Six Months.....and Counting

I am horrible at this blog!  I want to write it with the chance to someday share it with Little Sweetie.  She is a blessing in our life.  So, what has happened in the last six months?  Let's see:

*We have finally found our groove as parents---well, maybe not 100%, but we try.  It took us sometime to figure out how to parent a four year old.  
*Little Sweetie loves Mac-n-cheese and would eat it every day, if I would let her.
*She also loves pb sandwiches--no jelly--and carrots.  I can handle that!
*She loves school and asks every morning if it is a school day or a stay at home day.  And is disappointed if it a stay home day!
*Little Sweetie loves to sing and play make believe.  We have been served many a tea party and muffins.
*She is now four and we celebrated with close family and friends. We are so incredibly thankful for the support we have.
*Facetime is amazing when you have to talk to Aimee--who wants to make Little Sweetie a Viking fan----never going to happen.
*Jeremy is the fun one 85% of the time.
*I struggle to be okay with that.
*Little Sweetie is adorable and I love to make her more beautiful than she already is.
*We are almost  completely in love with her.
*She has this dimple in her chin.  I could eat it up!!
*Christmas is going to be a blast this year!
*When she asks for something and ends it with "Please, pretty please, with a cherry and sugar on top", I can't say no.
*Princess, Tinkerbell, and Barbies have invaded our home.
*We watch more cartoons than we ever did.  And sometimes, we watch them when Little Sweetie is in bed.
*I have to remember to put out cookies for Santa this year.  Can. Not. Forget.
*Little Sweetie is not a morning person........except on Saturday and Sunday.......
*Court dates are scary.  Our Social Worker makes it way less scary.
*Jeremy makes a beautiful Tinkerbell.

In other news, we will be going to court in January.  At that time, we will find out if the parental rights will be terminated.  If that is the case, we will start that process of adoption.  This is our end goal.  Adoption still will take some time (about 6-8 months).  We hope and pray that it doesn't take that long, but we know it most likely will.  When we heard the news that we were moving forward, we had a lots of emotions.  Happy tears, sad tears, guilt, happiness, excitement, worry, wonder.  Such a range of emotions.  And lots of thoughts about Little Sweetie's biological family.  And knowing that they love her too.  And what are they feeling?

We have a visit with the special needs adoption worker after our court date.  This is where we will start our Home Studies to make sure that we are approved to adopt.  I believe that we have nothing to worry about, but it still makes me nervous.  We have met with the adoption worker before as she came to our house to explain how things work.  

I wish I could post pictures of her, but it is against the rules.  If she becomes "officially" ours, don't worry---you will be on picture overload!!!

Thanks for checking in----Hopefully, we will know more after the first of the year.  Thank you for your support, encouragement and love!

C&J and Little Sweetie and Scooter!!

One Week (almost)

Last Wednesday, I was in a meeting for school when I received a call from the social worker we have been working with.  Here is the shortened version of the call:
Social Worker: So, "B" needs a placement today due to safety concerns.  Would you and Jeremy be interested?
Me: Yes.
SW: Do you want to check with Jeremy first?
Me: No-----but I probably should.  Can I call you back by noon?
SW: Sure.  We need to know as soon as possibly.
Me: Okay....give me a while to talk to Jeremy.

I hang up the phone, immediately call Jeremy and tell him the situation.
Me: So, do we want want "B"
Jeremy:  Yes, I don't want her to go to someone she doesn't know.
Me: Okay, I will call the social worker back.
Jeremy: Okay....this is a little crazy, but we should be good.  We are good, right?

So--we are 6 days into a full time placement.  What has changed?
**More Cartoon Network--- Less computer time.**
**More baths--- less sleep**
**More dishes--- less sleep**
**Trips to Urgent Care for pink eye**
**Trips to Walm.art for random things that we didn't think we needed and we do**
**More Laundry**
**More smiles and giggles and laughter**
**More "I love yous" and blowing kisses**

At the end of the day, we are loving every moment of this journey!  We are providing a loving, safe environment for "B" and doing the best we can.  It has been a journey into uncharted territory for us, but we are loving it.  We have more love for each other and how we are a strong couple!! I am blessed to have a wonderful husband and a partner who is willing to go on this journey with me!!!

We Got a Call!!

Last Thursday, we got a call from a social worker (sw)!!! YEAH!!!

She has a respite placement for us of a three year old.  This is came as a great surprise.  We were thinking that we would start off with an infant.  But we are ready for the challenge and taking a different road.  We are very excited as this might become a full time placement in the near future.  Respite Care means that this child is already placed in a home, but they need a time away or temporary relief of caring for the child.  We are more than excited about the placement, but we are still waiting for the SW to call us back.  We are hoping that she was able to contact the current placement family and get something worked about.

We were hoping to start every other weekend.  This weekend would have been perfect to start, but it was so close to when she called, that it didn't work out.  Next weekend, Jeremy works, so we don't really want to do it then, unless absolutely necessary.  Then the next weekend, we have training.  Uhhhh....time will tell what we end up doing!

Training

Foster parents have to take lots of training.  Once we became licensed, we had one year to complete about 30 hours of training.  The main training that we are required to take is available right now, so Jeremy and I jumped at the chance to get it over with right away.  Last Saturday, we sat in a very small, windowless room for eight hours with 28 other people.  We were the only couple there that didn't have a placement.  

It was so worth it.

We gained insight to what other foster parents have gone through.  We have learned about issues that the foster care system has and how they are trying to fix those flaws.  We walked out of the training with our minds racing and hearts full of hope.  Hope that some day we will have a child.  Hope that the system is working to the best interest of the child. Hope that we now know that we are doing the right thing for our family. Our family. The family that will be complete. Someday. Somehow.

We have training every Monday for the next seven weeks and one more Saturday.  I know that in the end of giving up our days, we are gaining the knowledge to become the best foster parents we can!

I am tired......

......of waiting.

I know that getting a placement takes time, but I am tired of waiting.  I can't help but wonder when we will get that call.  The call that could change our lives forever.  We are trying to make our life as normal as possible right now, but yet, we have our phones on as much as possible.  We take them every place we go, even when we sleep, the phone isn't far away.  I just want that call.

I hear/read stories of children in foster care.  I get sad.  Their lives have not been easy.  They don't know where or when they are eating again.  They don't know where they will lay their head that night to sleep.  Will they have blankets?  Will it be with yet another family?  Will they stay more than a day?  Can they attach themselves to the adult without getting their heart broke, yet again?  Children that have been in foster care have to have something inside them---something that you and I, probably could never imagine! 

In our hearts, we know that this is the path we have been given to travel on.  It might not be the easiest path, but it is the one we are picking to travel on.  I hope that this path makes us happy at the end of path.

C&J

IT'S OFFICAL!!!!

It is offical!!!

We got our offical paperwork yesterday!  We are so excited to start on this journey!!  I want to thank everyone for their kind words, thoughts and good wishes!!  We will keep you posted on the journey and the ups and downs, which I am sure we will have!

C&J

Out with the old, in with the *almost* new

 

Two years ago, my grandma Celia passed away.  She had some dressers that I always thought they were pretty neat.  When my aunts and uncles were cleaning Grandma's apartment, they asked if I wanted them.  I said sure.  We got them home and they sat in the garage since then.  I always thought that the little dresser would make a nice changing table.  So, after we started this process, we decided to start working on them.  The pictures are pretty poor quality, but you will get the idea. 

 

Here are the before pictures:





 



Here is the first coat of primer:

 Here is the final product:  The outside of the dressers are a dark green and the drawers are a lighter green.  I then did some details on the drawers, which were in pain in the but!  But I do think they turned out pretty awesome!  The knobs also will be the dark green. 

 

 

We are waiting to hear from our licenser.  We hopefully will hear by the end of the week or early next week!

 

J&C

Hurry UP......and wait

We are still waiting.  No news.  I check the mailbox quickly everyday to see if there is a packet with our license in it.  I am getting worried and nervous now; even more so than before. 

Here are a few before and after photos:


On the flip side, we have been preparing.  My mom came last weekend and we paint what will be a child's room.  And then I did some crafty for the walls!

Here is the finished project (not yet on the wall :)

We now have the dresser and changing table in the bedroom.......and they both need to be primed and painted yet!

Thanks for checking up on us!!!  Hopefully we will have good news soon!!

J&C

Paperwork All Submitted

I recieved the following email from our licensor today:

As far as I can see at this moment, this should be all the paperwork I need.
I am completing your home study this week and should have a licensing decision to you by the end of the week.

I am so excited and nervous.  All kinds of thoughts are running through my head:  Will her decision be yes?  Did we say the right things?  Was our house clean enough, big enough, homey enough?  All kinds of crazy and insane thoughts running thru my head.

I hope and pray that we will have an answer on Friday and that we don't have to wait thru the weekend!

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

We thought we had everything submitted and were ready to go and could wait for that phone call.

Wrong.

We got an email from our licensor stating that we now need two forms of ID for each Jeremy and I.  I am good to go, but we can not a second form of ID for Jeremy.  Now, we are sitting back, waiting again.

Our game plan is to have Jeremy take down his birth certificate to our licensor on Monday with the signed forms for fingerprinting that we should have signed when we got fingerprinted. 

Let's hope that this is the last hoop we have to jump through for a while!

C&J

The Waiting Game: Day 1

All paperwork submitted: Done

Here is a list of things that we had to do for paperwork:

• Background check---city, county, state and federal
• Fingerprinting
• Fire Inspection
• Records for the dog to make sure he is up-to-date with his shots
• Physicals
• TB test
• Pre-Placement Training (3 hour training, online)

I think that this is all, but I could be forgetting something!  There were 3 home visits with our Licensor--each visit was about 2 hours long.  We also had to do some things around our house that were not quite up to par for fostering.  Putting in smoke alarms in all bedrooms, putting meds in a lock box, putting chemicals out of reach of children, taking tools (screwdrivers, hammers, etc) and getting them up high.  We also have to put outlet covers on outlets, and put up all the plastic garbage bags!  Sounds so silly, but we know it is for the safety of the children. 

We also have purchased a few things.....it is nice to have them around just in case we get that call in the middle of the night!

That is all for tonight!  Thanks for reading!

It is the Beginning......

Dear Friends and Family,

We wanted to give everyone an update on us. Some of you may know and some of you may not, but Jeremy and I started the process of becoming Foster Parents. We started in November with the piles and piles of paperwork, asking people to be references for us and now are finishing up with physicals and TB tests. Jeremy has a doctors appointment tomorrow and then everything will be submitted to the licensing agency by Wednesday. Our licensor where we will have our license through has said that everything looks great and she sees no reason why we should be denied. Fingers crossed that she is right and everything goes off without a hitch!!
 

You may ask yourself why we are doing this: Our simple answer is that we are being led this way by a stronger power. We have talked about this for some time and knew after many discussions, we knew that this is something we need to follow. We know that we will be able to help a child; may it be a week, a month, or forever. We will be pre-adoption foster parents---meaning that we could potential adopt foster children. Jeremy and I excited to go on this journey, excited, nervous, joyful, hopeful--all rolled into one. We would love to have your support and love thru this journey. 

We also ask that you ask us questions if you have them! We will be more than happy to answer them. But also to understand there will be questions that we cant answer; please don't be offended if we say that we can't answer that due to confidentiality reasons. We can't wait to have a child to love, cuddle, and nurture!!

We are hoping to use this blog to keep you all updated!!

Thanks for listening to our story!!

Love,

Jeremy and Cara