We Made the Newsletter!

So, we have this newsletter at work that is a monthly thing. The person who does it is always so good about sharing the stories of the staff and the amazing things that we do at BMCI. The newsletter is typically a showing of the accomplishments and events at the hospital for that last month. We do a checkof the hospital goals, acknowledge anniversaries and awards won, etc.

Well this month the feature story just happens to be one about Patrick, Gabe, Alex and I and our adoption story. The article gets the adoption date wrong (we adopted on 11/21, not 11/11) but who really cares....the point of the story is that we were able to keep our sweet boys!! Anyways we are excited to have made the newsletter and be able to share our story - and front page too! :)

I am still working on how to post the newsletter to this blog - its a PDF, but I haven't figured out how to load it just yet. When I do, I will get it up for you to see!

Video from the Adoption

Not sure how this is going to work, but thought I would try it out....

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/eed586fd495c63b9a8c2a39b9c2158bb/video/8253211

We're BACK!!!

Hey all!

We are back online without having to have approved users! Yay! I will be posting some pics and video of the adoption of Gabe and Alex on 11/21/09 very soon (well, more like when my family decides to give them to us since my camera died as soon as we got in the court room!).

But I will summarize by saying that the adoption went very well! We were the first on the docket in the Green court room on National Adoption Day. My Mom and friend Elizabeth and her foster child were there. Along with Patrick's mom and dad, sisters Katie and Megan and Megan's husband Fernie, nephew Knox (Katie's son) and Paw Paw. Amongst the rest of the crowd was the adoption prep worker, the boys' CASA worker (Who is a SAINT btw!), the boys' original caseworker, our FAD worker and her husband and son, our lawyer and her assistant, A dear friend from high school just happened to be our court liaison (she is also a family law lawyer!), the judge and his family! It's a good thing we had the entire courtroom to ourselves - we couldn't have fit another person in there with us! :)

We did all the legal stuff and our lawyer had the entire family come up and swear in. They were actually witnesses to our adoption and were called to testify - which is probably my favorite part aside from the adoption itself - our lawyer asked them if they supported us and would stand by us and agreed with our decision to adopt Gabe and Alex....no surprises there - they all said yes! :) Once the adoption was final, the judge let us go up in to his little area and take pictures with him and the entire crew! Then we were off to all the events and fun things they had planned. The boys got a goodie bag full of all kinds of things and they each got a necklace with their new names and birthdays engraved on them. They also each got a stuffed animal (the benefit of being first is that your very shrewd children can snag the biggest stuffed animals before anyone else!) and they also each got a book. Then we got our first official photo taken and we also got to eat some snacks - which is good since I didn't eat breakfast. The boys (and Elizabeth's foster child too!) got to pick a treat out of the treasure chest and then we were about as stimulated as we could handle. By 10:15 we were out the door on our way home. It was so cool to have everyone there and to get to go through the events with Elizabeth on the way home (she rode with us - it was like living it all over again!). :)

We got home and took naps (the boys did - Patrick and I had some cleaning to finish up!) and in a moment of vane panic - Patrick's mom and dad came over and helped to plant some flowers in our more than lacking flower beds! Talk about absolutely amazing! Then we got the slide show ready and the food out and opened our doors to friends and family to celebrate our adoption. Our house was packed for a solid 3 hours!!! It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about how many people love and support us - those that were there was thank you over and over again! And those that were there in spirit - we missed you immensely but we know you are there for us too! :)

By 6:30 we were pooped! The guests had all gone (I had to practically drag Patrick's mom out of the kitchen - she was cleaning up even after all she had already done for us that day!) and Gabe and Alex and Patrick and I sat down and watched the new Veggie Tales movie we had just gotten (thanks Higbees!). It was such a great time to just lay on the floor with a bunch of pillows and blankets and watch a movie. What a great way to end such a fantastic day!

So if I can figure it out, I will try to post the slide show -somehow - and when I get pictures and video, I will post those as well. Till then, try to picture it all in your head! :)

Much love again to you all for your love and support on this leg of the journey. We ask you to keep holding on (and praying too!) as we begin our new adventures. God Bless!

Blog Updates - Your Help needed!

Hi All -

It has been recently brought to my attention that we can not as foster parents even post updates about the cases of the children in our care even without identifying information listed. So the blog that I have been using as a way to keep everyone updated (despite my best efforts to keep the information I posted vague and without identification) has to be locked down. As such, I have sent out some email invitations to people to be "readers" of my blog so you can continue to have access. Please ignore or deny this request if you do not want to continue to read the blog - my feelings will NOT be hurt of course. If you are still interested in following via the blog, please be sure to follow the instructions in the email. If you did not get the email, please email or call me so i can make sure you get an invite if you would like one.

As for posting on Facebook, I will need to identify the best way to do that. I know I have the pictures I have loaded on Facebook locked down to only my friends, but I can't do that on this blog, so I will have to limit pictures to just my Facebook account. I would ask that anyone who also has pictures of our children posted on their accounts to do the same or to not identify me or Patrick in those pictures (so they don't show up on our facebook profiles). I am sorry to have to be such a stickler, but we can not have any situation where the state or attorneys involved in the cases of any of the children in our home have any way, shape, or form an opportunity to take them from us because of something as silly as posting updates, etc. We really appreciate your cooperation with protecting their privacy!

So far So good

Well, I haven't been very good about blogging lately because I guess there hasn't been anything exciting to blog about - unless you count the every day life of a family with 3 dogs, 1 cat, 2 boys and a mom and dad....I was thinking that even if nothing amazing happens, it doesn't mean I can't jump on a spin a tale or two! :)

So we will start with a bit of an update regarding the boys and our impending adoption proceedings....oh wait, there isn't one. As is the usual custom in these things, it seems time is standing still while some mysterious behind the scenes action is taking place to prep for the adoption. Don't ask me what that means - as far as we have seen nothing is happening right now, but I have to believe that something is happening and that is the reason that we haven't heard from anyone in almost a month. I am also hoping that the month that has passed is one month out of the 2-3 months it will take to finalize our adoption of the boys (whose names I can now use on this site - Alex is 18 months and Gabriel is 3! - BTW - I still won't be posting pictures up here for a while as this site is searchable from Google and Yahoo and I haven't figured out a way to "protect" the pictures. I just want to make sure we are making an effort to be smart about what we post publicly considering the boys' history. I might be a bit paranoid, but I feel its better safe than sorry in this situation.) The boys' caseworker told us that she was transferring the case to the adoption unit this week. I don't know when that has (or will) happen, but they are supposed to "call us, don't call them" sometime soon - I hope. There is a bit of paperwork we have to complete and a negotiation process we have to go through to get approved for any monthly subsidy, etc. that the boys are entitled to. Otherwise, I believe we just wait for the court date - we shall see.

As far as the rest of our lives are concerned not much has happened but the usual daily rotation between work, kids, family and friends. We did get a "new to us" mini-van recently (what a nightmare that whole process was!). I am a bit proud of myself because I was able to get it on my own with no co-signer - the first time I have bought a car by myself! It has only taken me until I was about to turn 30 to be able to do it! :) Oh well, I still think it is a bit ridiculous that I can buy a house by myself, but I couldn't buy a car until now. At least I have made it one step closer to the "grown up" world (btw - I am realizing that perhaps I liked it better in the "little kids' world" instead.).

Our other bit of news is that we have decided that in January (after we have our Christmas with the boys) we are going to go back on the vacancy list for CPS and hope for a girl this time - for real. We are setting our "criteria" to one girl 3 years old or younger - Patrick picked that! I am pretty impressed as I would have expected him to say younger than 1 instead of 3. But as he told me the other day it is pretty nice to have them all sleeping through the night! :) So we are on the hunt for a couple of twin beds to put in Gabriel's room. Alex will move in with Gabriel sometime in the next few months (probably closer to December) so they can get used to the whole room sharing thing - and so we can make sure that will work out. And we will get Alex's room ready to accommodate any age from 0-3 for the little girl. Patrick has almost totally convinced me to be happy with three kiddos instead of four. I know - some of you out there think I am insane for wanting four, but I know how important having a sister for a girl can be sometimes. Of course, there is always cousins to fill that gap! :) Anyways, we shall see what God has in store for us this next year. In the mean time, we are going to enjoy the time we have with our little guys and look forward to a very nice holiday season coming up (don't worry, I have already bought there Halloween costumes and finished their Christmas shopping!!!).

Termination Hearing

WOW!!!! I can’t begin any other way than to say W-O-W! So many emotions ran through me (and I could tell Patrick was having the same reaction) during the entire courtroom experience yesterday. Besides just not knowing what to expect or what was coming, we were in the position of almost forcibly being introduced to people involved that we would have never thought of. That being said, let me give you the very intense play by play….I warn you, this is going to be a long one!

Patrick and I got to the courthouse about 1:40 – the hearing was supposed to start at 2:00. When we walked in we saw a friend that we graduated with standing there amongst some of the lawyers we knew were associated with our case. I didn’t put two and two together until she approached us and we discussed why we were all there….she had been hired to intervene on behalf of the boys’ grandfather! Talk about small world!!

We sat out in the waiting area for a bit while we waited for everyone to arrive and to be told what to do next. While waiting, we found out that all three parents had (just about at that moment) agreed to voluntarily relinquish their parental rights! Can you believe it?!? We were not going to have to put up a fight in court – except for the grandfather’s intervention….so we made our way to the courtroom to do whatever was supposed to come next. While we were waiting for everyone to get in, the paternal aunt of our oldest boy asked to meet with us. We followed them outside and introduced ourselves, etc. She was just devastated, but kept telling us she knew it was the right thing that her brother relinquished his rights. I just wanted to hug her and hold her and tell her it would be ok and we really will take care of these boys – but you can’t really do that in the courthouse exactly. So I tried to communicate that to her the best I could and we went back in the courtroom.

About that time, the judge “called the hearing to order” (I don’t know the correct terminology for that stuff!) and we began by hearing the evidence and argument for the grandfather’s motion to intervene. I should note here that our lawyer had filed a motion to strike the grandfather’s motion to intervene (this all happened about 12:30 that same day by the way). The grandfather’s lawyer took the witness stand and gave his testimony as questions were asked of him. This was BRUTAL to watch…not only because it was awkward to be sitting there while it was all going on, but because all 7 lawyers involved asked him questions. The other really uncomfortable part about this was that he was asked some difficult questions about his daughter (the boys’ mother) and he had to answer honestly – essentially saying he thought his daughter was a failure. My heart was breaking the whole time he was talking. Not just for him and what he was potentially losing, but also for his family and the way he was having to talk about them. It was more than intense. The lawyers each had an opportunity to argue their reasoning for approval or denial of the grandfather’s request and then the judge handed down her decision. After a lot of writing and reviewing of documents she stated that was accepting the motion to strike the grandfather’s intervention! (in layman’s terms, the judge denied the grandfather’s request for custody of the boys). One small hurdle down….

Despite the fact that all three parents chose to voluntarily relinquish their rights, we still had to allow the judge to hear evidence so she could decide to accept the relinquishments or not. So, the ADA called up the boys’ case worker to testify. Again, BRUTAL. While the ADA rattled off all of the reasons the people sitting right behind us in the courtroom couldn’t have custody of either boy, Patrick and I are sitting up front watching the whole thing. Though it may not sound all that terrible (I mean these are things we already know right?) it was so awful to be “caught in the middle” of all of this and have to listen while these people’s failures were displayed for everyone to see. There were points during the testimony that I was crying and doing my best to keep it from being obvious. But it was heartbreaking again to sit through all of that.

Lastly, our lawyer asked me to take the stand to testify. I took my oath and spelled my name for the court reporter and took the stand. She was the only one who asked me any questions. Thank God the other lawyers in the room chose to not ask any other questions. I only had to answer a few basics: when did the boys get placed with you? What can you tell me about the boys? Why did you file an intervention? Etc. Nothing too hard that I couldn’t answer, but my voice was still shaky as I was talking and I hit the microphone with my jacket as I was getting up! UGH! But honestly my little embarrassments on the stand do not compare to how hard it was to sit there while the others were testifying.

Then the judge did some more writing and reviewing documents for a bit. Of course it seemed like an hour to Patrick and I, but it was only a matter of a few minutes and she handed down her decision. She accepted the relinquishments of all three parents AND named Patrick and I Possessory Conservators. This simply means that if for some reason in the course of the next couple of months, CPS decides they need to remove the boys from our home, they have to get a court order to do it. We still don’t really have any rights to the boys just yet. BUT, the biggest hurdle is done for now!!!! Praise the Lord!

So before I tell you about the drama outside the courtroom, I will mention that the next step is to start the paperwork for the adoption process. CPS will “place” the boys in our home (on paper basically) as an adoptive placement. Then the legal stuff happens and we set a court date to adopt. However, it is important to note the following: 1) the parents have 30 days to appeal the decision to accept the relinquishments (they could change their minds or say they were coerced, etc.) 2) any extended family such as aunt, uncle, grandparent, etc. can appeal the decision within 90 days. So even if the adoption is finalized before the 90 days is over, they can still appeal the decision. If they win their appeal, we are right back to where we started from. So I will ask for prayers again in that the family chooses not to appeal.

On to the most awkward part of the entire experience – meeting the grandfather and his new wife outside the courtroom AFTER the decisions were made by the judge. I won’t post the details of that discussion as I do feel it is important to maintain their privacy to a certain extent. I will say that the new wife was very upset about the decision as was the grandfather and while I don’t agree with their statements, I understand where they were coming from. I know that if I were in their shoes, I may have said some of the same things. We found out afterwards that the boys’ mother was standing in that group with the grandfather and his new wife while they were talking to us. I wish I had known that so that I could address her directly, but I figure if she wanted to talk to us, she would have (not that her father really gave her the chance to….). After the grandfather left, the paternal aunt came back over with her brother’s girlfriend. This was more heartbreaking than anything. I could tell the both of them were hurting and I know that her brother was hurting also. I told her that I know this wasn’t an easy decision, but I was impressed with the family’s love and concern for the oldest child to give him up for what they hoped to be a better future. We hugged and cried and promised to send pictures and letters and such so that they can see how he is doing over the years. The two of them left and we finished up some last minute business with our lawyer and we walked out. We went straight to the post office to set up a PO Box so we can have the boys’ family send us pictures etc. We do hope that they will because we know that this connection to their family is so important for the boys. They need to know that they love them despite the way things turned out but they also need to know where they come from. It is a part of their identity and we will continue to support that.

So….that was yesterday. Right before the oldest one threw up in my hands while we were having a celebratory dinner at Double Daves (he has also been running a bit of a fever). As I have told a few of you, even if the court had not decided that we were these boys parents the fact that I let him throw up in my hands definitely does! J Oh, the things we do for our children…..on that note, please pray for his returned health. Thank God for Aunt Megan and her flexibility to be able to stay home with him today!

We love you all and again could not do this without your continued support. You are amazing people and we can’t live without you! Much Love!

Permanency Hearing

We attended a permanency hearing today for the boys' case. It was interesting in that everyone was there - The judge of course, our lawyer, Patrick and I, the CASA worker and the CASA supervisor assigned to the case, the boy's CPS caseworker, the ADA trying the case for the county, the mom's lawyer, both dads' lawyers and the lawyer for the boys. Yup - that was all just for our case! :) We were first in this particular section of the day so that was nice. There were about a million other people in the courtroom when we went in. Our lawyer told us that they were hearing an average of 20 cases/courtroom/session with about 3 sessions a day! That's incredible to me....

Anyways, we were there a total of 30 minutes with about 25 of those minutes being because we were talking to our lawyer after the hearing about what to expect at Monday's hearing. The other 5 minutes was in front of the judge for this permanency hearing. It was pretty simple..."How are the boys doing?" "They're good your honor." "Great, see you Monday." That was about it. There were a few more words exchanged between the lawyers and the judge, but most of it we weren't involved with.

On our way out of the courtroom, we were told that there is a possibility that the boys' mother and the youngest one's father may be relinquishing their parental rights. If that is the case, the only rights we have to terminate on Monday will be the oldest one's father's rights. If the others relinquish, we still have to make that termination legal, but that is a much simpler process.

Our lawyer prepped me a bit for my testimony on Monday. It seems that pretty much every one of the lawyers will have an opportunity to ask me questions. I am not sure what weight my testimony will have on Monday. However, I am pretty nervous. If for no other reason than I have this really bad problem with rambling when I am nervous (I am sure you would never believe that reading my blog! :) ). Either way, I am sure that if I say something stupid, it will have an impact on the judge's decision. The other thing that is making me nervous is that the parents will all be there (or are supposed to be). I sure don't want to do anything that will offend because I don't want them to appeal the termination if it happens, but I am also not going to lie to protect their feelings. I just know this is going to be hard for us, but I know it will also be hard for them on some level.

So, at this point, it is still really all up in the air. But, Monday is going to be the "big" day! Please pray for a positive response from the judge and that God's will for these boys is done. Please also pray for my clarity and use of appropriate words and ability to concisely get my point across without jeopardizing our case. :) Thank you all for your support! The comments and messages are so wonderful to receive.

On another personal note - my sister-in-law, Katie, had her baby yesterday! Knox Landry Blanchard was born at 12:17 pm on 8/5/29. He is 7 lbs, 10oz. He is just about the cutest baby in the whole world! I am so way excited to be Aunt Kellie! Pictures to come when I can get them uploaded.

What a week - wash, rinse, repeat...

How many times have I had to use the title "what a week"??? It seems there is no such thing as a dull moment around our home anymore! But that can be good too...

We ended our week last week with a trip to Oklahoma to my family reunion. The Stinebaugh decendents gathered at Sequoia State Park at the Western Hills Guest Ranch for a weekend of reminiscing and introductions (hey, we only do this every two years - people change a LOT in two years!). We had a great time and were so pleased to get to take the boys with us and show off our little ones to our extended family!

We started off on Friday morning around 10:30. The trip was supposed to take about 4 - 4 1/2 hours, but we knew to expect a little longer as we would be stopping for lunch, etc. We did pretty well in the car - how smart was it for us to plan our drive around nap time! :) Gabriel enjoyed watching movies on the DVD player (we can't thank Bubble Fernie and Cool Aunt Megan enough for that DVD player!). We stopped for lunch around 2:00 because no one told us that once we made it into OK along 75 there would be, like NO PLACE to stop along the way. So needless to say we were FAMISHED when we finally stopped. The boys were a bit cranky, but Old McDonalds was enough to renew their spirits. :)

We got back on the road (after a quick detour to Walmart - I kind of forgot my phone charger...oops!) and were at the hotel by 4:30. Not too bad considering our stops along the way. We checked in, relaxed in the room for a bit and waited for my mom and grandparents to get there. Then we went swimming!! Dinner at the restaurant at the hotel and then a quick visit to the OK Corral (that's the meeting hall we reserve every year to play games and spend time with the fam!). Then it was time to hit the sack.

The next morning, we met the family for breakfast and then our oldest went for a horseback ride (a 1 hour trail ride) that my brother Shelby coordinates every time. He LOVES the horses and they know him by name at the stables - he was emailing and calling them two weeks in advance! Thanks Bubble Shelby for getting it all set up. There were about 15 or so that went on the trail ride. Our oldest rode with my sister Cara - since he's three it is really hard for him to ride a full size horse by himself - though I know he would want to if we let him. He takes after his Bubble Shelby in love of horses! Cara managed to some how "sweet talk" her way in to being right behind the trail leader's horse - his name is Jo and he just happens to be 16 (Cara's 12 going on 22!). So our oldest ended up getting the special treatment while Jo flirted (AHEM!!) with my 12 year old sister. :) When they were done, our oldest was so happy he couldn't even hardly speak. He really had a great time! I was a bit worried because he hasn't been on a full sized horse before that so I wasn't sure if he would be scared, but he wasn't even a tiny bit! Again, when we adopt these boys, I will post some pics.

The rest of the day was spent swimming and napping (more for Mommy and Daddy than for the boys!) and some more eating of course. Then we joined the whole family at the OK Corral for some good ole fashioned worshipping. We have several preachers and talented musicians in our family, so every reunion we have a church service and some praise time. It was really neat to see how the talent continues to develop in our family. One of my distant cousins (kind of I think) got up with his daughter to lead the music. David played the guitar and his daughter Joy played the violin. They both sang as well. WOW! Joy is so amazingly talented! I am so impressed at her ability to not only play the violin like a pro ( and she is young too!) but at the incredible voice she has. Amazing!

By Sunday morning we were a bit worn out from all our fun and dreading the drive home. Though we made much better time getting home than we did getting there. When we finally made it home we were sad to have had to say goodbye for another two years (to some - others we will see *hopefully* before then), but glad to be home.

Those who read the blog a few days ago read about my uncle passing away about a week and a half ago. His funeral was This last Wednesday in - guess where - Oklahoma! I made my way up to Tulsa after work on Tuesday and spent the night with my cousin (again, kind of) in her gorgeous house. It was cool because Cara stayed with me and my Dad's best friend from high school (who happens to be his "boss" in the real estate business my Dad is in.) was there too. So it was like another reunion - just not for the same happy reasons. We got up Wednesday morning and went to the service. My Dad was the one who delivered the message and Eulogy. Public speaking is not his most favorite thing to do, but when he is passionate about something, he is so good! Despite how hard I know it was for him to get up there and speak, I was so impressed with his message and I hope that the rest of the family was too. We said goodbye to my Uncle David graveside while his daughter placed a sinlge red rose on his grave. You know, as many of these as I have had to attend in the last several years, it never gets easier. And because the boys' lawyer was coming to our house that night for a check in, I left from the funeral home to come home. Another 5 hours (that turned into 6 thanks to the traffic in Fort Worth!) in the car on the way home from OK. But it was worth it to be there....

So I am hoping for a few weeks with no more driving! :) But otherwise we have survived the week and I even managed to get my curtains started in my kitchen! :)

Updates from the Legal World

So we offically filed the intervention to terminate parental rights for our foster children so we could adopt them. That happened on Friday, 7/17/09 while we were away at my family reunion for the weekend (more about that later!). I don't know why this whole thing is so scary to me, but it is. I have only been in a court room where I was actually involved in the case one other time before this (I was 5, so I don't exactly remember it). The only other time I have ever even seen a court room was for jury duty - that I didn't get picked for. I guess maybe it is the fear of the unknown and I am definitely a person who likes to be in the know! :) I can't plan or prepare when I don't know!

I think the other thing that scares me about this whole process is that we are putting our faith in the system to see and do the right thing by these boys. There is SO no guarantee here and I know that it is possible that the Judge will allow some additional time or other opportunities for family instead of granting our request for termination. I know that I have to just trust in God's will and know that He will lead us down the right path. But I already mentioned my lack of patience with the unknown.... :)

The status is this: The intervention has been filed. CPS has given our lawyer a copy of the boys' case files so she can review them and see what can be used in our case. As such, we have learned some interesting things about our little ones' backgrounds. I was unsure if I really wanted to read the case file or not, but have decided that no matter how hard it may be for me, I need to know these things to adjust my parenting for what these boys need. Anyways, after talking to all of the players involved (with the exception of the parents of course), our lawyer says that everyone is supportive of termination and adoption by us. Their CASA worker said she would be willing to testify in court that adoption with us is in thier best interest, the boys' Attorney ad Litem said the same and CPS has indicated they are also in favor of placing the boys with us permanently - though they can't really testify to that affect....they have to really stick to their policies. But to know that they are in our corner is helpful.

We also got an update from our lawyer yesterday that she is feeling more confident about the strength of our case for termination of the youngest one's father's rights (I know that is a tounge tier, but as soon as they are ours we can use names!!!). We thought he would be our "wild card" in the case as our lawyer was already pretty confident the other two would be easily terminated given the circumstances (the oldest's father and their mother). But after reviewing the CPS case file, it appears there is more to the story with our "wild card" and we may be a bit better off than we thought. Still no guarantees, so I just keep praying that God will keep things moving in the right direction.

Of course, our prayer continues to be for what is best for these boys. Despite our own selfish motivations for filing this intervention, I am continuing to pray that it is the right thing for us to do for these boys. We are still a little in shock that it would work out this way with our first placement - and one that was only supposed to be two weeks at the most! But God does have a way of making things work out for the right reasons. We can continue to hope and pray that these boys' families will also find their way out of "destruction" as well. We know how important that family connection is and if there is a way to safely maintain that for these boys we want to do that.

So as usual I end this entry with a request for continued prayers. We have so appreciated the support we have gotten from all around the globe even! It is trully amazing that we can be here where we are now and we know it is becuase of the wonderful people who support us every step of the way. We love you all and hope to announcing the adoption of our boys very soon! :)

BRING IT ON!!!

Where should I even start??? Well, it's Tuesday and this week already feels like it has been the longest, most tumultuous week ever.....why is it that recently my posts have been starting off that way?

For starters, my Uncle committed suicide on Sunday. I didn't find out until Monday, but apparently there is a lot of family drama going on with this situation. I wasn't all that close with my Uncle - the last time I saw him was probably 8 years ago - but it still is hard to take. I remember him as so full of life - always grinning or cracking some joke (mostly at my Dad's expense of course!) or having a good time. It is hard to think of that man as the kind that would take his own life. I am praying for more than just understanding right now. I am praying for peace for my family as well as my cousin (who is just 9 years old) and my Dad who just lost his only brother.

On another note, the little baby we were trying to adopt was supposed to be born today. What we found out is that the mother was induced last night and at some point today during labor, they lost the baby's heartbeat and never got it back. The last I heard this afternoon is that the doctors were expecting him to be still born. I can't even imagine what this child who is giving birth is going through right now - I know as an adult I wouldn't be able to wok through all of the emotions that she must be going through right now. My heart breaks for her and the baby and her family.....I don't even really know what else to say....

But there is a semi happy ending to the last couple of days. Patrick and I met with a lawyer today who specializes in CPS adoptions and interventions. We discussed with her what we knew about the case (um, incredibly little!) and then she tried to get in touch with some of her contacts that could fill in some of the gaps. We left to go get the boys and so I could meet a dear friend for a night of packing and wine. When we left the lawyer's office, her thoughts were that based on the information we last got about the parents possibly relinquishing their parental rights that we didn't really need to file an intervention - it would really just be a waste of our money. So right in the middle of a sno-cone stop (mmmmm Hawaiin and cream!) we got a call from her again. She was able to talk to someone involved in the case and it turns out things are not as cut and dry as we last thought. It turns out that one of the fathers is going to likely fight to keep his rights and is actively submitting names for other family members to be reviewed for the boys to be placed with. This changes things significantly. Though the termination hearing is still set for August 10th, he can still make a case for a family member or even work his own service plan (we dont know the details of where he stands in completing that service plan.) So she strongly advised us to file the intervention.

So in about a day or so, they are going to the court house to file the intervention and we are going in the "boxing ring" to fight for our boys. The lawyer was shocked that we haven't been invited to any other hearings before this one in August (and technically we weren't invited so much as informed by an annonymous source....). I am desperately praying that the fact that we haven't been to any hearings up to this point will not be a detriment to our case. Either way though we are gearing up for a fight. Our lawyer seems confident that we are going to be able to pull through all of this with the boys and be able to adopt them in the end. We are just going to have to jump through the hoops first and work through this last rallying effort on the part of the parents (or as it seems, really just the youngest boy's father). But of course we don't know what we are looking at until the day actually comes. It sounds like we will be able to get some more information now that we have hired this lawyer (and given her the $2500 retainer...guess we're clipping coupons and eating PB&J sandwiches for a while!). She will have access to the case file and court files that we don't have the rights to otherwise. So we may know more about how to proceed in the next week or so.

In the mean time, we ask again for your prayers and support. We are in the thick of things now and it is only going to get harder the closer we get to our goal. But it is so worth it. These boys are so worth every single minute, every single penny, every single sacrifice and more. We can not wait to get those birth certificates with Pringle as the last name and mine and Patrick's names as the birth parents....Wow, I am getting goosebumps just thinking about it! Despite how "impossible" things may seem, Our Lord is all powerful and can make anything happen! So we trudge forward constantly reminding ourselves "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!"

More of the Pringle Family saga to come!

Sorry It's Been So Long

Hi All! I know, I know...it has been FOREVER since I posted on here. A lot of things have changed since then!

So let me give you the basic run down...

First, the boys are still with us. We just got back from the Pringle Family Vacation and they had a great time! We are so glad they were able to go with us after all! There is some news on their case, but I will save that for a bit later in the post.

Second, as many of you may have learned already, we have decided not to continue with the adoption of the newborn baby (he is still due July 14th). This was a very difficult decision that included a lot of praying and picking loved ones brains and more praying. Ultimately the real decision maker was that the timing of the boys' case with CPS was not going to work out to be before the baby is born. Since we can not participate in a private adoption and maintain our Foster Parent license, we couldn't take the risk that we would lose the boys. The other reason (and one just as important, but not the deciding factor for us) is the neonatologist shared with the birth mother that the baby is not expected to live. They are not going to attempt to resuscitate and they are expecting him to live no more than a day or so. This is heartbreaking in so many ways. We are continuing to pray for this baby and his bilogical family and we hope that you will as well. Lord, may your will be done....

As for now, we continue to focus on our boys and thank God for the blessing of getting them back. Which leads me to the news we got tonight. We have been waiting to hear about when the boys' visits with their family would be set back up again. At this point, nothing has been done because no one can seem to get in touch with the parents. One father is in jail for the next 5 years so we know he won't be doing any visits. The other father (we found out tonight) is also in jail until the end of the month do to some outstanding warrants. The mother (again we found out tonight) is not doing so well herself. What we also found out is that she is on the verge of relinquishing her parental rights. We are pretty confident that if she relinquishes her rights, the fathers will follow suit. If that's the case, we won't even have to go to court to file to fight for the boys - they will just give them to us at that point. So needless to say we are praying that God will speak to the boys' parents' hearts and lead them to do the right thing. As always we are praying for their wellbeing and for them to find a way to turn things around for themselves. They are still so young....

There is a hearing scheduled for August 10th at 2:00 pm - it is a public hearing so you can BET I am going to be there. This hearing is a "termination hearing". It sounds promising, but I honestly can't tell you what that means. It could mean they are going to terminate parental rights at that point - it could mean something else completely different. Again, we just have to wait and see what happens. In the mean time, we are going to meet with a lawyer who is very experienced in this area of family law and see what she has to say about our options. Her assistant seems to think she can get the DA on the phone while we are there at our appointment (Monday at 4:30 - so please be praying for us!). We are hoping that if nothing else, they can talk and she can give us a better idea of where things really stand. It is so hard to get information right now for a number of reasons including the fact that we are not legally a part of this case. I am just hoping that we can do what we need to in order to show those in charge that we want these boys and we are willing to fight for them (in the right way of course!).

So for now, I doubt we will have any updates until after that August 10th date, but we will keep posting as we go.

As always, we appreciate your prayers and support!

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!!!

The Lord is a miracle worker! I just can't go through the week that I've been through and end up here without accepting that fact!

The boys left Monday night. We said what we thought would be our last goodbyes to them and their case worker drove off with them around 6:30. I actually didn't cry (Patrick did - I am sure he is so glad I share that!) but i think i just went numb. I guess it didn't really hit me. We had to get out of the house, so we went everywhere we could think of to keep ourselves distracted. Tuesday night we did the same thing and then it hit me...I cried all the way home from Grapevine Mills. I couldn't even stop enough to tell Patrick why I was crying - though I am sure he knows.

Then this afternoon we got an email from the boys' case worker. Their Uncle has accepted a job in Iraq for a year. Their Aunt called the case worker to tell her that she couldn't keep the boys if she was going to have to do it on her own - she has two other children of her own. She is very upset about this decision, but I am so impressed with her courage to make the tough decision for the benefit of these boys. I can't imagine that choice - we didn't have a choice and it was harder than we ever thought. I know she is devastated and I will continue to pray for her and her family as well. God will bless her for her sacrifice...I know he will.

But that means that the boys get to come back to us!!!!!!!!! And it is a very distinct possibility that we will get to keep them this time! I can't even begin to tell you how happy that makes me, but I continue to be blown away by God's grace. As we have told people about this in the last few hours, many people of have said "when it rains, it pours" I never have ever thought of that statement as a positive one, but God is blessing us with so many things right now, it has to be "pouring". :) We don't yet have a guarantee about the permanency of this move, but the deadline date remains July 7th. If they don't have someone for them by then, that is it and we get to adopt them! AS far as we are aware, this Aunt was the only legitimate option, so we are trying to keep things in perspective, but are hoping for some great news in a month! :)

On the other front, we are still meeting with doctor and lawyers about adopting this baby (we are calling him Nicolas regardless at this point). We are praying for some direction for God about what this means for us for all three boys and continue to get the red balloons (twice on the way home today!). So we are not sure what God's plan is for us, but we keep praying and watching for our "signs". God is so great, he can make any of this work for us. We really are so blessed.

Please continue to pray for us. We don't yet know where things will lead, but we pray for God's will. We appreciate the prayers and support thus far and thank you for your continued involvement! :) We will keep you posted!

Keep those prayers a'comin!

Hi All! This week has been a roller coaster of emotions - several different ups and downs even in the span of a few hours! So I will try to capture as much of that as possible without making you all a bit sea sick! :)

The boys' court date to decide if they will be placed with their Aunt was yesterday. We were half expecting that if the judge chose to place them with the Aunt that the boys would go to her last night. Well, not the case. The judge did decide to place them with the Aunt. but we actually have the boys until Monday evening. So the good news is we will get to have them a few days longer than we originally thought. And we are really excited that the boys are going to such a wonderful person - a strong christian who wants both of them and is willing to make this a permanent thing....these boys need some permanency and stability in their lives, so we couldn't have prayed for anything better - other than them getting to stay with us of course. :)

The other "excitement" for this week is that I got to go to my first sonogram for Nicolas! I was incredibly nervous because I didn't know what to expect. I also wanted to make sure I didn't do anything to make the birth mother uncomfortable - like I don't know, start balling hysterically or something! :) When I got in to the room, they had just started the sonogram and the doctor was taking measurements, etc. Of course, it all mostly looked like black and white smudges on the screen, but as he continued his exam, I got to see everything from head to toe! AND....little Nicolas decided to stop being shy this time and he gave us a full on view of what could only be 100% certainty that he is a little boy! :) I also got to hear the blood flow in the umbilical cord (way cool!) and see the heart beating (also way cool!). After taking measurements, the doctor confirmed that Nicolas is currently 4 pounds and 1 ounce. The birth mother is at 34 weeks now. Everything else checked out normal with the exception of his head circumference. If I understand all of this correctly, Nicolas' head is about 10 weeks behind in development based on the head circumference. This news is not good. Basically, the skull is not developing fast enough to keep up with the brain. This means that the brain is going to be constricted and could cause some damage. We won't know more about what this means for Nicolas until he is born and they can do an MRI of his brain. Then we will have a better idea of what is in store for our little guy. The doctor would really only say now that what we saw in the sonogram confirms that Nicolas has "been affected by the CMV infection."


It is likely they are going to move the delivery (still shooting for July 14th) to Baylor in downtown Dallas (BUMC for you Baylor folk!) to allow for better specialist support for Nicolas after he is born. The system neonatology unit is "headquartered" there and there are a few more resources available a bit faster than at Baylor Irving where Patrick and I work (not that BMCI wouldn't do a wonderful job of caring for Nicolas of course!). The birth mother goes back in for another sonogram in about 2 weeks (I hope I can go to this one too!) and we can get a better idea of how Nicolas' head is developing as we get closer to the due date.

Till then, we are asking for all of your prayers for our little guys (Nicolas, and our two foster boys). These little guys are all in a struggle right now and could use every bit of prayer they can get. If you happen to remember them or can add them to your prayer list at church, we would be so grateful. We are of course also praying for the birth mother and her family, the boys' Aunt and her family and the boys' mother as well that she can kick this addiction and get her life in order. Our prayer list seems to be getting longer and longer everyday so please forgive me if we have missed anyone. As we have more news, we will be sure to keep you updated. Much love! (by the way, I saw red balloons FIVE times today after the sonogram! :) )

WE ARE ADOPTING!!!!!!!!!

But not how you think - and certainly not how we thought we would be doing it. But that is God and His plans for ya! :)

We work with a lady whose daughter is currently pregnant. They had made arrangements for another family to adopt the daughter's baby, but that couple got pregnant (as is the way things go!) and decided to focus on their own pregnancy. So they declined the offer to adopt this baby. And thanks to the fantastic networking skills of another co-worker (we owe her more than we can say!) we were introduced to the lady who works with us. She told us her daughter's story and the information they already know about the baby and we have both decided to proceed with Patrick and I adopting this baby. I am having a hard time believing it could really be that easy, but God knows what He is doing, so we are following along.

That's where the red balloon story comes in to play! :) What we have learned so far (I haven't been to an appointment yet) is that there is a very good chance this baby is going to be born with some kind of medical complications or disabilities. The most likely is some level of hearing or vision loss or mental retardation. We won't know the details until the baby is born as there is only so much you can tell from a sonogram - even the high powered ones! But we heard God loud and clear that we are supposed to be doing this. So.....we are.

I went and met with an adoption lawyer today and we are thinking we are going to go with this person to represent us. We will have another lawyer represent the birth mother and in a few short weeks, we are going to be bringing a baby home! The baby is due July 14th and they are mostly certain that the baby is a boy...he has modest legs. :) So in a little over a month and a half Nicolas Patrick will be coming home with us (barring any additional hospital time due to medical necessity).

Thankfully we have almost everything we need already - with the exception of some diapers, formula and boys clothes up to 12 months (thanks to these wonderful boys we have right now, we have a lot of clothes after 12 months!). Otherwise, we are ready - except we desperately need to clean and finish our kitchen renovations - but we have plenty of time! Yeah right! :)

Anyways, we will be sure to keep posting as we have more news on the developments and how things are going and of course when we get to finally meet little Nicolas, we will make sure we let everyone know! :) Till then, we will keep our prayers going and our eyes out for more red balloons! :)

Our Last Week

The time has finally come. The day we knew would be here all too soon. The boys will likely be leaving us by the end of next week. The court date for the judge to determine if they should be placed with their Aunt is set for June 3 at 2:00 pm. If the judge approves (which is VERY likely as all involved have approved of this Aunt), then the boys will be placed with her by the end of that week.

So we will spend this weekend doing laundry and packing up toys and getting every last goodbye in we can possibly squeeze in to a week. I don't even know what we say to them to make this transition any easier. We have had a rough time dealing with CPS over the past couple of months, but these boys have truly been a blessing in our home. We will miss them dearly....

We ask for continued prayers for these boys and their family. This is going to be a difficult transition, but also a joyous one and we want all involved to continue to prosper and grow. The stability being with their own family will bring will make that all the more possible and knowing that this Aunt is a Christian and loving individual makes it a little easier to let go. Thank you all for your support and love over the last 5 months. We certainly could not be doing this without you.

Calling All Prayer Warriors!!!

Just like the title says, we are calling in all our faithful prayer warriors out there. The winds of change are blowing hard yet again in the Pringle Household!

We are nearing the end of our time with these sweet boys as they finalize plans with the courts to place them with their aunt. We have heard some great things about this aunt (some we dont understand, but nothing scary! :) ). The fact that she is willing to take both of these boys is another answered prayer. Aside from letting them stay with us, we couldn't ask for anything better. :) We still don't know a time line, but we are expecting it will be soon - a month at the most. This is going to be a very difficult good-bye for us and our family. The past 5 months, these boys have become a part of who we are. There will certainly always be that place for them in our hearts just as it was for our first foster baby. Letting them go is the most difficult part, but knowing they are in safe and loving and capable hands makes it that much better.

While that is going on, we have been approached about another opportunity outside of CPS. We are at the decision making stage and as we continue to learn more about this opportunity God has presented us with, we will be sure to share! I can say - trust me I am not being secretive, just we don't have all the details at this point - that we are sure this is something God wants us to pursue. I am not the kind of believer who usually says "show me a sign God and I will obey." I have always felt that was a kind of half faith, I will only follow You if You really make it loud and clear and I can't ignore you, until recently. Our journey so far with so many loops and turns has really made me understand that "signs" are not a lack of faith on "being swallowed by the whale" kind of proportions, but more of a tool to ensure clear understanding! :)

So on the way home tonight I did my first "show me a sign" prayer. My prayer was that if we were supposed to continue to proceed with this opportunity God was supposed to show me a red balloon. Ok, stop laughing! I came to that sign logically....how many times a day do you typically come across a red balloon? There certainly weren't any on our way home tonight. So I thought that was a pretty safe one. If I saw a red balloon surely it was because God intended me to see it as my "sign". So I really honestly left it at that - though I did keep my eye out for any red balloons. We went to go pick up the boys and on the way back home Patrick decided we needed to go to the store. So we went to Tom Thumb. As we walked in the first door right there in front of me were TWO red balloons. I just stopped in my tracks. I was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to work that fast! I looked at Patrick and I said "I prayed for red balloons." Of course he thought I lost my marbles and as we walked in the second door to the main part of the store we were surrounded by red balloons almost everywhere we turned. "Ok God, I hear you!" Of course I explained my prayer to Patrick and after some strange looks in my direction, he agreed it must be the "sign" I had asked for. Now don't fret - I am going to keep asking for those red balloons to keep pointing us forward to make sure we are still on the right path. But at this point, it seems God says "forward march". :)

So we keep gathering information and praying for His direction in our decision. As we have more to share, we will be sure to post. In the mean time, we ask once again for your prayers and support. God is guiding our steps and we just hope that we are paying attention to His direction! We ask continued prayers for these boys and their family as well. They really will always be in our hearts despite the short amount of time we have had with them, so the more love and prayer we can send them with the better! Till next time....

Strength, Lord, Strength

Hello friends and family!

We have been busy over the last several weeks and I am afraid the blog has taken a backseat. Patrick and I have been working hard on remodeling our kitchen from new countertops (granite tiles we laid ourselves!) to new tile on the floor, a new backsplash and a new island/breakfast bar. Pretty much the only thing that isn't new is the cabinets! Otherwise, we are almost done - and I am ready to start on the bathroom, though I am pretty sure Patrick's head will pop off if I don't give him a little break! :)

On another topic, we have some news about the boys. Their case worker emailed us this week to let us know the home studies for the boys' family members being considered for placement have been completed. She is waiting to get the final reports to review them. Once she reviews them, then she and her supervisor will determine if they are approved or not. If they are approved, then the court will decide if the boys will be placed with them - which is very likely...there isn't really a good reason to not place them with the family if they are willing and pass the home study - unless something is "iffy" in the home study or they back out. If the home studies are not approved, then they start all over. However, we are thinking there is a 99.99% chance that they will be approved. The case worker emailed us today to tell us that the oldest will be joining the youngest on the weekly Sunday visits with the youngest's Aunt and Dad. The youngest was the only one going to that visit for the past couple of months. I am also pretty sure this is the aunt who said she would be willing to take both boys. We think that is why they are both going on the visits now.

The way things have been moving, we really can't give a good guess on how much longer we might have these little guys. I did ask for an estimated time line so we can try to prepare the boys and their things as well as ourselves! But of course, I didn't get one. So I have made one up to at least give me a goal...My best guess would be that if the home studies are approved, the boys will be be gone by the end of May at the very latest. I would imagine we are talking more like two weeks, but I am only guessing. I don't know that I have known CPS to do anything in two weeks, so who knows! :)

Anyways, we would appreciate any prayers you can throw up for these boys, their families and our family as well.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phillipeans 4:13

What a week!

Well, this has been a rather busy week. I am just glad to be on the other side of this one. I don't know that we could have taken much more stress!

To start off the week, I had to wake up extra early for a meeting at work - I had to be there at 6:30 am. Those of you who know me well know that is a valid item to list in the "stress" section because I HATE waking up early. I am definitely not a morning person. The worst part, the meeting had to be cancelled AFTER we got there because no one showed up. UGH! Then I loaded up all FOUR of our animals (3 dogs and 1 cat) to go to the vet for vaccinations. Yup, by myself....and the four animals....at the vets office for two hours...one dog fight between the males and $830 later, we were back in the car on the way home.

Monday night Patrick had his second sleep study. This one was to fit him with a CPAP machine as he was diagnosed with SEVER sleep apnea at this first sleep study (I have been telling him for years!). So needless to say, he didn't get any sleep Monday night - which always makes me wonder how they can really study your sleep patterns if you can't ever get comfortable enough to sleep during a sleep study - but that's another post all together! :)

Tuesday was our oldest foster child's dental appointment. This is significant because he had to have four crowns put in, some fillings and some cleanig and sealing. This means they had to actually completely sedate him in order to get the work done - since he's two, there was NO way he was going to sit still long enough to get that all done otherwise. So we had to be at the hospital by 6:00 am - Yup, another early morning. Patrick was still at his sleep study, so that meant I got the honor of taking care of that appointment. We got to the hospital and started to get him ready to go back to the OR and the nurse told me that we can't proceed until I can get their case worker on the phone to get an approval from her to proceed. Now, I am medical consenter, so why the case worker had to give consent, I don't know. But after about an hour or so of calling around - because you know no one was in that office at 6:00 in the morning - I was able to hunt down the boys' case worker's cell phone number. She was WAY excited to get a call from me so early, but the nurse took the verbal. But we had to wait until 9:00 before they started prepping him to go back to the OR (they don't even put him in a gown, just some meds to make him sleepy and then carry him back) because they had to bump us from our original time to wait for the case worker's approval. About 10:00 they were done and about 11:00 we were on our way home. He was pretty upset most of the ride home from waking up from the anesthesia and getting the IV in his foot, but by the afternoon, he was back to normal. He does have four silver teeth right in front though....medicaid won't pay for the white crowns....so I told him he needed to just call it his "grill" and be proud. (on a side note, when we picked him up from day care the next day the teachers told us he was showing off those teeth left and right! :) ). Meanwhile, Patrick has come home from his sleep study and was catching up on his sleep as best as he could.

Between keeping an eye on the oldest one (Thank you Grandmother and Poppa and Aunt Megan for taking care of the youngest one for us) and cleaning, we were pretty busy the rest of that day. Why were we cleaning???? Oh, that would be because we had TWO visits from TWO different departments at CPS for inspections. One was Wednesday night - our quarterly assessment done by our case worker - except she is on maternity leave, so a sub came in to do our quarterly assessment - and the next night we were expecting someone from Licensing to come and do an inspection of our home because we were picked at random to be inspected. We are SO lucky!

So Wednesday night, the sub case worker came over - 40 minutes late - and gave us a quick walk through. Aside from not having a fire escape plan posted (first time we heard about that one!) and our cat box having a "slight odor" (it's a cat box!) we didn't have any major issues. This was the night that was kind of the test run for the next night - the one that really counted!

Thursday night, the rep from Licensing came over and started her inspection. It was interesting the things she was looking at - she asked the oldest to show her his clothes, made sure there was a waterproof mattress pad on the bed and asked about whether he wears pull-ups or regular diapers (he wears both if you were curious yourself.). Then she went to the youngest's room and made sure he had clothes and diapers as well. The she went to the bathroom in the hall and ran the water to make sure we had hot water and then checked to make sure we had toilet paper and soap. She checked the kitchen next to make sure we had food for them and then the fridge to make sure the food we had in there was properly stored. Lastly, she sat down at our dining room table and asked us (me because Patrick was chasing after the kids) a bunch of questions and we showed her our documentation of trainings, car insurance, pet vaccinations, fire inspection, etc. Oh, don't forget the fire exit plan - that I drew up on the computer - it looks awesome! I forgot to print it before she got there so I was having to print it up while she was there. If I hadn't gotten it printed up and posted before she left, it would be a "concern" or violation. But I was able to get it posted before she left and we passed the inspection with NO CONCERNS! (don't worry, she didn't even mention the cat box!)

Now here we are at Friday and we are thankful for a quiet evening at home playing games with family - no more inspections or visitors for now - though I am sure someone will be calling next week! It just wouldn't be the same without some stranger walking around our house! :)

Patience, Grasshopper, Patience

That is my MANTRA these days. Though I am not nearly as "crazy" with anxiety as I was when we were waiting to find out if our licenses were approved to foster/adopt, this waiting to find out the fate of these precious children is getting harder and harder. I think that has a lot to do with how in love we all are - not just Patrick and I, but the entire family and our friends too! I find it hard to remind myself that the odds are more likely they will go home to family than they are that they will stay with us. So I try to remind myself to have patience and keep my faith that God has a plan for these boys (and for Patrick and I) and we have to trust He really does know best!

The boys' case worker came by for a home visit last night. I wish I could tell you all that we have some specific tidbits of news to share from that visit, but we simply don't. The most we could get was that it appears there is an Aunt that might be willing to take both boys. Praise God! My only prayer has been that these boys get to stay together. It would be so traumatic on these boys to be split up, so we are very thankful to know there is a slight chance they could be together afterall. We don't know when that might happen. Their case worker told us last night "there's just no way to tell, the people who do the home studies are so slow so it could be two months or it could be four. I just don't have any other information." So we are having to remind ourselves to be content with taking it one day at a time. Thankfully, we have other resources for information that have been more willing to share what they know with us. That at least gives us some peace of mind about where things are going. If you had asked me a month ago, I would have said the possibility was strong that we would get to keep the older one (that's what my gut said). But now my gut is saying "be prepared, these boys are both going to leave soon." It could also be that I have indegestion, but I would put money on what my gut says most times! :)

So while we don't have anything concrete to even think about right now - not even a possible idea of how long we might have these guys for - we just keep moving one day at a time, praying for what God sees as best for our tentative family and faithfully following that path.

On another side note, we had a WONDERFUL birthday party for the youngest little one - he just turned 1 year old! We braved the outside for about 45 minutes and decided the cold and wind was just not worth it - the hamburgers weren't cooking because the wind was so bad! So thanks to the Pringles for allowing us to crash their house and bring the party indoors! We had an absolutely wonderful time and both boys slept nice and soundly all night long and long into the morning - they were so pleasantly worn out from the fun! Again we remain in awe of the wonderful support we have. For so many people to be so willing to open their hearts to these little guys without the promise of any kind of permanence is inspiring. We appreciate you all more than we could ever say! God Bless!

What a week!

Well, we have successfully made it through our first "Mommy is so sick she can't do anything but sleep" experience. Yes, I had the worst ear infection I have ever experienced in my life (before you start calling me a wimp - the ENT said the same thing! :) ). So Patrick had to play Super Dad for a good part of the last week. I am finally able to hear out of right ear (the one that was infected). It was so swollen that the entire side of my face and neck were visibly swollen too! Anyways, I won't go into detail about the fun stuff draining the whole time and will just leave it at this: that was AWFUL!

But in their usual way, everyone stepped up to the plate to make sure we (Patrick and I and the boys) were well taken care of. I continue to be thankful every day for the support we have surrounding us. God has taken such good care of us and despite the ear infection I never thought I would live through (I am NOT being dramatic!) He shows us that He is going to continue to take care of us!

As far as news about the boys are concerned, your guess is as good as mine. The boys have a new case worker and our case worker is still out on maternity leave. We haven't had an update about the boys' families' home studies since the middle of January. We keep asking for an update, but it seems to be on the bottom of the list. So we keep praying for some positive results for these boys and keep moving forward on blind faith. We have had these little guys for 2 1/2 months and we are certainly in love! We couldn't wish for anything but the best for them. On another note, the youngest turns 1 year old on Saturday! We are excited to help him celebrate this milestone! He also moved up to the 1 year old room at day care now....he is eating all table food and no more formula. You can see how he is growing and developing every day. He seems like such a smart baby.

The oldest is going to have to go in for some dental work this next month. Because of his age and likelihood to not cooperate any other way, he will have to be sedated while the dentist puts some caps on his teeth and does some other cleaning. This is a little scary for us just because he will be sedated and that is always a big deal. But we have every confidence God will continue to keep his hands on these children and protect them throughout. The only other thing that kinda stinks is Medicaid won't pay for the white caps - only the stainless steal ones - and the teeth that need to be capped are on his front FOUR top teeth. Poor little guy! I told Patrick we will just tell him its his bling for his grill and hopefully that will make it better! :) Ok, not really, but I do hate that he can't have the better caps. At least these are just for his baby teeth and not permanent teeth.

We continue to have lots of visitors to our home - 1 almost every week. Between attorneys, CASA volunteers (whom we love! Their CASA worker is WONDERFUL!) and case workers, its almost like we have a revolving door on the front of our house. But such is the life of foster parents. We have attended our first Foster Parent Association meeting and it was very interesting to meet other foster parents. We also have to make sure we keep our education hours up to date so these meetings give us credit for those hours. It works out pretty well!

Otherwise, we are settling in to our routine pretty nicely and hoping for every minute we can get with these little guys. God Bless!

Our First Road Trip

Well, we took our first official road trip with kids this last weekend! I was looking forward to this weekend because we were going to Austin to see my Daddy and Diane, but also so they could meet these adorable boys we have had with us for the last almost two months. But the other reason I was looking forward to this weekend was being able to have our own "family road trip" stories to share. With my grandparents in various places around TX while I was growing up, we always had fun stories about road trips, songs we sang (I wish I could remember them all!) and those ever so numerous stories about "he's touching me" and "I have to go to the bathroom" a million different times over and over again! :)

So we got on the road about 4:30. I thought I had everything we could possibly need for the trip down and back. We had toys, movies, the cool DVD player Fern and Meg got us, all kinds of treats and juice and pillows and blankets. We were going to be well taken care of. Except, I forgot the little things, like a trash bag and I packed WAY too much food and too many toys - go figure! :) We stopped for dinner in Hillsboro and had some wonderfully healthy McDonalds (listen, you do what you can!). With both boys fed, we proceeded to the car to continue our journey southward. That's when we realized our first major "oops" of the trip was not making a bottle for the youngest one instead of making a sippee cup. So 30 minutes later we pulled in to the Czech Stop in West and bought some water and milk to make a bottle - the screaming was instantly ceased! Amazing! :) Then about an hour later, we had to stop for gas - and diaper changes - and don't even think I was about to take those boys into those restrooms for diaper changes - nope, we did it in the car right there at the pump! I am a diaper ninja!

About 9:30, we pulled in to Daddy and Diane's driveway! Whew! We made it! We came in for a few minutes of introductions and some unavoidable playing and getting riled up before bed. Patrick magically figured out how to put the pack and play together for the youngest and we put the boys to bed by 11:00 - a bit later than usual...but that usually means they sleep longer the next morning. We all retired to bed for a restful nights sleep....well, everyone else did. I was up all night with a stomach bug. A stomach bug that still hasn't gone all the way away. So it turns out I was pretty much useless all weekend long. Patrick played Super Daddy all weekend chasing the boys and keeping them entertained with Daddy and Diane and family. (I still haven't figured out how to pay him back for all he did this weekend - he was simply wonderful!) But the boys seemed to have a really good time.

Deeda (that's the grandparent name my Daddy chose) and Diane kept those boys busy with all kinds of "country" entertainment - watering the garden, running around the yard, playing basketball and skating in the garage to feeding the cows and watching the birds eat out of the birdhouse. Of course they also got to watch whatever they wanted to and had plenty of pancakes, hotdogs, mac and cheese (homemade - not the boxed kind) hamburgers, strawberry shortcake and milk and juice! After two days of all this goodness, I am surprised they will even consider eating my cooking - or the food i get already prepared I mean. :)

We made sure to wear these little ones out as much as possible all weekend long and got on the road to come back home about 11:30. The youngest had a family visit that night and we needed to be back home in time for CPS to pick him up. So we said some tearful goodbyes to Deeda and Diane and head out northward. We expected a similar trip home to the one we had coming down. But God was truly with us because both boys slept all the way through to Waco (mommy did too!). We stopped in Waco for some lunch and were home by 3:30! The trip back home was MUCH better!

So we learned a few good lessons about road tripping with kids and we get to start our own list of road trip stories where I am sure there will be many more to come! :)

Many blessings to you all as you have been to us!

Still Kickin'

Hey all! I haven't posted in a while mostly because there hasn't been anything too exciting to post about. Right now we continue to get better and better at our routine as these boys are growing and changing every day. And of course they are teaching us and helping us to grow every day as well! :)

We continue to take things one day at a time as far as where things stand with CPS. We are going to attend our first Tarrant County Foster Parent Association meeting on Valentine's Day. This is a great way for us to get to know other foster parents in our area as well as learn more about being a foster parent. It is also a good way for us to earn continuing education credits as we make sure we are able to renew our license at the end of the year. We are hoping this will be a positive experience for us and ensure we won't have to spend too much time in the PRIDE training again! :)

On another very positive note, our friend Elizabeth got a placement tonight - the first since this last October 2008! She was placed with a little 8 month old girl this evening! We are very excited for her and this little one and will be sure to keep them both in our prayers.

Till we hear any more news, we thank you again for your prayers and support. :)

Thank You All!!

Once again we are reminded how much God cares for us in the everyday "little" things in life. To think that He is paying attention to us - people who are not doing anything significant in His work or saving the world or changing the lives of the masses - and our needs is a bit exciting and overwhelming at the same time. The thing that has always continued to amaze me has been the way He has always taken such good care of us. It isn't so obvious as a bag of money randomly left on our door step or our mortgage mysteriously paid off, but just at the time when we are thinking "what are we going to do?" He steps in once again and provides.

So in that spirit, we would like to say THANK YOU for the support that has come pouring in since we shared that the boys will be staying with us for much longer than we ever originally thought. Not only have we had offers to babysit, help with moral support, but we have had an outpouring of offers for clothes, wipes, food and other necessities. So again we say THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts and we could not do this little thing we are doing here without you all. We pray that God will bless you the way He has continued to bless us!

More updates on the fun we are having with the boys to come later (we painted nameplates for our bedroom doors tonight!). Till, then keep moving forward! :)

Still Even More Fun!

Well we had a home visit tonight with the boys' case worker. This was our first visit with her since she brought the boys to us so we were not quite sure what to expect. We figured she would come in and talk to the oldest one by himself and ask to see their rooms, etc. We were not counting on the new forms we needed to fill out, etc. We answered some questions (what time do they get up, go to bed? Do they seem to like day care? Do they act different after they come from their visits?) All things you would expect her to ask.

While she was here we talked about the updates on their families' home studies. There have been some changes in plans we discovered this evening. The biggest of which is that they are not going to be able to do expedited home studies for any of the family members for these little guys. The other is that these home studies take some time (as those of you who have been reading our blog may well know!) and we are looking at another 2-3 MONTHS at the very least with these little guys! Well you know that is Great news to me and scary but happy news to Patrick! :) But that does mean that we will get to do a birthday party for the youngest one!!!! So you better start watching the mail for the invite (in about a month of course!).

So we do have some stocking up to do (clothes - these kids are growing fast!, toys - we are doing pretty well here, but you can always use some more to change out, diapers and wipes!!!!) and we will get these guys enrolled in WIC to help pay for food and make sure we are setting up dental and doctor visits, etc. In the mean time we will keep plugging away at our schedule (at least we get to use our routine we have just gotten used to!).

Their case worker did say that the judge has set a final permanency date of July 7th. This means that CPS will have to have home studies done on the family members ( and they will have to be approved) by that date or (I believe I understand this correctly) the parental rights will be terminated and they will explore "other options". I don't know if that means they will be available for adoption or if they will extend their family search out further, but it does mean we have a final goal date for these boys.

Till then we will keep doing what we do and enjoying our time with these kiddos and praying for a positive result in the permanency plans. We would certainly appreciate all of the prayers you can throw our way as well! :)

Still Kickin'!!

Well it has been about two weeks since I have done another post. I actually forgot that it has been that long and realized that I needed to get on here! :) It has been a whirlwind the last two weeks. For starters, we do still have BOTH boys. We have a home visit with the boys' case worker tomorrow evening so we will get an update then about how their family members' home studies are going. This could give us a better idea of how long we will have these guys. We are finally starting to get in to a bit of a routine so I am sure we are just in time for them to go home now that we have gotten this routine down! :)

The youngest went to get a hair cut - his first! - and while I I expected it to be a much more involved process (I couldn't imagine how Elizabeth was going to cut this squirmy baby's hair!) it really was very easy! Elizabeth is like a haircutting ninja! :) If you need a good stylist let me know and I will pass on her info.

We've also been to the park (and experienced the worst temper tantrum when it was time to go I think I have ever seen!), had a "play date" (my first!) with my friend Tosca and her boys, hung out with Noni (my mom) while Mommy and Daddy had a date night and spent several Sundays with Grandmother and PaPa. Aside from the regular visits to day care, we have also made a new Potty Chart with Spiderman and Cars stickers for every time we go potty and a new tooth brushing chart with a star for every time we brush our teeth! On top of all of that, we are taking the oldest for a dental check-up tomorrow and should have some interesting changes to our routine after that.

So as you can see in my breif description, things are going well. Though we had a rough night tonight what with getting off work late, Patrick stuck at jury duty until after 7:00 pm, coming home to attempt to do some cleaning before the case worker comes tomorrow night and Patrick getting side swiped in a hit and run before he got home and fussy babies because they were tired and needed some attention, it sounds like a regular night in the homes of many when you type it all out - and we are secretly happy to be a part of that "club". We hope that we will get to keep these little guys for a little longer and that the next ones will bring us closer to beginning our own family (though all of these children will be a permanent part of our "family" no matter how long they stay with us!).

I will try to do better about making an update a little sooner than two weeks next time - but I can't promise baths or stinky diapers won't get in the way! :) We love you all and appreciate your continued prayers and support as we continue moving forward on our journey!