Readers - Hello!

After my last post, I got some comments from people I didn't know were reading my blog. And now, I'm curious! If you are reading my blog, and if you don't mind doing so, would you post a quick comment as to how you found me? I started this blog as just an outlet for me, and have quickly found many people in my situation that I can connect with, and it's wonderful! I have some absolutely fantastic friends here in my town, but only a few of them truly understand this "foster world". It's been so nice to connect with other people through this blog who are in the trenches of fostering.

So, drop me a line, I'd love to meet you! Even if you are not a foster parent, and are just reading my blog for kicks and giggles, drop me a line! Please????

Naming Help Needed, please

I have an issue that I need some advice on. Our oldest foster child, Little Man, should be legally free very soon, and we will be starting the adoption process with him. We have been calling him is birth name since he came to us, mostly because his visits with birth mom have continued twice a week. He will be three in March, and has been a foster child since 9 days of age, and has been in our home since he was 14 months old.

We had always talked about changing his name, and even have one picked out. I'm still pretty sure we will be doing this. However, my dilemma comes to the scrapbooking part. Of course, I am very behind in scrapbooking, so there are hardly any pages done of any of my kiddos. But when it comes to scrapbooking him, do I use his birth name on the pages up until we get to adopt him, or do we use his permanent name on anything pre-adoption? I don't know why I struggle with this, but I do.

Our other two kiddos - full siblings - have not seen their birth parents in almost a year, and so we have been calling them their permanent names since April '07. We will be faced with the same kind of dilemma with some of their pictures as well.

Does anyone have any experience or wisdom in this for me???? Please????

I scrapbooked today!!

This was a huge accomplishment for me! I love to scrapbook, but ever since we moved into this new house - March '07 - I have not been able to get my craft room set back up like it was in our old house. Right now, the craft room has one worktable, and it is covered with random stamping and scrapbooking things. It also has a sewing table, and I keep that pretty accessible, but otherwise the whole room is filled with boxes of craft stuff - and other crap - that I just can't find time to go through or move! The room is right above the boys' bedroom, and it seems that the only time I really have to go through it is when the boys are sleeping, and I hate to make the noise it takes to clean out that room. My goal is to have my craft room all set up by the end of February. I know it seems like a strange prayer request - but please pray that I get that goal accomplished. I really need a room that I can retreat to every once in a while and get back to my stamping, scrapbooking and quilting.

I got a double page spread done today - at a friend's house for a CTMH workshop - and it was of Little Guy's first haircut. Of course, he got this haircut over a year ago! But better late than never I suppose! Now I am really itching to do more scrapbooking, especially since Baby Girl's 1st birthday (did I just SAY that?) is next Thursday, and the party is next Saturday, and I want to have a small scrapbook on display of pictures of her throughout her first year. We'll see.......

Done with Speech Therapy!!

Little Guy is officially done with speech therapy. His therapist re-tested him today, and he is doing remarkable well considering how he started. She is really pleased with his progress, as are we, and has decided to let the therapy go for 6 months and re-evaluate him at the end of July. This is good news - first, because he is doing so well, and second, because now we don't have to have bad Friday afternoons. His ST was on Fridays at 1 pm - which was really bad for napping. He normally goes down for a nap around 12:30 or 1:00, and Fridays really threw him off. And he's my one kid that desperately needs to adhere to a schedule. Little Man is fine when our schedule gets wonky, but Little Guy really doesn't do well.

So, hats of to our wonderful therapist - she really got him talking well! Now, if I can just end his little temper tantrums......

Yikes!!!

Court Updates

I just wanted to give a quick – and positive – update on Little Man’s case. We had asked for prayer this month because there were some issues coming forth that might delay the termination trial yet again. But praise God – it is going on as scheduled!! The judge did get changed, but the case will be heard at the same time as the last judge. And the birth mom’s request to have in-home visits with Little Man has been denied. So we just want to thank you for praying with us – God is Good All the Time!!! The next step is the actual Termination Trial, and that will take place January 28-31. We have been told that the decision on the termination will be handed down soon after the end of the trial, possibly the same day or the day after. Our prayer now is that the termination of parental rights be done, and that would mean we could start the actual adoption of Little Man. So please continue to pray with us.

Also, the termination hearing for Little Guy & Baby Girl’s case will be on February 1st at 1:30 pm. We are not anticipating any problems with that one, however, as the birth parents have not been heard from for almost a year now. Can you believe that Baby Girl will be one year old shortly? Wow! Time does fly! So soon, very soon, all three of these beautiful children will officially be our children – thanks to God! He is so faithful to us!

Term Trial for Siblings

We have been waiting for the publishing of the termination trial notice in our local paper, and it finally happened. The social worker was not able to serve Little Guy and Baby Girl's birthparents, so it had to be published. The trial date has been set for February 1 at 1:30 pm - it's such a relief to now have a date to look forward to. I really doubt that the bp will show up, and even if they do, I doubt that the courts would find in their favor. Baby Girl is almost a year old now, and they haven't seen her since she was two days old.

Little Man's term trial is set for January 28 & 29 - so that last week of Jan/first week of Feb is going to be very busy and very stressful for us. Please, please - keep our family in your prayers! Rumor has it that Little Man's bmom is going to petition the court for a new judge to be assigned the term trial. The judge currently assigned has already heard one of her appeals and did not find in her favor, so now she wants him off the case. I have also heard rumor that she is going to petition the court for overnight in-home visits with Little Man! She has not ever been allowed unsupervised visits with him, so I don't see how they would allow this, but I am not surprised anymore by what the system does. I'm just praying hard that this does not get allowed.

I'll update more as I have time.

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!