Is it really December?

I can't believe how time flies! It's been a while since I posted anything. Life has been beyond crazy - very, very busy!

The kiddos are doing great. Little Man is still visiting b.mom, but she has willingly given up the therapist-involved parent visits, and now has a longer visit on Wednesdays at the state office, and a short visit on Thursdays (right in the middle of naptime, no less) at the Circle of Security office. This will not reflect well on her at the termination trial. But it was her choice. The termination trial is set for the end of January. Hopefully it won't be postponed again. Little Guy is fighting off a cold, and cutting his eye teeth. Yes, life is fun! He is currently in Physical Therapy on Mondays and Speech Therapy on Fridays, and doing very well in both. We are still having eating problems with him, but hopefully he'll get these teeth soon and perhaps his eating will improve. Baby Girl is doing fabulous, although she is also fighting a cold and cutting her first teeth. She has mastered crawling, and has now moved on to pulling up on to furniture and cruising around. I think she might start walking sooner than her brother did. She had a PT eval today, and although her adjusted age shows her at 9 months, 3 weeks due to her slight prematurity, she is performing in the 11 to 12 month stage for development! Yippee! I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the two older boys - she is constantly chasing after them, and just wants to do whatever they do.

The social worker for the two siblings came by yesterday, and let us know they were not able to serve the parents for termination hearing because they can't be found. So the paperwork for publishing in the paper is with the court, and as soon as a court date for the term. hearing is set, it will get published in the paper. I believe we have to wait 60 days after first publishing, and it has to be published a total of 4 times. Then we go to court, and if the parents don't show, it's an automatic termination. If the parents do show, the really won't have a leg to stand on, since they have pretty much abandoned the kids. They left the hospital two days after Baby Girl was born, and haven't been around since then. They were offered visitation, but they refused.

So if all goes according to plan, all three kids could be legally free as early as February or March, and perhaps we will be able to get all three adopted at the same time. That would be wonderful!

A new term date is set...

...but it is not good. The new date is January 28-30, 2008. That means another 3-1/2 months of twice weekly bm visits, and countless crap to deal with. That's all I can say right now - I'm pretty frustrated. I just wanted to let you know if you are following this.

Still No Term Hearing

The term hearing that was supposed to have been the 15th got postponed - the reason we were given was that that AAG was out sick. The social worker, GAL, lawyers & judge are all supposed to meet on the 19th to determine a new date for the hearing, and we've been told it could be as far out as end of October or November. I'm so disappointed - I was so hoping we could be done with everything by now. So, now visits will continue, and in fact, bm has requested unsupervised visits on Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas! I doubt highly it will be allowed - at least, the unsupervised part. She's never been able to have an unsupervised visit, and especially now, she is considered a flight risk if she is alone with Little Man. I don't even want to think of what I would do if she took him and ran. I'm not sure if I would be able to think straight. Anyway, we are praying now that when the parties get together this Friday, that a date sooner rather than later be set for the hearing.

In other news, Little Guy now has speech therapy and physical therapy once a week each. He's behind quite a bit in his speech, and is still experiencing left side weakness in his little body that makes him overcompensate with his right side. I'm so mad sometimes at what bm gave him as a legacy, due to her bad decisions. But we are prayerfully getting through it, and I still don't lose hope that God can make him a completely normal child. I am going to be attending a seminar at the end of the month on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, and I'm excited to learn all I can about what might be in store for Little Guy and how we can help him overcome or cope with it. They say that getting all sorts of therapies and such when they are young can greatly reduce the lifelong effects - let's just keep praying that they are right.

Baby Girl is doing awesome - she's almost ready to start crawling, and the last three nights she has slept pretty much through the night! Hopefully a new trend is starting! I don't know what I'm going to do if I get more than three or four hours of sleep at a time!! What a concept!

One of my good friends is going through Massage School right now, and yesterday afternoon she came over and treated me to an hour long massage while all the kids were napping. It was so nice! I really needed it! And the kids actually all stayed asleep and quiet during the whole time she was doing the massage - a double treat!

Off to get some housework done while the kids are still sleeping this morning. Have a great day!

Today might be the day!

Well, we find out for sure today if and when the termination hearing will start. We found out last week that a criminal case - a rape trial - might bump our term trial. We were praying that either the rape trial would plead out or that another favorable judge would be assigned our case. There really is only one judge we don't want - he seems to grant continuances for the fun of it - and we really are hoping and praying that he doesn't get the case. I should find out by phone sometime this morning after the social worker meets with the AAG. Please pray that the trial gets scheduled for this week!

Deviled Egg Ducks

These are deviled eggs made to look like ducks. They were made by a Russian Family in a neighboring church. They were celebrating the Harvest, a celebration they have every year. Quite interesting!

My Little Fishermen

This is from the beginning of September, but I thought I would still share it. You can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Labor Day weekend we went to the lake to spend one last day on the water before shutting down the lake cabin for the winter. We never did go out in the boat, but stayed on shore and the dock and played with the kids. These are pictures of Little Man, playing with a toy fishing rod and watching the ducks come in for bread.

And these are pictures of Little Guy playing around on the dock and shore. All the pics I took of Baby Girl are face shots, so I'll have to see if I can find any from other days that are not of her face.

October will be busy!

October 1st is finally here. This month will be a big one for our family. A lot of things happening with our kids foster cases that will determine their futures.

First, we have a review hearing for Little Guy & Baby Girl on Oct. 2. I'm anticipating that they will set a termination date at this hearing, so that they kids can become legally free and we can start the adoption process for them. So far, the parents have had no contact with the kids since Baby Girl was 2 days old. It's sad to say that - I would fight tooth and nail for them!

Second, we have Little Man's termination hearing on Oct. 15 & 16. It will be a full two-day trial, going over the case from the very beginning until present. I'm sure there will be a lot of testimony that will reveal things I've never known, so I'm definitely going to be sitting in that courtroom for two days. I will be so relieved when this part is done - we've waited a long time for Little Man to become legally free so that we can adopt him. We were told in June 2006, when we brought him home, that we should be able to adopt him by that Christmas. And here it is, more than a year later, and 2-1/2 years since he became a foster child, that we are finally at this point. It's a relief!

Hubby has two hunting trips scheduled for this month, so hopefully he'll get his deer one of those weekends. But that means two weekends in a row I've got the kids all by myself! I'm sure I'll be ready to check into the loony bin afterward! Pray for me!

I'm hosting our MOMS Club bunco night at my house one of the weekends that Hubby is hunting. 16 ladies in my little house - yikes! But it should be lots of fun!

Hubby's birthday is on Halloween, and my mom's birthday is on the 29th, so I'm having a family birthday party here on the 28th. I'm sure that will be interesting! It's always loud and crazy when my family gets together!

My grandma is making the kids their Halloween costumes this year - all characters from the Wizard of Oz. Little Man will be the Tin Man, Little Guy the scarecrow, and Baby Girl will be Dorothy. I think it will be so cute! We'll take the kids to our church's Harvest Party, and we've also got some trick-or-treating scheduled at the mall and with my Mom's Club at a senior center. We are also taking them to the Foster Kids Harvest Party on the 13th.

So, this will be a busy month, and hopefully, a very good month! Please keep our family in your prayers, for the court cases to be successful, and for the Lord's will to be done in those courtrooms. We just want to be able to call these kids our own, legally. They've been ours in our hearts for quite a while, but it will be nice to put some permanency behind those feelings.

William Tell Overture - Mom's Version

A friend sent this video to me, and I just had to share it. I think all moms will totally understand it. I think it is hilarious! The piece is done by Anita Renfroe http://www.anitarenfroe.com/

So much for cleaning the bathroom today!

OK - so I finally got the kids bathroom scrubbed out - nice and shiny bright. After dinnertime tonight, all three kiddos got in the bath for some quality scrubbing - especially after we went to the apple farm today and picked apples. Little Man mostly trudged through the dirt, falling every 5 steps because he wouldn't put down his apple. Then we played in the "pea pit" - a very large sandbox but instead of sand, it is filled with dried peas. Really cool actually, but it left the kids with a greyish dust all over.

Anyway, bathtime tonight - got everyone scrubbed, hair nice and clean, all sparkly smiles. I turned around to grab towels, and when I turned back, Little Man had done his business in the tub - and it was everywhere. I have never yanked children out of the tub so darn quick! I had three nekkid babies sitting on the floor at my feet, and I was trying like mad to empty the tub of toys and poo. My wonderful husband was downstairs, grabbing clean jammies and changing out laundry, and our house is so darn soundproof he couldn't hear me yelling for him to come back upstairs pronto!

I finally got the tub emptied of everything, and then one by one, re-washed my little darlings and handed them off to hubby to dry, diaper and put jammies on them. Once everyone was re-cleaned and dressed, hubby gave baby a bottle while I re-scrubbed the bathroom. I swear, that bathroom hasn't been so clean since I don't know when!

You know the movie Hope Floats? One of my favorites! However, the whole time I was dealing with this mess, I kept thinking "hope is not the only thing that floats!"

KoolAid Pickles?? What's next - bubble gum applesauce?

OK - what's with the new craze of KoolAid pickles?!? My grandma made some recently, and I must say - why? As I'm biting into this extremely red pickle, I'm tasting cherry - cherry? - who knew a pickle could taste like cherry? Yuck!! Maybe this has to be an acquired taste. I don't know. It struck me as very wrong that a dill pickle would look and taste like a cherry.

I know - this has nothing to do with foster parenting, or my kiddos, or parenting in any sense of the word. But KoolAid pickles? I'm still wondering who in their right mind came up with this idea? Did the glass of KoolAid spill into the jar of pickles and someone said - ooo, yummy, let's make more! I can just imagine what grape flavored KoolAid pickles might look and taste like! No, wait, I can't - it sickens my stomach just thinking of it! Please, anyone that might know me personally - please don't gift me with a few jars of homemade KoolAid pickles. I might just have to make you a Christmas Fruitcake.

Adoption Agreement Changed

After much thinking and counsel from other adoptive parents, we have decided to make a significant change to the adoption agreement for Little Man. Mind you, I truly don't believe that the bmom will sign a willing relinqueshmnet and adoption agreement, but in the outside chance that she does, we want to be covered. And after this last year of battles, and mind games, we are clearly convinced that Little Man should not be exposed to bmom until he is at a legal age to decide himself on his involvement with her. I just simply don't trust her, and fear the side effects of even one visit per year with her will have on Little Man. So, we revised the agreement to take out visitation, but keep in letters and photos twice a year, sent through a third party. I just got the copy from our attorney today, so that means her attorney should receive it by Monday, and we'll see what kind of reaction from bmom comes out of it. Frankly, I'm tired of her games, and just ready to be done with all of this. I'm tired of what it's doing to Little Man. He had an extra "visit" with her this week, for an additional taping for the Circle of Security that is going on, and he was a mess that night. He woke up almost every hour crying, and only settled down when I went in and hugged and kissed and talked to him. He doesn't need this anymore. Thankfully, the tpr hearing is only two months away, and hopefully that time will fly by.

Term Date Finally Set!!!

We finally got a termination hearing date for Little Man's case - October 15. It's so nice to now have a date to look forward to. I really doubt that bmom will be willingly relinquishing before that date - she has fought everything tooth and nail, no matter how many therapists testify that she is not capable of parenting Little Man. So, when October 15 comes, he will finally be legally free and we will be able to start the adoption process. He will probably be close to three years old when the adoption is finally done, and he's been in foster care since he was 9 days old. It amazes me how long the state can drag out a case. I know for a fact this has taken a lot longer than necessary for at least two big reasons - the social worker failed to follow through with paperwork and court orders, and the bmom knowingly committed fraud against the court on several occassions.

But, good things come to those that wait, and we know that when this is all said and done, it will be a very good thing!

Rainbow in the Sky

Tonight was one of those strangely beautiful hot summer nights - a small spattering of rain, and the sky a strange color. We had a beautiful rainbow, and I wish I could have captured it better with my camera, but this was the best I could do. One of these days, maybe when the kids are in school, I'll take a couple of photography classes.

Future Bloggers!

I just had to take this picture the other day - after diaper changes, I found both boys at my computer. I grabbed the camera for a quick photo op - I'll have to frame these for the future work desks someday when they are out in the "real world" with jobs of their own!

Little Man's funny sayings

I thought I'd take a few minutes to share some of the things Little Man says - more for my own record keeping, but I thought you might all get a kick out of them! He can be so funny sometimes, and he really makes me think about what I say around him, because he's such a stinkin' copycat!! So, some of his most used phrases:

"Oh my goodness, mommy!"
"Wait - jus' a minute"
"That's a no-no!" (usually used when I catch him red-handed with something he's not supposed to have! My thoughts - if you know it's a no-no, why is it in your hands?!?)
"Twinkle twinkle yittle star..." (he actually sings the whole song, and uses the right voice inflection!)
"I wanna rock a nigh-night" (used when he wants to cuddle and rock while I sing him a goodnight song)

There are more, but at 11:00 at night, that's all I can think of. I'll add more to this list as I remember - or hear - them! He actually talks really, really good for 28 months. He sometimes talks non-stop, and often says the same thing 10 times in a row. Which is why I think Little Guy is not really talking much yet - he can't get a word in edge-wise!

Why Foster? Why Adopt?

I posted a comment on another bloggers site http://watsonschreiber.blogspot.com/2007/06/adoption.html, and after posting, realized this was something I wanted to explore on my own as well.

Why, when faced with infertility, did I not go straight to the thought of adoption first?

For me, it was a process of learning - of finding out what God truly wanted for my life. I knew I always wanted to be a mom, and I always thought - of course, I'll give birth. But then, when I found out I couldn't - it rocked my world. Coming to the place where I knew I was supposed to foster and adopt was a long road, but one I know God wanted me to travel. It was the only way He was going to teach me what I needed to learn, and that is that He has so much more in store for me than I could have ever dreamed possible.

We went through a lot in our process to have a family. After finding out I was pregnant in November 1996, I lost the baby the very next day - the pregnancy was an ectopic one, and not able to continue naturally. We then tried for the next three years to conceive, to no avail. After seeking out a fertility specialist and undergoing several tests and procedures, including two failed in-vitro procedures, I was given the words "unexplained infertility". We were heartbroken, and it took us another several years to grieve and come to the point of adoption. And wouldn't you know it - the very weekend we attended our first adoption orientation, we became pregnant. That was Valentine's weekend, and we unfortunately lost the baby to a miscarriage on Easter weekend. That was in 2003, and it was horrible. It took another two years before we could even talk about adoption. There were a lot of prayers and crying times in those two years. But God started opening our hearts, and opening doors, towards being foster parents and adopting that way. And now we know - this is what God's plan is for us. But I also believe that God was right there with us during our 10 years of struggling to have children, teaching us through the pain and heartbreak. He has given us a testimony, and has given us an ability to reach out to others in our situation and given them a shoulder to cry on and an understanding heart to help heal.

So, again, why didn't we go straight into adoption? Because we needed to be taught some things, and we didn't know that being adoptive parents was our calling.

Overly Emotional

This has been a crazy week – very emotional – I think this whole stretched out Little Man case is really getting to me. The older he gets and the more verbal he gets, the more he tells me and acts out. We couldn’t figure out why he’s been so overly whiny this month, and then we realized he’s having a “body memory” of last June when he moved in with us. So we’ve been taking time right before bedtime to just sit quietly and talk with him and reassure him that he’s not going anywhere. It seems to be helping. But it just breaks my heart when he mentions “I go to visit” or “I go see momma” – it makes me feel like I’m not his real mommy. So needless to say, I’ve done a lot of crying this week. The court case we had on Monday (the mom’s appeal of the March court decision not to allow Little Man to return home to her) did not end in a decision – the judge is supposed to e-mail his decision sometime this week to the lawyers. So I feel like I’m sitting on pins and needles to wait to here if this judge – a totally new judge to the case – will allow Little Man to go home to his birth mom.

Update after court

On Tuesday, May 1st, we had a court hearing regarding Little Guy & Baby Girl. They have not had contact with their birth parents since January – the birth parents last saw Little Guy on January 19 and last saw Baby Girl on January 26 – 2 days after she was born. The state has made numerous attempts to contact them, all to no avail. They have now moved and the state is not real sure where they are. The aunt and uncle that had originally wanted to raise Baby Girl have now stepped back from the case. We had been having weekly visits with their family, but these all ended (by the aunt/uncle) the last week of March. The birth parents did not show up to court on Tuesday. Parental termination has been filed on Little Guy, and according to the commissioner and social worker, it looks like parental termination on Baby Girl will be done in either 3 months or 6 months (it depends on what the statues/laws say regarding abandonment and siblings). Regardless, we are anticipating that both Little Guy and Baby Girl will be legally free to adopt by this fall, and then we can move on to the adoption stage for both of them.

As for Little Man’s case – that too will hopefully be done by this fall. At this point, the case has turned from “the best interest of Little Man” to “the best way for the state to win the termination hearing”. This means that birth mom visits will continue and services to the birth mom will continue to be offered until the termination of parental rights is complete. Just recently, the birth mom has requested a Circle of Security evaluation - we are not sure when that will be done. Right now, the parties involved will be meeting on June 1 to set a date for the termination hearing. Unfortunately, this is heard in Superior Court, so the date will really depend on how busy the criminal docket is, and if something major comes up criminally, the termination hearing will have to be put on hold until the docket clears. They’ve told us that the termination hearing will be scheduled anywhere from 3 weeks to 16 weeks after June 1. Arrghh! The court system is just incredible! We are really trying to be patient because we know that God is in control of this, but sometimes, it is very hard! Especially since Little Man is only getting older, and the visits are becoming more confusing to him the older he gets. You can pray specifically that God protects Little Man – emotionally and mentally – during these visits. I know he is physically safe, and the visits are supervised, but we are just praying protection over his mind during the visits.

Little Man continues to amaze us with his communication – he talks non-stop and about everything! He is a smart little cookie! Little Guy started walking just before Easter, and now is running after Little Man and doing everything Little Man does – egads! However, Little Guy hasn’t really started talking yet – probably because he can’t get a word in edgewise around Little Man. Baby Girl is very alert, smiling all the time, and “talking” and laughing at us. It's amazing how similar Baby Girl and Little Guy are - I can pretty much anticipate a lot of her reactions based on what Little Guy did. And they look so much alike!

So keep praying for us! Thanks for being a listening ear!

Heading off to court...

Just a quick note -we are headed off to court today for the siblings - Little Guy and Baby Girl. I'll give a report of what happened as soon as I can today. It's a busy day - court at 11, a dental appt for me at 2, a public health nurse visit for the kiddos at 4 - and lunch and naps sometime in between! Yikes!

Computer is back in action!

OK - I think I finally have a completely working computer. Yippee! It's too late now, but maybe tomorrow I'll be able to update a little more than this. I have some pics I want to post, and some stories I want to tell, yadda, yadda, yadda. But right now, I need to sleep! See you tomorrow!

Outside Play

What a fun day yesterday! The weather was decent, so we decided to have some afternoon play time in the backyard. The boys love being outside, as does our dog Sam. Little Man's favorite thing to do, though, is to sit in the sandbox and throw sand all over himself. Before we went in the house, I stripped off most of his clothes outside to shake them out, dust off the collection of sand, and then hurried him in to the bathtub. But next to playing outside, his second favorite thing is bathtime, so it worked out well!

Telling Secrets

Little Guy loves his new baby sister. He especially likes it when I lay her down on the footstool so he can talk to her and play with her. And she seems to be responding really well to him. It's amazing how much she looks like he did at the same age. Spitting image! If I didn't dress her in pink, I wouldn't be able to tell pictures apart sometimes!

Yikes - Computer Problems!

Just to let you all know - I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. My main computer has been down with a virus, and it's almost all the way fixed. The biggest remaining problem is that I cannot access anything Google related from that computer, and this blog is connected to Google, so I can't sign in on my main computer! I finally got my old work laptop hooked up, and it seems to be working ok, so maybe I can update from here. If anyone knows anything about this Google problem I'm having, feel free to contact me. I'm lost as to how to fix it, and so is my computer guy.

Talk to you all soon!

Just a quick check in...

I realize it's been a while since I've written in my blog. This past month has been busy. We are all moved into our new home - we've gone from 3 bedrooms/1 bath to 5 bedrooms/2 baths. Plenty of room for kiddos! We are still unpacking boxes and trying to find things, but we feel pretty settled. The house is wonderful, and we feel more peaceful here than at the old house.

We have one more day of a 3 day court hearing for Little Man. The commission is hearing testimony regarding the mom's petition to have him returned to her. So far, not a single person can testify that they feel he should be returned. Our hope and prayer is that at the conclusion of this hearing the commission will sign the termination papers, end all parent visits, and move us closer to the adoption proceedings.

We have court May 1st for Baby Girl. The social worker stopped by on Friday for a visit, and he told me that the state's plan is to NOT separate the siblings, to keep them both with us, and to push for an open adoption (which we are in favor of) to allow the extended family to have continued contact and involvement with the kids. Now we just pray that the commissioner will go along with this. Interestingly enough, we have the same commission for both cases - Little Man and the Siblings. So by the time this is all over, she will know our family quite well!

I'll try to catch up with things that have happened over the last month. But right now, I need to get back to the kiddos!

Little Guy is Walking!

Today, during nursery (we had nursery duty this morning) Little Guy took 10-12 unassisted steady steps! It was so exciting and I got all teary-eyed! He started towards me, and I just kept backing up, and he just kept walking! It was so cool to see! I can't wait until he's doing it all the time. He's growing up so fast!

Today's Meeting

I wanted to give everyone an update on today’s meeting regarding the aunt & uncle that showed up for Little Guy & Baby Girl.

At this time, nothing has been concretely decided. The state is still trying to convince the aunt & uncle that the two children are best left together, and with us since Little Guy has been with us for so long. We assured the aunt & uncle that we would welcome their involvement in their lives, as well as the rest of their extended family (given that they are all safe people, which it sounds like they are). However, the feeling we got from them is that all they want is to have WBaby Girl with them, and they are not willing to think about any other options at this time.

We have a family visit set up for next Thursday at the mall playcenter, and the aunt & uncle, their two children, and a grandfather and great-aunt will be there to meet Little Guy & Baby Girl and our family. I think it will go well, and we plan to set up more visits with them.

I don’t know how this will all end up. All we can do is trust that God has a plan, and that it is bigger than what we can see at this time. Please continue to pray that we have peace about the situation and that the right things for the children will be done.

Thank you so much for walking with us in this.

Special Prayers Needed, please

We are in need of some very special prayers.

I just got off the phone with the social worker for Little Guy and Baby Girl. Apparently, the birth father has a twin brother that has shown interest in the children. He and his wife have a 4-month old and a 6-year old at home. The recognize that we are Little Guy’s parents, and don’t want to take him from our home, but want to be involved with his life as aunt and uncle. However, they really want to have Baby Girl. The social worker said that if all the background checks come back good, and the home study, too, then the state doesn’t have much choice other than to place Baby Girl with blood relatives.

We have a meeting on Friday at 1pm to discuss the matter with the social workers and the aunt & uncle. You can imagine that we are heartbroken, and I am praying that the aunt and uncle will recognize that we want to be parents to both the children, but are more than happy to include them as aunt and uncle. The birth parents are still nowhere to be found and have disconnected their telephone.

Please, please pray for this situation.

She's Home! She's Home!

Baby Girl is here! We brought her home last night, finally arriving home around 6 pm. We got to the hospital around 2:30, but they had to do the carseat oximeter (sp?) test, and that took an hour and a half, so it took a while before we could leave with her. But she's beautiful! And smaller than we were originally told. She came three weeks early, and was 5 lbs. 6.5 ounces, 17" long at birth. When they released her to us, she was 5 lbs. .5 ounce. But her brother was only 5 lbs. 2 ounces when we brought him home, so it was practically the same. Although I really don't remember him being this tiny! She has a full head of red hair, and looks just like her big brother! She was born on the 24th, which ironically was the first year anniversary of us bringing her brother home. Kind of wierd,huh?

We can't post a picture of her adorable little face, but here is one of her feet!

Update on boys' TPR

Tamara had asked if I would update about the boys' TPR. Unfortunately, not a lot of great news, but some good news.

First off - Little Man (now 22 months) - whom we thought was coming to us almost legally free back in June 2006 (at 14 months). Apparently, this one is going to drag on for quite a while. The mom keeps petitioning the court for him to be returned to her, no matter how many times the commissioner says "no". There was supposed to have been a regular review hearing on Jan. 19 - my hubby took the day off work, my grandma came over to babysit the boys, and we got all dressed up and went to the courthouse. Five minutes before court was to start, the social worker came running in, apparently late for a meeting. We snagged her to ask what courtroom we were to be in, and she says, "oh, I think it's cancelled". Well, it sure would have been nice to know, I think to myself. Sure enough, court was cancelled, and we just were never told. Funny how the foster parents are the last to know everything! So, instead, there will be a contested review hearing addressing the mom's petition to have him returned sometime during the first week of March. Unfortunately, we are no closer to TPR than we were in June.

Second off - Little Guy. The social worker told the parents on Jan. 19 that the state will be filing for termination on Little Guy, and filing to put the new baby girl in foster care when she is born (of course, to our house!). The parents seemed shocked and surprised at this news - which just floors me that the couldn't see it coming! They were quite upset, to the point that they ended their visit with Little Guy early. We have a court date on Feb. 6, which is supposed to be the permanency planning hearing. We received the updated ISSP report from the social worker, and we noticed that the primary plan for Little Guy has changed. Originally, as always, the primary plan was placement back into the home, and the alternate plan was adoption. Now, the primary plan is adoption, and of course, our home is shown as the planned adoptive home. Now, to see what the commissioner says to the parents.

You know, it's really sad that it comes down to this. I just wish all parents could see the blessing of a child, and want to do everything in their power to provide a loving, safe home for the children they bring into this world. Unfortunately, either life choices or mental health issues prevent them from sacrificing their own needs for the needs of their child. I've had many people ask me, "what are these people thinking?" and unfortunately, their ability, or desire, to think of the child first is hindered. I still believe God has a master plan in all of this - He put the strong desire in our hearts for children, and he slowly gave us the ability to parent as foster parents. He is building us strong for whatever He has in store for us, and we are just grateful, and humbled, that He finds us worthy enough to do this hard job. So we will continue loving and fighting for these children, because they deserve the best God has for them.

Still Waiting!

I have found out only a little bit more about the new baby. She was born Wed. Jan. 24 at 10:33 pm, weighing approx. 6.5 pounds. Baby appears to be healthy, but tests are still being done to determine any drug or alcohol affects on the baby - unfortunately, mom tested positive for meth at time of birth. We should be getting a phone call sometime today to tell us what time to go and get her - I'm so anxious! I just want to see her! I'll keep you all posted!

It's A Girl!!!

Little Guy's little sister was born last night, and although I do not know any details, I have heard that she is apparently healthy. The social worker is putting all the paperwork together, now that she's actually here, to have her placed with us straight from the hospital. So I'm gearing up for a third little one - yes three! - all under the age of two!!! I think I must be nuts!

I should get a call tomorrow telling me more details and arranging a pick up time from the hospital. I'm not sure if I'll have to spend the last night in the hospital with her like I did with Little Guy. I think I did with him because he was a preemie, and they wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing with a preemie, I guess.

Pray for us!!!

Mohawk Day

This afternoon I got a little crazy with Little Guy's hair! He's getting his first haircut in 4 days, so I thought I better play around with this long red hair before it's all gone. So while Little Man was napping, I pulled out my mousse and hair dryer and went at it! I had Little Guy's hair up in a mohawk in no time. Although the first try was kind of a curly mohawk, the second try was a bit more straight and high. I left it in for my hubby to see when he got home, and he just shook his head and laughed at me. Oh well - Little Guy and I had fun!