Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We have so much to be thankful for this year! This is Little Man's first Thanksgiving with us and we are definititely thankful that we have him here to celebrate this year
:-) I think Thanksgiving will be this kid's favorite holiday because it involves his favorite activity---EATING!!!

Little Man's permanency hearing is next week and so is the one year marker of his arriving at our home. It has been a good 2 months since he has had any "after visit" nightmare wake-ups...that is until last week. His Dad's visits have been reinstated and with the all that is coming next week there is some definite stuff in the spiritual realm that is going on! He had a visit yesterday and last night he was just fitfull in his sleep and around 10:30 he had "THAT" scream! He is really only half awake, but is so overcome that it's hard to settle him back down. He is fearful and can't relax to go back to sleep. This has only ever happened after his visits. I am THANKFUL that he is in our home and that we have the opportunity to pray over him when he is feeling this way! God has taught me a lot about spiritual warfare in the past year and just what a position we are in for Little Man (and any other child/ren that come into our home).

Have a BLESSED day blog friends!!!! We will :-)

Thinking about Christmas....

I'd like to hear from some of you other foster parents out there....Do you do something for your foster children's birthparents for Christmas? If so, what do you do? A card? Special picture? Gift?

Last Christmas we didn't even have contact with his parents so it wasn't an issue. Since then of course we have developed a relationship (kinda) :) . I was thinking perhaps a special card with his picture or something similar.

What are you ideas???

Getting bigger!

My big guy is 17 months old today! I can hardly believe it!! We went to a dinner at church last night and as I was tucking him back into his carseat to go home I told him that I loved him and he grabbed my face a planted a big 'ole kiss on me! Then he said "wub woo!" Awwwww.....

A tad tired (warning...a little venting!) :)

A few weeks ago Little Man's transporter asked both the mom and I if we could switch his visit from Wed. to Tues at 10am. We both said that was fine. I verified it with him last week when L.M. was dropped off. Yesterday comes and it's 9:30 (time scheduled to pick up)...9:45...10:00 and no transporter. I called him and asked what was going on and he said that he had double booked and was currently supervising a visit. He called me back a few min. later and asked if he could pick him up at 3:30. Ugh...fine! Little Man got back home at 6:30 last night..had dinner and went to bed. Just a tad tired (this is the 3rd time the transporter has done this me) of my time not being valued and expectations of me being flexible.

So when he got back I read the communication book. If you have been reading my blog for awhile now you know that L.M.'s mom is VERY picky about what he wears (NO jeans...baggy, etc). So..for his b-day back in June she gave him 3 outfits. In order to stop her complaining about what I put on him I only put him in these outfits (rotating them). Yesterday she wrote and asked if he had any other clothes that fit him. Ummm....yes of course he has more than three outfits! I am getting more bold with her about things like this and wrote back to her that I will be more than happy to put other outfits on him, but if she prefers no jeans/baggy only clothes that she will need to supply them and I would be happy to put him in them for his visits. Just a tad tired of being "told" how I need to dress a child in my care. When you have your son back you can dress him how you want to. You kind of lost that right when you made the choices you did. I tried to respect her wishes and it's just frustating she doesn't appreciate it!

So another thing is that they meet at the mall. I have a bag that I send with him and she has placed two small blankets in there for them to sit on (him at least) while they play. A couple of times now she has told me they need to be washed. Umm...ok I did it last time and I will do it once more, but I wrote to her that perhaps next time she could take them with her, wash them, and bring them back. Just a tad tired....I know this seems like a silly little thing..what's the big deal, but all these things add up!

His mom can be a nice lady...really, but she has a big issue of expecting everyone to DO for HER. She wants the state to supply her with a rent free apt, she wants "someone" to get her a job and a car, she wants DCF to supply all the big things like a bed, stroller, etc that she will need. I am all for helping people in need, but I also think they need to learn to look in and do something for YOURSELF for some self-satisfaction. Neither one fo them have actual jobs...their criminal histories make that tough. I have ZERO confidence that the two of them together could at all take care of Little Man's needs. No jobs...no stable housing...and the kicker is that she thinks she'll have him back for Christmas! Just a tad tired....

All of that to say that I am leaning (more than ever!!) on God to take care of Little Man. I have NO control...court is two weeks away and that will be a pivotal day. If we have to send him back I will be concerned for his health and safety everyday, but at the same time trusting God that He knows what He's doing and will protect Little Man.

National Adoption Day 2010 is coming up!

November 20, 2010 (many states are celebrating the 19th) :-)

Little Man happenings...

Little Man has been so funny lately! He is really trying to say SO much and will repeat almost anything that you ask him to (ask his brothers!) The last couple of times that I have gotten him up from sleeping I walk in the room and he says "Mom, got poop!" and he pats his diaper! LOL! A three-word phrases and right about 75% of the time :-) Today he was picking stickers off of something saying "Oh no. Sticker. Da-buge (garbage)." He's a smart cookie and he likes to show it!

He has also been super interested in John Deere tractors lately too! This brings back a flood memories because it was at about this age that Mr. A was a John Deere addict! He could identify all sorts of tractors, watched tractor videos, played tractors, etc. Little Man's interest has re-sparked A's interest too :) Mr. I loves to ride our toy tractor so they were outside riding tractors, pretending to harvest and restore old tractors. It was cute to see them all working together! Usually L.M. is busy destroying what the other 2 are doing! There are so many aspects that I think about when I contemplate the possibility of him returning to his parents, but one thing I know he will miss FOR SURE are those big brothers!

Another one of his big interests is FOOTBALL much to Daddy's happiness!!! A couple of mornings last week when Mr. M. was home on his days off L.M. woke up and I brought him downstairs. He immediately asked for his "boot ball, Daddy" and ran and got the football and brought it to play with my husband. Ahhh...now that's the way to make a Daddy's heart sing!

The Aquarium

I took Little Man and his brothers to the Aquarium today (Mr. A had a home school class). L.M. is finally getting really interested in the creatures and kept saying "fish! fish!" He's getting to be so big! I think he was literally stunned when I let him get out of the stroller..usually I have to keep him contained! lol!

Court today

We were all at court (minus our cm) and in front of the judge and she apparently did not receive a couple of the documents that she required. She asked the AG's office and the GAL attorney if we should proceed and it was decided that we would!

It became official and irrevokable in court that "legal" dad is no longer attached to this child at all and the bio dad is now officially on paper as taking responsibility for Little Man. He has now gained back his visitation rights and will get to see L.M. tomorrow.

As for some other things...they both were required to do a drug screen right there at court. The dad came back dirty on two different drugs. The judge says this is one of the most messed up cases on her caseload! Lucky us that it's our first one! LOL! So...he has a case plan hearing set for Monday and he will be having drug screens as part of that plan.

The big news is that she also set a permanency hearing for December 3rd!! 2 days after what will be the one year anniversary of L.M. joining us. I was not aware (until today) that this case has changed to a concurrent plan. It was asked that if adoption became the goal, would we be interested. Absolutely!!!!!! Of course there are so many ways that this whole thing can still go and pretty much ALL of it at this point depends on how dad does between now and December 3rd! He swore up and down to the judge that he would be clean from here on out and he'd not show up dirty anymore, so we shall see!

On another note...I had to take baby girl (the one I'm babysitting for another set of foster parents until she is old enough to go to daycare) to court with me and oh my was she a hit!!! One big Sherrif could not stop cooing and talking to her and finally I asked him if he would just like to hold her and his face lit up and he said "yes!" So he was walking around court with the baby and walked over to the judge and she held her for a bit too. She only protested one time and it was simply perfect timing...right on cue-lol!

It's Orphan Sunday!!!!!!!!!

Please read the following link. It has great ideas as to how you can help (no not all of them are adopting a child!) the 147 million orphans living in this world today!

http://www.amazingmess.com/2010/11/spirited-sunday-orphan-sunday.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAmazingMess+%28The+Amazing+Mess%29

Many months back it was placed on my heart to (once again) ask my pastor if we as a church could participate in Orphan Sunday and National Adoption Month this November. It was a prompting directly from the Holy Spirit and after 6 1/2 years of trying to get a church to listen to this "cry" it was accepted! There was a 1/2 page bulletin announcement about National Adoption Month, websites to get involved in, as well as discussions of how to help orphans from the pulpit, and a table out in the lobby with more information about adoption and foster care!! To go from nothing to that much participation has me very excited about what God is going to do to impress upon people's hearts the intense need for people to DO and not just listen! Excited to see the fruit!!!

Another one :)

No, we aren't fostering another baby (yet!) Two weeks ago I got an email asking if I would consider taking care of a little one (yet to be born) until she was old enough to go to the daycare her siblings do. Of course I said "sure!" She was born last Wednesday and is now 5 days old! She was just over 5lbs at birth so she is a little peanut! I'll really only have her for a few weeks since the week of Thanksgiving the school here have off (mom is a teacher). So I get all the goodness of taking care of a baby with out having to be up all night! :-) Win-win!

More?

More delays...really? Ahhhh...Sometimes I wish I could shake these people and say "do you realize what you are doing to this poor child?!" I wish sometimes they could think about L.M. and not about their personal wishes!! Bad choices :( Little Man's bio-father has had his referrals to start working on his case plan tasks for a month..has he started? No! L.M.'s mom has a task she is to complete each week...she has skipped the last 3 weeks because it's too far for her to walk (yet she did this for many months and the whole time she was pregnant!) Frustrated!!!

On a good note...we really like our new CM! She is very realistic and is very honest with the parents. Hopefully she is just what this case needs :) Court has been rescheduled for next Tuesday and I am very interested to see what is going to happen!

It's here!!!!!

HAPPY NATIONAL ADOPTION AWARENESS MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope to share lots of ways to support adoption, foster care and orphan care over the course of the month! Get involved!!!