This was too good not to share...Speak up & Speak out, People.

WARNING; Insensitive people at the Walmart rant ahead. 
Last night I found myself sandwiched in line waiting to check out, this is not an odd occurrence. The woman in front of me had 5 children she was wrangling ( which did not seem odd to me) , as well as the fact that the children were a mix of Caucasian and Hispanic short people.( again hmph...didn't notice until it was pointed out to me).
Yes, I said pointed out.
The people behind me as I wrestled my own whiney toddler, began very loudly whispering things like;
"How many baby daddies do you think she has?"
"Can't even dress those kids for weather."
"Just wait until she whips out the food stamps. "
I calmed my 3 year old with old Altoids found at the bottom of my purse and looked incredulously back at the well dressed, normal couple spouting such, well, total CRAP.

I looked forward to see a woman fumbling with separating clothes items; coats and shoes socks and underwear from the food items with the black plastic separators.

There five kids, two that shared her same blonde hair with jackets and warm shoes and three, beautifully dark haired and deep brown eyes, sad, eyes; wearing shorts, and flip flops.
It was true she was struggling with a food stamp card. Didn't know what buttons to use to complete the transaction.

As the class act behind me deeply sighed; and said "There's our tax dollars neatly at work."

I shot them what I can only imagine was the death glare only a mother of 9 can execute to perfection. 

I stepped forward and kindly said, can I help?
These things are so confusing. 
She looked at me.
I quietly asked " Foster or Adopted?"
I have 9 kiddos...two bio, I get it, please let me help."

She smiled embarrassed, "New Foster Mom, this is my first time using one of these, they came 3 days ago, gonna be with us for a while.
They gave us food, but the kids needed clothes , but no stipend has come through yet.

I looked at the kids and smiled, and turned to her and said; beautiful children I am glad you all have each other. "

I showed her how to use her card as the jackholes behind us snorted.
I explained to her how she doesn't have to separate items and that the items get separated by the computer at check out and how she pays the balance after she runs her card.

She handed each child a new coat , loaded up her cart as she left I side hugged her and told her "you have got this."

After they were out of ear shot...I turned with tears to the smug well dressed man and woman behind me.

"Those children? They lost the right to live with their parents just days ago, those clothes? probably the only clothes they own, or got to leave their home with.
THAT woman? Opened her home to kids, kids that needed a safe place to go, when the one they lived in no longer proved safe enough or secure enough for them. The food stamps, something health and welfare helps an already mother to two feed three new mouths. 
There are not nearly enough women or people like her this world."

I whipped back around and started slamming my groceries on the belt, and then turned back around...
Voice shaking.;
"AND even IF those kids were all hers, and she had a dozen "baby daddies" and was on food stamps..no child in this country or any other deserves to be cold or hungry, I am sorry, but your behavior? Poorly done, VERY poorly done."

My new 'friends' left my checkout aisle and joined another, silently. 

I grabbed a bag of damn Peanut butter m&ms.... 
As I finished checking out the girl checking me out smiled and winked, "single mother on WIC, what you said? Rocked!"

I grimaced and said "thanks, I wasn't sure I should have gone off like that...hug those babies of yours tight tonight. "

She said " I will, you have a nice night mam' and do the same."

I cried hard as I found my Tahoe, buckled the baby in the car, loaded up...and opened those damn m&m's.

You foster mama's out there...hold your heads high, you are the hands and hearts that are the strong and the steady for small ones when they need it most.
Hats off and so much love today to you.♡♥♡

Author Unkown

Very Quick Update :)

6 kids + 2 kids = 8 kids

8 kids - 2 kids = 6 kids

10 minutes later 

6 kids + 1 kid = 7 kids

Some day's I wonder why I never have time to blog :) With being a newbie to 8 kids and then back to 6 for 10 minutes then back to 7 but I love every minute of it. I really miss blogging tho.

We love out beautiful family no matter how long or short each of them stay. 

I have a lot of documentation to update then hopefully I can finally update my blog.

Our ages now stand at 1,1,2,3,3,9,13

Did we say Yes or No?????

We'll after today I will have to admit that I'm officially crazy. Did we say yes or no??? Will find out soon.  :)

I have so much to update on :)
For now as of Thursday this will be our new home

New name?????

Well I think its time to Give my Blog a new name................
Anyone have any idea's?????????????

A long over due Update

Ally, This post is just for you. Thanks for reminding me its been almost 2 months.

Wow does time fly. I honestly don't even know where to start. 

Moving...it keeps getting pushed back and we keep having to climb over mountains but we are finally getting close. Our tentative moving date is Sept 5. I can't wait until this is our home. We don't have be so packed into rooms. 

My little frog legs is only 2 1/2 short months from being 1. I can't believe its been that long since them came to our home. It looks like she will be here with us on her 1st birthday. Her family has court in 2 weeks so we will see what happens at that point. My poor little girl has been sick for the last 3 days :(. She still isn't crawling but she is getting close. She is more focused on walking and pulling herself up on everything. She doesn't want to sit anymore. She just wants to stand and has figured out that she can roll herself to get somewhere. This girl loves to eat paper and she can find it anywhere. The most important thing I forgot is this girl is growing like crazy. This girl can fit into 2T clothes. 

My little climber is almost 2. They are all growing up way to fast. He is finally growing. He has been about the same size since he came to our house until a month ago. The is growing in the legs big time. Talking...wow....He is using almost full sentence and has been coping everything anyone says. We are still teething. I really wish they would just come through already. On the way home from Florida he kept rubbing my pillow case that way all silky and smooth. Shortly after getting back I found a silky blanket at Ross. That was a big mistake. Now this little one is attached to his blanket. I finally found  2 more at a different Ross and found a couple more that are close to the same. He takes that thing everywhere and will scream at bed time or if he is trying to sleep in the car if he doesn't have one. On top of that, the other 2 little ones think they need a blankly now. I created a monster.

My little man is still having some set backs from the storm but is getting back to where he was before. He also got to see his 3 sisters for the first time in 6 months. It broke my heart that he didn't even remember them. He has went from being my talker to being my quiet one. We are also working on potty training  About 3 weeks ago I walked in his room to get him up and he has his diaper in his and through it at me. I said okay we are done with diapers. He does good for the most part. We have our bad days but overall I'm amazed from the last time we tried.

My little princess wow this girl can talk and you can actually understand what she is saying. This is amazing for her and she is expressing her needs with sentences instead of using one word. She has also realized that she has different voices and will walk around the house using them. She is always cracking us up. She is so excited to be starting school this week. Growing can I say growing. She is going to be one tall girl.

My big princess is changing everyday into a young lady. She loves arts and crafts and very creative. She has got to see her siblings who don't live with us every other week the last 2 months. She is not happy about school starting but I think that will change once she actually starts going. This girl has finally put on some weight and the doctor was beyond happy about it.

My Oldest is struggling with being a teenager. Oh and we have started the whole boy friend things. Thank God it is a boy from our church and they really aren't moving very fast. Praise god because this is something I am going to struggle with because of her family history but I'm trying hard not to hold it against her. She has been opening up lately and starting to talk about things. We had a huge behavior a copy of weeks ago and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it won't happen again. She has been more active lately and is trying to lose weight. I'm am beyond proud of her.

What else has happened in the last 2 months. Way to much.....We got our big mama and love it. The kids call it the bus and Little princess gets mad when we don't take it. My kids are still doing Martial Arts and all earned their Sand belts during the last test. I have also started working. I am working on helping getting foster parents signed up. I love every minute of it but miss my kids dearly well they are at daycare.

We were going to go on one last trip before school started but it got canceled due to flooding of our vacation site. So we took a day trip to the Dallas zoo instead. The kids loved it. Hopefully we can do it again. We went to a Red Hawks game. Went to Frontier City and have went to a few other things too. We have also been doing outreaches with our church and have another one coming up next weekend and the girls love it.

My husband and I also got to go to a foster parent retreat. I loved it and wish we could go back every year. To bad you can only go every 3 years.

We have court hearing for most of our kids this month so a lot could be changing over the next month. Hopefully by the next update we will be in the process of at least moving. I haven't packed anything and I'm hoping to slowly just move things over after like one or 2 days of big moving. 

 Frog legs

 This is from a Foster Parent Retreat that my husband and I were able to go through.

 My little Climber

My Little Man

 My Little Princess and My Little Man

My young lady, My big princess and My Little Man

Where has time gone

While I guess with 6 kids and all of the appointments we have I think I'm gonna be lucky if I get one post in a month.
Life in general---I'm going to start working any day now just waiting on paperwork. After being off for almost 2 years I'm not ready to start working again. I want to just stay home with my babies. I'm sure after I get a paycheck it will feel a little bit better. We went to Orlando, Florida at the very beginning of June for a week. We had a blast and all the kids loved going to universal studio's. On top of all of that we have been house hunting. We have been looking for several months but not very seriously. Unfortunately, the tornado and storms did some damage to our current home and my grandma (who we rent from) has decided that she is wanting to sell the home since it will have a new roof and siding. This pushed us to find a home faster. We weren't really wanting to buy a home right now but rent in this town is crazy since the oil boom so buying is the only way we can afford a home that will fit all of us.  We also only have 4 months until frog legs turns 1 and when she turns 1 she has to be out of our room and we have no place to move her too so this has also seed things up. We also went through a panic when they told us they may be moving 3 of our kiddo's to a native home. We knew that if it was God's plan he would help us through it and so far we have heard nothing more and it has been several weeks.

House hunting.....
House Hunting Experience. First house love but while looking at it the home owner came in and started talking to us which was very helpful. Second house we walk in and it was very stinky and then we turn around after looking in the kitchen and there was a big fat raccoon (bigger than our dog) looking at us  We all agreed to just leave. Third house we looked at the ceiling was missing most likely from the storm and the back door won't open and when Jacob opened the side door and bugs came crawling in.

The first house we looked at we wanted to look at again. We went back a second time later in the week and decided that we really like the house. Its not everything that we want but it fits what our family needs and is at a price we can afford. We are waiting for the home owner to find out what his insurance company is going to cover as far as storm damage to the outside of the home. As soon as we hear back we are planning on writing an offer. The biggest thing is going to be the amount of time we have until we can move in because all of the companies are booked out several weeks because of the number of homes that need new roof's. We know that if it's God's plan for us to get this house that everything will work out at the most perfect time. 

Update on our kiddo's
My sweet little miss who we call frog legs now because she is also moving her legs like a little frog. I can't believe she is already 8 months old. She has started rolling herself over this past week and has started pulling herself up on things. I really think she is just gonna skip the whole crawling thing (which I hate being a therapist because that's where you get your coordination from). She is also not liking baby food anymore so we are slowly starting her on table foods. She is quickly catching up with her bother who is 10 months older than her. In fact she is only 3in shorter than him and they are both in 12-18 month clothes.

My little climber is now 18 months. He is still waking up through the night but not as frequently. It's mainly happening the night or 2 following visits. After the visit this past Friday he started screaming shortly after falling asleep. He won't wake up and you could just see by his face he was having a nightmare and won't wake up from it. It broke my heart. He is still climbing on everything. He's started walking backwards and is trying to figure out how to jump. He is picking up on learning his colors very quickly.

My little man has regressed big time since the tornado's. We have a feeling that he was locked in a closet at one point because the minute we got in the closet he started screaming and won't stop. He literally screamed the whole entire 2 hours we were in the closet. The following morning he woke up with hives all over his body. The doctor said it was stress hives. We have also had increased behaviors since.

My little princess is making so much progress. Just today we were reflecting back with her therapist about how much she has changed since the beginning. She is talking way more and her words are way easier to understand. She is also starting to remember her colors which is amazing since we have been working on it almost every single day since she came to us about 6 months ago. She is also starting to copy the older girls with imitating different voices. She is also the best wrestler in her martial arts class.

My big princess has changed so much this past month. She has been opening up and talking about things that happened to her at home and in other foster homes. She is also finding herself but struggling with the things changing in her body. I think we are going to be starting monthly visit soon and she is not taking the talk very well. She just freaks out and starts yelling "I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die" and then shuts done.  Listening and attitude have gotten way batter.

My Oldest had her sweet 13th birthday. Her party isn't until this coming weekend but we still celebrated as a family. However, since turning 13 she now thinks she can rule the world and her attitude has gotten way worse. I'm hoping a week at church camp will help. We'll find out at the end of this week. She has also had a lot going on with bio mom and I know that it is not helping. She has a very good reason to be mad but I can't just let her get away with it so we are working on ways to deal with our anger. 

While that's as much time as I have for now so I guess I'll be back in a month because I don't think I'm gonna get back before than. With increased visits, starting a job, working on closing on a house and getting things ready to move. I should say it might be 2 months before I get back. :(
I miss the blog world

Please Pray

We are all fine and didn't get hit but we have family and friends who have lost everything. Please be praying that they can continue to find the missing kids alive.

Where did a month go ??????

Well so much for blogging more often :(
I really miss blogging not only to keep track of things but to help claim my mind.
I honestly don't even know where to start.

This month I have started watching 2 little ones on the weekend to help earn someone money so on the weekend we have 6 kids under 4. We also started attending a class at church called How to Hear Gods Voice. So to fill the time between when church gets out and when we need to be back for the class we have tried to find something to stay busy since we have an hour drive each way it doesn't pay to come back home. What do you do with 8 kids. I don't know. This last week we went to the outlet mall. This is how we stroll on the weekends.

Sorry I can't show you pictures of my babies I would love to so I can give you is the back of their heads. The blue one is the 4 place stroller I recently got and we love it. It has been a huge life saver.

Here's an update on all of my kiddo's
My sweet little miss is now 6 months old and rolled over for the first time by herself on Monday. We have been working for several hours everyday to gain those muscles and it finally paid off. Not only did she just roll from her stomach to her back she also rolled from her back to her stomach.  We are still struggling with her trying to stand on her legs when you hold her up but will keep working on it. We are also continuing to struggle with latching issues with the bottle and mouth stimulation with baby food.

My little climber is now 16 months and has regressed with behaviors since visitation with family has increased. We're having issues with screaming and pulling hair. He has started waking 4-6 times a night again. He is making progress with his speech therapy and is talking more :) YAY!!!!!

My little man turned 2 and is growing like a weed. He is learning no words everyday but is also picking up on my oldest girls attitudes and is starting to copy it :( He loves to eat and down almost any fruit.

My little princess turned 3 and is also growing like a weed. She started school this week and is loving every minute of it. We are waiting for a hearing exam to see if she has a hearing impairment which could explain some of the cognitive and speech delays. We are going to try to figure out what else could be causing the delay. 

My big princess has been doing an amazing job in school and I'm so proud of her. She went from all D's and F's, along with never getting a good grade. After 3 months of hard work she has 3 A's and 1 B. She also made student of the month. So So Proud of her. She has finished the soccer season. We have huge progress with behaviors besides the night before and the day of visits.

My Oldest is also doing well and school and passed her AR goal in the 4 short months she has been with us. Wow it didn't hit me until I wrote that. I can't believe its been 4 months. She is so helpful with the little kids and is always wanting to help with the baby. I try to discourage it just because she needs to learn how to be a kid but it is nice sometimes.

Everyone is getting very excited for our next vacation. We will be leaving for Florida in a month. It will be the second time my kids have ever been on trips and the first time they have ever been to universal studio's. 

We have been so busy with every one's visits and appointment and end of year school events but we make it through out the day. A generous person from church has agreed to watch my children so me and my husband can go on a date. It will be the first time since January so it will be so nice to spend some time together.

I'm looking forward to this summer and all of the fun things we will get to do....

Until next time....
I'm gonna try to do a post on their birthday party but I can't make a promise 

We're Still Here

I can't believe its almost been a month since I last blogged. I try to blog but with 6 wonderful kids my time is very limited. What has happened in the last month? So Much.
We're still a family of 8 and we're enjoying every minute of it. We are still trying to get every one's nap schedule in sync.

My sweet little miss who is now 5 months old has found her hands this past week. She is finally reaching her hands out for toys and trying to hold her own bottle. She is going to be starting PT in the next couple of weeks to help her with her motor skills. Last week she tried to roll over for the first time. She started on baby food and moved from 6 oz bottles to 8 oz bottles. Her little feet are already hanging over the edge of the car-seat already.

My little climber is now 15 months old. He has figured out that he can now climb. We're going to have our hands full. Last week I was change a diaper and turn around to walk back through the dinning room to find him standing on top of the table. We have been teething all month long and they still have not broke through yet. He only has 5 teeth. He started speech therapy this last week.

My little man will be 2 years old in a month :) Birthday party time. He has been wanting to go potty so I'll try to do a separate post on our potty training. He is getting so tall and has out grown almost all of his clothes in the last couple of weeks. He is such a happy and smiling boy. He was test last week and scored above his age in almost every category :) So proud of him...He's such a smart little nut. He is totally in love with the dogs.

My little princess. We'll she will be turning 3 years old in a month :) A double birthday party. My little girl is going to be starting head start in the next couple of weeks. She will also be going to the elementary school for speech and social interaction to. She'll be gone from 8-3. Its going to be weird having her gone. She has had some regression in some area since she has came to our house but its a good thing because she is getting more comfortable.

My Big princess. He started soccer a couple weeks ago and has her first game last weekend. We all got burnt. Although she struggles with school she is making some improvements and making new friends. I'm not gonna lie we have our struggles with behaviors but it all stems from things that have happened to her from her past. It will take time but it will eventually disappear.

My Oldest. What can I say. We could not of asked for a better behaved 12 year old.  She does not let things that have happened to her in the past affect her future and that is usually the biggest struggle with foster kids. She does very well in school and tries her hardest at everything. She is also very helpful around the house and can get anyone to laugh.

Last week the kids were on spring break so we headed back home to South Dakota for a week. The 13 hour drive there went way better then I thought. It took about 45 minutes every time we stopped but we made it safe in sound. The kids had a blast well we were there but they missed their daddy. The drive home didn't go as smooth. I'm pretty sure everyone was tired of being in the car.

We celebrated Easter together as a family. We colored Easter eggs, went to church and our family came with us, we went out for Easter lunch and had an Easter egg hunt. It was one of the best Easters.

We're still praying that God will guide us to the right house if he has a bigger house for us in the future. We love having this many kids but they need space to run and play. My grandma's house just doesn't have the space.

Sorry I can't update more often but I'm gonna try my hardest because I defiantly miss it.

Family

Our current family is very multicultural but that doesn't stop the love between all of the kids. Including the ones who were not siblings before coming to our house. God has shown how loving our kids with all of your hearts and holding nothing back can change their lives for the better. We are holding nothing back. I'm not guarding my heart so that it is not so hard when they leave. God doesn't guard his heart with them so why should I. I know God with help us through anything that will happen with the wonderful kids he has placed in our lives.

We are beyond blessed and loving every minute with our family.

PS: We bought a bigger vehicle so we can all 8 fit in the car at once. I'll post pictures later.

This is our 4 months old and our 2 year old

I wish I could show you a picture of their faces. You would totally understand why I feel in love 

with these kiddos so fast.

Little Miss E is growing so fast. Last week she started on baby food. She likes sweet potato's and carrots so far and only dislikes green beans and rice cereal. She is also starting to gain more head control :). Last week I put in in the little bouncer/activity table and she is going crazy in it and has already learned how to bounce. I can't believe she is already 4 months old.

We also received an update from the little boy that we support in Africa. He has gotten so big since his last picture.

Our Lives are ever chaning

In the foster care world our lives can change so fast and we can loss family members and add them back in the same day. On Saturday February 20th we had to say goodbye to 2 wonderful girls who stayed with us for 3 short days. We'll we loved having them they got to go live with family which can be the best place for them. We enjoyed every minute we had with them.
That same night we got a call at 830 p.m. asking if we could take a placement. There were 5 kids total and they really wanted Ms. A who is 9 and baby E who is 3 months old to stay together and they preferred to keep Little Mr. C who is 1 with them. I told them we could take the 9 year old and the baby for sure and we could take Mr. C if they would let us.  We knew they would have to get approval because we would have to have 3 in  one room and you are not allowed to have more than 2 under . We weren't sure if they would approve it for more than just a night or even at all. I had a feeling they were coming but it had been 2 hours and I had not heard anything. So I assumed they were not coming and didn't get anything ready. I guess I should have spent those 2 hours getting things ready because at 1030 pm they were at the door.
God has proved to us over and over again that he is braking the rules for us. It just shows  me how in control God is with everything in our lives. So by Gods graces we are a family of 8. We know that God will help us give these little ones everything they need.
I so wish I could share pictures because everyone of them have stole my heart.
We thought the last 3 would be staying a short time however Gods plan is different. All of our 3 separate families will be staying for at least 6 months :) We love everyday they get to be here.
One thing I have ran into is people telling me that they think I have my hands to full. I want to turn around and say some not so nice thing but that's not what God would want me to do. I wish people could just see how blessed we are to be able to care from these children in their time of need. I only hope that I can show them Gods grace and glory through what I do and say.
I want to write more but my babies and wanting their mamma. Only if you knew how much I love write the words "my babies". This is one proud mamma.
So I leave you with my wonderful family of 8 (12, 9, 2, 1, 1, 4 months)

We are so blessed

While things at our house have gotten busy again. On Friday we add a new little man to our house. Little man is 18 months. He is a so precious and has already stole my heart. Little man is going to be staying with us for awhile and we could only hope forever however with having other siblings I don't know how likely that would happen. We know that God is capable of anything. So its up to God how longs he ends up staying with us.

Little Man's call: On Thursday I had this feeling all day long that the phone was going to ring and when the phone would ring they would be calling us with a little one. I felt God telling me when you get this call just say yes no matter what they tell you. So Thursday after school I was on my way to take Ms. J to the dentist and while I was signing papers for her fillings my phone started to vibrate. I told the lady I had to take this call. It was our worker. She started saying we have this 1 year old boy if you are interested. I said are you kidding me off course yes. Then she said while there are some things I need to tell you first. I was like okay. Our worker said the boy has tons of behavior episodes everyday and has been tho 5 homes already with some of the families requesting the moves. He is also aggressive with pets and other kids. I thought for a second as she was saying this because I was thinking about our pet. Our dog Louie came from a abusive home and I didn't think he would handle it very well but within 2 seconds of even thinking about it. I felt God telling me again. Remember what I told you. No matter what they say tell them yes. So I did as I felt God was telling me. I said we would love to take him. I told my husband. He was surprised because I always call and ask him unless it is an emergency placement. So on Friday our beautiful and wonderful little boy came. Little Man and had no behaviors and has been loving to our dogs. God knew what he was doing by bring this little 18 month old boy into our home that has already be labeled by behaviors. He loves to be held and yes when I put in down he will start to cry and kick in scream however we have noticed that it is only at times when there is something new. To me that is not behavior. That is just this poor little boy telling you that he is scared. Little man is behind is speech so he can not verbalize his feelings like most 18 month old's.

On Saturday I got a phone call when I was on my way to get Ms. J from her friends house that is an hour drive each way. I told them we could love to take them. So once again by God's blessing we have 5 wonderful and beauty kids. Ms. F who is 7 and Little Miss L who is 5 will only be staying for a short while. However, we will take everyday we get with them as they are a huge blessing to our family.
Over the last month we have come to realize that we consistently keep getting 5 kids. Not 4 or 3 we keep ending up with 5 total. We know that this is all in Gods hands. Our home is only approved for 4 kids and 1 baby between 0-6 months due to the number of rooms we have. In Oklahoma they only allow 2 kids in a room and they have to have the high powers approve it and they normal only approve it in rare cases. It only proves to us more that this is all in God's hands.

Well we don't mind having 5 kids and love every minute of it. However, our current home just doesn't give them the room they need as kids. We also need a bigger dinning room table so that we can all sit together at the table as I think it is so important. So all of you prayer worriers we could use some prayer. We currently don't have the funds to purchase a home. However we know that if it is Gods will for us to have this many foster kids on an everyday basis that he will help us provide the space that they need. I would love with all of my heart to be a stay at home foster mom to all of these wonderful children. Many of the children benefit from one of the parents staying home. Right we know that it is all and God's hand and we know that we can trust him to make whatever he has planned for us possible.

Our Growing Family

We have been so blessed with wonderful Foster Kids. Two weeks ago we added 3 members to our family. That made a total of 5 wonderful kids. However, it only lasted for 2 days before the 3 headed to live with family. There was Ms. B who was 6 years old, Ms. M who was 4 years old and Mr. B who was a precious 4 days old.  I really wish they could of stayed however that wasn't Gods plan.
Last week we had many calls for placements however God was just saying no so we had to say no. I felt so bad saying no to kids who need a loving home but the true is I can't help them all and I have to let me heart understand that. After receiving a call or two each day over the last week and a half we finally felt God saying yes. We said yes to a 7 year old girl. However things have been a little crazy with her case and we are still waiting to find out if she will be coming or not.
Two nights ago we got a call at 10:30 pm for a placement of 5 kids. That would put us at 7 or 8 kids. Do to things that we're going on with Little Miss we had to say no. However, today I had that feeling that God was getting ready for us to add another child to our home. On the way to the dentist office with Ms. J I received a call from our worker. She told me we have a 1 year old boy. My heart just melted as this is the age that we desire. Although we know and  as God has shown us that it is not always his desire. I said yes right way  I knew that this was the child that God had been placing on my heart all day. Our Little R (his online name) will be coming to our home tomorrow. Little R has had a long journey in foster care already. I am praying that God provided us with the tools we need to help this little boy out.
I really want to post about each call as they are the best moments until we get to meet the kids and I think it is part of their journey.
We have seen through our month of foster care that God has many kids that he will be letting us care for and  show them his great love. We are realizing that our current house with only 2 bedrooms and our bedroom in the family room is not going to be big enough to hold all of the kids God has for us. Please pray for us as we pray that if God intends for our home to grow that we will find the funds to do so.

Letter to Loved One

In my last post I talked about our homework from our 1st day of Adoption Class #2. This was our homework.

Letter to a Loved One

Placing a child for adoption is one of the most difficult decisions that a birth parent will make. Not only will they experience grief and loss, but they also may experience stigma and judgement from those closet to them. Imagine that you or your partner is experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and you have decided to place your child with an adoptive family. Your task is to write a letter to a loved one (a parent, sibling  friend or even your partner) telling them about your decision to place this child. Write you letter to a specific person that you care about.

Some things to think about when writing this letter:

What would you want your loved one to know? What would help them better understand your decision? You could write about how you're feeling and/or how you came to this decision.

What would you be worried about? How do you expect your loved one to react to your decision? Will s/he be upset, hurt, disappointed or angry?

Would you expect your loved one to be supportive of your decision? What will happen if s/he is not supportive? What would happen to your relationship with this person? Would their lack of support change your decision?

I'll tell you the feelings that I went through when writing my letter. At first I though it was going to be really hard to write. However, that was an understatement. It was so hard especially when we so desperately want a baby. I cried many tears as I wrote this letter. It took me over an hour to write it. I had a hard time coming up with words to show my compassion for this child.  It was hard to figure out the order and at what point in the letter I thought I should say my plan. Writing this letter truly opened up a deeper spot in my heart for these women that have to go through this and a heart wrench spot for those with family that don't support them. 

I would suggest anyone going through an adoption to take the time and trying writing a letter like this.

My Letter

Dear Mom,

Over the last few months I have been thinking of what my future is going to hold for my baby and I. Along with my dreams and goals for myself. I have thought hard about how being a parent to this child is going to effect my life. My hopes and dreams for this child is to have a loving and stable home.

With taking on the role of being this child's parent I will not be able to fulfill my goals personally and for my child. I believe that my child's dreams and goals can be fulfilled. However, I have come to realize that I can not emotionally nor physically care for this child the way my heart desires. Through a lot of tears and heartache I have deiced that the best situation for my child would be to place him for adoption.

I realize that my decision may also cause you heartache as I know you were looking forward to being a grandma. You have been so supportive during this time and I am forever grateful  I realize that right now you may not understand why I have made this decision and I know you will need time to work through your feelings. I hope that through time you will come to understand why I made this decision and I hope you will continue to support me.

I have chosen open adoption for my child. The reason I made this decision is because I have the ability to choose a family for him. Along with the ability to continue to have a relationship with my child and the family after placement. I want you to know that you can still be a part of this child's life if you choose to. The family I have picked for my child is a very loving and caring family. If you can open your heart to them I know that you will come to love them too. They are more than willing for you to be a part of the family.

I am so thankful for having such a loving and caring mom like you in my life. I am so grateful for the person you have inspired me to be. Without you my life would not be the same.

With my hearts greatest love,

Your Daughter

Life Updates

I have been wanting to blog so bad because there has been so much going on but I just haven't had the time. Where has the month of February gone. There has been so much so I'll separate post for them all.

To start the month out after just 2 short weeks of having our girls we headed to Houston for our adoption class. This is the last one we have to go to in Houston. We have one more we have to do online. Thursday Jan. 31st we dropped Ms. J off at school and then dropped Little Miss off at my dad's house for the weekend. Then we headed out of town. We weren't even 15 minutes away and I already missed them.

Thursday after 8 hours of driving we finally made it to Houston. We checked into our hotel and relaxed for awhile. Then we ventured out to find a place to eat. We ended up eating at the Cheese Cake Factory. After dinner we walked around the mall for awhile and got each of our girls a gift. Then we headed back to the hotel and went to the hot tub. Then we watched property wars for about 3 hours.

Friday morning we eat breakfast at the hotel and then headed out for our class. Our class started at 9 am. We learned a lot during our class and enjoyed meeting our couples going through the class. Class got over at 5 pm. After class we were heading back to the hotel and looking for a place to eat. What we didn't plan on was getting a flat tire on our 7 block drive back to our hotel. Thankfully it happened about a half a block form Sam's and a good thing we had just gotten a Sam's membership a few months ago. Where we were at there isn't much besides high-end stores, company's, hotels and the Galleria Mall. So there was not much choice in where we were stopping. Thankfully there was no wait and we knew that God was helping us out because they told us normally they have an 1 to 2 hour wait. God knew that we needed to get back to the hotel to get our homework done for our class. Our flat tire turned into purchasing 2 new tires. Since we were going to be their for awhile we decided to buy my Dad some wine for taking care of my girls for the weekend and we decided to just eat there so we could just go back to the hotel. We had homework to do. It was very emotional and hard. We had to put ourselves in the birth mothers shoes and write a letter to someone dear to us and explain to them why we made the decision that we did. I will post my letter in another post.

Saturday morning we got up and packed everything up. Then headed to class. Class started again at 9 am. Today we went over the whole process in detail and everything that was required form us before we could be shown to birth mothers. We also had to pick out a book to read. They require that you read 2 books. One they pick out for you and one you get to pick out. The book they require is Children of Open Adoption by Kathleen Silber and Patricia Martinez Dorner. The book we picked out to read is Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother by Jana Wolff. Both are really good books so far, however my favorite is the Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is adopting. They gave us a list to pick from. I'll also post it in a separate post. So after class got over about 1 pm we picked up lunch and headed back home to our girls.

Our girls did not have such a good time when we were gone and it was really hard on them. I'll post that separately.

Fostering Ups and Downs

The girls visit went good last night. However, their was some behaviors afterwards. It was a late night for all. Its amazing the effects of breaking a routine has on a little girl. They didn't get home until 7:30 pm and still needed to eat supper. Little Miss is normally falling asleep by 7:30-8:00. In other words supper was a mess. She spilled her drink twice because she was tried, hungry and frustrated. We skipped a bath and then she asked me to "rock sleep". That is the first time she asked. Normally I sit in the rocking chair when I'm doing her hair and usually ends in her falling asleep. Unfortunately this is a down side to foster care. When you have no say in when visits happen. P.S. I'll share something you kinda have to laugh at. Apparently, after they had been their for awhile no one had taken Little Miss to the potty. Back Story: Before coming into care she was potty trained. Since she came to our house we had went 4 days of a dry pull-up during the morning time. Afternoon's are not so hot and we're still working on going number 2 in the potty. She likes to go hide somewhere when she goes number 2. So we started wearing big girl panties during the morning time and we have been success full.  So yesterday we were trying to go all day in underwear. I sent her to the visit in big girl panties and sent extra clothes with.  Ms. J was telling us last night that Little Miss was sitting on her mom's lap when their Mom said that her leg felt warm. Then she realized that Little Miss had wet her pants. Apparently  she peed so much that it was running off of her leg. I think it's kinda funny because she normally doesn't go very much at once and usually ask to go potty at least once every half n hour. I guess next time I better remind them that they need to take her potty every 30 minutes.

Today, I'll leave you with a picture. Little Miss loves to help fold laundry and vacuum  So here is a picture of her vacuuming this morning.

I'll post it later. The picture doesn't want to upload

Our Family Grew

A week and a half ago we added two beautiful and wonderful girls to our family. Since I can't give out information about them since they are foster kids this is what I'll call them on here. First we have Ms. J. She is a very loving and for the most part a well behaved 12 year old. Our second little girl I will call Little Miss. She can put a smile on any one's face. She's always smiling and laughing. Now that both of the girls are starting to warm up, they are starting to show their personality. Both girls are behind of where they should be, go we have lots of work to do. Next week we have a speech assessment for Little Miss. Our week and this week are filled with appointments trying to catch-up on many years of medical care.

We're loving every minute with them. Ms. J is funny and outgoing. She loves to joke around. We have been playing the Wii together almost every night. At first we were playing sports together and then she wanted to try the boxing game out. Since then we have been boxing a lot every night. Then we did just dance together but she got to shy. Little Miss loves to sing songs, read books and loves to snuggle.

Tonight is their first visit with their bio mom. Hopefully it goes well.

Adoption Update:
Our class got changed from this past weekend to this coming weekend. So we will be heading out on Thursday for Houston. To match one huge leap in our adoption journey. :)

We have been so blessed. God is truly amazing :)

Katherine Nelson - "What's Mine is Yours" (Music Video)

Classes

So many classes in the last month between foster classes and adoption classes. Two weeks from tomorrow we head out for our 2 day adoption course down in Houston. I can't wait because we will finally be one step closer to adopting. On the 16th we will complete our final foster care class. After that class we just have to wait for our home study to be approved which could happen any day now. After our class they can officially approve us for foster and foster to adopt. Things are finally heading in the right direction :)

2nd Foster Class

On Saturday we finished our 2nd foster/adoption class. YAYAYA!!! We have our 3rd and final class on the 16th. Right now we are just waiting to find out if they approve our home study. We have been doing a lot of praying and hoping it passes.

Prayer for a fellow blogger

To all of my blogger Friends. One of our blogger friends could use some extra prayers. Please Pray for her and her family. Here is Lisa story.

http://whilewaitingiwillworship.blogspot.com