Volunteering

I spoke with the organization that I blogged about. I was up front and honest about my time with MELD and how we butted heads at the end over the Mom's bringing in wet and hungry babies. She told me to expect the same thing with them but the limit is five kids.

I had to explain myself better. It wasn't just about the Mom's not being prepared but MELD wasn't doing anything about it. As in how am I suppose to take care of a hungry wet baby if I dont have a bottle or diapers. It's not that all the Mom's came in unprepared or MELD never had diapers and wipes available but towards the end the supplies just were not there.

This new place assured me that supplies are not an issue. Parents will drop off dirty childrn and we would be expected to go as far as bathing them. This doesn't bother me and I am getting excited about volunteering again.

From what I read they do quite a bit. They seem to be a resource for special needs children. It looks like they are connected with an adoption agency and it happens to be the one that gave me free counseling twice even though I didn't place thru them.

I go in Friday for a 30 minute orientation on volunteering for them. They are pretty close to where I live. It will be so much easier to drive the 5 minutes or so compared to the 25 to 30 minutes it took me when I volunteered for MELD.

I don't know if I should bring up my reasons on why I feel called to volunteer babysitting for children. I could give the generic answer is that I take care of the elderly, have a pre teen and a almost grown child and I just love the change of pace of being around young children.

Or my long version, that I got involved with MELD shortly after I connected with my daughter on FB that had been placed for adoption as a newborn and I believe in parents having the resources to give them a chance at raising their child. No offense to my adoptive parents pals on here.

This is a place where parents in emergencies can bring their children to get care while they deal with whatever brought them to need the care. I find it ironic that I found this agency just weeks after a young Mom of 19 years of age who had an 11 month and a 3 week old baby staged a kidnapping and left her child in a ditch and reported her missing. This wasn't in my city but close enough for news to spread.

We also have the baby Crystal case of the Mom who left her child to freeze to death in the papers and my husband and I have discussed that there isn't enough places where people can get help. He wasn't justifying the Mom's reasons for leaving her newborn in a ditch but guess could relate to being out of her mind. I really can't relate to it.

I don't plan on going weekly but haven't decided how many hours at a time. Not sure of what the requirements will be in a situation where they have child care available 24/7