Rennie

Rennie's Favorite thing to do is to play Frisbee.  He will play all day long. So I thought I would catch some action shots.

Finish of 25 Days of Thanks and Giving

Sorry for the last of posting the  finally days.....

Nov 13th - 25th

We had family come down for a week so things got busy. So I will post pictures of the baskets we delivered and my thanks giving day basket I delivered.

These are some kids baskets I made

Some Fruit/Veggie Baskets

This is my Thanksgiving Day Basket

I had everything you could need for a meal. The 2 blue bags had

the cold things inside of them.

 My original plan was to give it to a family. However I gave it 

to a big family instead. I know it wasn't near enough food but its

what I could give. I have told about this lady who cooks food for the 

homeless everyday on her own. She used this church to cook and 

server in. So that is where I donated the food to.

 There are the dogs helping me deliver this is when we did

the first baskets I had made.

There was many things I done along the way but these were some of the big ones. I love the feeling of giving and it is one of my favorite things to do. I will continue to give. I know it can't be everyday because we can't afford it everyday with trying to save for our adoption but I will give every last penny I can.

Our Foster Care Journey Since Our Move

After two very short weeks in Oklahoma we decided to start applying for our foster care licence. We were foster parents for almost 2 years and opened our home to 5 wonderful kids who we miss each and every day. It was one of the hardest things to leave when we decided to move. After waiting 2 weeks we were finally contacted back. After a few weeks we finally meet the social worker and got our application completed.  The agency here in Oklahoma contracts out their home-studies. We were told that it takes some time to get the homes study started. Oklahoma requires the same training course that Idaho required. So lucky we only have to retake 3 of the classes.  Now in the last 4 weeks since our application we have no heard anything. If we had not done foster care in Idaho I really think my husband and I would have giving up by now. However, God has shown us the love and joy of caring for his orphans.

This is huge problems in Oklahoma with a lack of foster family's. In a state of  3 million people there only 1000 foster families in the whole state. There are 8,000 kids in the foster care. This is so heart breaking for me. These kids need family and love. The progress in Oklahoma takes way longer than we're use too. We have to remember to be patient. It's so hard tho.

Here's an news report form this week.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s Pinnacle Plan to improve DHS points out the need for 500 new foster families by the end of June 2013. The process isn’t easy though and everyone from the OSBI to the FBI is involved in making sure children are placed with the right family.

“It is a bit complicated, but the safety of children depend upon the processes that we go through to make sure they have safe places to go,” DHS spokesperson Sheree Powell said.

Powell said there are background checks, a home study and a lot of training.

Foster parent, Lisa Feist, says she spent 27 hours in training.

“For five Saturdays, we went and took foster care parent training classes,” Feist said.

However, she said the longest process was the home study, which ranges anywhere from four to six months, depending on DHS staffing.

“When you know your child is waiting for you, for you to care for, whatever that length of time is, waiting for that study to come back or waiting for the next step can be frustrating,” Feist said.

Everyone agrees that each step is crucial to ensure the safety of foster children.

“We want to make sure that children who have been traumatized and abused are placed in the safest and most appropriate place for them,” Powell said.

For Feist, the long process was worth it and she hopes more people will step forward.

“You just have to trust that that’s the way it was supposed to happen and that God’s hand is in it and he has a plan for that child,” Feist said.

While children are waiting to be placed with a family, they remain in a shelter or an existing foster home.

Foster parents are given a monthly reimbursement rate, depending on the age of each child.

State leaders hope to increase that amount over the next few years.

LINK: Find more on foster parenting here

25 Days of Thanks and Giving

Nov 9: Today I am thankful for the ability to have the time to spend with God each and everyday. Today I let someone cut in of my in line. The lady was trying to calm her baby but he just wasn't happy.

Nov 10: Today I am thankful for my Husband and his job promotion. Today I ran an errand for someone else who was unable to do it.

Nov 11: Today I am thankful for the ability to watch church on my computer on days when my back hurts to bad to sit for very long. I didn't get out yesterday so I'll make up for it today.

Nov 12: Today I am thankful for family that is able to come and visit us. So today I made the baskets however did not get them delivered. So tomorrow I will hit the road and drive to where ever God leads me to. Three lucky people are going to get these baskets of items tomorrow.

25 Days of Thanks and Giving

Nov 6: Today I am thankful for our freedom to vote. We have two wonderful dogs (Louie and Rennie). Today I left an extra tip to a waiter who was not having such a good day.

Nov 7: Today I am thankful that we have a God that is powerful enough to change this world. Today we gave some fencing material we had to someone who needed it.

Nov 8: Today I am thankful for my pets. We have two dogs who's names are Louie and Rennie. To I am making some burp rags for one of the lady on our block that is having a baby soon. I'm hoping to get them delivered today but I'm not sure if that will happen.

Adoption Breast Feeding

- Dr. Jack Newman, Breastfeeding Your Adopted Baby 

There are almost as many myths about breastfeeding as there are about adoption. 

As a result, many women who arrive at the decision to adopt following infertility not only put behind them their dreams for biological children, but also dreams they may have had of the special bonding that occurs between mother and child during breastfeeding. Others give up the hope of breastfeeding because, although they plan to adopt a baby, she won't be a newborn and may, in fact, be several months old. 

According to Dr. Jack Newman, an internationally acclaimed expert on breastfeeding, and many adoptive mothers, both of these assumptions are mistaken. If an adoptive mother wants to breastfeed, even when her child isnot a newborn, even if she isn't sure she can produce enough milk, chances are good she can. It just takes education and preparation.

How it Works

Experts agree that the benefit of any amount of breastmilk is beneficial to a baby, but the most important aspect of breastfeeding is the physical intimacy, the warmth, the comfort, the bonding. Some women simply put the baby to the breast and let nature take over, and others choose induced lactation designed to promote lactation before the baby arrives. 

Induced Lactation 

There are two hormones (pituitary, not ovarian hormones) that affect lactation:

• Prolactin, which is the milk-making hormone, and
• Oxytocin, the milk-releasing hormone.

Because these hormones are not dependent on a woman's ability to bear children, stimulating the production and release of breastmilk is possible even for women who have had hysterectomies. 

Manual/Mechanical Stimulation: This is one method of inducing lactation, achieved by breast massage, nipple manipulation, and sucking, either by a baby or a hospital grade electric breast pump. 

Hormone Therapy: Hormone therapies are also available for increasing milk supply, using prescribed medications, such as domperidone, or herbal remedies. 

Supplementing Breastmilk

One of the most frequently expressed concerns among all nursing mothers is whether or not they are able to produce enough breastmilk. 

A lactation aid is a device used to deliver a supplement to breastmilk through a tube that runs down the breast to the nipple. The baby nurses as usual, getting the benefit of breastmilk and close intimacy, and the volume to satisfy her hunger. Adoptive mothers may never need a supplementer, but some use one at some point during the nursing period, and others the entire time they nurse. Two commercial supplementers are Lact-Aid and Medela SNS

Adoption-Related Resources

There are many online communities - chat rooms, message forums, email lists - for nursing mothers are filled with pregnancy-related discussions which can be uncomfortable for adoptive mothers. 

Thankfully, advocates are a gregarious and outspoken lot, and advocates of adoptive breastfeeding are no different. Here are several resources gathered from around the Net, and please feel free to submit a site you think should be added to this list. Again, a note that the general breastfeeding information combined with the adoption-specific resources will give you the broadest base of knowledge. 

Web Sites Adoption and Breastfeeding Information and Support, from a lactation educator and adoptive mother of six who breastfed all six. Adoptive Breastfeeding Resource Website, from Four Friends Breastfeeding Your Adopted Baby, Jack Newman, MD Gabriella's Arrival, a personal story of adoptive breastfeeding with good links to products she found helpful Induced Lactation, written specifically for non-biological mothers, by Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSE, IBCLC Induced Lactation and Adoptive Breastfeeding, conference notes from Kelly's Attachment Parenting page. Personal Stories compiled by La Leche League, written by adoptive mothers who have nursed infants and toddlers Preparing to Nurse our Baby, an adoptive mother's personal account Selecting a Breast Pump from Breastpumps, etc., describes features of pumps recommended for adoptive mothers Community Adoptive Breastfeeding Forum at AdoptionForums.com Adoption and Breastfeeding Board at Parentsplace.com Adoptive Breastfeeding Resource Website Board

25 Days of Thanks and Giving

 Nov 3: Today I wrote a good old handwritten card to a dear friend.
Today I am thankful for the relationships we can have with friends and family. I am thankful that I have friends that I can trust my life with.

Nov 4: I wrote card to the child we sponsor in Kageyo, Africa.
Today I am thankful that we have been blessed by God for the ability to sponsor Sam and for him to be apart of his life.

Nov 5: Today I purchased Christmas presents for Sam. Today I am thankful for all of the letters we are able to receive from Sam and the ability to be able to communicate back and forth.

22 Days Of Thanks and Giving

Nov 2: Well today I was having so much fun it was hard to stop myself from doing it all in one day.
           1st: I helped a little kind man with he's shopping cart. He was so thankful and kept trying to offer me something for helping him. I told him no thank you several times. I told him I was doing it because I wanted to give to someone today.
           2nd: Let others go first at a 4-way stop
           3rd: I put a box of popcorn and put $2.00 for the redbox movie inside of the box. I wanted to wait and watch to see who was going to take it but it was to hot to sit in the car today.

There were many more things I did but this one was my favorite.

The sticky says:

Every day we are called to small thing with great love

Mother Teresa

Today I am thankful for the ability to have dreams. Last night I had the best dream ever.

22 Days of Thanks and Giving

22 Days of Thanks and Giving

To me Thanksgiving means share things you are thankful for and spending time with your family. However, this year it has taking on more of a meaning. This year I'm breaking the word up. Thanks: Giving thanks for something that is very important in my life. Giving: Blessing someone else in this world that is in need or a nice gesture to someone or to make someones day by them receiving a gift unsuspected.

Over the month of November (up to thanksgiving) I am going to be doing something each day to give thanks for something I am thankful for in my live. I will also be giving to someone. The thing I will give will change form day to day.

Nov 1st:  Today I gave to our local christian radio station during their annual drive to fund their radio station.

Air 1 provides modern, rock and pop christian music to people around the US and overseas (over the Internet). They also have ministers on hand that you can call and talk to if you need to talk to one. They also have a prayer group that will pray for you. They will also call you and check up on you after you submit a prayer request. They provided a powerful ministry in this area and help me out when I'm down. They just somehow know what songs I need to hear at just the right time.

http://www.air1.com/

Today I am thankful for my relationship with God. Over the past month my relationship with God has grow as my heart was torn and ripped apart. Everyday I am thankful that I have someone I can talk to and not have to think twice about weather or not I can trust the person I am telling something that I wouldn't just tell anyone.

38 Days

We are finally getting closer again to our dream. We have had 2 steps backwards so hopefully this will be a step forward. In 38 days we attend the first of our 2 classes we are required to attend. The first one is a one day class and the second one is the fast track class which is a 2 day course that mainly focuses on getting stuff for the home study and all done in mainly those 2 days. We can't wait to meet the staff and the people we will be working with for the next 12 months (less or more). We are hoping that we will be able to take the second class the beginning of January. So on Dec 7th we will be heading out to Houston, TX for our class. The class couldn't of come at a better time. With Dec 4th just right around the corner along with Christmas beings pain and tears. The class brings us hope of the future and the long awaited day to hold a little one in our arms forever. Thank you to everyone who have been on the journey with us and we are so thankful for all of the prayers.