NATIONAL ADOPTION DAY !

This is a very special week across our country ! In courtrooms everywhere there will be around 4,500 kids taken out of the "broken failing system". They will get a new name and become a part of a family that will hopefully love them unconditionally ! They will now have someone in their life that will be there when they need them. There will be much hoopla going on at the courthouses ! Family pictures, presents, balloons, clowns, food and just excitement.

While this will be an amazing week !

Here is the reality ! There are 510,000 kids in foster care. There are 129,000 kids that are legally free to be adopted right now .This does not include the millions of orphans in other countries who will go to bed tonight in conditions we would not let our dog live in. They are just children !

I met a young lady last week. Beautiful young girl ! She could be a model ! If you did not know her story you would think she lived a great life with no problems. This sweet girl about to age out of the foster system had lived in 30 homes since she was 4. She had lived through things children should not experience. The hope for her has come through foster parents who would not give up on her, even when she kept running away. This precious girl will get adopted this week . I do not know if her adoptive parents are Christians. I would like to think they are. They are however setting an example for us all !

There are so many foster kids who need someone like this couple to just love them, the way Jesus loves us ! He takes us with all of our "issues". He loves us with a love that we cannot fathom ! He takes us back with open arms when we run away ! Most of us are the picture of the prodigal son . I know I am. He loved us while we were yet sinners. We deserve nothing ! He takes us in and heals our wounds and makes us his kids.

Please join me in praying for the kids who will be adopted this week! Pray that they will find security in our Heavenly Father. While there are nice people on this earth , we are all sinners and our Heavenly Father is the only one who will never leave us or forsake us.

Please also pray for all those children who are waiting for a forever family. I only know what some of these kids have experienced and I cannot imagine having to cope with things like seeing your parent be killed or being treated so badly, by people who are supposed to love you. Sin is an ugly thing !

Pray that more Christians will open their homes to these kids ! You can look at the adoptable kids in Texas at the Tare website go to dfps.state.tx.us/adoption . They change this every week.

If you have any questions about fostering , I would love to answer them. Post a comment and I will get back to you.

Fostering to Adopt

Fostering

Matt and I are updating our license to continue to foster to adopt. It can be a long process with much to do. We believe it is what God has called us to , so we are going through it . Some of our stuff can just be updated and some "requirements " have expired and we have to go back and do them over again.

I thought I would take a minute and in case someone knows someone who wants to go this route , I would share an overview of most of what it takes.

Fostering children is NOT for everyone ! I know people who stopped after the first child left and they were not able to do it anymore. It was too painful and emotionally so draining.
Here are the facts:
In order to foster or foster to adopt you must do these things:

Complete training

There will be some classes that will bore you out of your mind.However, you might be surprised and get some training that is interesting and educational. One of the classes we were required to take was infant CPR. We were glad to have had this training when I was holding a 5 pound 3 month old who turned blue on me and stopped breathing. Thankfully Matt was home and he started CPR, I called 911 and the baby started breathing again . The baby lived and was fine. This was a medically fragile baby and most people will not get a baby with these issues. You never know when something you learn in a training will apply.

Your House in order

Cleaning supplies
It is good to have all cleaning and chemicals locked up somewhere. We bought a Rubbermaid storage piece that is in the garage and we attached a lock with a key. That means they do not want any cleaning stuff out on counters or under sinks.

Plug covers on all plugs.We already had locks on cabinet's in the kitchen which is great because we knew we wanted little ones.

Your agency or CPS is not looking for a perfect house,but , everything must be working. Toilets, hot water from sinks, etc.They are also looking for anything that could be dangerous, an area with many cords sticking out, for example.

Fire inspection- needs to be done and you need a carbon monoxide detector as well as smoke alarms on each level and fire extinguisher's on each floor.

Firearms-reported and secured. They just want to make sure your house is clean and safe for children.

Background checks

They will check to see your criminal history to make sure you are not on the most wanted list or anything serious.

Driving record

They will want a copy of your driving record. No big deal !


Getting to know you

They will interview you and get to know all about your childhood up to the present day. They will probably interview you and your spouse separately. They are looking for anything weird in your history that might not qualify you to foster kids.

Paperwork

All of these things will require paperwork and there will be times that you think, it is too much , I cannot finish all this. You can persevere and press on because it will be worth it !

My Church is putting together an entire booklet together on Adoption. If anyone wants a very in-depth version of what you need to do to adopt a child please email me .

I will write about the plus side of fostering to adopt another time. There are certainly many great reasons to going this route.

John Matthew has a silly hat !

Did any of you watch Blues Clues with your older kids? We did ! Steve had a song he sang when blue had something silly on his head.

It went like this:

Blue has a silly hat
Blue has a silly hat
and you repeat that until your annoyed !

In fact I will sing this for you in the video !

Well we have been singing that here for many years and so the first time our baby cleared out his bowl and put it on his head we sang the song. That was our first critical mistake ! John Matthew being the showman that he is, found this to be his new stand up act at the dinner table. Why not he has a captivated audience .

The problem now is he does this at every meal with every bowl. He has a lot of hair and so the food gets really messy in all his curly hair.

The moral here - be careful what you find to be funny !

Quinton James !

My Sweet Quinton is so funny. Every since he came into our lives he has brought so much joy ! One of my favorite things about him is he is into clothes. He loves accessories ! He loves to find peoples shoes in the house and put them on, he does not care if they match or not ! He loves Hockey ! He loves to look nice ! He knows when he looks cute.

Heavy metal in blue

Patrick just got Braces ! He picked out blue ! He is so excited to have them. Trying to get used to eating a whole lot slower and there seems to be some foods that are not even worth trying to eat !

I always wanted braces growing up ! Little did I know I would get to put most of my kids through them.

He looks so grown up !

New addition !

Because we want to see how fast we can max out our current home we just got another dog. We already had Marvel, the very large Catahoola and Matt and I were thinking it would be great for him to have a buddy !

Back story on Pets -
Now for those who know me well, they know I am not a "dog person" . I have actually always loved cats. When Matt and I first got married we had Miles the cat. He was black and white and he loved me. He slept on my head , nice I know. Now Miles the cat hated Matt, everyday when Matt came home he would attack Matt and bite him and try to climb up his leg and slide down with his claws dug into Matt's leg. My sweet husband endured the cat knowing I loved him. We kept Miles until we brought Grace home and Miles the cat was in her bassinet. That was all we needed to find a new loving home for Miles.

10 years later my kids and My husband decided it was time for a dog. We found Marvel on Craigslist and he really has been a precious pet. He is a protector and never barks unless the yard guy is in our yard. He does not chew up anything and he is so gentle with my all my kids. He is well trained and puts his nose on the door knob when he wants to go out. Since we have had Marvel I realized I just did not have much experience with really good , smart dogs.

This month Matt and I were looking at dogs online and found my new baby dog! We had a list of cute names , but when we saw him we had to call him SUGAR ! He is precious ! He is one year old. He is house trained. He also gets along with Marvel and we could not be happier.

GOT GERMS !

We have all passed some bug around our house for the last week. Now, I have been a mother for many years and I have lived through countless high fevers, too many stomach bugs to count and hundreds of colds. I have just never had 5 kids sick at the same time I was sick. Needless to say it has been a first for me. Like everything else has to be in my house I had a spread sheet of who had what meds and when. Thankfully , My precious husband has remained well !! He is holding down the job and the sick ward.

Have you ever noticed that a persons personality seems magnified when they are sick? The laid back ones seem to be more chilled. The children on the High drama side seem to be a bit more clinging and whinny. The talkers when they have fever can really get to babbling. Cuties !

I have prayed for a large dose of patience and I always try to keep my small issues in check, when I realize there are people who are praying for their children to live .

Hope you all are staying well this season !