Our Fun Weekend!

This weekend was GREAT!!

On Saturday (our family fun day) we took the girls to the Cider Fest. We met Maamaw and Grandpa Tom there and we had a great time, here's a few pics...

On Sunday we couldn't believe how warm it was for the end of September so we set up the sprinkler and the girls had a great time! I'm sure we made a few other parents mad at us though b/c every time a car drove past with kids in it we could see/hear the kids asking if they could do that!

While the girls were playing in the sprinkler, I took advantage of the nice weather and cleaned off and organized our porch. I should have taken a before picture, it was covered in bikes, carseats, strollers, toys, etc. (thank you Mike for your help!) I also made a tablecloth and chair cushions for our little table, I think it turned out cute!

My Birthday

Yesterday I celebrated my 35th birthday...what a wonderful day! My mom took me to breakfast and shopping and then Dad and Karen went to dinner with us and came back for presents and cake. When I woke Lexy up yesterday morning, before she even opened her eyes, she said "It's your birthday day Mommy!!!!" it just made me smile! Lexy also was in tears b/c she didn't want to go to school b/c she had told her teacher she would be at my birthday party :-)

Mike and Brooke had spent about 2 1/2 hrs at Wal-Mart the night before finding just the right gifts (and for those of you that know Brooke that can take hours!) and getting the german chocolate cake and ice cream that I asked for. They did such a great job and I feel SO blessed that I have a family that cares so much. Here's some pics of last night...

Our Weekend

We had a busy weekend.

For our family day (Sat.) we took the girls to a tiny tots carnival were Lexy got to get lots of goodies, hear a story, jump on the moonwalk, see a fire engine and pet neat animals. Then Brooke, Lexy and I (daddy was on call so had to stay home, I'm sure he wasn't terribly upset!) went shopping in Olathe. We spent over an hour in bumper to bumper traffic b/c of road work just to get to Old Navy! We visited Old Navy, Target, and the Olathe Mall. Lexy was tickled pink when we finally found the coveted SOCK MONKEY that we've been looking for ever since she saw Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium. She has not put that thing down since we bought it!!! And no, the sock monkey did not replace Lovey like I had hoped, now Lexy walks around with sock monkey, lovey head and lovey blanket (did I tell you Lovey broke in half about 2 wks ago?) Brooke made out like a bandit with tons of clothes and shoes that she just couldn't live without! We then met daddy for dinner and spent the evening at home.

Today for Cleaning day my project was to work on getting the baby stuff back downstairs and attempt to organize it, it's not done but I did make a dent! I had started packing up the baby stuff on Friday but was in tears by the end so I had to wait until today to work on it again. Mike reminded me that by putting everything back downstairs we are bound to get another call about a baby soon, that just seems to be how it happens!

Another fun night at the football field!

Last night was Brooke's 2nd cheer event at the football game. It was great weather and Mike and Lexy even made it for the entire time (3 1/2 hours). Here's a video of Brooke (and the others) cheering...



Here's one of Brooke and Kenzie, not sure why it is sideways!



Lexy also had fun at the game...one of the boys from her preschool class, Daniel was there and they were flirting!!

What a better day!

Yesterday did turn out to be a much better day! It was Mike and I's 14th wedding anniversary. We went out over the weekend to celebrate but Mike surprised me with these beautiful roses after work last night. He is such a sweet, caring, wonderful man!!!!!! I truly can't believe he has put up with me for 18 years (we were together 4 yrs before marrying)...I am a lucky woman.

Retail Therapy

Today was, to say the least, a very emotional day for me. After explaining for what seemed to be the thousandth time to a caring friend or relative that "no, the twins won't be a part of our family" I was ready to lock myself in a rubber room and never come out! Instead I took Brooke to Wal-Mart after Mike got home and did a little retail therapy, nothing major but it did help a little.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day, between my allergies acting up and all the crying my throat hurts, my nose doesn't know whether to stay stopped up or run for the door and my eyes are so swollen that I look like I've been thru hell...oh maybe I have...

No Twins...why oh why...

Well our twins left tonight after finding out that the whole "respite thing" was a misunderstanding. Our foster worker let me know in no uncertain terms (and a very loud voice I must say) that she in no way implied that this respite was for us to determine if we wanted to take the twins as a placement...WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD SHE SUGGEST WE DO THE RESPITE THEN???? There was already plans for another foster mom to do the respite and that was cancelled when our worker said she wanted us to do it...we would have NEVER done the respite if not for the reason of getting the twins as a placement, why would we put ourselves thru that??

The foster parents that had them has been talked into keeping them for a while with a lot of respite help. So obviously it's better for these wee ones to be tossed from respite home to respite home and living in a home where they are not wanted then to be placed with us :-(

OK rant over but I am so so sad tonight that the twins will not be a part of our family. After just one night we were all in love with them.

Now what? I'm ready to be done with all of this...I guess we'll see what the next few days brings to light...

Yep, Twins!

J & J left for their new home on Friday, there were a few tears shed but we all feel really good about how well the boys have done with the transition. Angie and John (the new foster parents) have assured us that we are welcome to visit the boys anytime, which made Brooke feel much better about the situation.

Mike and I took advantage of having no foster kiddos over the weekend by leaving Brooke and Lexy with Grammy and Papa for a little spoiling while we went out to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. We had a great time, so nice to reconnect and have a little "us" time!

So the labor (much easier than Brooke's haha) began for the twins and they arrived via Joy and Phillip (former foster parents) at a little after noon today. They are both eating, sleeping and pooing just fine!!:-) Tator took a trip to the grocery store with me this evening while Pickle stayed with daddy. All in all the day has gone great and they are now down for hopefully a few hours before waking me in the middle of the night for a little snack!

Twins??????!!!!!!!

Well, as we wind down our transition time for J & J and get them settled into their new home tomorrow we have more exciting news...

TWINS!

A foster friend of ours received a placement of twins a few weeks ago. She does not feel that these are "her kids" and has asked for them to be moved. We have went to see them a couple of times and babysat last night for them and they will move into our home on Sunday for a few days for us to make sure they are a good fit for our family. If everything goes well the twins will be moving to our house permanently...or at least as permanently as foster care can be.

The twins (or pickle and tator as we will call them) are both boys and 3 mos. old but were 10 weeks premature so their adjusted age (what they look and act like) is 2 weeks old. They were both born at 3 lbs. and now are right around 10 lbs.! Right now they are on apnea monitors but hopefully they'll be able to get off of those soon and both have acid reflux. Because of their prematurity they will have to be watched closely for hearing loss and eye problems along with numberous other things that can develop. We pray that these boys will continue to be healthy and with no complications due to their prematurity and the drug use of their birth mom but if problems do arise we will deal with those as they present themselves.

Brooke's First Game

Brooke was is so excited to be a cheerleader this year! She worked so hard last spring practicing for hours every night for the try outs, she truly deserved her spot!

Last night was the first football game that they cheered for. Except for being bored and tired by the end, Brooke said it was GREAT!! Someone should have told mom that this would be a 3 1/2 hour ordeal...I guess I'll have to start liking football/basketball because I'll be doing this at least once a week!

A family for the boys

I felt like I saw a family coming together last night. A family here in town had expressed interest in my boys (even before we knew we wouldn't be the boys forever family), last night this family came to meet the boys. I have never witnessed such amazing peace in myself at seeing the boys with this family...as if this was all working out the way it was meant to be. We thought we would be the forever family for these boys but it looks like God was really asking us to be the final stepping stone in them finding their family. I am SO happy for J & J and this family!!!

The boys will be going to this family in the evenings for the rest of the week to get to know them and moving there on Friday evening. We will miss J & J terribly but my whole family really seems at peace with our decision about this.

Now to find our forever kid(s)...

A sad diagnosis...

Big J was taken for a mental health evaluation today by his worker. Since he and his brother will be leaving our home soon the worker wasn't in a very talkative mood afterwards but did "mention" that the therapist believes that he has attachment disorder...no really???!!! This poor kid has been shuffled back and forth between so many homes in the past 2.5 yrs that there is no way he doesn't have issues!

We knew Big J had some problems when we chose to take him and little J in as pre-adoptive placements but we felt that if the visits stopped (supposedly at the first court date) that at that point we could get him (and us) some intensive help to deal with his issues and help him on his way to healing :-( The system SUCKS! This little boy (and his brother) will be yet more victims of the system, what a sad day!