Spring Break 2012 - St. Louis, MO

We packed up the van with clothes, swim gear and snacks and headed out for the five hour drive (with stopping for lunch) to St. Louis.  We've been there twice before, in 1997 and again in 2008...it's amazing that all three times we have found new things to do and there's still more that we haven't gotten to yet!

We lucked out and missed all the rain back home while we enjoyed the warm and sunny weather in St. Louis!  We visited the St. Louis Zoo, The Magic House (children's museum), two malls, a movie theatre (Journey 2 the Mysterious Island), Hammer's (pizza/arcade), Mini golf, lots of fun restaurants, the hotel volleyball court and the great hotel pool MANY times!  For souveniers Lexy chose a Build a Bear panda (Oreo) at the zoo and Brooke choose a couple of new outfits at the mall.

Adoption Update

We had planned on being busy during spring break transitioning the three kids into our home.  After being told that wouldn't be happening we were at a loss, we had made absolutely no other plans.  We were in shock but we knew that getting away to regroup and reconnect would probably be the best thing for our family.  So we headed to St. Louis for the week.  The time away did our family good.  We had time to grieve the failed adoption and realize that we all still feel that we are meant to add to our family through adoption.  So while we feel vulnerable and sad, we will push thru the pain to continue looking for "our kid(s)".

While we were away our adoption worker had a meeting where they discussed all the kiddos that are coming up for adoption in the next few months.  By the time we got back she had filled our e-mail with profiles.

We took the weekend to review all the new profiles.  Some were out of our age range...while we have discussed adopting older children later on it is just not right for our family right now.  When we narrowed it down, this is what we have...

1.) Sib set of 3 (g-5, g-4, g-2) - PRT complete, JE rec'd
2.) Sib set of 3 (b-3, g-2, g-almost 1) - PRT happening soon.
3.) Sib set of 5 (g-4, g-3, b-2, b-1, b-2 mos) - PRT set for May
4.) Single child (b-4 mos) - PRT set for end of April
5.) Single child (g-3) - PRT set for April
6.) Single child (g-1.5) - PRT happening soon
7.) Single child (g-5) - PRT complete
8.) Single child (b-1.5)  - PRT complete

PRT (parental rights terminated) - after this happens it takes 4-8 weeks to get back the JE (court journal entry) and then a BIS (best interest staffing to choose a family) is set.

Each sib set/single child has different special needs/issues that we are getting more information about.  We have felt all along that we are meant to provide a family/home for a child(ren) that are harder to place so we have told our worker that if any of the above situations have an overwhelming amount of families interested that we would not submit our homestudy.

We are hopeful that we are getting close to finding "our kid(s)". :-)

Regrouping

Regrouping and reconnecting as a family.

No Kids

The judge's decision was to leave the kids where they are.  We are back to square one AGAIN :(  My gut instinct all week was that the kids were coming here....I'm in shock.  Hopefully someday we'll know why we were made to endure all this heartbreak.  For now we will enjoy spring break and then we move on in the search for our kids.

Third and Final

On Saturday morning Lexy got ready for her party with friends...7 1/2 hours early!! 

 Lexy, Daddy and Mommy decorated for the "Billy the Exterminator", Vexcon and bug/animal theme.  We also made snakes (hot dogs), caterpillars (grapes on a stick), ants on a log (celery/raisins) and bees (chips) for dinner.

After everyone arrived dinner was eaten and then presents were opened!

The Girls...Regan, Ria, Jaidyn, Lexy and Avree

A beehive pinata was sprayed and swatted at and lots of games were played!  "Billy the Exterminator" season finale was watched before bed.

The craft that Lexy picked was decorating pillowcases with fabric markers, these turned out really cute!

The "Billy" cake was yummy!  Lexy ate his face. :)

Donuts, blueberry muffins and apple juice for breakfast and a little playing before the girls were picked up.

This was the first slumber party for most of the girls, they were all super excited.  We didn't have any major mishaps, everybody stayed all night and if the noise level is a guage I think lots of fun was had by all!

Parties One and Two

Lexy was happy when I showed up at her school at 1:30pm with treats and her build a bear "duck" and balloon.  Lexy shared her treats with her classmates and then I got to stay for the rest of the day with her!

Later she got loved on by her Grammy & Papa, Mammaw & Grandpa and Uncle CJ, Jess and cousins.  Lexy begged to open her gifts first thing (so we let her)...she got a polly pocket car, lego friends treehouse set, money and a remote control car (from us).  She has spent MANY hours playing with each thing since then!

The night also included spaghetti, cake & ice cream and lots of fun & laughter!

Adoption Update

We were told that the judge was to announce his decision by noon today.

Right before 2pm we got an e-mail forwarded from our worker that said that the judge has postponed announcing his decision until March 16 at 9am.

I'm speechless.

EIGHT on the EIGHTH!!!

Birthday Girl Lexy eating her birthday biscuits and gravy!

Today my sweet, funny, artistic, loving little girl turns eight.  I tried to convince her this morning that instead of turning eight today we were going to start going backwards because I don't want her to grow up...she was having no part of that. :) 

Lexy started telling us a couple of weeks ago that this birthday was extra special because this would be her "Golden Birthday".  Indeed it is, she is eight years old on the eighth of the month and that only happens once in a persons life!  So we have done up this birthday extra special, she will have THREE parties! 

#1 - Today I will be taking chocolate cupcakes with chocolate gold coins on top and juice to her class along with the Build A Bear "ducky" that she asked for!

#2 - Tonight Grammy & Papa, Mammaw & Tom and Uncle CJ & Aunt Jessie with Ashley, Toby and Johnny will come to our house for spaghetti (Lexy's favorite), caramel cake and ice cream to celebrate.

#3 - Then on Saturday Lexy will have her first sleepover birthday party ever!  She has chosen "Billy the Exterminator" as her theme and we have lots of fun planned!

What's ONE MORE WEEK!

Found out on Tuesday afternoon that we were not the chosen family for the two girls. :(  We weren't given a reason why just that all three families were great and they had a hard time deciding.

When our worker called to tell us that news she also said that she would be calling on Wednesday as soon as she found out the results of court on the three kids.  She said it would probably be afternoon before she called so even though I was beside myself with nervousness all morning I didn't really worry that she hadn't called.  At 5pm she still hadn't called so I left a message on her office voicemail.  She still hadn't called at 6pm so I left a message on her personal cell phone.  At 9pm I just couldn't handle the stress anymore and I went to bed, only to wake up every hour all night long. :(

I thought for sure I'd hear from our worker first thing this morning but by 10 am l was leaving another message begging for her to "please just call with an update".  A little after NOON she finally called.  First words were "I wasn't ignoring you, the kids worker forgot to call me so I had to track her down today".  WHATEVER!!! 

So there is still no decision.  Yesterday (all day) was spent hearing testimony again.  Closing arguments will be on Monday, March 5th.  Then on Friday, March 9th the judge will announce his decision. 

I really have no words...ok so I do...sad, mad, emotional, worried, confused.  I want to scream.  I want to cry.  I want to pull my hair out.  I want to punch something.  But most of all I WANT TO KNOW THE DECISION ALREADY!  Except that even if the judge rules in our favor we are not sure if an appeal could be next or what that would mean for us.  UGH, sometimes I just want to move on but something keeps us holding on and waiting...