My kind of coffee

You are a Black Coffee

At your best, you are: low maintenance, friendly, and adaptable At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty You drink coffee when: you can get your hands on it Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Tigger Tail

Just had to post another picture! This is of Little Guy playing in his Tigger Jump-Up. He really enjoys this. And it's so stinkin' cute how the little tail on the backside sticks out!

Daddy & Little Guy

Just thought I'd add a picture of James and Little Guy playing on the floor (taken August 19). Little Guy started sitting up on his own on August 10, and now that he knows he can do it, that's all he wants to do - sit and play with his toys. And of course, he likes it much better when one of us sits to play with him. In this picture, he's wearing his first pair of "big boy" jammies. I say "big boy" because these are two pieces jammies, not the one piece, zip up, footie jammies he normally wears. And if you can believe it, these jammies are marked 12M - so I originally got them for Little Man, but someone must have mismarked them big time! Little Guy usually wears 3-6M clothes, and these jammies fit him perfectly. Either they really shrunk, or were horribly mismarked!

Sick Child & Shattered Window

I went to get Little Man out of bed this morning - he woke up at about 7 am - and found a very runny nose! The cold he's been trying to get finally settled in, which I figured would, since he's had a few coughing fits in the middle of the night the last two nights. So I got him up, changed him into warm sweat pants and such, and cleaned out his little nose, and gave him his cough & cold medicine. Poor little guy - all stuffy and can't breathe. James stayed home from church with him, as we were slated to work the nursery today, and sick kids aren't allowed in the nursery.

But I got Little Guy all ready to go to church with me, and walked out to the van to find that some little bugger had shot out one of our van windows with a BB Gun. Not the most fun to find in the morning! So back in the house with Little Guy I went, to tell James what I found. I ended up leaving both boys home with James so that at least one of us could work our shift in the nursery. We only have to do it once a month, and luckily today there were only 5 kids in the nursery, and 2 belonged to other nursery attendants. Usually at second service at our church there are close to 15 kids in the nursery, but it was a slow day today.

I tried to take Little Man's temp. when I got home. Best way to do so is from down south, and he wasn't all that interested in having that done. The temp was right around 102, and all my baby books say that I should wait to call during regular doctor hours about that temp. So I'll just keep him in his sweats today, and make sure he eats good and gets plenty of water and rest. He's just now waking up from a nap, so we'll see how he feels. Of course, I called the social workers for both boys to cancel visits for tomorrow. Little Man's mostly because of his cold, secondly because of our van (I do all transporting to/from visits) and Little Guy's because of the van. Of course, if they have someone who is able to transport Little Guy to/from visit, I'm sure that will still take place, but Little Man will definitely need to just stay home and rest tomorrow. Hopefully my Gram can come over and watch the boys while I take the van to get it fixed.

Foster Adopt Video

I found this video on the web. Click on the title of this entry to go to the video page. It's a true story about a foster adopt child. Please take a moment to view. It's quite a touching story.

Yet another missed visit

I got a call about 25 minutes prior to Little Guy's visit today telling me that it had been cancelled by the parents. Of course, I wasn't given a reason, I never am, but it's one more mark against the parents. In the last 4 weeks, out of 8 visits, the parents have cancelled 4 of them. Not a good track record in my opinion. The social worker is on vacation until the end of the month, so once he gets back in the office, I'm going to request a sit down meeting with him to discuss what's going on, what he thinks is going to happen, and what the state's thoughts are on the unborn baby. I want to make sure we are prepared for whatever is possible happening. If he really thinks we will be getting this new baby, I need to get our licensor in here to re-do our license for 3 kiddos.

Little Man still had his visit today. He woke up at 6 am this morning - not surprising, since he went to bed and asleep by 7 pm last night. But by the time I picked him up from his visit (they go from 9am-12 on Mondays) he was exhausted and fell asleep in the van on the way home. I got him home, changed him into his jammies, and he went right back to sleep, cuddling his little stuffed monkey. So cute and sweet! He's been asleep for an hour now, and Little Guy is alseep too, so I've actually got a few minutes of quiet to myself. Not a frequent event in this house!

He's sitting! He's sitting!

Little Guy is sitting up all on his own! I know this may not sound like much, but it was the goal the therapist and I set for reaching by the end of the month, and he's already done it! Therapy was yesterday, and Little Guy sat by himself, but it only lasted about 50 seconds before he toppled over. Today, while at the park for Mommy & Me Play Group, I sat him up on the blanket, and he stayed that way for 10 minutes!! Without supporting himself with his hands. And he was correcting himself when he started to fall. I'm so happy! Of course, now that he knows how to do it, that's all he wants to do!

Another Baby?

We recently found out some interesting news - something we had suspected but has been confirmed as of late. Little Guy's bio-mom is pregnant again, with another little boy. It's a very, very strong possibility - heck, pretty much a certain thing - that before Christmas we will be placed with Little Guy's brother. Yikers! That means we will have 3 children under the age of 2. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. We are excited, and nervous, and worried. So many different emotions. We need to have a sit down talk with the social worker, and then get our licensor back in here to re-license us for three kiddos. We already have two cribs in our bedroom, and the boys' room has two cribs in it. The plan is for Little Guy & Little Man to share a room, and the newest baby will be in our room. So say some prayers for us, as well as for the unborn child. Bio-mom continues to smoke, and I'm not certain if she is still drinking and doing drugs. Pray for divine protection for the unborn baby.

High Heat and Birthday Bash

Yikes! It was over 100 degrees here today! I'm not liking this overly hot weather at all!

We went to our very first child's birthday party today - that is, a child that is not related to us! One of the couples that we went through our foster training with was placed with a child soon after they were licensed last October. And now he's 1 year old and the TPR should be done on September 1 so they can officially adopt him! The party was a Hawaiian Luau, and in their backyard, and they have a pool, so we were all able to at least get wet and slightly cool off when it got too unbearable. However, the water temperature of the pool was probably close to 90 degrees! But at least we could cool off some. Our two little ones seemed to enjoy the pool. And I did the underwater test with both of them. They passed! They both went under without a problem, and our oldest went under twice. I'm trying to get them ready for swim lessons. We're hoping to get our 16 month old in lessons within the next month.

Tomorrow we are headed out to the lake to celebrate three family birthdays - my dad, my grandma, and my brother-in-law. My parents have a place at the lake, so we'll be able to swim and relax in comfort! The only saving grace with this hot weather is our easy access to swimming!

Here I am - Finally!

I just realized how very long it's been since I've posted an entry here. Yikes! Can you tell I now have 2 children under 2 yrs of age? Life has been crazily busy!

We now have two foster children in our home - and the oldest of the 2 is 99.9% outs to adopt! I can't say 100% until the paperwork is complete and the judge has signed off, but we're very close! We are excited and nervous at the same time.

Little Man came to live with us on June 4. It was a rocky start - the first week or so I'm not sure who cried more - me or him. But we seem to have gotten over the really rocky parts and are now reaping the benefits. His little personality has really started to shine these last few days, and he seems to be a lot more comfortable in his new home and confident that we aren't leaving him. I really need to sit down and write out the whole story for you all, but right now I'm tired and heading to bed. I've also got some cute pics to share (no face shots yet!) so I'll try to get those posted. I can't promise anything though - I never imagined how busy life would be once we added Little Man to our home. But it's a good busy, for the most part. I'll say one thing for sure that will help you understand my frustrations the most - I HATE PARENT VISITS!! I know, I'm supposed to be fostering for a plan of reunification (oh, please, whatever) but when I really can see the writing on the wall, it's very hard to be positive and optimistic about parent visits. Anyway, enough about that for now.

So sorry to be gone for a while from my blogging, but hopefully over the next few days I can catch up and share some fun and some not so fun stories with you. Until then...goodnight!