Getting 2 new placements today!

We're getting 2 little girls today. They are 3 and 1 (she'll be turning 2 soon). I'm so excited to get 2 little girls. All my littles so far have been boys other than Little J and Little A. I'm going to dig out Deidra's old clothes and get them washed up so that we have clothes for them to wear. I'm so excited!

Having a bad day...

I have so much to do to get ready for Little J's arrival tomorrow night. I took some time for me this morning while the boys were playing and watching some educational shows to catch up on my e-mail. Went and cleaned the kitchen for a bit and switched some laundry around. Been battling Baby D all day long...he wants to sit and chain eat candy. He's been pushing the chair up when I'm in the bathroom or upstairs to get into his pumpkin to get more candy even though he knows better. So, lots of time outs today. Then, I put them both down for a nap as Baby J had a dentist appt this afternoon and I wanted them to nap for an hour. They wouldn't take a nap and since they were being quiet for the most part, I left them in there a little longer to see if they'd eventually lay down while I tried to get Deidra's room in order so that we can get J's bed in there and I had an idea of how I wanted to arrange things. We were going to do bunk beds in there, but the only bunk beds that we found yesterday that we liked, take 2 weeks to order at a minimum. We found a bedroom set at Wal-mart that looks a lot like Deidra's bed and has matching furniture and was really pretty...so we're going with that one. Andy's going tonight after work to get it and then going to Sam's Club to get her matresses. Anyway, the phone rings and I came downstairs to answer it. I had an appt to set up and then my Dad called. The boys had finally fallen asleep and so I sat there talking to my Dad for a little bit before I had to wake them up to go to Baby J's appt. I go upstairs and am greeted by the scent of poop. I open the door thinking that they just have messy diapers. They both have strong smelling poop. Anyway, I look at them...they both had taken their diapers off and poop was smeared all over their cribs and matresses and their blankets and diapers were thrown on the floor. I about wanted to cry. I ran some bath water and threw them in there to wash them up. Threw clothes on them, picked up the messy diapers and we had to run out the door for his dentist appt. We got there and his appt was speedy...thank God! Came home and threw Baby J in his playpen and sat Baby D on the couch so I could go clean the matresses and the crib rails with hot soapy water. It's been a couple of months since Baby J had done anything like that and I thought that phase was over (other than the mess I had to clean up last week because he had diarrhea). Baby D has never done that...I'm thinking he saw J do it and decided he was just going to try it out too. I got the mess cleaned up and have been doing laundry and I opened up the windows to air out the house. Baby D is starving and keeps whining at me that he's hungry, yet he's refusing to eat anything I put in front of him because it's not candy. He's throwing everything today too which is only getting him put in time out, but he apparently doesn't care too badly as he's only continuing to do it. UGH! Well, I guess I better get back to doing my chores and getting Deidra's room ready for the 2 of them to share. I just needed to vent. UGH

I forgot to add too that Deidra's been having problems with this boy at school picking on her. We talked about it a few days last week and I really hated to get involved as I think it's important that she try and learn to solve her own battles, but when I heard that he pushed her yesterday and things were starting to get physical I figured it was time to talk to the teacher (she has a substitue for the next 3 weeks as her regular teacher is recovering from back surgery). I had no idea whether she was just being too sensitive about things (she gets that from me) or if something really was wrong and so I figured talking to the teacher was the best bet. We had a good talk and she said that she talked with both the kids and she thinks the problem is solved now. She had never seen Deidra crying, so she had no idea that was going on... Anyway, she talked to them and she's going to move Deidra to a different table to see if that will help to solve things too. She said that she didn't think Deidra was the problem and I told her that I hated having to come to her about it, but I couldn't let Deidra keep coming home all upset about what was happening at school either. She understood, so I'm thankful for that.

Home Study Updated and Our Visit with Little J

Hi! Well, some of my stress is gone...our home study has been updated. Our caseworker came out early this morning to do our monthly supervision and updating our home study. Our home is now off of hold!

Little J's visit went well. She was totally running everywhere and jumping all over on Friday when she got here and Andy looked at me and said "I don't know if I can do this...you better think long and hard." He doesn't understand how girls get all excited and all when they get together so I had a feeling that she'd settle down once she got used to everything. We were constantly having to tell her not to jump on the furniture or run up and down the stairs. Bedtime was hard...she didn't want to go to bed...the shadows were scaring her and she was afraid of having nightmares. The weird thing too was that Baby D got totally clingy while she was here and wouldn't let me put him down. Maybe he thought she was going to get in on his territory or something, but he wouldn't go play with her or anything and when she tried to hug him, he started screaming for me to hold him. Our caseworker doesn't seem to think that they've really had a whole lot of interaction together in the home...so it will be interesting once she moves in how things settle in. Deidra and her were pretty much inseparable the whole weekend though...although Little J totally wore Deidra out. They pretty much played outside the whole time together with the neighbors and they'd come in to eat and so forth.

Saturday went a whole lot better, Little J had calmed down a lot and was listening better. She kept Deidra pretty busy and Deidra was wore out. She didn't want Little J to leave though. Little J is pretty head strong though...we had a couple power struggles and when I wouldn't do what she wanted, she told me she wouldn't come back. When I had to leave for work, I told her that I didn't know if I'd be back in time before she had to leave, but that I had fun getting to spend some time with her and that Andy would be staying with her. She said that she liked him and that pretty soon she was going to live here and that she liked it here. So, that made me feel better. I'm glad that she liked it here even though she didn't get her way the whole time. She's sweet for the most part, but she does know what she wants and isn't afraid to go after it. She's also very protective of Baby D, although he really doesn't seem to want to interact with her a whole lot. Baby J bit him and she informed me "he better not ever do that to my baby brother again." Our caseworker said that if there's ever a time that we feel that we want her to come out and explain some things to her that she will. So, I think we'll be ok. The visit went well and I think with time she'll settle in pretty well.

Little J is coming for a visit!

Our caseworker called yesterday and asked if they could do a pre-placement visit with Little J either today (Friday) or Saturday or she could even spend the night. I have to work at 1pm on Saturday so we figured that today would be better. Problem is that now they can't get ahold of the fosterfamily that she's currently staying with to see when they could bring her today. So I pray that we'll still be able to visit with her overnight today and tonight. Please let everythign work out, Abba, as Deidra is really excited about her coming tonight and I told Baby D this morning and he's really excited about getting to see his sister as well. Please let this all work out, Abba, so we can spend some time with this precious little girl! We're all excited about Little J.

Man alive!

Nothing I've done for the past couple of days has pleased Baby D. He wants things his way or no way. Everything is a tantrum. You drive past a fast food place and you don't stop...it's a tantrum. He doesn't want to eat, so you get him down...it's a tantrum. You won't feed him what he wants later and make him wait until the next meal...yup, you guessed it...it's a tantrum. I refuse to hold him whenever he wants...it's a tantrum. And his crying is getting on my nerves! He's been doing this fake cry thing too...no tears...just this constant whine/cry. I finally put him up in his bed to go to bed. I don't know what his deal is. But, it's awfully annoying that he's been acting like this after his visits and it's taking a couple of days to get over it every time it happens. Everyone that has been seeing how he's been acting has said that seeing his parents must trigger the behavior. Well, then why are they allowed to have visits? I so cannot wait until 6 when Andy comes home and I so hope that Baby D will fall asleep soon so I can have an end to this annoying crying. If he had a reason to cry, I'd understand, but it's over everything. Nothing makes him happy these past couple of days. And the only thing that I can pinpoint it all to is his visit. This mommy needs some calgon!

Little J Should Be Here Sometime Next Week

The fire inspector came out today...we passed...I thought we would. I wasn't too concerned. I'm just glad that he could come out right away. I'm still waiting to hear from the health department over getting our environmental inspection, but she hasn't even called me back yet to schedule it. My caseworker was going to come out on the 29th to update our homestudy, but we moved that to Monday instead so that we can get everything out of the way so that Little J can come sooner. I really want her to be here by Halloween so we can take her around with us. I'm wondering if she has a Halloween costume yet or not. I guess we'll find out. If not, we'll have to find one for her last minute. I'm really finding myself excited about getting her and she is so adorable. She really looks a lot like Deidra with her blonde hair and blue eyes. I've been told that she's a little more wild than Baby D, so I am anticipating that we'll have a few struggles. If she's anything like Baby D, bathtime, bedtime, and eating healthy are going to be our issues. But, I guess we'll see. I am excited about getting to shop for little girl clothes again...those are so much more fun than boy clothes. However, the boys are fun to shop for too...I just find that it's a lot of the same stuff over and over. But, if we can get our homestudy updated, then I'm hoping that she'll be here a couple days after that...so I'm thinking that later on next week she'll be here!

Well, Little J is coming!!

The children's advocate has really been pushing for the 5-year old sister of D to come and stay with us. She thinks we're doing a wonderful job with the kids that we have and she really feels that Little J (the 5-year old sister) needs a mother who stays at home. She's in kindergarten, but doesn't know her numbers, alphabet, colors, or shapes. She also knows very little boundaries, which is what we're also seeing with D. Anyway, the children's advocate thinks that she needs a mother that is home with her that can teach her and oversee her and teach her what real family life is like. Anyway, she wanted to know if we would take her. We've been saying for the last month that we would be willing to take her.

Well, we moved and found out that their big brother lives very near to us. What a fluke that was to find out, but it will be good for the siblings.

The family had court yesterday and some things were discussed. I called today to find out how court went since we were sick and court started at the same time I had to get Deidra from school. They said that little had changed and that the children's advocated for J, although it looked like they were going to keep her in her current foster home for the time being. Well, an hour later, our worker called and told me that CPS had decided that they wanted J to come and live with us. Wow! I don't know when they're moving her just yet..whether it be tomorrow or sometime next week...but she's coming! We'll have 2 blonde haired blue eyed princesses in the house now! Deidra's down playing at the neighbor's and I can't wait to tell her! She's been praying for her to come...they've already met and Deidra really likes her so far.

We have a 2-year-old little boy...

We have an emergency placement of a little 2-year-old little boy. He's 1 of 4 siblings. The brother went with one agency and the other 3 are in mine. The sisters went to one home and I got the little guy. I think when we move if they're open to the idea I may tell them that I'm open to taking the sisters too. They really resemble Deidra with their blonde hair and blue eyes and they were very sweet. Our little guy has deep red hair and golden eyes and I have taken to calling him the little leprechaun. He's adorable and has a very sweet disposition.

Our 4th of July

Fireworks were on the 3rd. We were going to go to the site of the new house and watch them, but with all the rain we have been having (it's literally rained for most of the day everyday for the past 2 weeks)...we decided to go to the school's parking lot. Baby E was the most impressed and learned to say "wow" after each one went off. It was too cute. Baby J liked them pretty well too, but E was definitely the most captivated by them. I got a little chocked up and teary eyed watching them. I don't think either of them have seen too much of the outside world and everything is such a new experience for them.

We got up ont he 4th and took the kids down to watch the parade downtown. E and J were both captivated by everything. E would practically stand up out of his seat (good thing he was buckled in nice and tight into his stroller) when he saw any animals coming. J had fun waving to everyone. They both thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Deidra of course loved getting the necklaces, coupons, and candy that they were all handing out. We wound up using some of the coupons for lunch at Chick-fil-A. After lunch, my Mom and I took the kids to the park for a 7 mile walk and then we let them swing. Even my Mom made the comment that she didn't think that they had gotten out much with the way they take everything in. They giggled and giggled on the baby swings and they were as content as could be on our walk. A butterfly came and sat on my finger during half of the walk and the boys liked watching it's wings open and close. We had a really good day and I was glad to have that time with E. I was glad to have that time with all my kids...but I cherished that time with E seeing as how he was leaving on the 5th. When we got home, Deidra wanted watermelon adn so we gave some to the boys too. They both sucked it down. I got some cute pics of them eating it too. Scrapbook pics here I come...

Anyway, 9 years ago on the 4th of July, Andy asked me to marry him. He always asks me each year...but this year I beat him to it. lol

It was a good 4th filled with family and I'm glad that we got to spend that time together.

Saying Good-bye to Baby E

I am so hoping that the first good-bye will be the hardest, but some how I doubt that is not going to be the case. We had a great holiday together and I've got some cute pictures of him. I also got to spend 2 hours with him this morning. I think he knew something was up, he kept pointing to his stuff and looking at me with this puzzled look on his face. But, we got lots of cuddles time in and he gave me hugs and kisses and I gave him hugs and kisses. Deidra made him a good-bye card last night that we all wrote messages to him in. I cried a lot while I was packing up his stuff and doing his last load of laundry. This morning, I just wanted to make the best of the time that we had left and we played and played and he was just as sweet as could be. He even gave Deidra a hug and a kiss and tried to cuddle with her. I got some cute pics of them. They came for him about a 1/2 an hour late...that was gut wrenching. She finally called to say that she was running a few minutes behind. I choked up after she called, but I didn't want him to see me cry. She arrived about 10 minutes later and she started packing his stuff up. I gave him hugs and kisses and then she came back to ask him if he said his good-byes. I told her to take him before I fell apart. She took him to the van and I just started sobbing. Then, I realized that his nebulizer was still on the table so I had to run that out to them. She looked at me and said "the good-byes are always hard." I waves good-bye to him and came in the house and when the van pulled out of our driveway I prayed for blessings for him and cried my eyes out.

My caseworker called to check on me a few minutes ago and she said that someone was supposed to call her and let her know the final verdict of the courts today and that she would call me to let me know what was going on for sure when she knew something. She also wanted to know whether we wanted another placement right away or whether we wanted to wait a few weeks. I told her to give me until Monday to deal with my feelings. I told her that they can start calling me with placement calls now, however, I don't want to take anyone until Monday. She asked me if we had a preference on ages or boys or girls and I said no. So, we'll see what God has in store for us. This good-bye business is hard though...it's a lot harder than what I thought. Even with all of his mischief...you could see the sweet little boy behind that and he really was doing a lot better this week and that made it all that much harder to see him go. I wish him all the best and I hope God blesses him all the days of his life.

I love you, Baby E and I am really going to miss you!

Baby E is leaving...

The transporter came to get him for a visit with his mom today and his mom didn't show up so they brought him back early. She told me that he was being placed on Thursday and to have him all packed up and ready to go by 9am. I went into stunned mode and didn't ask any questions. I have no idea of where he's being placed or who he's going with. I wound up letting our caseworker know and she was extremely stunned as well with the fact that I found out from the transporter...not only that but our agency hasn't been contacted from them at all. We've both left messages with his CPS worker and haven't received a call back. She said that if she doesn't hear anything back by first thing in the morning, she will be contacting her supervisor or someone that can tell us for sure what is going on as we need to know no later than tomorrow. I was glad to know that I wasn't the only one who was wondering what the heck was going on. She's thinking that maybe a family member has stepped forward to take him, but hopefully we'll know for sure what is going on soon. I'd like to send the couple of scrap pages that I had made for him with him, but it doesn't seem like much and I'm not sure if whoever gets him would keep it for him or not. I may just work on the rest of his pages and try to e-mail them to his caseworker later.

Abba, please watch over this little boy. He really just started opening up to us and it's been fun to see him starting to bloom a little bit. Yes, he's been challenging at times too, but I thought we'd have more time to work with him. He's been here just over 3 weeks now. I never thought he'd leave so soon. Be with him and keep him safe and watch over him as he goes throughout his life. Bless him, Abba all the days of his life. God bless our baby E.

Range of Emotions

Nobody can prepare you for the range of emotions that becoming a foster parent brings. You see these little children and what they have been put through and your heart breaks for them...yet at the same time you're so excited to have them here in your home to love and spoil and we see what true blessings they are. I bonded instantly with J...although it took me about a week to finally make some breakthroughs with E.

Then, I was informed within a couple days of one another about E's visit and then J's visit with their mamas. That alone brought some emotions with it for me. It was hard to let them go a little bit...I wanted to protect them and I saw my momma bear protective instincts come out a little bit...that's when I realized that I was a lot more attached to E than I had previously thought.

Anyway, there was some confusion with J's visit although we finally got it all worked out. We took him out to the hospital to see her on Saturday and I had wanted to take a picture of him with his mom for his room, but we weren't allowed to go back in the room. So, I'll just have to ask for pictures later when I send some of J to his mom. I did want to meet her and let her know that we were going to take good care of J and that I would write her letters and send pics so she'd know how he was doing while she was so far away. Andy told me that I was getting too involved and that I needed to let the caseworkers do their things and that we needed to keep our distance. I don't know if I totally agree...but I'll start out slow with letters and pictures and see how she takes it. Andy told me to keep in mind that she may not see that we're helping...she may be angry at us. I told him that her caseworker doesn't see that apparently as she was going to set up a visit with his mom and J right here at our house...it was us that wasn't comfortable with that. But, I said that I'd give him the benefit of the doubt and I'll start out with the letter and the pictures and see what transforms after that. Anyway, J was all happy when he saw us pull up to get him and Deidra was especially happy that he was back with us.

For E's visit I went and picked out a few small things for her birthday (she turned 18 the day after they placed E with us) for him to bring to her for his visit today. He left this morning shortly before 11 and when they left, my heart hurt a little bit. I couldn't explain it...it just did. Anyway, Deidra wanted me to bring her and J out to lunch and so I took them to Burger King. We had just sat down and started eating when my cell rang. It was the transport worker saying that E's mom never showed up. My heart broke for him. We finished eating and came home to be here for when E came back home. Granted, I understand that he's little and doesn't understand all this...but my heart hurt that his momma couldn't show up for his sake. When the doorbell rang and he saw me, he broke out into this huge grin and that made me smile. The transport worker said that his mom did finally call them back and said that she was sick and didn't have a ride. I told the transport lady that you'd have thought that she would have called that in this morning. She said that she understood where I was coming from and that she was going to try to schedule the next one here in our town. I guess she tried to do it for this one, but the mom wanted it done out of region instead of here. I told the transporter that just makes it more inconvenient for everyone. Not to mention, that considering where his mom lives, this is a lot closer as well and it doesn't involve us having to bring him (or the transport worker having to come 50 minutes) to get him and bring him back either. She left and I was feeding him lunch and he just kept grinning at me. I'll never forget how he grinned when he saw me open the door. I want to cry just thinking about it...but he's definitely bonded to us that's for sure. I went to put him down for his nap and he just wrapped his arms around my neck. I can only hope that next time his mama will show up for his sake. Poor little guy!

Yes, there are some things I guess I just wasn't prepared for emotionally in this journey...but I will be here for these kids every step of the way...they have already taken up such huge pieces of my heart. And this is just the beginning really...we've had J for 25 days...and E we've only had for 2 weeks. I just want to wrap my arms around the both of them and never let them go.

E has his first visit...

with his mama on Monday. My mama bear instincts are coming out a little bit since finding out about it. I just hope that we have a chance to help him some more before he goes home. I think we will as the doctor and the psychologist had some of the same fears that I did...but I'm just worrying. I had a bit of a hard time bonding to him, but over the past couple of days things have been easier and he actually came up to me today and threw his arms around my legs and hugged me and gave me a big smile. I sat down on the floor with him and he sat in my lap and I just started to cry. I can't really get into the things that I'm suspecting, but it feels good to know that the doctor and the psychologist were thinking very similarly...so I hope that my documenting all this and them documenting it all too will help out and get him to where he needs to be.

Abba, please help us and let him stay with us for awhile so that we can get him the help that he needs and some time to really look into seeing if our concerns are valid.

The sickies are just going around...

Poor baby J has had green goo in his eyes since yesterday every time he wakes up. It was really bad this morning and I knew I needed to get him in. He also woke up a couple times in the middle of the night last night and that's very unusual for him. He was really fussy this morning as well and kept pulling at his ear, so that got me wondering about an ear infection. He was also supposed to go up and meet with the clinic psychologist today as well. I was worried about him having pink eye and didn't know if any other kids were going to be around. I made him a doctor's appt and then the agency wanted me to bring both boys to the evaluation. Andy came home early to help me out as I had to bring both boys up there for their evals with the psychologist and then I had to bring J to the doctor. Poor baby has a double ear infection as well as a sinus infection. I am thankful that it wasn't pink eye as I didn't want that going around the whole household. Both boys did ok for the evals though....they both qualify for services to get them up to par with their milestones. It was nice to know that my concerns were validated and now to get them the help that they need.

God bless my boys...

It really is like having twins...

Hi Abba. Today didn't go all that bad. It really is like having twins in the house. I just tried to get them down for nap and fed and diapers changed at the same time. Well, as much as I could. Poor Baby J isn't feeling very well today and had diarrhea for most of the day. Poor baby has horrible diaper rash from it. Baby E did much better today too and wasn't so shy. We actually got some smiles out of him today. Of course, both boys seemed to warm up to Deidra first. She's absolutely wonderful with them. I couldn't ask for a better helper. Although I had to laugh when they brought baby E to us yesterday when she said "Umm...Mom...I asked for a brother and a sister...now I have 2 brothers...what happened to the girls?" I asked her today if she wanted to send them back and she said no right away. She is loving this big sister thing. She got them all playing with the blocks today and building towers together and I was able to get some pictures...of course you can't see all their faces as they won't sit still long enough to take decent pics and sometimes I wonder if they've ever had their pics taken as the camera almost seems to scare them sometimes.

Today really didn't go that badly though...busy yes, but definitely doable. The only hard part is when they both start crying all the time and we have to watch E with J a little bit as E will just go up and grab stuff from J and scratch at him and stuff to get whatever he has. J's not too sure on not being the total center of attention either...however they did play nicer together today than yesterday. So, I'm sure they just need to get used to one another.

The hard part is remembering to record when we give them their medicine and everything. Both have colds. J has ecxema and bad allergies that he has perscriptions for. He's also lactose intolerant. Add in his diarrhea and diaper rash today and I was giving him stuff for that. And I gave him some motrin and all OTC stuff has to be recorded in it's own separate log as well. E has athsma and takes breathing treatments at a minimum of twice a day and we can give him a different one if he has issues throughout the day. Thankfully, we only had to do that one yesterday...he was fine today. Both of the boys love playing with the kitties too and chasing them all over...we're learning how to pet nicely. E was scared of them yesterday though...but today he did fine. Every two seconds we hear "'sat?" It's cute. Reminds us of Deidra at that age.

Now, hopefully tonight will go better than last and E will sleep through the night too. He woke up around 3 crying and by the time we got to him, he had woken up J. Thankfully, they both just wanted more milk and they went back down pretty well.

It's kinda neat to have babies in the house that are only 5 months apart in age...busy...but it's definitely a double blessing in which we are truly grateful for.

It's another boy!

We were called on Friday about an 18-month old baby boy that is out of region. His mom aged out of foster care and they needed a place to put the baby until mom got some things figured out and could provide for him. Well...baby E is coming this afternoon to stay with us for a bit. He's 18-months old and we can't wait to meet him. So, baby J will have a playmate. :-) Deidra is excited too but she is now asking for a sister for her to be able to play with. So, I guess it will be like having a set of virtual twins as the babies will be 5 months apart. I think if I can get them on the same schedule it won't be too badly. Thank you, Abba, for allowing us another blessing! We hope the transition will go smoothly like it did with baby J.

Good news!

We officially signed placement papers on Baby J today! I was so excited to hear the news. He really is such a wonderful and happy baby and we just adore him to pieces. Thank you, Abba, for allowing him to be able to stay with us. He is truly a blessing!

I was up at the agency today...

getting some medicines for baby J. I ran into the caseworkers supervisor and got to talking to him for awhile. He told me that they had his stroller, highchair, playpen, and something else I can't seem to remember for us to pick up if we wanted it. They had served notice that it was going to be the birthmom's last day today at the house. She's still in the hospital. I asked him if they had heard how long she was going to be in there or not and he said no. Another agency will try to place her more than likely when she's through with treatment or whatever is going on with her. I asked then if baby J will go with her and he said it's highly unlikely given her hospital stay and the fact that most foster parents aren't willing to take in the mom and the baby although we still have to just wait for the final verdict. He said that their plan is to keep him with me though when they found out that he was free to place which is what he thinks is going to happen. That's good to know so I can get his room all set up for him...we just had him sleeping in the pack and play until we knew more. He said that baby J was such a cutie and such a sweet baby that if he didn't already have a good home, he'd take him in himself. So, I pray that he really will get to stay with us for awhile. He's a joy to have around and really is so sweet. I love to see his little grins and hear his giggles. He's so much fun.

Babies are such blessings...

Abba, I have loved having Baby J in the house. It's been wonderful to have a baby around again to love on, cuddle, and watch him laugh and play. Deidra has been a wonderful and huge help. She is loving this big sister thing. She loves to push him in the stroller when we take him for walks. She is awesome and playing with him and keeping him occupied. He is such a sweet and happy baby. He hardly ever cries, except for when he's hungry...and boy oh boy can this baby eat. It's fun to see him laugh and to get giggles out of him. He absolutely loves the kitties though and squeels when they come around. He loves to chase them all over the house.

I don't know how long we'll have him here with us. They originally said through the weekend and then when I went to pick up his things, he said that they really don't have custody of him yet, but if they did get it soon he wanted to know if I'd take him as a placement. I said yes. He said in the meantime that we could do respite for 10 days while they see what's going on with his mom. So, I pray that we'll be able to keep him here with us for awhile. I also want to lift his mom up in prayer.

We got our first placement today!

The social worker called me when we were out and about today and said that she was still trying to get in touch with CPS on the girls that are out of region. However, she asked me if I wanted to do respite through the weekend for a 13-month old baby boy that was there at their agency. I said sure and said I'd go and pick him up. We got there and there was some confusion as the intake coordinator thought they had him there on campus and it turns out that I had to go and pick him up from daycare. They asked me to return for some of his things around 4:30. Deidra and I headed off to Wal-mart for some stuff for him...thanks Cindi for the help with diaper sizes...and then we headed to go get him. We brought him home for a little bit and then headed back to the agency to get some of his stuff. He is such a sweet baby and he's into everything. Deidra has been great with him. We brought him up to see my Mom for a little bit and they also let me know that they were probably going to have to find a placement for him as they didn't have total custody of him yet as they had to take his mom to the hospital last night. They saw how quickly he came to me and how sweet he was with me and they asked me if I would take him as a placement. I said yes...so now it looks like he may be staying with us for awhile. I'm just sad that I have to work this weekend. I'm off to try and figure out what to make for dinner (he's lactose intolerant and is on soy milk).

Thank you, Abba, for letting us get to spend some time with this precious baby boy. He is so sweet!