Forever Home Girls. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end my time here. Being a Southern California girl, I have dearly missed the beach this summer. So when I heard the Forever Home girls were taking a plunge this week at a local public pool, I didn’t want to miss this opportunity.

With 11 of us in one car, we were packed like sardines but no one seemed to complain…until we arrived at the pool that morning only to discover it was closed! The man at the entrance told us that the pool was scheduled to open around 1PM that day. Since it was only around 10:30AM at the time we had no clue what we would do with our next three hours. On a whim, we decided to head to a mall right next to McDonald’s—a treat that the girls have been waiting for all summer. Each of us girls held onto our partner’s hand as we hopped onto the escalator of a Chinese department store. We “oohed” and “ahhed” all the pretty clothes, dolls, and school supplies. The girls’ eyes beamed as they asked, “What’s this? What’s that?” We also stopped outside a bakery to look at the different cakes in the window. I asked Elizabeth (not myself, but the smaller one) to point out which ones had cherries on top and which ones looked the tastiest. As we looked at those delicious cakes, our tummies began to grumble, so we headed off to McDonald’s for lunch.

Each of the girls got a chicken sandwich with fries and a drink. Little did we know that the chicken turned out to be wayyy too spicy for some of the little ones. Jenna, especially, could hardly keep down one bite. So mom and dad got her Chicken McNuggets, which she happily munched on and finished!

Afterward, we headed back to the pool to cool off. It was so funny watching the different girls’ reactions to the water. Elizabeth dipped one toe in and shrieked, “It’s cold!” Hannah, on the other hand, jumped right in, dunking her head in the water and bubbling up to the surface with a huge grin on her face. Jenna, dressed in her ballerina bathing suit, had such a blast with dad, who cheered her on as she kept going back to the water slide.

Spending the day with the Forever Home girls was so great that I didn’t want the day to end! Sunny and I sat in their living room for a while afterward making faces at the girls and enjoying our lollipops and candy bracelets. As we got ready to leave, Serena came over, gave me a big hug and asked, “When are you coming back?” I was so shocked and didn’t know what to say, so I told her, “I don’t know, but I want to try my best to come back as soon as I can.”

Thank you, New Day, for an amazing month. I have seen miracles in the faces of your foster children and it has been a joy to be among you all.

Praying to some day see you all again,
Elizabeth