Whew!

Before I launch into the incredibly long description of our Christmas holidays, I would like to officially announce that the "other miracle" I hinted at in other posts is Katie - Patrick's sister - is PREGNANT!!!! Katie and Alan are going to be parents on August 8th (if he or she cooporates!)!!!! We are so excited for them to have this wonderful experience and for us to share in their joy as Aunt and Uncle! Congratulations Katie and Alan!

Well, we successfully made it through the Christmas Festivities without too many mental breakdowns or struggles! Of course it would happen that we ALL would get sick on Christmas - I mean all of us, Me, Patrick and both boys had some form of snotty nose, coughing and general aches and pains. But with the help of our ever so flexible and generous family, we made it a good time none-the-less! I do wish I could post pictures of the boys (well really the oldest one) opening the 6 ft long stockings I got for them to open. I had a stroke of genius and decided to do the HUGE stockings to put all their toys, etc. in so I didn't have to wrap anything. It really was fun!

We had our usual visit to PawPaw's house Christmas Eve to share in the holidays with that side of the family - Thank you to Aunt Judy, Aunt Patti and Uncle Tim, Carla and Bob, Chris and Crystal and Ashlee and Ally, PawPaw, PaPa and GrandMickey (That's the one I am going with!), Katie and Alan and Megan and Fernie for helping to make Christmas Eve special for these boys even though we will only have them for a short while! Then we packed up again and head over to PaPa and GrandMickey's house to spend the night and wait for Santa to come! Aside from a few "sleeping in a new place" blues (the Transformers tent and sleeping bag helped!) the night went relatively well. We got up - had some delicious Christmas morning breakfast (thanks PaPa!) and opened our stockings! After playing with every toy we got several times over, we packed away most of it in the fantastic stockings I got - good for toting gifts home in also! - and we got ourselves ready for the evening festivities. The other side of Patrick's family came over that evening and we had even more goodies to open - the oldest is getting the hang of this opening thing - and a floor full of gifts for the Chinese Auction. Despite his temptations, the oldest did very well in not opening gifts that weren't his. Thanks go out again to Aunt Toni and Uncle Travis, Aunt Mary and Uncle Scott, Aunt Vicki and Uncle Robbie and PaPa and GrandMickey for some wonderful gifts to add to the "pile" already in the stockings! We would also like to thank the "tall boys" in the group for their assistance in providing well timed distractions for the boys while other gifts were being opened! I do beleive all the "boys" had a good time! :)

Whew! Sounds like a lot of activities to for a whole 24 hours! It was, but well worth it. But don't worry - we still have more! The boys are still with us and this week my family comes over on New Year's Day to have our Christmas (another of my family traditions) and I know there will be more fun to have! We are going to be making ornaments so I know I had better go and get some plastic tablecloths and old shirts ready because it is going to be a wonderfully fabulous mess - and I should get some for the boys too - just in case they are messier than the adults! :)

We expect to have both boys through to next week. I imagine the oldest will go home first and the youngest will be with us another week or so after that - though we really have no information about what to expect in the next couple of weeks. In the mean time, we will enjoy our short time with these little guys and pray for a positive future for them both!

Happy New Year to you all!

Even More Fun!

We found out last night, after talking with the boys' case worker, that we will have BOTH boys through the first of the year! So Patrick and I are settling down to the idea of more time with these guys, getting ready for the quickly approaching holiday mayhem - I mean F-U-N! - and getting a schedule going....just in time for these fellas to go home. :) But it is all good practice none-the-less and we get to spend some good time with these boys.

Right now the youngest one is asleep (for now....) and the oldest one is showing me the SpongeBob Square Pants baseball glove he got from some very nice people at Wester Middle School. We are still a bit easily distracted so as soon as we show off the glove, we are down on the floor playing with the legos Aunt Megan and Aunt Katie and GrandMickey bought for us. :)

All in all, it is still a fun experience and we are learning SOOOOO much about ourselves! We are definitely doing this again!

It is very unlikely we will have time to make any more posts until after Christmas, but we will be sure to let you all know things are going! Merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas Wishes Do Come True!

We hadn't heard anything about the status of our two kiddos getting to go home to their families next week, so we called their case worker for an update. Turns out that due to the Holidays and the court schedules the 9 month old will for sure be staying with us until after Christmas and the 2 year old is "very likely" going to be staying with us as well! What wonderful news for us! Though we do hope that they can be reunited with their families soon, we are so glad to have the opportunity to spoil these guys at Christmas time! :)

Of course, I thought I had all my Christmas shopping done. Turns out I will be hitting those stores last minute after all! Oh well, it is always fun to give and what better way to do it than to give these little guys a fun Christmas. :)

We are getting a good routine down now as we get up, go to school (day care), come home, have dinner, play, and get ready for bed. Of course it is more these guys teaching Patrick and I what to do, but it is fun all the same. We steal a few minutes here and there to do laundry and clean the kitchen - trust me, we are getting up WAY earlier than we are used to! - and it all seems to be flowing pretty well. Of course, I am expecting those glitches to pop up any minute now, but for the time being we are enjoying our time together. It is simply amazing how resilient these children are....what precious, precious boys and that God blessed us with them at Christmas is that much better. Yup....I am hooked on this kid thing! And I think I have got Patrick pretty "sold" too! (not that it would have taken much....) :)

Day Two

So after a rather restless night Monday night, Patrick got up to go to work (he's so good!) and I stayed home with the boys to get them enrolled in day care. We found a wonderful little place thanks to the fantastic investigative efforts of Megan, Katie and Mickey that was not only a Christian based facility, but reasonably priced (as we found out, CPS does NOT pay for the first two weeks of Day care) and was more than willing to take these little guys with only a few hours notice! I am not going to post any specifics about the day care or the boys names or pictures or anything as we have to protect their privacy and them. But I will tell you this place will be getting my recommendation anytime someone asks me about a local Arlington day care!

So about 9:00 am I packed everyone up to go to day care. We got there and while I filled out the necessary paperwork, the boys were taken to their rooms. The youngest went right in and began drooling on everything in sight! The oldest one was a little more hesitant, but after a new pack of play doh and some gentle coaxing from the assistant director, he was back there playing up a storm! So I left, went home, dressed for work and came on in. I had a late meeting last night, so Patrick went with his sister Megan to go pick them up from day care. Mickey (Patrick's mom) and Megan stayed with Patrick last night to give him a hand while I was in the meeting. What great help! They stayed with us last night through our first baths (thank you so much for that duckie bath tub ladies - they LOVED it!) since being at our house and right up until the youngest one was about to droop off to sleep. Thanks so much for your help!

The best part of the day though was when I walked in the door from the rather grueling drive home. I walked in and the oldest boy greeted me at the door with the most adorable smile you have ever seen and he said "Mommy's home!" and gave me a big hug! Now you know why we do this! What an absolute blessing this is for us! Though we have had some rather shocking blows the last two days (we thought we were getting a GIRL and boy, we thought all of day care was included and the shock of having kiddos the same day you found out they were available!) these are the kinds of things that make it all worth it! The first night, the oldest was a bit leery of sitting with us or letting us hold him, but last night he was a cuddle bug and wanted to follow us everywhere we went. If we got up to leave the room, he said "Hey!" and would follow us! Yup - it is all worth it! :)

We don't yet know how long we will have these kiddos, though the case worker did say she expects the family members to have expedited home studies approved in time to take custody of them by Christmas. So we will very likely only have them for this week and part of next week. But it has been a wonderful early Christmas present (even I wasn't too sad about waking up at 5:15 this morning!). We will keep you all posted as we learn more and of course will share all of the fabulous "ahhhh" moments along the way!

Good News All Around!!

This weekend has been just full of wonderful news and happy experiences. To begin with, Patrick and I decided this morning to change our vacancy list profile to say that we would be willing to take boys or girls ages 0-2 and that we have two vacancies at our home to allow for sibling groups. Then at 3:00 pm today, I got a call from our case worker to see if we would be willing to take a 2 year old and a 9 month old - both boys (these are not the same kiddos we were considered for as of last week)!!!! Can you believe it??!!? Yeah well, neither can we! :) The kiddos are supposed to be here to see us about 7:30 tonight! Thank the lord for Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles! We have a whole army of people helping us to get ready (wouldn't you just know it - I didn't clean the house this weekend!). :) We will keep you all posted on how things are going and as we know more!

Our other bit of good news will have to wait as it is not public knowledge yet (once it becomes public, we will be sure to let you know) but we are not the only ones about to experience a little miracle! :) With that, I will leave you in suspense - and don't ask, I am not going to tell! :)

Its a no go....this time.

Well, three weeks later in this mess and it turns out that the parents of these two children have identified a family member that can take the children. CPS is going to do a home study on the family member to determine if they will go with them or not. However, the exact words of our case worker was this: " Ok, bad news. The parents have given them a family member to home study, so at the moment this is on hold. I will let you know if there are any updates…."
So it is VERY unlikely these children will be placed with us after all.

I did find it very hard not to be incredibly snotty in my response back to her - not that I feel our case worker has had any control over this decision by any means - but due to the ups and downs and extreme changes in information this whole time. I limited myself to simply saying we were dissappointed and would have thought they would have checked all of the family members before they got to this point. But if that is what is best for these children, that is all Patrick and I could ask for. I think that was pretty good considering there were many other things I really wanted to say! :)

Thanks again for all of your support and prayers over the last three weeks. We pray we will have another opportunity soon!

Still Waiting....

Well, this will be a short update. We are still waiting on the decision of the case workers involved in caring for these two kiddos. We still don't even really know if we are in the running or not. As you can imagine, our emotions have been up and down about all of this. Some days I am convinced they are not going to pick us, others I am frustrated that we haven't heard anything and still others I have planned out the little boys room down to the last detail and know that just has to mean we will get to have them - even for a little bit! :) Of course, Patrick remains as even-keeled as always (thank God he saw fit to give me a husband to balance my wierd mood swings so nicely!).

So we wait, and wait and wait and wait some more to see if we are chosen or to see if there is some other major development or hoop we must once again jump through. Though the fact they keep "testing" us with all of these changes or criteria does make me feel more confident in the fact that they haven't counted us out just yet! :) Till then....

Decisions Decisions

Well, not much has happened in the last few days - given it was the weekend and all! But Patrick and I started talking about our vacancy list profile and decided it was a little silly that we were willing to ADOPT a 2 year old, but not FOSTER a two year old. If we are comfortable enough with the idea of adopting a little girl that age, then we might as well be comfortable enough to foster them at that age! So we contacted our case worker and asked her to change our profile on the vacancy list to include girls 0 -2 instead of girls 0-1. We talked about including boys in that mix as well (again if we are willing to adopt a boy, why wouldn't we be willing to foster a boy?) but we both really wanted our first child to be a girl, so we are sticking with just girls (for now!).

In the mean time, our case worker was diligently gathering additional "intel" on these two children we are being considered for now. She shared with us this afternoon, that she has not heard anything negative from the case workers making the decision about who these children will go to so we should be "all good". I am going to take that to mean we are still in the "running" for these two. She also told us that there may be a chance that the judge will grant a 6 month extension for the parents of these two children to "get their act together". I can't promise I will get this right, but my best guess is the parents have been given at least one (and maybe more) chances during the course of time these children have been in foster care. I assume they did not make the necessary efforts if CPS was moving to terminate parental rights come January. It seems that now, the idea of losing their children forever for real this time has caused them to make a renewed effort. There is a chance that the judge will allow an additional 6 months for the parents to make that turn around before making the final ruling about the parental rights. My thoughts are these: 1. 6 months is not very long to get your entire life turned around, but if they are willing to really make the effort then they can certainly make a good start. 2. If they are willing to really put in the work to turn their lives around in 6 months, then they must really care for these children and have just made some bad mistakes. 3. If it is safe and they can take good care of them, it is always best to return the children to their parents. I would personally like some strict guarantees, but I know that won't happen. But I believe that God will make the right thing happen for these children, the parents and Patrick and I. So if the parents are able to turn things around and the judge decides to award them custody, I have to believe God has a reason for it. All of this to say, our case worker wanted to make sure we would still be willing to take these children given the fact that they may have this additional 6 month extension - which makes it a much larger legal risk kind of placement than it was at first. Of course we said YES! If we only get to have them for 6 months and that means they get to go back to loving parents, then great. If that is not the way things work out, then we will be thrilled to have the chance to adopt them!

So as you can see it is either feast or famine in the world of fostering! We are either waiting for days on end or bombarded with new questions every second. So we are getting used to the change in tide the more we get used to working with CPS. As I have said before, at least we are not bored! :) As we hear more, we will certainly keep you all posted!

At Least We Aren't Bored!

Well, there hasn't been a lot of action in the last few days. We are still waiting to find out if we are the chosen family for these two children. HOWEVER. we did find out that the biological mother we thought was pregnant is not. We don't know if that means that she was and is no longer or if that means that she never was pregnant to begin with and that was a mistake. I am hoping for the latter myself.

Anyways, we also discovered that the children's case workers are looking at a private agency to get home studies to reveiw for these children as well. Which could mean any number of things of course, the worst being that they didn't like our home study and have decided to move on. OR they could be just making sure there isn't a better fit out there before making their decision on the two home studies they have looked at already (ours and our friend Elizabeth's). We don't know and likely will not know their motivation behind this move. We believe that it will likely be the end of next week before a decision about our involvment is made or at least before that decision is communicated to us.

In the mean time we continue to wait! We will keep you all posted as we hear more! :)

The wait continues....

Well, here we are almost two weeks into this process of being considered for two children - possibly three - to adopt sometime next year. It seems like it has been years since we agreed to submit our home study and let God make yet another decision about the future of our family. I think it seems that long because the last two weeks have been a bunch of just waiting. And that waiting and waiting and waiting has a tendency to take a toll on a person's confidence as it is mine today. Not my confidence that God will do what is best for us and best for these children. Not my confidence that God knows which doors to open and which doors to close for us. Not my confidence that Patrick and I will be good parents to some wonderfully perfect children. But it is more related to my confidence that THESE are the children He has meant for us. So we continue to wait to hear if these children are our future family or not. And while I jump a few feet in the air every time the phone rings or an email pops up, I know that we will have an answer soon enough. I can't keep myself from staring at the computer for a few minutes at a time just willing the answer to come though! :)

So again we say thanks to you all for your continued prayers and support as we take yet again another ride on this roller coaster called Starting a Family! We will continue to keep you posted as we hear anything new!

Change is ALWAYS good...right?

So we still don't know if we have been chosen to be the new parents of these two little ones we are being considered for, but we have a bit of news that has certainly changed the whole dynamic of what could be our future family! Our case worker emailed us this morning to let us know they just found out that the biological mother of these two kiddos is pregnant and is "pretty far along". They are now only considering families who would be willing to take the newborn (once he or she is born of course) in addition to the other two already up for adoption.

So Patrick and I talked for a while, did some regulated breathing, some internal thinking and some praying and decided that we would be willing to adopt the third sibling should that become an option in the future. We assume it would as her parental rights are being terminated for these two, but we don't know the situation for this third child. It could be that the third child is from a different father who is willing to take custody or something like that. Anyways, we have just said we would be willing to not take just two, but THREE children at one time! We are praying that this third little one is a girl since we already have everything we would need for a newborn girl! :) But in all reality we continue to pray for what is best for all of these children. If God has planned these children for us, we will take them happily! If not, then we know that He has planned a better home for them and our little one (or little ones!) are around the corner for us.

Carolyn did say that they hope to place the oldest two children before Christmas so we should be hearing something soon - in the next couple of days at least. We will be sure to keep you all posted as usual! Please keep those prayers coming!

No News.....Yet

Well, we made it through the day today with no news about the two children we may be able to adopt. We did confirm that we have passed our re-evaluation and are now approved for two children! If we don't get these two little ones, then we will keep our home study on the vacancy list. Our case worker said she will keep us on the vacancy list as wanting just 1 child and she will be sure to alert us to any sibling groups that may be available for adoption in the future.

Of course, we are hoping all of that is unnecessary as we will be the new adoptive parents of the sibling group we have already submitted our home study for! :) We will be expecting an update (hopefully good news!) by Tuesday if not Monday. In the mean time, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Re-Evaluated!

Well, we have officially been re-evaluated to accept more than one child. It was a very simple visit - only about 30 minutes or so - but of course we expected it to be so. Anyways, our case worker did tell us that they will be meeting to decide about the family for these two little ones either tomorrow (11/26) or Monday (12/1) either way, I can imagine that this will be a rather long Thanksgiving holiday - which is not too bad I guess! :)

Of course as soon as we hear anything, we will be sure to let you all know and put a post online. In the mean time, we will keep taking those prayers and some hopeful ideas on deals! :)
Thank you all again for your support!

Is it OUR time???

For those of you who have not read my last email, I will recount the events of the last two days. Our case worker emailed us yesterday and asked us if we would be willing to submit our home study for a possible placement. She told us they are looking to make this placement very soon. Then she told us the placement was for a sibling group - a 1 year old boy and a 2 year old girl - something we were not even considering doing. So why was I dialing Patrick's extension to ask him to think about it??? They are going to be available for adoption in January! How could we possibly pass this opportunity up? So I called Patrick and after he stopped hyperventilating we decided to talk about it. :) We called our case worker for some more details if she had them. She told us the children are healthy, Caucasian children who are currently in foster care. She could not give us any more detail than that as she does not know at this time. She did say that when she said "ASAP" she meant they needed to place them within the next several weeks - not that night! So we decided to submit our home study!

Sooooooo, the next thing she told us is that we are currently only approved for one child, so she will have to come and do a re-evaulation of our home. So our case worker will come on Tuesday, 11/25 at around 5:30 to visit our home and make sure we are suitable for more than one child. If so, our home study is submitted for approval. Then we wait to find out if we were chosen. The good news is the pool of candidates is much smaller than the last time we submitted our home study for approval. We are "up against" about 2-3 other families. We found out yesterday that one of those families is our dear friend Elizabeth (she is the foster mom we babysat our first foster child for). We are excited she is a part of the "short list" as she is such a good mom! We agreed to pray non-selfish prayers for each other! :)

So in the mean time, we realized that we really don't have anything for a 1 year old boy and a 2 year old girl. Thanks to our friend Amber who has already donated another bed for us! So that just leaves everything else you could possibly need for two children! :) So we ask you to keep your eyes out for some good deals. We hope to find out by next Friday if we are the ones chosen or not, so we can start gathering those good deals. In the mean time, we will take those unselfish prayers and thoughts of good wishes! We will keep you all posted as we hear anything!

Still Vacant

Well, we got an update from our case worker today regarding the 10 month old we had submitted our home study for. They have made a decision about the home they want to place her with and it appears our home was not among the list of chosen homes. So we remain on the vacancy list for now.

We are both anxiously awaiting that next phone call to ask us to take another placement, so every time the phone rings I jump! :) Hopefully if it is one of you on the other line, I don't sound too dissappointed it isn't CPS. :) Just kidding, we are so thankful for our friends and family and the support you have given us that we are very happy to talk to you all! 'Till we have more news, keep those prayers coming and we will do the same!

Revelations 3:8

"I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name."
When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go. Only 1 of 2 things will happen,either He'll catch you when you fall, or He'll teach you how to fly! God closes doors no man can open and God opens doors no man can close. Have a blessed day and remember to be a blessing....

You take the good, you take the bad....

Ok, I know that it is a little corny to use a "Facts of Life" reference for the title to this post, but I felt it was appropriate for this update! Friday was the last day we had our first foster child in our home. Her case worker came to pick her up around 3:30 pm and then she was gone. That's the bad...who knew you could get so attached to a little one in just 9 short days? Patrick and I both cried for a good solid hour (almost two!). Then we picked ourselves back up and said "we can do this!". Though I know we will never forget the children that come to stay with us (as is evident by the impact this first one has had on us in such a short time), we also know this is what God has lead us to do. We have to be ready for the next little one that needs us - no matter how long that may be. We reminded ourselves of the blessings we have been given to continue on this journey and remember the support we have from all of you to keep moving forward. So this weekend we took that attitude of just that...moving forward. There will be a special place in our hearts for all of our foster children and we know what that feels like now. We know we will miss them all dealy when they leave us, but are better prepared for how that will impact us going forward. We know we are ready for more!

So this morning I informed our case worker that the pick-up went well on Friday and we were "vancant" again (they have a vacancy list that they put our names on when we are ready to take another child). I told her to go ahead and add our names to the list and we would make ourselves ready for the next one (emotionally and physically). Our case worker emailed not too much longer after that about a 10 month old healthy girl who is considered a legal-risk placement. That means (we discovered) that the parental/guardian rights have been terminated and the parents/guardian are appealing that decision. In the mean time, because this little one had been placed with a grandmother, she needs a home to go to while this is all sorted out. We have submitted our home study for consideration and hope to hear something by the end of this week. This particular situation means this child may be up for adoption if the appeal is not granted. So we leave it in God's hands this go round. If she is to be our special little one, then we will gladly take her. If she is supposed to just stay with us for a ltitle while, then we will enjoy her while we can! We hope to know if we are chosen to have her in our home soon and will keep you all updated. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we take this one week at a time (and one day at a time most of the time!).

We got THE call!

So most of you have already gotten the email we sent out about THE call we just got! We are very excited to be taking care of a very precious little girl who was born on 9/17/08. She is going to be staying with us until October 10th. Though we only get to have her for a short while, we are very excited to get the chance to take care of her. We will certainly enjoy the little bit of time we get to have with our temporary guest (angel!).

UPDATE: On October 10th our temporary "little one" went to live with a family member. Her case worker picked her up at 3:00 pm. Though we knew it would come, today was a difficult day - even after only 10 days with her. Despite how hard it is to see her go, we both know in our hearts this is exactly what we are supposed to be doing. We have been blessed with the tools (a home, a strong support group, a natural love for children, guidance for the right thing to do) to allow us to do these things. How could we not continue when it is so clearly laid out for us that this is His plan for us? So we will push through what proves to a quiet night (too quiet and despite not gettig up for feedings we still won't likely sleep soundly) and (anxiously) await our "turn" to do this all over again. God Bless you Little One.

We're Approved....Again!

It's been a while since I posted anything about our status and we appreciate your patience as we have been working to figure out just what our status was ourselves!

It turns out that when we were "approved" in August, our home wasn't really approved. That's sounds confusing right? Well, I wish I had a better explanation to offer other than, I don't get it either! :) We did find out today that we were OFFICIALLY APPROVED on 9/23/08!!!!! The bad news is, I don't know what happened a month ago...the good news is WE ARE FINALLY FOR REAL ACTUALLY APPROVED!!!! Woo hoo! :)

Again, we wait to hear who is being assigned as our case worker. Once we know who our case worker is, we will likley begin the process of identifying our first child placement. Our excitement is cautiously renewed as we will hopefully hear something soon. Despite the unexplained delay, we are thankful to the CPS workers who have helped us to get our home approved and are looking forward to being able to send out that long-awaited message that we have our first child!

Till then, I guess I should make sure the house stays clean and we'll do one more sweep of the nursery to make sure all is in order! :)

Thanks are never enough to show you all how much we have relied on and appreciate all of your encouragement and support thus far. We hope that one day soon we can attempt to return the favor! :) Much Love!

Someday....

It has been about two weeks since we have heard anything about our status...case worker assigned...how long does it take before our first placement...what should we expect going forward, etc. We have been giving it a little time (as I mentioned in my last post) to just make sure we are not "pushing" or anything like that. So today I sent a "quick check-in" email to our contact about our status. I got a response back in less than 15 minutes. She told me that they have been very short handed the last couple of weeks and therefore very busy - which I would have expected considering I am sure they have some large case loads. She apologized for the delay and promised us that our file would be officially approved and entered by Friday. She said that she would know then who our case worker is and she would let us know asap.

Though it has been difficult to keep waiting like this, it has also been a blessing and makes me continue to realize that it is all about God's timing. As I mentioned before, we have plenty to keep ourselves busy right now! I hate that feeling of always being behind when you are short-staffed and I am sure our contact feels the exact same way. I find myself hoping that things will get easier for her and her co-workers very soon - not just so that it will "speed up" our process, but also to alleviate any added stress they are dealing with right now. Patrick and I both know this will happen when it is our time.

I remind myself of that fact when I hear stories about babies in the NICU at the hospital and I think to myself - We could take them! But I also know that if that child was meant for us, we would have them. So we maintain our wait (as patiently as possible) and look forward to the day that we get to say "we will take them home with us" and it be true! :)

Thanks again for your continued prayers and support!

The Wait Continues

The rush and excitement of being approved was so great that we almost forgot that we would likely have more waiting to do before we had our first placement. So the last couple of weeks have been just that...waiting...and waiting...and some more waiting. Thankfully we have plenty to keep us occupied while we, well you know....wait. Between work, getting the last minute "supplies" ready and Megan (Patrick's sister) getting married we have plenty to juggle right now (though admittedly not as much as Megan has! :) ). But I still find my thoughts filling with that ever nagging hope that maybe today we will get that phone call that sets us on the next path to starting our family. I am finding it more and more difficult to have patience and wait, but I am thankful for Patrick who is the most patient man I have ever met (thank God, too, because you have to be to be married to me! :) ). So he continues to be my rock as we continue to wait.

I did finally allow myself to get to a place last week where I could trully let go and give all the frustration over to God. It has been much easier to wait this last week - not quite as bad as I thought not being in COMPLETE control over the situation. :) And as we still wait - don't you worry ladies and gentlemen, if there was an olympic sport in waiting, I think Patrick and I would be very good contenders! - we silently and mentally prepare ourselves for that one phone call that will change everything. We have finished painting the nursery and assembling all of the fantastically fun toys and accessories (why don't they make these things in adult size???), we have located a day care that is a Christian based day care with plenty of openings and at exactly the right price (thank you again God!) and we are getting in all of our Girls' and Guys' nights we can to prepare for the days when showering is a luxury! :)

As for actual updates, there aren't any really. We are *waiting* to hear who our assigned case worker is. We are *waiting* to find out if we are supposed to get a letter or some kind of documentation in the mail confirming our licenses. And we are *waiting* for that phone call with information about our first child. While we wait we appreciate your continued prayers and support. Rest assured that when the waiting is over (at least for this part of the journey) you all will be the first to know! :)

WE ARE APPROVED!!!!!!

We thought the day would never come, but WE ARE APPROVED!!! Yay!!!! The state of Texas has officially decided we are fit to be Foster/Adoptive Parents. In the grand scheme of things, 7 months is really a very short time period to be approved - a process that can typically take up to 12 months - but it sure has seemed like it took much longer. AND, we have only just begun our journey to becoming parents. But my goodness, it feels good to have gotten over this hurdle! :)

So the next step is to find out who our Case Worker is (we get a case worker and the children placed in our home have their own Case Worker), get to know that person so they know what kind of home we have, and wait for our first placement call. Of course, secretly I hoped that we would have the first placement call sometime this week, but I know the reality is that it will likely be more like the next month or so....or maybe more...who knows. But we are so glad to be at this point that we are reinvigorated to wait a little longer. God has this plan already laid out for us, so we will faithfully follow. I will continue to work on letting Him have that control, Patrick will keep supporting (encouraging me to release that white knuckled grip!) and calmly demonstrating that patience I strive to achieve.

We will surely keep you all updated on any news we have about our first placement!

Still Not Approved...

But we did go to the Arlington Police Department on Friday afternoon. We got there at 4:30 and walked out at 5:15 with two background checks! We paid $4 total and 45 minutes of our time to wait for our background checks. It is amazing, but they are finally done! Of course we don't know if CPS will take these background checks or not, but just the fact that we could get it done in one afternoon gives us hope that it is possible to get them done at least! :)
Of course I immediately emailed, faxed and snail mailed the originals (don't worry, I made copies just in case) to our file worker at CPS as soon as I could that night. Which has meant a weekend of waiting to see if they will accept these to complete our file. Not that I would wish extra working time on anyone, but I was secretly hoping our worker would be pulling a Saturday work day this weekend! :)

Anyways, this is just a short update to say we still don't know where we are, but we have literally done all we can do at this point. It is in God's hands.

You will be the first to know when we hear something, of course! Keep those prayers coming if you think about it. :)

7 Months Isn't That Bad

You know, it takes most couples over 9 months to conceive and give birth to their first child. So far Patrick and I have been working on approval with CPS to become Foster/Adoptive parents for only 7 months. I guess when you look at it in the sense of numbers, we are pretty much ahead of the curve! At least, that's the way we are trying to look at things right now.

The news is there is no news. The City of Arlington background check still has not been received, which means our file is incomplete, which means they can't approve us until it is complete. We got a sense of how frustrating this is for our worker the other day as she told us she has been calling daily to get a status update to only get a busy tone or no answer, she mailed the request a third time thinking maybe it would get processed that way and she even has a friend who works in that area on the hunt for the background info she needs! Come on A-town - what's the hold up??!!?? :)

So I called down to the City of Arlington main phone number (sitting on hold for 16 minutes to speak to an operator) and was directed to the Police Department. I was then told to go to the Records department. When I got on the phone with the Records department, it was busy and it hung up on me a couple of times (I feel your frustration Dione!). I tenaciously (that's an understatement at this point boys and girls!) called back. I was able to get someone on the phone on that third attempt. She told me I could run a self-requested background check for $2 and if I have never been arrested (I haven't!) I could have the report right then! **eyes rolling viciously**

So we will attempt to do that, even though we haven't been told by CPS that it will be accepted at this point. But we figured, what's $4 and an afternoon at the police department if it will possibly finish our files! So I leave you with this update that isn't really an update and these words of wisdom: God is in control and these "delays" are a part of his plan. We keep faith that the plan he has for us is the right one (those of you who know me well know that I am chanting this over and over in my head constantly and all day long since February!). :)

As always, we will keep you all posted!

Some Good News...But the Saga Continues

We just came back from the 2008 Pringle Family Vacation to Galveston (AKA the Big Pringle Spoon '08!). As we have been getting settled back in to getting up early for work and our long commute (how quickly we get out of that habit while on vacation!) I was thinking it has been about two weeks since we have had any updates to share. Being the person that I am (patience, what's that?) I thought I would just send a quick email to my worker at CPS to check on the status of our file. So, I did. :)

I am thankful we have a worker who is understanding enough to know that I really am not trying to badger her in anyway. She let us know that our home study has been received and her supervisor is currently reviewing our file for approval. This would of course normally be really great news... except.... we are S-T-I-L-L missing the City of Arlington Background check (for both of us)!!!! Now, don't get me wrong, I do love my great city of Arlington, TX, but we are NOT known for our quick and efficient processing times (Sunday Driver comes to mind...). But even I can't explain the nearly three months it has taken to get our background check results in. So our worker re-submitted the request this last Thursday. She says there isn't anything we can do to follow up on it at this time...but I am keeping my options open to go down to the court house just in case! :)

So the news for now is that we should be approved once the City of Arlington background checks come back in. I don't know what kind of flexibility they really have to approve us before those background checks come in (I mean, we told them we were good people already, what more do they want!?! :) ) so for now we wait (patiently - no more like anxiously) for the background checks to come back in to complete our file. Hopefully that will be much sooner than later!
We will of course be sure to keep you all posted as we know anything else.

Much love as usual!

Almost There!

We have been anxiously awaiting the results of our home study for the last two weeks. As we have been waiting, the lady completing our home study has been emailing us additional questions - usually four - six at a time every two days or so. So we have been answering the questions to the best of our ability (things like what is PCOS and what fertility treatments have you taken? What plans do you have to pay for the needs of your foster child before the reimbursment is set up? Plus some other more personal questions that I will leave unsaid! :) )
This Q&A via email becoming a regular thing, we were half expecting to be answering questions up to the end of time! However, today the lady conducting our home study sent us the following email:

"I am happy to inform you that I have recommended your family for licensing. It was a pleasure meeting with you both and I appreciate all your help in getting my report together. God Bless you and the children who will be placed in your home."

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We FINALLY made it to the final stage! I pretty much just started balling like a little baby for a good solid 10 minutes at least! :) Don't get me wrong, I am incredibly happy and excited, though my puffy eyes would imply something different. I am also incredibly relieved that this process is almost over. Of course Patrick is too, but a nice smile and a "good" are the extent of his emotional explosions! That's ok, I have enough emotion for the both of us and then some! :)

So we will wait for the next couple of weeks to hear from our local unit if we are indeed approved for our licenses to foster and to adopt. We were told August 9th would be the latest we should hear anything, but that was with the idea that the home study would be done by July 9th. Since it wasn't, I don't know if the date stays the same or if it gets pushed back a week. At this time we are going to shoot for August 17th as our goal date just to be on the safe side. In the mean time, we will cautiously celebrate this small victory (her recommendation does not automatically mean we are approved, but it is very likely that we will be)!

We will keep everyone informed as soon as we have any more news!

The finish line is in sight!

This evening we had our second home visit with Adrienne. We were a little unsure about what to expect of course. So we made sure everything was still clean (and yes I rushed home today to make sure I scrubbed the toilets and countertops one last time!) and planned for another question and answer session. We hoped she would take a look at the rest of the house tonight so we could show off the nursery (and our hard work!).

So Adrienne showed up at precisely 6:00 this evening and left at precisely 6:42! She came in and told us that we had been so thorough in our paperwork that she really didn't have too many other questions for us. What a relief! She started off by saying that she felt we are "going to be great parents!". Another relief! :) She asked a few additional questions like things like do we have any day care plans (thanks Mom for going on the hunt this week!) and do we meet each others needs (yes, Patrick does share in the housework!) and do we know the chain of command should there be any problems that we need to report to CPS. Then she took a quick tour of the house to make sure she could check off on her list that we do indeed have running water and we keep our food refrigerated and we have soap and toilet paper (her words, not ours)! :) She was very complimentary of the paintings my mom had done in the nursery - "she could really do this for a living!" Then she said she would keep in touch to make sure we knew she hadn't forgotten about us. She said she would have her report done in the "next couple of weeks." We said goodnight and that was it!

So the next step is for Adrienne to turn in her report to our local unit. They review our entire file, including her report, and make a decision about approving our license. They notify us and then at some point (if we are approved of course) they call us about our first placement! Yeah! The end (or the beginning really!) is in sight! Of course we will keep the updates coming!
What an incredible journey this has been so far for us! We continue to be so thankful for our family and friends and the support you have shown us the last several years. We are looking forward to sharing more with each of you as we prepare to take this next step.
Much love!

Home Visit 1

Wow - I do believe that was the longest hour and 15 minutes of my entire life! Patrick says it went well. I on the other hand need positive reinforcement from the person who is making the decision before I can feel really comfortable saying it went well. It's like a job interview really. In a job interview the interviewer asks questions and takes notes while the interviewee answers questions and waits for the next question. The interviewer is not supposed to reveal one way or the other how they feel about the interviewee during the interview. That's just the rules of the game. The interviewee leaves with a sense of how they thought they did, but ultimately still don't know if they "passed the test". That's kind of how today was. Our "interviewer" was very pleasant (and even laughed at a few of my random jokes - I was nervous ok!) and asked questions and took notes. We as the "interviewees" answered her questions and prayed we were conveying in our words what has been in our hearts for so long. The questions were what you would expect - how did you meet?, why do you want to be foster/adoptive parents?, what are your expectations?, are you willing to work with CPS to help the children grow and develop and maintain healthy relationships? We answered them, she wrote and we waited for the next question. :)

We sat in the living room the whole time. At some point it looked like she might have been a little cold and I would have offered to turn the fan off, but I was afraid I would start sweating more if the fan was off. So I was not the gracious hostess and left the fan on! :( Oh well, I guess that's the way it is.

She took down our email addresses so she can send us follow up questions as she is writing her report. She also scheduled us to meet on July 1st at 5:30 pm for the second visit. That visit will be with Patrick and I here together, but she will meet with us individually while the other is in the other room. I am looking forward to that meeting with anxious anticipation. I don't know if she will look at the rest of the house on that visit or if there will be other visits after the visit on 7/1. So for now it remains in God's hands as we move one step closer to completing this process. :)

Until then, keep those prayers going (and we will too!). Thank you all for your support and prayers this weekend!

Countdown Day 2

So I sit here this evening as we have finished cleaning for the night reflecting on the journey we have been on for, well almost six years. I am looking around the house and seeing that thankfully we have only our room to straighten up and the bathrooms to clean. So as I look around my house I realize how truly blessed we are. Not just in how far we have come in this journey, but also in how we have taken that journey. That sounds a little repetitive, but how you embark on the journey is just as important as the journey itself.

I look back at where we started and thank God that He really does know what He is doing. To think we could have been responsible for a child back then is almost funny! We were so young (still kind of are really!) not just in age, but in responsibility. We were newly married and dealing with the joys of learning to share our lives together. To have brought a child into that time of our lives would truly have been a mistake. But I also feel that we have had these challenges at just the right time. If we hadn't started trying to get pregnant when we did, I wouldn't know what i know about myself now. Leaving PCOS untreated could lead to more serious health concerns and to know what I am dealing with (and that I am not alone!) has really been important in my other health decisions. All of that to say that while it would be easy for me to look back on the last 6 years and think about all of the things that went wrong, I find it easier to think about who we have become and where we are now. I could easily think about what's "wrong" with me or with this whole situation. But why? We have a beautiful life, a beautiful home and we are actually ready this time. This is our time to complete this part of the journey and move on to the next one. It is really exciting and despite the fact that I am not looking forward to the rest of the cleaning, I am so looking forward to the reward.

Patrick and I both continuously are in awe at the love and support we have gotten from our friends and family over the years. Not because we don't expect you all to be those kinds of people, but it's that the support is for us. I can't tell you how many times we have heard "if there is anything you need..." or "you are going to be such great parents and any child is so lucky to have you!" or "everything is going to work out and our prayers are with you." To hear that every step of the way has been our strength and encouragement to keep going. So this post is two-fold. The first part is as above, reflection on where we started and how far we have come and having the peace of knowing we are finally ready. The second part is to make a small attempt to show our appreciation and gratitude for the huge role you have all played in getting us to this point. We truly could not have made it hear without you. I pray God may bless you with the same love and support every day - and hopefully you get it back from us as much as we have gotten it from you! :)
We love you all!
Stayd tuned for more as we get closer and closer to the final day!

Countdown to the Home Study - Day 1

So after a very busy weekend of one engagement after the next (I sound so popular right? :) ) we strolled into work this morning kind of looking forward to a break from our weekend. I checked my messages as I was turning on my computer and low and behold - a call from the person who is conducting our home study. I nearly fell out of my chair! This is it, I thought. We are almost there. Then as I was calling her back I had this scary thought that she would want to come over tonight!!!!! We had barely been home all weekend long and needless to say our gallivanting around all weekend meant the house work had been neglected. For those of you who know me and my dedication (or should I say tolerance?) to house work you know this is not an unusual occurrence. BUT, since the "nesting" phase has set in (oh about two months ago), Patrick can tell you he is now living with a COMPLETE STRANGER! I am always cleaning or organizing or folding something! I am a changed person. But I digress (ok, big time!). The first thought as I was about to say "Hello" in my most motherly and cheery voice to this lady is I am going to have to tell her our house isn't ready for her to come over and see it yet. Not the first impression I was hoping for! :)

But as God always does, He intervened and she graciously offered to schedule our first visit for this Friday (6/20/08) at 6:00 pm. I tell you all of those scary details for the purpose of you planning a candlelight vigil/prayer intervention for that night at that time - you know, just to be on the safe side! :)

Patrick and I came home tonight and ate a quick dinner of store brand cereal - so the nesting phase hasn't exactly extended to the cooking portion of our lives - I mean I can't change too much that Patrick will think I have been body snatched by aliens! - and proceeded to clean our little hearts out! So far the master bedroom and the nursery are in shape and ready to go! (BTW - if you didn't get an email to see the nursery photos, shoot me a quick email and i will send them to you.)

So the rest of the week will be nightly cleaning adventures as we divide up the rest of the house and clean and organize yet again for another night. Once the person doing our home visit (Adrianne) visits with us on Friday, she will set up the second and hopefully final visit then. I will be sure to keep everyone updated to start that prayer line again! :)

Till next time, Thank you for your prayers and support and God Bless!

Almost Done!

We have completed our Fire Inspection (after two whole days of cleaning!) and I sent the paperwork in to our CPS worker. We passed of course! (Whew!) The only thing lacking in our file is the background check from the City of Arlington (they are missing several background checks from other applicants as well.) Our worker has decided to go ahead and send our file to a contractor to begin the home study. She told us it will take anywhere from 7-14 days before they assign a contractor, but once that is done, we will be contacted about our home visit. I am not sure what happens after that point of course. I have been told that the next step is the home visit where the contractor will visit our home. I assume this includes a complete evaluation of the home and the space we have set up for the children we will be fostering. I assume this also includes an in-depth interview with Patrick and I, but beyond that we are still a little in the dark about the process.

The nursery is coming along nicely. We FINALLY got the crib assembled. It has been an interesting road from the day we started moving furniture out of that room. I will post some photos once the room is done. Patrick and I are really excited to see the room coming together!

Once we know more about the home visit and the complete home study process, we will post more.

In the mean time, thank you again for your support and prayers!

PRIDE Graduates!!

We have done it! We have completed the PRIDE training course and are official Graduates! Yeah! Our last class was this past Saturday. We finished up with the training sessions for the day and ended the day with a review of the missing items from our file. And if you know me at all you know there were only a few missing items! :) We still need to get the dreaded fire inspection done - not because we don't think we will pass, but because we don't want to have to do the laundry and clean the house! I know, I know, once we have a baby in our home we will need to keep everything clean. But until then, it's just me and Patrick... :)

We hope to have the home visit within the next month which we understand should complete our file. Once that is complete, they should be issuing us our license - if we get approved of course. And we are praying (I mean we know!) we are going to be approved!

The nursery is almost ready - another good thing because we found out on Saturday that the room has to be set up when they conduct the home visit! I will post pictures once we have everything assembled, painted and organized. Thank you so much to everyone for your support and gifts to help get us ready. We are really very close to being done thanks to all of you!

It is a very exciting and nervous time in the Pringle home right now. Besides trying to get everything done in the right time without really knowing what the right time is, I am also deep in major nesting phase and you will regularly find me in the nursery folding burp cloths or washing sheets, etc. Which leaves Patrick the rest of the house. I am blessed with a husband who is so patient! He gently reminds me that we need to get the REST of the house ready for the baby too! Well, everyday brings us closer and closer to that day! :)
We will keep you updated and appreciate your continued support and prayers.

Two Down, Two to Go!

We have successfully survived the second day of PRIDE training (concluding a little early even this last Saturday!). My mom, Patrick's mom and Patrick's sister joined us for their required attendance to help us with babysitting needs. It was an interesting class for sure. We had a new instructor join us and spent a good portion of the morning sharing stories about her personal experiences as a Foster Mom. She certainly has a good idea of what it takes to care for these children. She is in the process of adopting her current foster child. She is two now and "Mama Tricia" got her when she was eight months old.

In between classes this last week, we went and had our fingerprints done ($88.40 later!) and we also worked on our homework for the next class. Patrick made some oreo balls and sausage balls for us to take to class with us as our contribution to lunch - we decided as a class on a pot luck style lunch that would allow us to continue to work through while we ate. It really worked out very well!

We spent the entire day on the 19th going over the difference between discipline and punishment and the punishment restrictions CPS has for foster parents. Of course, we are not allowed to spank our foster children. We can't restrain them in any way (unless they are posing specific harm to themselves or others) and we can't lock them in their room. The things these children have already been through to get to this place would really dictate that this is common sense. It appeared that our fellow classmates agreed. We were given some appropriate forms of punshiment for breaking rules, etc. Of course, each child is different and will require a different approach. It is very interesting to me how the state determines what the "best practices" should be. I don't agree with all of them, but of course, we must follow them.

We are looking forward to next weekend and hope to continue to learn more and more about this process.

Thanks again fo your continued love, prayers and support.

PRIDE Training - The first day!

This last Saturday started at 7:45 am as we got up, got dressed, fed the animals and hopped in the car to Fort Worth for Day 1 of the PRIDE training. We were both a little nervous about what to expect and what information we would learn and the people we would meet. We got to the building off Lancaster in downtown Fort Worth, got out and walked into the room and discovered we were going to have a very full class - there wasn't one seat left after everyone got there! We sat at a table with a lovely couple looking to foster/adopt. The husband is from Germany so I embarrassed myself with the very little bit of German I do know. The other person we sat with is going through the kinship program. She is going to be adopting a family member. It is an interesting mix of individuals. After some (tedious...I mean fun!) paperwork, we got started on our first lesson. We did some teamwork activities intended for us to get to know eachother and to just break the ice. My favorite is the 5 C's. Our instructor asked us to write down our favorite Color, Car, Cuisine, Character and Closet Dream. Then she drew the slips of paper out of an envelope and we went around the room trying to guess whose paper she was reading off of. I was the first one drawn and Patrick's was the second one drawn! I threw everyone off and only had one person guess that it was me. Everyone thought it was Patrick! The best part, my character was Pooh Bear (because Patrick kinda looks like Pooh Bear - in a good way of course) and the class called Patrick Pooh Bear the rest of the day! :) Yes! They also nominated him to be the spokesperson for us to decide how we wanted to take breaks and eat lunches. We of course chose to take breaks as needed and to bring our lunch and work through so we can get through as many lessons as possible as quickly as possible.

Saturday ended with completing 3 lessons - I believe there is 10 total. We took home our homework (shoot, I still have to work on that!) and our mounds of paperwork - thank the Lord we have already done most of it and turned it in. We did get a surprise in that some of the process is a little different than we were originally told, but nothing a little rearranging of schedules won't fix.

We certainly have just scratched the surface. Next Saturday proves to be an interesting one as we dig deeper into our training and Patrick's mom, my mom and Patrick's sister join us for the training class. Nothing like a room full of teachers to make for an interesting lesson!

Still no updates on the dates we might be bringing home our first child. They are required to have our home stuidy complete within 30 days of graudating from the PRIDE class (the last day is May 3rd). So it could be the middle of May or it could easily be June. We continue to pray for an approval of the home study and a fast and easy process. In the mean time, we go to class, clean the house for the fire inspection and keep waiting!

Thanks again for your support and prayers. More to come later!

Getting Closer!

So as we approach the first day of our PRIDE training class (4/12), we are still working on getting the nursery complete and working on our "projects" to keep ourselves busy.
We found out today the social worker who is completing our file has received the packet we sent her. She has already begun working on it (sending out reference forms and setting up our background checks and fingerprinting)! This means of course the deep dive into everything personal about ourselves has begun! We are preparing to bear all....

We have also finished registering for the things that we need that we can at least identify right now. Of course the age of the babies we foster will determine what we really need, but for now, we have some good basics. We are registered at Target and Babies R Us (We are kind of excited to be able to say that actually!) We want to thank everyone who have already "donated" some very essential items to us already. We are very thankful for your support whether it be in items, financially or emotionally - we appreciate it all.

The nursery is almost complete, we are almost ready to invite the City of Arlington Fire Department to do a fire inspection of our home and we are officially 4 days away from the first day of training!

We will be sure to post our experience with the training thus far once we get done with day 1. Till then, thanks and God bless!

The PACKET!

Today marks the momentous occassion that we officially mailed off THE packet back to our PRIDE trainer! YEAH! What a great weight has already been lifted off of us as we continue to take baby-steps towards that day when we bring home our first foster child. It has seemed like such a short journey that has taken a really long time. Does that make sense to anyone else but me??!? :)

We also finished cleaning out the garage and moving most of the stuff from the computer room into the garage (or just getting rid of what we don't need to keep). Mission Arlington came by yesterday and picked up an entire truck load of stuff! We are so glad to be rid of those things for sure. We are going to start painting the base coat on the nursery so our creative and artistic family can come over and paint the cute animals on the walls. I do beads and base coats, the rest of my famiy has developed a talent for artistic painting! We are very excited about what they will be able to do in that room.

We are also preparing for our CPR/First Aid class on 3/29/08. We have an instructor coming to our house to train all of us on Pediatric and Infant first aid and CPR. We are looking forward to it. We are using Lifeline CPR in Arlington (www.lifelinecpr4life.com) to get our certification. It's pretty cool they will come to our house!

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully we will hear back soon about our packet (I sent it insured with a signature receipt requested of course! :) )

T-minus 17 days until our first day of PRIDE training!

Inch thick Packet

Hello all! Patrick and I got a packet in the mail last week that was definitely an inch thick with all kinds of paperwork and documents to bring and things for us to begin doing to prepare for the home study. Here I thought the next couple of weeks would be boring while we waited for the PRIDE training to begin! I was way wrong! Between getting CPR/First aid certified and having fingerprints done we also have to have a fire and health inspection done of our home, take pictures of the outside areas of the house the child might be using, make sure all things like prescription drugs, etc are locked up and agree to not take the infant child hunting or put them on a trampolene unsupervised we have a lot to do! You would think some of these things would be common sense (um the baby crying would scare away the hogs while we were hunting, duh, you don't take a baby hunting! :) Ok, for those of you who didn't get that - it was a joke!) but isn't it interesting the level they have to go through to really "weed" out those people who really shouldn't be participating in this process? Anyways, we are anxiously preparing our home and working on the nursery as the first day of PRIDE training rapidly approaches.

We have also decided another major decision about this process - we are going to adopt a GIRL!!!!! I am way excited and NO, I did NOT hold Patrick down and threaten him with his life to say he wanted a girl. It was actually his idea! So, that being said, the nursery colors are now confirmed - pale yellow, pale green and P-I-N-K!!!!! We are going with a Noah's Ark theme to compliment the PINK nicely (Noah brought along pink famingos I am sure!). So keep your eyes out for any cute Noah's ark themed baby stuff and let me know where you see the good deals!
The next few weeks will be a bustle of paperwork, painting, sewing (once I find the power cable to the sewing machine of course) cleaning, moving furniture, shopping, baby showers, Training class and inspection after inspection. We will be keeping you updated through the website, so keep checking back - that is if we can ever get out from underneath the pile of paper and training manuals! :)

T-minus 26 days before PRIDE training starts!

Foster to Adopt Process - Step 1

On 2/11/08, Patrick and I attended an information session hosted by CPS about the fostering and adoption process through their organization. It was an interesting meeting and we were able to make some decisions based off of what we had learned. We decided to apply for the foster/adoption license through CPS directly (and not through a private agency). The benefit of doing both licenses is we can foster first before we adopt. The benefit of doing that is the foster parents have the right of first refusal when the child they are fostering becomes available for adoption. If the permanency plan for the child becomes adoption while we are fostering that child, we are offered to adopt the child first before any other adoptive parents are considered. When we were speaking to the person completing our application, she said they are in desperate need of foster families for infants, but not adoptive families for infants. Why? Because most foster families end up adopting the infants in their care once they are available for adoption. The hardest part about this process is going to be letting go of the children who are returned to their families. The comfort is in what is best for the children of course.

Our application has been accpeted and we have been approved to move to the next step of the process - PRIDE training. PRIDE stands for Parent Resources for Information, Development and Education. It is a 30 hour course that is required for foster/adoptive parents meant to provide skills and education for parenting. It is also especially for adoptive and foster parents of special mental or physical needs children. Our training classes begin on April 12, 2008 and continue through April 26, 2008. Once we complete the training process, we will begin the Home Study process.

The Home Study is just how it sounds. CPS will delve into every aspect of our lives, finances, mental stability as well as collect references and information about any criminal activity! The Home study could take up to 6 weeks. Once approved, we will be able to start fostering!

Keep checking back for more updates!