Mike - Mike Ruman | Husband, Father, Friend, Fighter

Our First Foster Placement Felt Like a Drug Deal

Last night at the foster care round table someone asked us foster parents “What was your first placement like?”

We have a great story, and this is it.

Lisa and I had been certified for about a week when we got the call. “7 month old girl … short term … can you take here?” We immediately said “YES!”. “Ok, we’ll call back with further instructions.”

Huh? Did we just step into some James Bond flick?

They did call back. “Meet a white van behind the Village Inn on Garden of the Gods.”

Really? Is that how our department of human services works? Meet some random person at some random location to pick up a random child? The answer is “yup”.

So, we got Cooper (who was 18 months) loaded into our minivan and headed off. It was about 10PM so things were really dark. We pulled into the Village Inn and waited … for the white van … and then we waited … and waited some more.

Finally around 11PM a white van DID pull up. Was this them? They pulled up next to us and a lady came out. She looked legit.

She asked us if we were the Rumans. We said “yes”. She then proceeded to open the side door and there was this precious little baby, sound asleep.

It’s a humbling feeling when you get passed your first foster child. The government really trusts us enough to put us in charge of a random human life? It truly is an honor.

Well, that’s the story of our first placement. The rest have been rather, well, dull compared to that one. But that’s the fun of foster parenting, you never know what that next call may entail.

Filed Under: Foster Parenting

I Can No Longer Bear Children

by Mike

Today I had “the procedure”. You know that one that stops you from procreating, that one. No more little Rumans coming from this man.

My “oh crap” moment happened while I was sitting in the waiting room to be called back for the procedure. I overheard the receptionist talking to a nurse, “this lady wants to schedule a reversal” she said. The nurse hollered back “She needs to have the $4,000 up front before we can schedule it.”

What?

About 5 minutes before that I signed a paper saying “You understand this procedure is irreversible.”

“Okay, which one is it” I thought.

“Mike Ruman … c’mon back.”

Looking back I laugh a bit, but not too much cause I’m still in pain. Things like this happen to me a lot. My life is filled with irony. But, I like irony. And I like my life.

The procedure was not as bad as I thought. Even the initial numbing wasn’t bad. I’ve heard the second day can be worse, so I’m not gonna say I’m in the clear quite yet.

Now that it’s done I can reflect a little bit. I thought I’d have more emotions before today. I still don’t consider myself old, or even an adult, yet I’m done making babies? Maybe it just hasn’t set in yet.

Either way I have more of an appreciation of what women, and in particular my wife Lisa go through for child bearing. I am by no means comparing my procedure with child bearing, but I do know what it feels like to be sore down “there”. And then to have to take care of a baby AFTER you birthed it is incredible.

My blog is random. This post is filed under Parenting. I hope it fits.

Filed Under: Publishing

Holy Cow! The Twins are Turning ONE!!!

by Mike

Lisa and I are planning the twins first birthday party. OMG!

I remember the day I got the call. It was a Friday afternoon and I was meeting in my office with a coworker when the phone rang, it was Lisa.

“You are gonna think I’m crazy, but there are twin 5 week olds, what should we do?” she said.

Without thinking I said “Sure, why not.”

Thing is Lisa was about 3 months pregnant at the time and your chances of getting babies in foster care are slim to none, so I figured we had about a 10% chance we would get them. And that may be guessing a little high.

When I got home from work we got the second call saying come to the hospital to pick them up. “WHAT?” Excitement, fear, and about 10 other emotions went through my mind. And then I thought “oh crap, I gotta get a crib put together” (thankfully we could put both babies in the same crib). So Cooper and I went to work and Lisa went to the hospital to meet our new foster babies.

Lisa didn’t get home till late that night with the two little bundles of joy. They were so small. I mean like 4lbs each small. So small I was scared to hold them.

I remember Little Girl looked like she was gonna take her last breath at any minute. So frail. So precious. She was in rough shape. She had spent the first 15 days of her life in the ICU.

Mr.Peepers, well, he was a cutie since day one. Just a cute kid, still is.

We have a TON of stories that have happened between that night and now, so many. One day I will put them all in a book, a book called “What We’re We Thinking?” or something like that. For now this is all I have time to write.

It’s been a long 11 months with the twins, and Cooper, and then Sydney. Not much sleeping at the Ruman house, but God has provided rest, a little, well enough. This Sunday’s sermon was about “Give us today our daily bread.” And God has done that, every single day.

The future of the twins is sitting down at the courthouse now. We are patiently waiting to see what their future holds. If we get the nod we would love to be their forever family, but we also support whatever the legal system decides. I do pray for bio Mom and Dad. I cannot even imagine what their last 11 months have been like. I know what ours has been; tough, rewarding, emotional, draining, joyful, and much more.

Happy Birthday Little Girl and Mr.Peepers. Love Mommy Lisa and Daddy Mike. :)