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.