First Foster Care Placement - Baby E Joined the Family!

I know, I am way past overdue sharing our news but we received our first foster care placement!  I received a placement call at 1 pm on Friday the 20th wondering if we would be open to accepting a placement of a 2 day old healthy Caucasian baby girl immediately.  Honestly from what I have heard from others I was expecting that first call to come in and not be a suitable match for us.  Often they will call with situation placements that are beyond ones ability but this sounded too good to be true.  I said we would be interested and I was given some more tidbits of information and told I will get a call back later in the day after they go to court with either the child has been placed into care or if the judge decided not to take emergency custody.  I waited for several hours before getting a call back stating the judge was overbooked and unable to hear the case therefore has postponed the hearing until Monday the 23rd and that in the meantime we could receive a call over the weekend if birth mom chooses to leave the hospital however the judge mandated that baby E could not leave the hospital until custody was decided. 

We spent the weekend in anticipation but I kept telling myself not to get my hopes up that likely the baby will not be coming into care.  I figured better to be surprised and did not get anything ready or prepared.  Monday I got a call in the morning from baby E's caseworker asking if she can drop her off around 4-5 pm that night.  I mentioned that they must have gone to court and gotten emergency custody and the worker said not yet she was heading down to stand in line for court but that the judge indeed promised Friday he will hear the case by the end of the day.  She said that baby E is indeed coming into care without a question but that she would call me after court to set up a more specific time that she would drop baby E off at.  Then the whirlwind began!  Brian was out of town on business like he has been recently Monday through Thursday so I called my mom up and we ran out to grab essentials I thought I would need.  I also had an ultrasound that afternoon where we saw our little 12 week old minion but that is its own post in the making :)  When we pulled in the drive I got a call from the worker verifying my address and that she would be at my place in about 10 minutes.  So much for calling ahead with a specific drop off time! 

Baby E arrived sleeping in a car seat covered with donated quilt.  I pulled the little quilt down just far enough to see her face.  The worker went over paperwork with me and I signed my life away practically then just like that off she left.  Baby E was dropped off with very little and random supplies mostly from the hospital and some clothes that are 6 and 9 months in size.  Baby E was 5 lbs. 3 oz. at birth and was full term.  She is a tiny peanut and we quickly found out she needed preemie diapers because she was blowing out of the newborn ones every time because they were so big on her!  P.S. did you know it's $10 for a pack of 30 preemie diapers?!?!  Yup that's the only pack they are available in, no big boxes.  Here I thought I was covered buying huge boxes of size newborn-4's and just when you think you are prepared I find us running out to the store to buy preemie diapers!  She also swims in newborn clothes but she is too long for preemie clothes.

She had her first pediatrician appointment on the 26th and being only 8 days old she has put on an entire 2 lbs making her a whopping 7 lbs. 3 oz.  She is still teeny tiny and needing preemie diapers because of her skinny legs and we switched to a preemie nipple per the pediatricians recommendation so she wouldn't be dribbling so much as she eats.  She is a ferocious eater and a big cuddler!  She is now responding to my voice and has accepted me as her mama which is great for attachment.  In the evening we found she is partial to having me put her to bed instead of poppy Brian because otherwise she won't settle down.  She is really thriving and a blessing to have with us.  We have no idea how long she will be in our care or what her future holds, but we are taking it one day and one feeding at a time.  We are loving her like crazy because someone has to.  Honestly the first two days I was going through the motions almost surreal like.   By the 3rd day those little eyes captured my heart and I felt that mama instinct kick in and has been in full force.  We are on a great schedule and she's eating about every 3 hours 2-4 oz. She wakes up in the night whining and a quick diaper change and bottle and within 15 minutes she is back in her crib sleeping for the next 3 hours.    

As for her full name because we are only temporary caregivers we cannot publicize her name so we are referring to her as baby E on this blog and other social media outlets.  The only pictures we can post are those that do not show her face but let me tell you she is a gorgeous baby!  I plan on taking pictures with my real camera instead of my phone hopefully today sometime and will be sure to share a few of those non-identifying pictures.  Anyone is free to stop by for visit to get their baby fix :)  We are so blessed and thankful for all the friends and family that have rallied up beside us.  From bringing me lunch, calling or texting to check up on us, coming over and holding baby E so I can do yet another load of laundry or run to a doctors appointment, bringing over the cutest gifts of outfits and such, and most importantly praying for us as we transition into being a family.  Without so much support I doubt we would be doing as well as we have!  In the next few weeks we will get an idea of how long baby E may be with us and what her future may look like but for now we continue to love her like crazy and stand firm in knowing He has a grand plan for this little beauty!


The little peanut with the doll Mary Grace got her!


Being held by chief


Some Mimsy loving plus Gunny who is a little bit jealous....




Play with me baby E!


My nephew (well call him nephew as he's my best friends son!) Maverick who semi enjoyed holding Baby E.  After a few minutes his one year old self proceeded to push her off of him but not before we got a cute picture! 




Some poppy bonding time!


Even my nephew GT asked to hold baby E and smothered her with kisses!  After he ran to play his trains and came back saying "my turn" and proceeded to try to grab her out of my arms!  Needless to say he enjoyed her and always made sure that everyone in the room knew where the "baby" was.


Bug net?  Nope it's a keep the pups out from licking her and stealing her paci net while we drove to the land! 


Great protector Meeko watched over baby E as we drove for a night at the land.  Our first road trip and night away from home went well! 


At the land in the house Brian, Mary, and GT built


Someone knows mama's voice!  I was talking to her while she slept and kept getting huge smiles!


Too much cuteness!

Nursery Wall Baskets & Homemade Tomato Sauce

We have a collection of Dr. Seuss character plush toys that we were intending at first to put on a shelf in the nursery.  It then came to mind that we wanted something that could be accessible to kids to be able to play with them so instead we opted for wall baskets.  I was able to snag a great deal at Target and get two metal ones for $6 together in the clearance section.  These baskets are meant to hold outdoor hoses so are super strong and perfect for what we wanted!


Of course our whippet boys had to be of some help!


....as well as not so much help as they both were trying to climb under the crib and wrestle as well as steal the plush toys all over the floor! 


Success!  Our guys are a little crammed and Horton decided to hang out on the changing table but it works! 


Today I decided to take on the endeavor of making homemade tomato sauce which I've never done before.  Our garden has provided so many tomatoes we aren't sure what to do with them all so this was a perfect way to use up 16 large tomatoes at once!  I started off boiling water then dropping them in for exactly a minute before moving them to ice cold water.


The skins then peeled right off and were ready to be cut in half, most seeds squeezed out, and thrown in the crockpot. 


This is what it looked like as we turned the crockpot on.  We threw in some seasoning, caramelized onions and garlic, and now to let it sit, cook, and stir occasionally for 8 hours!


Here's the sauce in all its glory after only two hours, still needs another 6 hours.  It's starting to cook down perfectly and our whole house smells of stewed tomatoes!  Since we didn't assemble and put it in the crockpot until after church it won't be done until about midnight so at that point we will then food process and freeze in meal portions to be used soon.  Brian doesn't want me to try it out without him until he is back from his business trip this week so I guess it will be pasta with tomato sauce for dinner Thursday!  I will be sure to update to let everyone know how it comes out!

Homemade Upcycled Dog Beds

With winter on the verge of coming I wanted to make cushions for our pups cages.  While shortly we will be starting to experiment with leaving them cage-free while we are gone (Meeko can be left but we've never tried Tucker), in the meantime they still sleep in their cages at night (or else we wouldn't have a bed to sleep in!) and while we are gone.  They always have covers in there but I wanted something more substantial and cushioning for their boney bodies.  To make it more comfy I've been contemplating how we could make them fluffy floor mats that they wouldn't tear apart.  Before Tucker, we had bought Meeko a floor mat and he thought it was a giant toy to de-stuff.  All $40 down the drain in the matter of seconds.  I wasn't going to invest in a $80 worth of a possible de-stuffing party for the two so I decided to get crafty and make them for a fraction of the cost therefore if the boys decide to have a de-stuffing party not much was lost!  The two are serious de-stuffers hence why they don't get any stuffed animals because they will de-stuff it in a matter of seconds leaving an entire room looking like it just snowed and run around with the remaining cloth carcass'.  I wanted to make it as close to our bed as possible because they never try eating or digging in it and knew whatever we used that it had to be wrapped in a sheet so they would think it was our bed and not something to de-stuff.  I started off with planning on using a thick piece of squishy foam we could cut to fit and then making a pillow case type enclosure to keep them from being able to get to it.  Before we were going to leave for the store it occurred to me we may still have a down pillow top bed topper from back in our college days.  Lo and behold we did indeed have one!  Perfect way to upcycle something that I know otherwise we would throw away and not use.  This project ended up being completely free beyond less than an hour of our time it took to measure, cut, and sew! 


Trying it out to see if they would be interested in laying on it.  Yup within seconds of putting it on the floor they were rolling all over it....I call that success!  This is a twin bed topper and Meeko is not even stretched out, but you can imagine why Mr. Whippets do not sleep in our queen bed with us because they are a bit inconsiderate in sharing space and insist on their paw being in your rib cage, their legs in your back pushing you out of the way, and their heads on top of yours!  For sanity reasons and comfort they get their own little contained beds! 


Brian measured the cages and cut the pillow topper to fit.  Just so happened they were as wide as two panels making cutting super easy. 


Then I got super crafty homemaker-like and re-sewed the edges to keep the down fluff in and the pups out.  Don't even ask about Nemo, he was there for moral support! 


We then took two old sheets again back from college days that we no longer use (amazing what we have laying around in our basement!) and Brian cut them to size to be like a pillow case enclosure.  I sewed the two sides and then kept the one big side open.  We made sure when it was cut that the one edge is longer so it can be folded into the closure making it seem completely closed.  We wanted it to be able to be taken on and off so we can wash it easily.  I'm hoping to search our local thrift stores for fleece sheets that I can make into more covers for during those cold winter nights, I know the pups would appreciate it! 


I took the picture above and then Meeko came right over and laid right down on it.  Looks like he approves! 


Here are the two finished products in their respective cages.  We wanted them to come up on the side edges a bit because the two like to have their heads propped up and this makes the perfect place for them to have their heads elevated a bit...they aren't prima donna's at all.

No One's Perfect

If the title doesn't give away my own current thought then I don't know what does!  Recently I was having a phone conversation with a close friend and she is currently going through some personal obstacles.  In the midst of our conversation I was getting the feeling that she was hinting to me that I have this "perfect life".  I stopped the conversation and boldly asked, "Wait are you implying that I have a perfect carefree life?" and here reply was, "I definitely think so, you have not a care in the world and your blog is filled with so much happiness and your every day life is so exciting.  You have your life together and things always go your way."  By the way I asked her if I could share this without identifying whom she is and she agreed because I wanted to take a moment and hack at this assumption.

I'm not sure if she is the only one that feels this way however I usually don't lend too much mind to what others think about me.  At the same time I find it important that I remain real and true to myself and my life and don't give off the persona that I'm this perfect 20-something year old wife and homemaker.  I make mistakes and fall just like others do.  I hate nothing more than fake people because they are setting up unrealistic expectations for others to attempt to be like when in reality it is fake and therefore unreachable leaving others feeling inferior and not "enough".  I am a rather bold person with an outgoing personality so it is near impossible for me not to voice my opinion.  I find blogging to be a wonderful way to journal and document every day life in which to share with others but mostly document for myself as each year I have a book printed and it becomes like a scrapbook of memories for that year.  It is amazing to look back and see how far we've come and to be where we are now.  At the same time I caution my readers that the internet only shows bits and pieces of people's lives.  It cannot show the full spectrum of my emotions, personal fears, or every aspect of my life.  I do leave a lot off the blog such as spousal disagreements, random tidbits, and life happenings that are not fit to be posted out there in the open.  I find myself to be honest and upfront about a lot of things here however often I let life developments happen then backtrack and blog about appropriate topics in past tense.  Currently we have some developments going on but we are waiting for an appropriate time and for things to work out better before we share.  It is important for everyone to realize on any blog or documenting experience, rarely do you see what's going on behind the scenes.  Behind closed doors there is more going on than what a simple blog posts or status emits and I'm positive this is true for everyone else too.

I thought that we all just know that everyone has problems and everyone's life gets messy sometimes?

I am just sad that we live in such a state that we can't be real with each other hence why I blog to be as real as possible.  I have written some very heartfelt posts about personal grief and triumph and know those feelings are the real deal.  I asked this friend in what ways she thought my life was "perfect" and I know she felt bad about her assumption, however I told her I would like to know so I can dispel that myth to show how far from perfect I am and that we are all fighting our own battles.  We all have strengths and weaknesses and I, as many others, try to use our strengths to the best of our abilities.  I told her specifically that I want to blog about this because this isn't the first time someone has told me that my life seems so organized and perfect....ok one moment please while I take a moment to laugh!  So here is a little list I compiled from that conversation that I want to slash.  I don't have to prove myself to anyone and I know that, but perhaps showing my weaknesses and life concerns, others will be able to relate to the things they too keep silent:

 

• Your house is so organized - I guess you have not seen our basement or garage lately!  Have you looked under our couches?!?!  Um please do not stick your head behind our toilet or look at the clean laundry pile on the floor in our bedroom that's been there and being picked through!  Truth is I'm pretty bad/lazy/disorganized/unmotivated when it comes to cleaning most the time.  Recently with Brian being gone Mon.-Thurs. and some other limitations my "homemaking" skills have been lacking.  I seem lately to wait for the mess to became unmanageable then declutter by mostly getting rid (via the trash the fastest way) and get in gear and clean like a crazy woman.  With only a few days with Brian home currently in our state of life, I have come to terms with the fact that I could choose my husband or I could choose cleaning on my weekends.  Oh darn I guess cleaning gets put on the back burner :)  I try to keep my house presentable and am great at quick cleaning when unsuspected guests arrive (It's amazing what just sweeping the floors and putting clean dishes away can do!) however this place is no Taj Mahal!  My bathroom could always use a good cleaning and here's another little secret...I normally don't make our bed in the morning!  Yup so there it is, the real truth is out there! 

 

• You are so self confident and happy - Being an outgoing person may lend to this misconception a bit.  Believe it or not I have some insecurities.  Yup it's true, I am like many other woman!  At the same time I try to be confident in what I believe in and what I do as I believe ones success is partly due to ones outlook.  I try to be confident but there are many days of hopelessness and days I throw my arms up in the air and say I give up.  You have those moments too?  Yup so do I!  My physical self confidence has been depleted with weight gain due to being off birth control that controls my Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).  We had to make the decision whether I should go back on birth control to stabilize my hormones and return to my pre-weight or stay off of it and deal with the weight gain and other issues in order to get pregnant.  We obviously chose the latter and I would every time as it is a dream of ours, however it does not mean that I am super confident or feel great in this new body I've had to come to grips with.  Life is what it is.  As for being happy I am happy with where I am.  I of course always want something more however I have learned to try to be content.  We have food, clothing, a roof over our heads, and I share my life with an amazing individual so our basics are always met.  We avoid being continuously stuck chasing external outcomes and striving for happiness outside of us.  I believe we all have the choice and sometimes even in moments of despair and grief we can choose to see the bright side and be content and work towards being happy.  I do think it is a daily choice to see the cup half full or half empty.  Not to say I don't shed my tears or feel defeated, however I try to remain optimistic and work towards our goals. 

 

• You have a perfect family and husband - No family I know is perfect and that includes mine and my married-into one.  We are all doing life however we all have our battles and successes.  The illusion that any family is perfect is comical as there are so many facets in each family always at play.  While our pictures may show happy smiling faces, sometimes what we see in person is ugly and words are said and people make bad decisions, but in the end we are family.  We forgive and we move on because we unconditionally love one another.  So no my extended family is not perfect and nor are Brian or I.  Brian and I are two broken people making our way through life together in union.  Life gets oh so messy sometimes and we lose a lot of tears and experience heartache, but also share moments of jubilation and successes big and small together and I wouldn't have it any other way.  We don't always see eye to eye but we communicate and don't hold grudges and continue on with life together as one.  I don't try to change my husband or have unrealistic expectations of him, but embrace him for who he is just as he embraces me with all my flaws as well.  My husband is an incredible individual and I am blessed to be able to do life with him.  I have the perfect husband for me, he nor I are perfect, but we are perfect for each other.    

 

• Money - Well the truth is currently (at this moment as I know things can change in the blink of an eye) we are in a good place, not fantastic but good.  I'm not going to lie and say we are crawling in debt because we are not.  Beyond Brian's student loans and our mortgage, those are the only places of debt we are in however we consciously have made it that way and are working hard to get those paid off.  We both drive paid for cars, they aren't pieces of junk traveling on four wheels, but they aren't the newest sleekest models however they are paid for and get us to and from.  We are currently considering and saving as our family is hopefully expanding in the next few years so will need to purchase a minivan or SUV so that is something we are working towards and considering taking out a car loan or purchasing a used one in the near future.  At the same time we aren't rolling in any dough.  There have been many of months we have cut it close and even, however we continue to save what we can knowing that the inevitable unforeseen circumstance is bound to happen....and always does!  We live on a pretty strict budget with the security blanket being that Brian works on salary but we don't indulge in a lot of "extra's".  We've purposely opted to live on one income and for us it totally has worked.  Again, we don't live lavishly and we live without a lot of "more" and "things" but for us this works.  We do own our home and it is a cozy 3 bedroom ranch, no perfect 8 bedroom mansion, but a house that we have made into our home.  There has been many of times we have absolutely no idea how the money would show up when unforeseen life issues happen.  Somehow, someway the money has always arrived.  Every single time, one being a late tax return when we had a hefty expense arrive.  With prayer and budgeting we have been able to make our lifestyle work for us.  While we do have medical insurance, our infertility treatments, medicines, and surgeries in the past two years I've added up and it is in the thousands that we have spent.  For us it is a cause worth it for us, so again we budget around priorities of ours just as others budget around their own priorities.  If we absolutely truly want to splurge on something we will find a way to do it or get it, it may not be immediately and it may mean saving for a while or putting a lot of our own personal sweat and tears into it, but we will work towards it.  I cut costs by distinguishing needs from wants, saying no to "more", clipping coupons, making our own laundry detergent, buying in bulk to save, buying generic foods at times, eating in instead of eating out, and not buying much of a new wardrobe.  We easily could be consumed with debt if we just charged whatever we wanted, however we wait and save and reassess if it is a need if the savings is there.  For us it works.  Yes we have cable, xbox live, run our air conditioning all summer (sorry I know how I get without air conditioning!), and keep a warm home in the winter, but for us we budget our priorities.

 

• We can go and do whatever we want - We say no a lot!  There are many times the budget gets close and we opt out even when we wish we could indulge with others.  We know in time and with yearly career improvements we will get there, but we are still starting out 2 years into our marriage and work world.  We've been invited to join on vacations and cruises but we don't do either.  We go camping instead for weekend retreats, but it is not in the budget to travel and for Brian to take time away from work for such adventures.  We really pulled strings and scrimped to be able to go on our mission trip to Honduras, but that was a year ago and unfortunately it was not in the cards for this year or likely next.  We could easily charge a credit card and go on big adventures however we choose to invest in our future and do adventures close to home that are budget friendly.  We recently skipped out on a wedding we intended to go to this summer because of unforeseen circumstances depleting our savings that we had specifically budgeted for the trip.  Cue in my car brakes completely going and being in the high triple figures to fix!  Yup life happens and we roll with it.  We sit out from a lot but we also take many opportunities up when we can.  We aren't living a life of less happiness by any means, however we have learned the art of saying no in order to live as debt free as possible. 

 

• Everything in your life is so exciting - Here comes the truth, most of our days are pretty boring!  We keep busy and try to enjoy life, however we aren't living any heroic lives.  Day to day grind is not pretty.  We live near my family so we are busy with events and we are always up for a local adventure so we remain active but exciting isn't how I would always put it.  Yes we have had a lot of exciting moments in our life and we continue to have them, but everything is not so exciting and cheerful.  Many of my posts revolve around our whippets and straw bale gardening because guess what, that was our excitement that day!  We are always evolving and sometimes we go through some ugly stages like a caterpillar in an ugly brown cocoon but then we emerge as beautiful butterflies and it is exciting when we see the beauty and successes in our life, but most days we are crawling along as the boring caterpillar or are stuck in the ugly cocoon waiting for the next exciting moment that we can emerge into. 

 

• You seem to have no worry at all - Well little may people know, I am married to the biggest worry wart ever!  As in ever!  He gets huge anxiety over things, mostly out of our control, so I have learned to have to go to the other extreme to balance us out.  There are things I worry about or let consume my thoughts, but at the same time I try to remain positive and not worry as I internally know it'll work out, it always does.  It may not always work out how we plan it but it always works out for the best.  I have found it is best to just embrace the unknown.  When I let go, things start to work out.  I know we try to setup stable groundwork and do what we can, but there is so much in life out of our control as all I can do is seal it with a prayer and kiss and put my trust into hoping for the best.  The last two years of infertility treatments and a miscarriage loss has really taught us not to sweat the little things and learn how out of control most of our lives are.  The things I have control of I make sure I take care of, but there is only so much we can do to the best of our abilities then all we can do from there is hope for a good outcome.  So yes I do worry, I'm human, but for sanity in our home I need to balance out my worry wart husband and do that by keeping my cool a lot :)   

 

• You even have the picture perfect two dogs - Ok I almost spit my water out at this comment!  Yes yes for those that know my dogs, yes they are perfect to me :)  There is no better dog than whippets as they are a unique breed of their own!  We love Meeko and Tucker as they are our two fur babies but reality is they are four legged canines, they steal food, eat and chew things they shouldn't, need to be let out to potty, injury themselves racking up expensive emergency vet bills, and are way too excited to see us each time we enter the room even if we just saw them 5 seconds ago.  They are not any more perfect than humans and take responsibility, upkeep, money, and time but we are overfilled with cuddles, walking partners, laughs, and specifically companionship especially when Brian travels so these two guys are far from perfect but perfect for us! 

Gardening and Foster Care Cluster Group

Our tree is blossoming now like crazy!  Beautiful bells opening daily on the one, the other one (which actually bloomed last year - this one never had!) is starting to get the buds so hoping to see them blossoming soon too!  Seeing that last year the other one never bloomed until it was already in our basement for the winter when it decided to finally bloom, we are happy they are both awakening to when they are supposed to bloom!


Our tomatoes have become like weeds!  They are growing out of control! We have so many tomatoes growing we don't know what to do with them all!  We have tried to keep tying them up as they have grown but when pulled all the way up the plant is taller than we are!  This is all just watering and living in straw bales!  We are going to turn Italian this weekend and make some homemade tomato sauce so hoping that will be yummy and surely an adventure since neither of us have ever made it.



We went to our Foster care cluster group tonight.  Again we had a great informative time.  We love the company there and the first hand experiences we hear are so helpful.  We gain so much insight from the group it is almost unreal.  We also are lucky our home study social worker and as well as resource manager are in attendance each month too!  The other people in the cluster neither know personally either worker or work with them so it is comforting to be able to get answers and have a background relationship with the two woman running the cluster group monthly.  We also got to meet one of our supervisors today who knows us well from going over our home study but can now put our faces to our names.  Odd when someone knows so much about you while you have never met or even seen them before!  We had a great session, ate some pizza, chatted, and even had half the room in tears over one families current grieving.  These individuals are so open and authentic and give us a realistic glimpse into what we signed up for.  Brian was holding one of the families foster babies and was even spit up on....we all agreed he is now fully initiated into the group!  We were told it likely won't be long until we get a call and many were placing bets on when that first call will come! 

Updates of Sorts

I never made it official here on our blog, but we did get our Foster 101 course completed Saturday!  We had priorly been told upon exiting we immediately would be put on the placement bed list (their name for it not mine!) however the trainer told us that chances are we won't be put on it until Monday at the earliest, Friday at the latest whenever "someone" decides to do their job (her words not mine!).  We were currently on the list as color coded as yellow which means "on hold" and need to be switched to "green" which is active.  I emailed our resource manager Monday to make sure all contact numbers were in place (our trainer told us all to do this) and she got back to me immediately stating our numbers are now updated and all in the placement bed list computer system and that she is forwarding our name to her supervisor so she can have us go green on the placement bed list since we finished our last course.  So are we on the list as of this moment?  We don't know!  I'm assuming within the next few days we will be officially changed to green. 

I have had several people inquire into how long our wait will be realistically before we get our first placement(s).  We don't know that either!  We have a pretty wide age range and are open to up to 2 children, preferably siblings or possibly unrelated children.  It all depends on what types of placements are needed and if a child or children fit our specifics we outlined with our home study worker.  When children come into the system they immediately go through triage at the local hospital with the child's appointed social worker.  While that is all going on a call is put into the placement department and they put all the child's specifics into the bed list: race, age, gender, health, needs, family situation, etc. into the computer system and up will pop the bed list of all available foster homes with beds open in which the child fits the characteristics of what those foster families are open to.  The start going down the list calling to find a foster family that will agree to take the child placement.  If no answer they will leave messages however will continue on down the list of families until someone calls back or someone answers and agrees to take the placement based on the information they have and that is available.  Children are tiered in our system based on their needs as Level I, II, and III.  As new foster parents we are able to take in Level I and II children, however Level III children are intense special needs and require extra training if we were open to taking in such children in the future. 

Now all we can do is just wait for a call, find out what we can, then decide if we will accept the placement.  We were told generally families will only accept 1 out of 4 placements calls so it is not unusual to pass on a child or children we may not feel equipped to care for, may be bad timing for us in our lives, or we may want to be more picky with our age group or gender etc.  There is no specific time frame for us to go off of, it all depends on the wave of children that come in to social services needing immediate homes.  It was mentioned several times it seems like large floods of children tend to come in all at once so you may not get any calls for weeks then suddenly all these calls suddenly!  It is a guessing game so your guess is good as ours!  We could get a call today (if we are on the list as green) or next week or next month!  We pray for the wisdom when we do receive our first call and for clear discernment on if the placement is a good placement for us or not based on the small snippet of information available. 



In other news, Meeko loves cuddling with Mary!  She came over yesterday and the pups always enjoy running after her around the house.  Unfortunately she tripped and ran right into a wall with her femur and it was already bruising within minutes :(  We also had an incident that Tucker got ahold of some raisins that had fallen off of the fridge.  I remembered how raisins and grapes are the most toxic for dogs so we considered inducing vomiting.  Raisins are more potent than grapes because they are dehydrated so do not have the added water and have been known to cause kidney failure and once it starts not even a vet can stop it and generally euthanizing needs to be done otherwise it's a painful death.  We know he did not eat too many as he was only in the kitchen for a little while and there were few raisins left in the box to begin with however we figured he likely ate less than 10 if he even had eaten 1.  Our dogs with things they aren't familiar with tend to play with new things in their mouths and spit them out several times and paw at it for a while before they finally eat it.  When Brian went in to check on him he had one in his mouth and was chewing like a horse on it!  I called two emergency vet offices and in the end decided not to induce the vomiting for fear of creating another problem and just wait and see.  It was a long night of little sleep and worrying, however as of noon today he seems his normal spunky self, eating, pottying, and being the clown he normal is!


Prior to the raisin eating episode, Tucker tried out our new wheels!  No not for him, we aren't that crazy!  My uncle, and godfather, surprised us a few months ago with a brand new Graco double convertible stroller when he found out we were becoming foster parents and open to up to 2 kids at once.  We have a single stroller I bought on clearance a while back but this thing is the real deal!  It also so happens we have Graco snugride car seats that were given to us that actually attach to this stroller so it's perfect!  The stroller is a convertible one as the back seat that faces you as you push can come off and there is a bench seat for an older child under they can sit on as well as a place they can stand and ride on the black back platform.  You can also fit up to two snugride carseats clipped into it or any combination so it will be adjustable for us as we have different placements and expand our family.  We decided to put it together and make sure it would fit folded up in both of our trunks before the exchange policy ended and it fit perfectly for both of us!  Another added blessing we are so thankful for and know will be put to great use! 

Fostering Tree

I came across this idea from a wedding and thought how perfect it would be to use for us as we foster!  It is a guestbook of fingerprints and is simple to make and beautiful to view.  As we begin our journey into the foster care world we know most of the children that come through our doors will only be here temporary.  I wanted something that could capture each child as a keepsake but didn't want something overboard or that would take up a lot of space.  Who knows for how long and how many children will pass through our front door, however when I remembered this idea from a wedding guestbook it occurred to me this is exactly what I wanted to do, a fingerprint memory tree!


I started by making this above using photoshop.  I was able to pick out the fonts and such and inside the heart on the tree trunk is actually our last name.  It is blurred out here because on this blog I don't throw my last name out there, we have enough creepers in the real world :)


I printed it on fiber card stock so that it's a thicker/nicer paper and will pick up fingerprints easily.  As each new child comes into our home we have a green ink pad and will take their thumb and place it on one of the branches of the tree and it will become a "leaf".  Planning to put their name and toying with the idea of possibly the year they came here under it but we shall see how it goes.  I matted it and put it in the frame, pretty simple.


Here it is on top of our thermostat where it is going to permanently hang!  Waiting for my husband to get home to hang it.


Funky Iphone picture because of our ceiling light, however you can see how it is close by to our family tree in the hallway.  It will hang a bit above the thermostat and as each child is welcomed into our home we will have their fingerprint added and soon this tree will fill up with tiny little leaves!


I played with the green ink pad a few times and found the second print is better than the first.  The one to the left is the first, the second is to the right and more of the look I'm going for!  We will do the first on a piece of paper then the second print will be the official leaf on the tree.

We go tomorrow for our final training before we can officially open our home and take placements.  Who knows when our first leaf will arrive :)

We Midly Love Our Dogs

We took the whippet pups out to the dog park today.  They were rowdy at home on this cool Fall feeling day so figured they wanted to go run around and socialize with other dogs (and mostly people because after all they are whippets and love people!). 

The two pranced around and Tucker did sprint a few times.  They will run like wild men in our fenced backyard but get to the dog park and only want to prance around smelling other dogs and every so often following some running but never breaking a prance.  Tucker had an infatuation with any small fluffy dog he would try to paw and pounce on them then he'd run for the hills when they came after him!


We stopped at the pet store to pick up our tree frog Jaxon his crickets and of course we found we have two very cute Yoda pups!


Taco Tucker!


Hot dog Meeko!

No worries, they have indeed forgiven us for putting them in such silly outfits and are currently cuddling with us trying to forget about the public embarrassment.  Please don't tell them I put the pictures up on the blog :)

Erie Weekend, Quinn College Move-In, Land Visit, Garden Harvest, & Fostering Update All In One!

Quinn is officially moved into college as of Saturday....well it's all fancy since Brian and I graduated and now considered a university!  Move-in day went without a hitch seeing that we've done this now 5 times seeing that she is the 5th child, however the excitement never wears off!  She seems to really be enjoying her new found freedom and sleepless late nights with new friends so can't ask for anything better.


We ended up staying in Erie Friday through Sunday for the whole weekend since it also happened to be a reunion weekend with friends from college.  It was nice that we still have friends in Erie so we were drifters and spent Friday with a friend then Saturday at another friends and saved on the hotel expense.


We frequented our old stomping grounds of bars/clubs.


While also hitting up old time favorite local restaurants!


We stayed out and up way too late considering we live pretty boring lives now of going to bed around 10 p.m.  We stayed out until 2 a.m. dancing the night away and catching up with friends.  We were reminded that we are not 18 years old any more and able to be out and about until wee hours of the morning without repercussions of exhaustion the next entire day however it was worth it for the weekend of fun we had.  We are officially in recovery mode trying to regain our lack of sleep and get back on schedule!


Sunday afternoon to the land for the night into the holiday at the land.  We had to pick our dogs up that were being watched for the weekend there and decided last minute to spend the night. 


We enjoyed our time with the family as usual though it was a short stay for us.  Elise bought GT a Thomas the tank engine smock so we decided to send her a picture of us all enjoying the "train"!


We came home in time to harvest some vegetables that ripened over the weekend.  I picked ready vegetables before I left Friday and just over the weekend we harvested quite a bit!


Growing strong!


Tomatoes are growing like crazy!  I have a ton of tomatoes in our fridge that is becoming tomato sauce come this week.  First tomato sauce making experience so keeping fingers crossed it will be at least edible! 


Just when we thought our strawberries were coming to an end we come back to find countless flowers that will soon become nice ripe strawberries!


Brian my hand model showing off our harvest today.  Looks like green beans for dinner!


We are also excited to see my angel trumpet tree finally has some flowers getting ready to open up and bloom!  I have had this tree that started off as a tiny twig since I was a sophomore in high school so for 9 years now and it is finally getting ready to produce the flowers I've been impatiently waiting for!  We used a cutting from it to grow another tree which produced a few flowers last year except it never did through the summer or fall but only once we put them in our basement for over the winter did we finally see the beautiful flowers.  Better late than never huh?!?!  We are elated to see so many and hoping for them to bloom soon.  I've been in awe at the man who gave me my first tree as his are always blooming like crazy but perhaps this is just a sign that it is finally mature enough!

 
We also had an unofficial update into our whole becoming foster parents journey.  We are near the last leg of our journey until we can have placements and while we have been completely certified and approved for a while now, our county has this one course they insist we need to take before they will start calling with potential placements (not state rules but county preference).  We heard through the grapevine of another family that we did our pre-service training with and have kept in touch with that the course is this upcoming Saturday the 7th.  Did we have any knowledge of this?  Nope!  Last we were told was 4 weeks ago that it was still tentatively the 21st and if it changes that our resource manager would call us and get us registered ahead of time.  So finding this out last Thursday I called our resource manager that early afternoon and left a message and shot her an email.  After not hearing from her Thursday or Friday we find ourselves stuck with today being a day off for the holiday.  I'm giving her until tomorrow at 10 a.m. to return my call before I end up just calling her supervisor to get some answers and clarification.  Seeing that come tomorrow it is only 4 days away from the actual class date we've been told about, we are wondering when our resource manager intended on telling us the class is this Saturday?!?!  The next class is not until December therefore what a shame it would have been to miss this because of an oversight of our resource manager who is in charge of keeping us updated and in the loop.  It's a shame we had to hear about the class via another family instead of by the entity in which we are working with.  So we are keeping our fingers crossed that it is indeed this weekend and that we can be registered and attend the class.  It is our very last thing we need checked off our list before we can start receiving placement calls.  The 21st seemed so far away but now knowing the class is likely 5 days away from now it suddenly became so real!