I think Gracie won her over!

Well, I have a little story to tell you.

Last week I took over the care of a cute little 90 year old guy who lives by himself and has two caregivers that tend to him every day through the week. One of the caregivers is a VERY gruff and sometimes grumpy lady who is almost as old as my patient is. She's prone to yelling and now is known for her biting and sarcastic remarks as she hangs up on you. That was my introduction to "Joanne". She wanted my cell number. I'll give her some credit and say that it was for the benefit of her charge, but do you think I would give her that number? Absolutely not!! Why would I ever do that? I have reiterated multiple times that it's simply against company policy to give our cell numbers to patients for the primary reason that it's not a 24 hour number and we have a 24 hour call system for any calls they needed to make.

As I met my new patient and his caregivers, I revealed a little bit about myself. I told them about my big kids and also told them about this amazing, exciting, painful process known as Gracie's adoption. I didn't elaborate much, but I did let them know that one goal I have is to achieve stability with him before I leave for my adoption. Of course, not knowing when that will happen, I'm trying to rush to that point of stability. :)

I could see Joanne's demeanor soften as I continued to talk. Her gruffness eased and she actually had a faint smile on her face. She later told me in private that she had herself been adopted and she was moved and blessed when she heard of my adoption. In her lifetime, she has rarely opened up about this to anyone.

Today we talked again about the adoption. We talked about the pain she felt when kids would tease her about being adopted. She had a good upbringing and was well loved by her adoptive family which includes her now 62 year old sister who has Down syndrome. :) I immediately whipped out my favorite picture (conveniently located as my wallpaper on my laptop) of Gracie. She grinned ear to ear. She's so excited to meet Gracie when she comes home. Even my patient shared in the moment and told of two little girls that he and his wife had adopted and how wonderful it was to be their father.

Gracie's done it again. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that she'll do it again and again. She's stolen someone's heart without even so much as a hug or a kiss. How blessed am I that I've gotten those hugs and several kisses to go with them. I can't wait for more!

LOVE THIS GIRL!!!!