Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween.

SO happy to have our kids living at our house for the holidays!  We had such a great night tonight!

Monday, October 29, 2012

interesting.

Everything is going great :)  I just dropped by to say hi, I don't have much time to go into details right now.

The kids were thrilled that they get to stay FOREVER!

Interesting things have come up, been noticed.

I have noticed:


my 6 year old seems like he is emotionally 3 1/2 years old (i noticed this the first day I spent with him, but I constantly notice this)

my 4 year old acts like a very mature 4 year old

even the 2 year old acts like a very mature 2 year old

LIZZY seems to be about at a 2 1/2 year old level - emotionally, mentally ect.

Lizzy is the most interesting to me.  It is nice to see her feel included with the kids.  For the most part her and the 4 year old have become friends and I think that being around the 4 year old is going to help Lizzy mature a lot.  It already has in some aspects.

Anyway, we are doing good and we are enjoying our time together.  I'll be back soon.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Time.

Time is ticking away.

Our children's foster mom is spending her days very busy with my kids and her new placement.  I think she has around 7 kids right now.

H-O-L-Y cow.

She has been getting the kids ready to move.  Bringing it up and doing a count down with them.

She is so close to our little one who is 2 years old.

She was telling her that she is moving to our house and she won't be going back.

In her 2 year old sing song-y voice she would reply "Yes, I am..."

And her foster mom would say "No, your not."

And eventually my sweet baby looked at the only mom she has ever known and said, "I'm leaving you." and started bawling.

Her first real mom bawled along with her.

I feel so bad for what she is loosing.

But, I can't wait for the day she feels that way about ME.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Mine.

My kids are OFFICIALLY coming home this Sunday.

For good.

Forever.

All praise be to God.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

My baby.

Beautiful October Day.

Mom changed my diaper and left my pants off.

This leaf looks like it would taste good.

Perfect blue sky.

Yes, my hair is always in my face.

Nice.

Our weekend ended up very nice.  We did a lot of things we wanted to with the kids and after we addressed the behavior issues we saw improvements.

Obviously that takes a lot of effort on our part, which I will explain later, but just wanted to say that we had another great weekend with the kids :)

Friday, October 19, 2012

This isn't always easy.

I was going to start out by saying "Often in foster care...", but I am going to go with "Always in foster care..."


Always in foster care you are reaping the benefits of some one else's (usually) bad decisions.  This usually ends up looking like a child who has bad behavior in your home or bad reactions to, well, everything sometimes.


It has been wonderful to get to know our kids.  We love them.  That doesn't mean everything has been perfect.

Since the kids have gotten comfortable they have been trying things out on us.  One of which is, basically, the 6 year old boy acts like he doesn't like me and the girls act like they don't like my husband.

Wonderful.

It is more or a push/pull type of thing from what I can see.  I feel like they are pushing us away to see if we really are going to stick around...you know, because no one else has.

We finally have just point blank told them that they HAVE to be nice or they aren't going to get anything extra they ask us for.  For example, the 4 year old girl was ignoring my husband when he went to pick the kids up today.  He said hi to her, she ignored him.  He even tapped her on the shoulder and she ignored him. The ride home is an hour long and the kids all have video games they can play, but they have to share the iPod.  The 4 year old said to my husband, "Lizzy is getting to play lots of games", trying to get him to let her play, and my husband just told her flat out that she wasn't being nice so he wasn't worried about whether she got a turn or not.  He went on to explain why the way she acted was not ok and that was the end of it.  She was pleasant and normal acting the rest of the day.

When they arrived home all the kids were happy to see me except the 6 year old boy.  He totally ignored me even when I said hi.  I told my husband as the 6 year old scampered from the car to the house that he had completely ignored me and my husband called him back and addressed it immediately and told him he was not going to act like that.  That was the end of it.  I included Mr. 6 year old in making dinner and helping me and we had quite a bit of good interaction.

Baby steps.

Early on someone asked me "So, they aren't going to have those attachment issues right?" and I told them, "Actually, I plan on them have exactly the amount of attachment issues that they should have considering everything they have been through."

I HATE that.  I HATE that there is good reason for why that would be an issue for the oldest two.  I don't think they have RAD and I have had SEVERAL discussions with her about that issue and she doesn't think they have RAD either.

She has always said that you have to be careful or "these kids will run all over you".  And it's true.

I want them to be happy all the time and basically that is impossible.  They are excited to move in, but they are also loosing everything that they have known for the SECOND time.

That sucks.

We are committed.  We want them.  We love them.

But, it is going to take time to turn into a family.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

So much.

So much is going on.  We have had sickness running through our home.  Hoping that will be gone soon.

Talked to my kids foster mom this morning to arrange our pick up and drop off for this weekend.  She told me about a new sib group she will be taking once my kids are moved to our house on the 28th.

She started crying.  "No kids will ever replace these kids, but I think this will be a good distraction for me.  I am going to miss them so much.  Right from the beginning these kids were special.  I am so glad they are getting such a great family, I wanted the to have the best.  If it was anyone besides you guys I couldn't do this."

I am so glad she has loved them so well all this time.  She is very old school, strict and into cleanliness. She is a fighter, she has fought for my kids and has done everything she could to ensure them a good life.

This is the hard part.  I know it is going to be sad for her.  And hard for us somedays too.

But, I am EXPECTING MIRACLES because I know with God it is always an exciting ride.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

28th.

October 28th SHOULD be the day that our kids come home.

For good.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, for good measure, it was two years ago this month that we met the kids.


How fitting.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

If.

If you have ever fund raised you know it can be HARD.

Look at this http://www.thekitchenisnotmyoffice.com/2012/10/we-did-it.html

You all chipped in, along with LOTS of other people, and look what God did!!!!!

Expect Miracles :)

Friday, October 12, 2012

They need help.

http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2012/10/urgenturgenturgent.html

The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still.

Last week I was cleaning up and found the piece of paper that I first wrote down the phone number of the kids adoption worker.  This was back before I knew if they would even consider us to adopt them or not.  Under the phone number I had jotted down the words "Expect Miracles".  Not because I was being prophetic, but because it is a quote on a bracelet that I own that I probably meant to send out to someone and was using that same paper to remind myself.

So, when I found that paper all I saw was the name and the phone number of the adoption worker and the words "Expect Miracles".

Immediately God spoke to me and said, I know that this adoption is a mess...Expect Miracles.

What has happened is a miracle and it doesn't make any sense.  The DHS that the kids are from HATES my agency.  They had already said a FIRM "no" to working with our agency and was going to make the kids adoption agency take over everything and COMPLICATE everything.  Things probably would have dragged out for months.

Our kids are ready to come home.

They are sad to leave.

They want to live with us.

Our legal children miss our non legal children.

We miss our non legal children.

IT IS TIME.

Expect Miracles.

Everyone had done a 180 and is giving every thing to my agency and everything just got SUPER DUPER easy.

We should be able to move them home very very soon.

They will be home while the paper work moves.  We don't have to wait 2 more months to bring them home.

They will probably be moved in with us by the end of the month.

Expect Miracles.


This is what God does.  He still does miracles.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Details.

Everything has been going great, it is just a little crazy around here.

It is wonderful having the kids here on the weekends, but we have finally gotten to the part where the kids don't want to go back to their foster home and we had a pretty big melt down from our new 4 year old daughter when it was time for my husband to take them home.

Thankfully their foster mom and I are on the same page and we would like to move them in permanently the last weekend of October, right before Halloween.

BUT, as you all know, paper work is an issue.  Always.

And politics as well, not fun.

So, in my state we have DHS who is in charge of everything.  They contract everything out to the private agencies, but DHS still has the final say.  Well, in our scenario we have quite a few players involved:

-DHS from the county the kids are from
-the private agency that the kid's foster case has
-our agency that we are licensed through
-our DHS, because we are not from the same county as the kids

Lots of workers and lots of people to get everything confused.

As of last week I was told that the kid's DHS was going to refuse to work with our agency and was going to ask them to basically give our license and home study to the kid's private agency that is handling their foster case along with now their adoption case.

This is not the way things usually go and is actually a big slap in my agency's face, but this DHS has had issues with my agency (I understand because I have had issues with my own agency) and they don't want to work with them.

All that being said, it is stressful not know what is going to happen.


Would my agency fight them on that?

Would everyone get sick of this and want to change things all together?

Would some how we get cut out of the picture?

Would we need to drop our agency (which I would have been fine with) and start all over with the kid's agency?

As of even this morning this was still where everything was.

My agency's adoption worker called me this afternoon and told me that she had gotten an email saying that the kid's DHS was going to hand the kid's foster case AND adoption case over to my agency.

WHAT?!?!??!?!?!??!?

This is the opposite of what I heard all last week and even just this morning!  I even had my worker read me the email because I was so shocked.

It appears that someone changed their mind completely...either that or someone is very very confused.  Please pray that they ARE transferring everything to my agency, that would make everything fall into place wonderfully!!!!!!!!!!!

Huge.

Something H.U.G.E. may have just happened when it comes to our kids being able to move in permanently...either that or everyone is more confused than ever on how this is going to work.

PLEASE pray that God has moved and the kids are on their way (quickly!) to our home!!!  I am going to wait a few days to see if everyone got the same message and is on the same page.

I HOPE SO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, October 4, 2012

More.

Tomorrow the troops are coming again for the weekend!  We have a VERY busy weekend ahead of us so this will be a real life "what it's like to live in our family" test.  The kids like to stay busy so I think they will be thrilled.

Also, it is official, I am going to be taking pictures of my 2nd foster child's family that adopted him this weekend so I get to see him for the first time in two years.

I am excited!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Training Hours.

Curious...

What websites do you all use to get your foster care training hours?

What else do you use to get training hours?

Weekend.

Our weekend visit went great.  I loved having the kids here and was sad to see them go back.  It was WONDERFUL having a car that fit all of us (no seat was spared).

With that being said, adding 3 more kids is A LOT.  Adding 3 young kids is even more.  But, they are worth it.  Lizzy just loves having them here to play with and asks when they are coming back all the time.  They will be back this weekend.

I wish I knew when they would be able to move in.  I called all the workers Monday morning and asked them to get things moving.  Everyone seems to be waiting on everyone else.  If things don't start to move I will be making LOTS more phone calls.

It is definitely easier going back to 3 kids, but it is time for our kiddos to come home.  J, the oldest, was very upset to go back to his foster home.  He LOVES having my son and husband around and at his foster home he is the only boy.

We had lots of good moments and lots of interesting moments.  The kids talk about their bio parents, well, J talks about his bio parents.  He is very much aware of them and is still trying to figure all of this out.  He will be 6 years old in October.

The two girls just had a good time.  They were all giggles, well, there was some pouting in there when they didn't get their way, but were very easy to be around.  No one in their right mind would not fall in love with the youngest, she is a doll.  And the older girl is stunning, she looks like Holly Berry to be honest.

They have hurts.  The older two the most.  They seem like happy kids and are very lovable, but are typical kids who whine and pout to get their way.

We care about them a lot and just want what is best for them and we think that is a family...and we can give them that.