The Toddler: Why Us?

MHW and I have long wondered how it was that the Toddler formerly known as the Baby made her way to us on that fateful day in July 2005.

Yesterday, we found out.

Once ACS calls OHEL with a placement request for a Jewish child, OHEL has 24 hours to get it done; if they can't place the child in a Jewish home, he or she goes back into the general foster population.

In our case, in accordance with their normal policy, the people in charge of placement got together with some of the senior foster care people and went down the list of available foster homes. They ranked the homes by who would be appropriate as well as who might be likely to take the baby. Then they start dialing.

It turns out we were third on the list.

The first call was to a childless couple. They were unable to take the baby because they were in the country and were caring for another child with special needs. The second couple was interested but the prospective mother had to check some things out (presumably with her husband). MHW got the third call and in an entirely uncharacteristic manner decided on the spot to take the baby. (She then called me to tell me of her decision and to get my blessing).

Yesterday we discovered that the second woman was calling the OHEL representative at the very same time that she was speaking to MHW. She was calling to tell her that they were willing to take the baby. Had MHW told the OHEL representative that she needed to touch base with me (which is what MHW did on every other placement we had ever done) it is likely that we would not have gotten to care for the baby. Spooky.