Few things

Things have been CRABBY around here for a few days and I am so excited to say that I can officially see tooth #5 !!! I cannot wait for that thing to break through!!! He must be working on more by the looks of those gums. Why did God make the teething process sooooo ssslloooooooooooooowwwwwww????? Poor baby (and the rest of us! LOL!) !!!

Little Man's mom agreed to us getting his haircut!! Well...she said a trim, but we'll take it!! Little Man will be ONE soon and we'd like him to have a decent haircut for his first b-day pics :) Still working a potential photographer that won't charge an arm and a leg!

I think I mentioned the Judicial review next week. I totally read the time wrong on the paper! Oh well...a wonderful friend has offered to watch the kids so I can attend!!! It will be my first time actually meeting Little Man's birthparents. Should be interesting!

Little Man is now wanting to upright most of the time!! He always tries to keep his walker near to him so that he can just stand and go! I guess he has decided it's time :) It's so cute to see him walking outside with his walker down the sidewalk-LOL!

New addition...no, not us!

Mr. M and I are going to have a new NIECE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is due to be born on July4th!!! This adoption is a little different though....see..this beautiful baby girl has some pretty serious health issues and even before she has been born, hospice has been notified. My sister and BIL are walking in faith not knowing if they will have hours, days, weeks or years with their baby girl. After a lot of prayer, sweet baby A has experienced God's healing in some areas, and we are believing for God to heal the rest!! My sister and BIL are both planning on traveling to CA for the birth! They have a tax deductible account set up through The Shepherd's Crook. Please contact me via email if you are interested in that information so you can make a donation for Baby A's adoption! I encourage you to go over to http://www.hishandshisfeettoday.blogspot.com/ to read more about Baby A and follow her adoption journey!

NOW....I need to go out and start buying baby GIRL clothes!!!!!!

Little Man's current vocabulary

Little Man turned 11 months last week!! I can't believe that we are nearing on 6 months together!! He is still not walking, but I am still ok with that! This morning he busted his lip by trying to pull up on the table and not judging it correctly :( He loved sucking on the ice though! He currently is only signing "more", but his speech continues to take off :) His current words that he uses consistenly are...

• ball
• mama (sometimes when he's angry it's momeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!)
• dada
• more
• hi
• bye
• do-do (for our eldest son)
• nigh-nigh (he lays his head down and pretends to go to sleep...so cute!)

Other words he has said, but not consistently are "no, please, up" and "done." I love this stage when the learning is taking place so quickly!! So fun!!!

Next week we have his Judicial Review...I am still trying to figure out a way to be able to go. I am very interested in everyone's official perspective of how things are going. Nothing has been changed in the the status hearing because it's not an official judge, so we will see what changes happen. We will see if "legal Dad" now has representation and what's going to happen on that route.

Love this song!

Relationship

God has really been doing a work in my heart lately about Little Man's momma. It's so "easy" as a foster parent to see the bio-parent as the "bad person" who did xyz to have their child taken away. It's easy to think that he would be better off in life being in our family, but then reality hits that he isn't ours and that isn't our decision!! On Sunday our pastor said something that has stuck with me "If you are willing to do what no one else does, God will give you what no one else has." Little Man's momma is (one) of my missions fields! It's fun to look back at the communication book we started and read how she responded to me 5 months ago versus now
:-) She wrote today that she knows how much we really love Little Man and we aren't in it for the state's money (sadly SO many people think that foster parents do it for the money---ya right?! OK...there are a few, but it seems that only the bad situations are heard about :( ) She thanked me for the words of support I write to her and was happy to see particular things that we do for Little Man and of course the pictures!! We will be crying buckets of tears when Little Man leaves (I do believe that he will most likely return to his momma) BUT I know that I know that I know that I know that God will be with him and that I have done all that He wanted me to do...no regrets. Who knows....maybe the seeds I am planting in "A" will be watered and grow into her personal relationship with Christ!!! How exciting is that???!!!

Happenings

Not too much happening here for once! :) Little Man is doing great and is at such a FUN stage! He is babbling and trying so hard to make some sense :) He goes on and on and if you keep talking back he keeps going! When we ask him questions such as "are you ready to go to bed?" He responds with "yah!" He really has been focusing on the speech aspect and put the gross motor on the back burner. I'm sure he'll switch again soon. He is one LOUD little boy...fits right in with the rest of them :) This past week I have had to take one of the other kids out for an appt or what not and he has started crawling over to the window, banging on it and screaming as I leave :( Poor Mr. M! He is eating lots of table foods now and prefers it over baby foods. He is now in mostly 18 month old clothes and some 24 month clothes...yep at almost 11 months! He's a BIG boy! :)

This little guy has a smile that will melt your heart...has mine! I wish you all could see it!

Continuing to learn

Things continue to move right along! Little Man just got back from a visit and seems happy to be back :) He is so stinkin' cute!

His mom is doing well on her case plan and continues to complete the things that she needs to complete. She now has stable housing so that is significant! Unfortunately birthdad has not been coming to visits anymore and wasn't at the last court hearing either. One thing that needs to be worked out in court the next time is the whole drug screening thing. Apparently you need 20 negatives in a row before reunification can take place. If you don't show up it's considered a positive test. So...his mom's attorney is trying to get that thrown out of the case plan. We'll see about that in June at his judicial review.

Please pray for his CM. Although we have had issues with communication she is a good person and is really trying her best. She has a tough case load with a ton of stress and Little Man's mom is a huge source of that stress. She doesn't like the CM and tries at every turn to get her in trouble :( I wouldn't want to be a CM...that's for sure!!!

We got our re-licensing packet in the mail the other day...another thing to get started on! I am looking forward to a symposium tomorrow talking about cross cultural issues in fostering and adopting :)

Mother's Day

Today I am super blessed! I have two beautiful children to call "mine" and one extra that I get to love on :) I am thinking of his birthmom today as it must be super difficult for her today. At her visit last week I had Little Man give her a card with lots of super cute pictures of him in it. She has several different life experiences involving children...one has been adopted, one stillborn, one in state care, and one inutero whom she has chosen adoption for. I can't imagine the wide variety of emotions she is experiencing today, but I am certainly praying for her.

Signing!

I have been using baby sign language with Little Man ever since he was about 6 months old. About a month ago he started saying "Muh" for more when he wanted more food. I thought he just wanted to speak instead of sign (no problem there!) but then tonight at dinner he said "Muh" and banged his fists together! It of course wasn't the exact sign for "more" but it never is when they are this young because they still need time to develop those fine motor skills! He did this several times...it was so cute :) He has also started saying "nigh nigh" and lays his head down for a second and then pops right back up and laughs...so darn cute!!! :-)

No news :(

I still haven't heard much about what happened at court yesterday...don't they know we wait very impatiently to know??? LOL!!! All I have learned is that she produced paperwork to say she finished her parenting classes, but that is in question and she has not produced evidence of her current living situation. I hope I will hear something today, but if not, then I know I will see his CM tomorrow for his visit!

Court again

Today is another status hearing for Little Man. There was an "incident" between the bio-parents and there is a possibility of something being added to the case plan. I think Mom has a couple more parenting classes, counseling, and theraputic parenting classes and potentially this new thing.

I also learned that Little Man has TWO big brothers! I was only aware of one. Not sure where this other child is living. It's not going to be an easy road to keep him connected to all of these siblings living in various places (including unborn baby).

May is National Foster Care Month!!!! If you are a foster parent...God Bless You!!!! If you are thinking about becoming a foster parent, please ask questions and get connected!! If you are not able to become a foster parent right now, then please support the people who are (both with prayer and tangibly). I had no idea what a change this would be to our lives (no training can adequately prepare you). Praying for an amazing month where LOTS of people step up to help the children that so desperately need a temporary loving home!!!