That makes sense!

So in our little communication book today I asked Little Man's mom if she could tell me about any family history (thinking parents/etc) with asthma/allergies. I had assummed (Big mistake) that she would have mentioned that she had allergies/asthma after all of our talk of him on breathing treatments etc. She wrote back and stated that she in fact DOES have asthma/allergies, it runs on both sides of the family, and she uses an inhaler 4-5 times a day! She said that he knew was going to have it. What??? I really wish she would have mentioned that ummm....back in December! Oh well...at least we now have this very important information for our next pulmonologist appt :)

She also mentioned something else interesting...I won't go into specifics, but Little Man has not one older sibling, but 2 as well as the unborn baby. Mom supposedly finished something from her case plan today (conflicting reports here) and starts on the next big thing in a couple of weeks.

Little Man continues to do well. He has started saying "ba" whenever he holds a ball and says "nana" when he eats a banana or even sees one. So cute!! He is bear walking all over the place, but not really venturing out with the walking yet. I am totally ok with that :)

Love this song!

This song bring the tears!



Thanks for sharing Karen!

The Winner!

The random winner of the Dunkin Donuts gift card is Sandy!!!! Congrats! Please email me your address so I can get that to you!! :) Enjoy!!

Pulmonologist Appt

Little Man had his pulmonologist appt this morning. She listened to him and said he is definitely wheezing still. She explained that in the airways there is constriction and swelling. The albuterol he has been on has helped his constriction, but not the swelling. In the past 5 months he has been on oral steriods 2 times and they can have side effects so they don't want to keep putting him on them. They have decided to place him on inhaled steriods 2x's daily (Pulmicort 0.5mg) and continue with the albuterol as needed. We will reassess in 2 months and see how he is doing on the daily preventative stuff to take care of the swelling. She has a strong belief that he has asthma, but due to lack of family medical history and his age she can't diagnois it as that right now. She also believes that the head congestion is partially from allergies, but she said again, with his age he is too young to test (we may get false negatives). She also wants me to take him for a chest x-ray in the next couple weeks to rule out anything that could be in the lungs and check out the shape of his lungs, etc. So, that's that!

Reminder...

enter the gift card giveaway today!!! Click here for the post on how to enter :)

Staffing happened!

I had speech therapy for my son this am and when I came home there was a message that said staffing for little man was in 10 minutes and to call her if I wanted to participate via phone. So I called and well, 1 1/2 hours later staffing started! It was my first one so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I really was only asked a few questions about concerns, problems, vacations, etc. I was glad I attended because his CM said that he is going to the pulmonologist, but that was because of ONE breathing epsisode back in December. I had to set the record straight that it has now been 4 times where he has needed the nebulizer to breathe and he is going for an evaluation.

Mom was on another line, so that was interesting. She claims she wants nothing to do with bio-dad (yet he stays with her sometimes!) She claims she is getting an apt. tomorrow, still no job, and she is 100% (for now) making an adoption plan for the unborn baby. She is about 4 months along right now. There are a lot of ways that this could go still, and I have already learned that you just have to wait for things to happen before you believe any of it! LOL!

In June/July we are going to be driving to MI for a family vacation and we were given approval by her that she didn't mind and she even said for us to have fun! I was a bit surprised she didn't put up a fuss. She was relieved that we were driving because she didn't want Little Man on a plane. I would have thought the opposite! In our book yesterday she made the comment that with the situation she was in that it was a blessing that we are taking care of him :)

So, all in all it went well. I was released after 35 minutes though, so I am not sure what happened after that. We just continue to walk with one foot in front of the other! :-)

WIC office

I went to the WIC office again this morning to pick up Little Man's checks. It is a blessing to have this supplement because he eats A LOT! It's always an adventure when I go to this building (it also has a clinic, pharmacy, etc for people of no/low income, so lots of people!).

In my devotions today I read Matthew 7:1-2 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in thesame way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you."

I go to an office is downtown in a very shady area. It's difficult to go into a situation like the WIC office and not judge those sitting there. I have to go in with an attitude of prayer. As I was sitting there today lots of things were flowing through my head....God had an answer for each of them.

"How can you cuss like that in front of your youngs kids???" God answered for her...Because that's how my parents spoke in front of me. "How can you slap your child for wanting to be near you???" God answered for her...that's what my mom did when I wanted to snuggle. "How did those 15 year old boys end up in handcuffs, gloating as if they were proud to now have a record??" God answered for them...There was no one there to guide me at home. No one cares what I do. Why should I care?

I have been to the WIC office 3 times now since Little Man arrived. Everytime I leave that place I feel broken for all the people inside who don't see The Hope that so wants each and every one of them. God wants them to come to Him so He can speak kind and gentle words to them, caress their hair gently and hold them close, and be there to lead and guide them, to care about them and what they do. It would be really easy for me to change WIC offices to somewhere that is a little farther away, but much more in my comfort zone. As I was thinking about this on the way home though, I realized that it's not about my comfort AT ALL! God needs me (yep...lil' ole' me) to be in that office praying for those people and showing them Jesus through me! Yes, I will look at each visit with a new pair of lenses.....

Again :(

So Little Man's staffing was rescheduled for today. I confirmed yesterday and was on my way by 9:00am this morning. I was about 10 minutes from home when my cell rang. It was Mr. M saying the CM called and the meeting had been cancelled for a second time. This time, it was the Director who was not going to be able to attend due to an emergency court situation, so we will wait and see when it will be rescheduled again....

The past 2 days we have noticed Little Man letting go of objects and independently standing for a few seconds!!! Here we go!

Oh....good news! I called and spoke to another woman at the pulmonologist's office and she said that as long as we have the Medicaid # then they will be able to run the information and I don't have to actually have the card itself. Yay!!! He is having a hard time breathing and I am giving him treatments every 4-6 hours so we don't have to go to the pediatrician's office this week and can just see the pulmonologist. We'll see if it works :)

10 months old!!

I can't believe that Little Man is 10 months old already!! He is getting all over the place, but not yet walking (thankfully!!) He has however started to bear walk which is just adorable! He loves to repeat sounds and "talk", play with his (foster) brothers, feed others his food, empty anything that is full, go swimming, well...just about anything! He is generally a very happy guy and he is SO happy that he is the only baby again! LOL! He has ANOTHER cold!!!!!! I literally cannot believe how much he is sick. I think we had a 1 week break. He is coughing and already wheezing again. The appt with the pulmonologist is Friday. We need his new medicaid card though before we can go to the appt so PLEASE pray with me that it comes by THURSDAY so that we can attend the appt and see what is going on with him!

In just a few short weeks he will have officially lived 1/2 of his life with his biological mother and 1/2 of his life here. She continues to do what she is supposed to do (classes), so that is good for Little Man. I think I mentioned that the visit was cancelled for Wed last week. She called and wanted to reschedule for Friday, but the CM said that she needed to call the bus company and figure out a route to get to the CM's office for the visit. Mom said "ok..I'll call you back when I find out" and she never returned the call :( A big thing for her is learning to do things for herself and problem solving. Currently they still do not have stable housing (living in a hotel) and neither have jobs. So while it's easy to complete a class/sessions that people have set up for her, it's proving more difficult for her to take the initiative on some very important things that need to happen before she gets him back. The staffing has been rescheduled for Tuesday so we will see if there have been any new developments and where we go from here!

Gift Card Giveaway

I have a $15 gift card to Dunkin Donuts that I would love to bless one of my awesome readers with! I am a HUGE fan of coffee (oh and donuts, bagels, and everything else there!) and love Dunkin' (not only does it taste better than Starbucks, but your money goes a lot farther too-lol!) All you have to do to enter is become a follower and leave a brief comment as to why you read this blog. That's it! You can enter the giveaway from Saturday April 17-Friday April 23rd. I will choose one random winner from all the entries on Friday night :)

(if you are a follower already, simply leave a comment) :)

So sweet

Tonight as Mr. A was brushing his teeth his stopped and looked at me and said

A: Mom, this is weird.
Me: What's weird honey?
A: (baby) D isn't here with us!

Aww....it's amazing how he connects with the babies that have come into our home. He simply cannot let Little Man go to bed with giving him a hug and a kiss first and he just is genuinely sweet to him (and baby D). It's so refreshing because if you know Mr. A at all, you know that he is a wild and crazy kid who loves to torment his brother! We were a bit concerned when we started this whole journey how he would accept new children into the family, but that concern melted away so quickly! :-)

Goodbye sweet girl!

Today sweet little Strawberry left us for her "permanent" foster home. We consider our time with her blessed and we will miss her! She was/is our first "goodbye" but it's easier knowing that she is with awesome people who will take great care of her :-)

CM visit today

I got Little Man all ready for his visit today and 10 minutes past the time his visit was to start no one was here. Turns out she cancelled because Mom couldn't find transportation to the visit (despite her being given a bus pass to use for the visits). Anyway, the CM did come over and have our monthly home visit.

I learned a couple of interesting things....

1) There was a psychological eval done and there are recommendations for 10 counseling sessions as well as theraputic parenting sessions prior to reunification (so thankful for that!)

2) Mom has contacted a local adoption agency to place the new child for adoption because she doesn't want the state to get custody of the child. The CM said something about that not being able to happen because of her current situation, so we'll have to stay tuned on that one. If she were really doing it for selfless reasons I would totally applaude her decision to be able to recognize she isn't able to take care of two...sadly that doesn't seem to be the main motivator here :(

So...Mom is totally angry about the counseling sessions and feels "they" just don't want her to have her baby back. She also thinks that once this is all over they are going to just hand Little Man back to her. The CM said that it will be first unsupervised visits, then overnight stays, then weekend stays and then back full-time to transition him. We of course still have no idea when all of this is going to take place and are leaving that in God's hands!

Little Strawberry had a visit from her CPI today and will have her first birthparent visit tomorrow. They were unflexible on the time, so they have to pick her up from our homeschooling class tomorrow! Whatever! :-) She is doing really well now and even slept for most of the night last night!!! I was SO GRATEFUL!!! Good thing her other foster home is just a short drive away so we can visit her :)

Baby life

Life with a baby sure does make things hectic and somewhat chaotic, but she is oh so fun! I can't believe that it has been almost 6 years since we had a newborn baby in the house! We are doing "the dance" right now of figuring her out...what positions she likes, how she likes to be fed/held, what song always makes her quiet down, what a specific cry means, etc. I am bleary eyed right now from lack of sleep, but it's totally worth it knowing that we opened our home to a child in need, showed her love, and are helping friends out too! My sister suggested making a photo wall of all of our foster children and I really like the idea! Each one will have a different impact on our lives and teach us something new :)

New Nickname

So I guess Mr. A was not really liking the nickname Little Princess, so he has changed it to Little Strawberry because she wears a lot of pink :) I thought it was adorable that he thought of that! He's doing great with her and helping take Little Man's attention away from the baby. Even Mr. I is doing great with her and wants to help, which if you remember was not the same sentiment when Little Man came-LOL! Little Man is SUPER jealous, but it's something he's going to have to get used to...like it or not! Little Baby is on his/her way...before we all know it!

Little Princess

Around 3:15 our Little Princess arrived! Our friends dropped off a bouncy seat, swing, and lots of clothes for her, so we are set for the week! She had a dr. appt this afternoon and unfortunately she has thrush--yuck! So...I thought we were done with meds, but apparently we have another week of them! She is just 9 lbs and super, super cute! A tiny peanut compared to Little Man!! The kids have taken very well to her, well...except for Little Man! If I am holding her and not him he follows me around pulling on my pants and screaming! He's going to need to get used to not being the baby around here! He'll adapt pretty quickly I'm sure...just in time for her to go to her permanent placement! LOL!

It's a GIRL!

I got a call last night around 11:30 from my friend saying that placement called and they wanted them to take in a 4 week old little girl and would I still be willing to watch her for a week until they get back from vacation. Sure! So this am we are getting a little girl! I can't believe it's not a boy-LOL! There is a good chance that she may not even be here (or at my friends) for long as there are siblings and they are trying to get a family member to take all of them. So...we will love on her for as long as we have her :-) I am assumming Little Man may not be too fond of her, but we shall see!

Babbling away!

It has been so much fun to watch Little Man grow and change almost daily! The other day Mr. A and I went into to his room to get him up from a nap. When he saw Mr. A he made an approximation for his name "do-do" Mr. A wasn't so happy it sounded that way, but I told him he should be honored! I wasn't sure if it was just a fluke or not though, until this am when we were all playing together and Mr. A was making Little Man crack up and he was chasing after Mr. A and babbling "do-do, do-do" trying to catch him!

He will repeat consonant-vowels after me such as "mama, dada, papa, baba, etc"

This afternoon I was eating a sandwich in front of him and I wasn't sharing so he got a bit loud. I then gave him a tiny bite of bread and he immediately held his mouth open for more. I have been trying to teach him the sign for more and he watches my mouth. I encouraged him to say it and then he said "mum mum!" I gave him another piece and waited. I kept eating (all the while he has his mouth open wide!) and after a minute he repeated "mum mum." It was so cute! He is recognizing the power of words and communication (young!) It's so fun :)

Update...

No baby! There was a change of plans and the foster family that has the baby's siblings decided to take him as well! That is so good because I am so adament about keeping siblings together whenever possible :) That's the whole reason we are taking Little Man's sibling in! So...we were ready to accept another one, and if God has another short-term situation for us we will be totally open!

Another one!

About 2:45 this afternoon I get a call from our FDS and she is giggling as she says hello to me. I asked her what was going on and she said that placement is having a hard time placing a 3 month old white male. Would we be interested in taking him??? As I am thinking about the insanity of it, I thought about our friends who are going on vacation all next week, but to have an opening in their home. I suggested that we take him for the next week and a half and then they could take him more permanently next Saturday. Our FDS called them and voila...another little boy is due to arrive here in the few hours! I think I might be a bit crazy, but at the same time it will be good practice for when/if we get Little Man's sibling. Thank God that the family he is going to is giving us a crib, mattress (to borrow until he lives there), clothes and diapers! God ordained all this knowing this situation would arise! Mr. M does indeed think I am a bit crazy, but that's ok....he knows it's not about me!

Early morning call

At 4:15 this morning our phone apparently rang (we didn't hear it!) When I checked the messages this morning it was placement calling to see if we could take a 1 yr old Hispanic male until Monday. I totally would have said yes, but we are already at capacity :( We plan on increasing our cap. soon so that we can take in Little Man's sibling this summer. Maybe we will do it early and practice having 4 kids! Well....that's if I can convince Mr. M!! A few respite situations have come up lately as well and I would have loved to help!

Update

Little Man is doing better...well...mostly anyway! Last night he was up for over 2 hours for no real reason :( We had a check up today and he was still wheezing, so she had me give him another treatment in the office before we left. I started to give it to him when his quick grabby hands ripped the top off and all the medicine went flying into the air...lovely! So we started over again! She said he should be significantly better by the end of the week. We were able to make the pulmonologist appt for April 23rd so hopefully we can get some answers so we don't have these 3-4 week cycles of sickness all the time!

Tomorrow I am going to a permanency staffing where all the "main players" will meet and discuss the case and what's happening with Mom's case plan, etc. I am hoping to hear the results of her evaluation from Friday as well. Everything seems to be on course for her, but there are potentially a few things that could extend his time in care. Still praying for God's will through it all! :)

Making a difference

Check out this hearwarming story!


http://www.thekansan.com/news/x1176895245/ADOPTION-STORIES-Foster-child-remembers-being-rocked