New Role in the Family

So after being the one & only "Little One" for 6 1/2 years, my little chick is LOVING her new role of big sister! She is a huge help to me & very rarely gets frustrated with the baby for crying. She has had very few episodes of jealousy & when she did they were pretty quickly solved. I'm so proud of how well she has handled this sweet little overnight life change we received!

Side note: I can't figure out how to move pictures around in the post so for now they'll all be at the bottom. Sigh. Can't have it all I guess. :-)

The blog finally lives!

After an all too long unexpected break from the blog I decided I can't get the computer to cooperate so I finally found an alternate way to write posts & add pics. Here goes nothing, I really hope this works!
On June 19 I got a call from a case worker in a neighboring county asking if we could take a 2 day old infant later that afternoon. Needless to say I was super excited & after asking a couple basic questions about the baby's health I agreed that we would take him. I went into overdrive trying to round up baby necessities that we didn't have yet & couldn't wait to hear back from them with a time and place to do the baby exchange. A DFCS investigator (person who takes the baby from the parents) called around 4 & we made arrangements to pick him up around 6:30. Our awesome neighbors helped me round up baby supplies like a bouncy seat & car seat and plans were made for a late night Wal-Mart run for things like clothes, diapers, wipes, bottles, etc.
She called back at u6 & said she was at the hospital to get him & they weren't ready to discharge him so we decided to try again the next morning. After a sleepless night I finally went to pick up the little peanut. When I first saw him I tried to tell myself not to get too attached but it was no use. His tiny little self stole my heart instantly!

We have now had him for 2 months and all of us are adjusting well to the changes around our house! You forget everything involved in having a newborn but it's all (slowly at times) coming back. He was around 7 lbs when he came here & now is almost 13 lbs! He's a chunky little man who loves to eat and is starting to make faces, babble & smile all the time!!
We have been told that his mom has not been fighting to get him, or even see him at this point, and didn't show up for the first court date. We are trying to put the pieces together just to have his story if nothing else. We have decided not to stress ourselves out about all the "what-ifs" that plague every day thoughts with regards to this sweet baby who we've quickly grown to love, but rather to just pray that the Lord's will is done in his little life. We know that he's here for a reason & we pray that however long his season of living here is, whether it's another week or 20 years, that we are all prepared for whatever may come next on this crazy foster care roller coaster!

Foster Care Update!

I am attempting to write this post from my phone because my computer is acting like a dinosaur and will not open up the page. After being frustrated for over a week I gave up. I have exciting news & needed to update on the Foster Care front. Let me preface this by saying I realize there are typos & hopefully I can go back to fix them. Right now I'm about to lose my sanity trying! This past Wednesday night was our first home visit from a DFCS worker! I was really frustrated with the run around and lack of information I was being given so I contacted a friend of my brother-in-law who works at DFCS & offered to help if we needed it. We weren't really sure of her title, but he thought she was pretty high on the chain & knew she would look into any concerns we had. I finally e-mailed her & told her our whole story of taking classes & not being contacted or given any direction. She apologized & promised to look into it. I honestly was expecting her to say "Oh just wait a few weeks, they're busy..." what she came back with (the same day, might I add) was "I looked into it & you've been turned over to an independent agent to complete your home study." Ok great, at least we know we weren't lost on someone's desk! Well, the next day I got a call from the independent agent who wanted to schedule our first home visit & had already sent out references to 4 of the people on our list! When she sent me the packet of paperwork I had to fill out there was a paper in there with DFCS management staff listed. Oh, the sweet lady who helped get the ball rolling was the regional director! Whoops! I felt bad that I threw an employee under the bus to her big boss, but I seriously didn't know! Anyway, what's done is done & I'm thankful my brother-in-law knows people in high places! ;-) The appointment was Wednesday at 5:30 & I was a basket case of crazy trying to get everything clean & organized so she wouldn't put a big red X on our file! I was mostly concerned with the room that will be the Foster Child's because it's currently an office with a closet that was FULL of junk! My precious Mom, sensing my crazy, took Tuesday off to help me organize and I was beyond grateful! We ended up leaving my desk & office stuff on the room & just putting the I un-assembled crib in there so she would see we have it. Once the time finally came it all went well. I have to say I was beyond grateful for two sweet girlfriends who reminded me that this whole journey has been orchestrated by the Lord, why would he fail me now?! They were so right, why do I always do that to myself? One of them shared this verse with me which I need to have plastered all around me. "THE LORD WILL FIGHT FOR YOU; YOU NEED ONLY TO BE STILL." Exodus 14:14 How amazing is that?! It calmed me and lessened my anxiety more than she could've known. So when 5:30 finally rolled around I was ready! Little One had a bath, dinner on the counter, a new craft, lap desk and a DVD all ready to go since she isn't much for playing independently & I was SO worried she would come interrupt 541 times. She did amazingly well though & even though it lasted 3 hours she was awesome the whole time! I knew she would be, but you've always got that "what if?" in the back of your head. The lady doing the study was very inviting and warm & didn't make us nervous at all! She was actually very positive & acted like it would go fairly quickly on her end. Once she types up our file, inputting all the info from the "book" we gave them during our classes, the info from our references & the other crazy amount of stuff they've collected. She'll have to come back once more and the only suggestion she made was that we put the crib together so she can say we are ready to go! She of course doesn't know for sure what will happen, but she seemed to think we may be a good fit for newborns because I don't have to send them to daycare & can keep them at home for the six weeks before they can do day care. She said most foster parents work outside the home and aren't able to foster new babies. How cool would that be?! It sounds like a LOT of work, but I would love it! :-) So that's it for now. We just need to do a few little things and we're good to go! Who knows how long it'll take to get with DFCS and sign a few papers to be added to the list once the study is approved but that will be the final step! We've just got to remember that it's in the Lord's hands & He has it all under control! Thanks SO much to all of you who have been praying for us, thinking about us &/or have checked in with us through this process! We are grateful for you!!!!

Quick Foster Care Update

I wanted to let you all know I got an e-mail yesterday from a DFCS case worker who I've been talking to on and off for the past week (never with any terribly useful information before). She told me she would be working with her supervisor on Friday and would be staffing our case at that time. Once that is done, whomever is in charge of our case will schedule our first home visit! Yay for progress!!
Please join with us in praying this person is a good case worker & will be pro-active in scheduling this visit. We trust in the Lord's timing, we're just a little anxious to get to the next step in this process!

Big Sister in Training

I just thought I would share a couple of pictures that my funny child drew today. We were in the car and she was busy drawing something that she wouldn't let me see until she was done. This was her precious masterpiece :)

She drew herself, Mommy, Daddy & in the middle it says "I hope bruthur" & she wrote a 2 beside him

When I first told her about our plans for Foster parenting, trying my best to put it into 6 year old terms, she was adamant that we could only get girls and they would have to be babies because "well, I don't really like 2 year olds, they're wild". I explained we wouldn't be that picky and would love any little boys or girls who need a family while their Mommy & Daddy get well enough to take care of them. She has been going back and forth on what kind of foster children she wants us to have, currently it's a 2 year old boy...go figure!

About 3 hours after she drew that picture, we were home and she proceeded to tape every baby animal poster from a book she got at the book fair yesterday to her bedroom door. Then she posted this sign:


It reads "No Boys Allowed" then she added in the top right corner "Except my Daddy".

I sooo love this, not only because she wrote it all by herself and sounded out the words exactly like she says them, but because she is so hilarious and I know there are many many years of this ahead...except she won't be wanting her Daddy in her room when she's older either! My favorite part is how she spelled except. She says it just like that, "iceps". Precious!

The road to Foster Care

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it here or not, but I'll tell you all now for those who don't know that The Hubby and I have been thinking and praying about adoption for about 2 years now. We weren't sure where the path would lead or which path to take for that matter, for a long time, but we finally felt a directional shift recently and we jumped in! Here's the whole story, I'll try to keep it brief but that's never been my strong point ;-)
I'm sure you all know I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer back in August of 2009. Long story short, because of that diagnosis the Hubby and I decided to not have any more children because of the risk of recurrence that a pregnancy (and therefore estrogen surge, which would feed cancer in my body) would bring. I vividly remember one Saturday morning almost 2 years ago, we were sitting at a restaurant & I was crying like a freak. I explained to him the decision I had come to & we discussed how it broke my heart that we couldn't have any more children, but I felt like it was the right thing to do for all 3 of us. I cried all day & was mourning the loss of the family we had hoped for.
That evening, he was on the computer and told me he looked up a church we had been talking about visiting, which my sweet friend who cuts my hair invited us to, and said he wanted to visit the next morning. Little One was unsure about it because she was comfortable at the church we already attended, although she didn't have any real friends there, just kids she knew from Sunday mornings. We felt SO comfortable at the new church from the moment we walked in. Little One's teacher happened to be my friend who invited us (who Little One loves!) & a little girl from her preschool (who turned out to be the pastor's daughter) was in her class so she was instantly comfortable!
We sat in the back of the church & listened as the pastor began talking about adoption. They were having adoption sunday that day & were talking about & showing videos of Compassion International children & encouraging families to adopt a Compassion child. Near the end of the hour, the pastor started talking about other forms of adoption and how we, as Christians, are called to take care of the orphans. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27
I sat there teary eyed the entire time, wishing I could hug all the children in the video, bring them to my house & feed and clothe them. God was so working on us as we sat there. The last part of the service they showed a video of the pastor and his wife in China, picking up their adopted daughter for the very first time. The same daughter that was in the preschool class making my daughter feel welcome in our new church! I sat there and sobbed, very ugly sobs I'm afraid, watching God bring their family together & knew that we were there for a reason. Later that week the church had an informational meeting about adoption and had a panel of families from the church who had adopted in various ways; international from several countries, domestic newborn adoption & foster care through the state & private agencies. At the time we felt like the most likely path we would take would be domestic adoption. We thought it was unlikely that we could come up with funds to travel to another country multiple times and adopt internationally. Then we decided that we should maybe try an agency that was highly recommended in the area & is one of the largest in the U.S. We went to an orientation with them as well & for about a year just sat on it...praying, talking & waiting for direction. We knew we wanted to adopt, but weren't sure how it was going to happen.
Several months ago, a friend texted me out of the blue and asked if I had plans the next morning. She attends a MOPS (Mother's of preschoolers) meeting at a local church & they were having a guest speaker talk about adoption and she thought I may be interested. I went, not sure what it was going to be about. I sat there and listened to this sweet young woman talk about how she and her husband adopted two gorgeous children from Foster Care and how it has changed all their lives. Instantly I knew God had yet again placed me there for a reason. I contacted Nicole, and started reading her blog (which is awesome by the way...she's a WAY better blog Mommy than me & keeps hers updated multiple times daily!). From there, we began the process of Foster Care through DFCS. We attended an orientation in November & had to wait all the way until February to begin classes. The waiting has been a little tough I'll admit. We felt like we were on the right path & wanted to run down it to the finish line. I know God has an ultimate plan though, and we're trying to be patient! We finished 7 weeks of classes (20 hours) required by the state before you can become a foster home or foster to adopt, depending on which route you take. We also filled out a mountain of paperwork, questions, health screenings, fingerprints, anything you can imagine was required to be given to the state in addition to attending the classes.
We finished classes last week & now all we have left are 2 home visits by a case worker who will make sure our house is prepared (which we have a little work to do on that level, the "baby's room" is currently an office) and we are capable of adding another child to our lives.
We have decided we will be Foster parents for children ages 0-3, meaning any child in our age range can be placed in our home for any amount of time while their parent(s) work on a case plan to get their child(ren) back. This can be a quick or lengthy process, depending on the parent's willingness to comply.
We are hoping this will eventually lead to an adoption, but in the mean time we feel called to love the children whose parents can't love them at the moment for one reason or another. We want to be able to show them love and affection and care for them however long they need us & hopefully their parents will be able to do the same once they are returned. The class taught us that DFCS works with parents for up to a year on a case plan to get their lives straightened out & get their children back. If the parent can't get it together in a year, they assume they aren't making it a priority and the rights are terminated making the child officially adoptable. The foster parents the child lives with at the time have first choice to adopt, and if they don't want to, the case worker then looks for a foster to adopt family to give the child a forever home.
The question we are most asked when we discuss this is definitely "Don't you think it will be hard on your heart when they are taken away?" My answer to that is Of course I do! We know that when a child is placed in our home, no matter how much he or she rocks our world and tests our patience, that we will love them. It will be incredibly hard once we have a bond with them to send them back home not knowing if we'll ever see them again. Still, we feel like we are preparing ourselves for that possible heartache now and are doing what we're supposed to.
We know we will have some mentally, physically & emotionally trying days on this path...maybe a LOT of them, but we also know that God will not call us to do something he hasn't equipped us for.
We feel so blessed to be a part of a body of believers who are so active in adopting and have seen several miraculous adoptions with a few more in the works right now! On that first Sunday there, it was almost like we could feel God wrap his loving arms around us and say "It's ok, I have a plan. Trust in me, I've got this one covered, too!" Out of the suffering and sadness from my illness, treatments & surgeries that our family has experienced we trust that He is crafting a beautiful story that only HE can write!
There were so many steps along our path that could've easily not happened if one tiny thing or another was out of place. There are so many people who felt called to do something that was only a God thing: Invite us to that church, be a friend to our baby girl, have adoption sunday on that day, invite me to a mops meeting, speak about adoption...and on & on. I am so very thankful for you all & I'm so very excited to see where this journey leads!

If you made it through this LONG story, congratulations! I'm almost done...I ask that you please keep us in your prayers. Please pray that God is preparing us for this journey. All 3 of us are excited, but we also know there will be bumps along the way. We need prayer to prepare our hearts and minds so that when those storms come, we can stand like a mighty tree and weather them together. We also are praying that our home visits are scheduled soon. We are waiting on a case worker from our county, which is overrun with children in the foster care system, to contact us and schedule a home visit. Lastly, we ask that you pray for the Lord's will with regards to our forever family. We know He knows the future and we pray that He places the children in our home who are here for a purpose. Either for us, them, or both.
Thank you for your prayers, thoughts & encouragement! We can't wait to share more about this as developments happen! :-)

Worst.Blogger.Ever

I guess I've decided that I will not try to blog all our "happenings" around here since it seems we've been too busy to take pics, blog or do anything other than just live lately. I think I was putting too much pressure on myself and feeling like a failure because of all my failed attempts to start up the blog again. I did so well with it for a long time it seems like but I guess I am a lot busier with work now, and that's a good thing, just takes away from all the extras like the blog!
We've also got some new things going on & I hope to do the occasional blog, post new pictures, catch everyone up, etc.
I hope you had a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentine's Day & Happy St. Patrick's Day! We did, but I'll save all the posts on that for now.