Woobies wobble but they don't fall down.

I greeted each foster child that came into my care with a soft new teddy bear, and they could choose a hand crocheted 'blankie' from a pile to add to their bed.  Even the teens were given a woobie to love on, talk to and cherish.


I know that the dark scary first few nights in a foster home are made easier with comfort items. Those poor children are often removed without any of their possessions.  It's as if a great fire had come and burnt their lives away.   I can only imagine what it can be like to lose everything familiar in a blink of an eye.



  A child asserts her independence from her parents by attaching herself to a favorite doll, a blanket, in some cases a binkie.  They boost our souls.  When we have our item in hand, all is right and we are safe.

My son had a special quilt that I had sewn and a matching clutch ball of the same calico pieces.  It was a bright and sunny starburst done is yellows,  reds, whites and blues in the joining pieces.  We still have it, put away for his children to use.

I fashioned Soft Sock monkeys for children to have,  the type with the big red lips and the long tail, made from workman's red heel socks.  I made monkeys with costumes and accessories and branched out into dogs with floppy ears and elephants with long trunks and wobbly back legs and teeny tiny baby animals made from sock scraps, small enough for a young infant to hold.  


I did this to honor a feisty little girl who had lost her funny little monkey in a fire a long time ago, and who had risked life and limb to try to save it from burning.  She was such a brave little thing and so fierce and strong of spirit.   Every doll I made I tried to fashion a bit of her spirit into it.  To give children something to hold on and to start to  heal.