Projects

While Kellie has been furiously making all kinds of things (awesome things) for people (awesome people) for Christmas this year, I have been trying to give as much space and support (mostly staying out of the way) as I can. I do enjoy my paracord stuff but I breeze through most of my projects and I haven't taken any more on... until now.

I just finished my first and second (and hopefully last) T-shirt quilts. I use the term "quilts" loosely as my sewing abilities are below beginner at best. I don't have pictures right now but safe to say I am just hoping they last for the next 6 months before they start falling apart. Kellie took some pictures last night and she may post them up here. Please be kind... I am just glad the boys are so young that they won't know the difference between a good quilt and one that Dad slapped together.

Here's to hand made Christmas presents... maybe just as expensive as store bought, but made with a lot less ability. And a lot more love.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.

Patrick

Savior, Please

Josh Wilson - "Savior, Please"

Savior, please take my hand .

I work so hard, I live so fast.

This life begins, and then it ends.

And I do the best that I can,

but I don't know how long I'll last.

Chorus:

I try to be so tough,

but I'm just not strong enough.

I can't do this alone,

God I need you to hold on to me.

I try to be good enough,

but I'm nothing without your love.

Savior, please keep saving me.

Savior, please help me stand.

I fall so hard, I fade so fast.

Will you begin, right where I end?

And be the God of all I am because you're all I have.

(Chorus)

Hallelujah

Everything you are to me,

is everything I'll ever need.

And I am learning to believe,

that I don't have to prove a thing.

Cause you're the one who's saving me.

Hallelujah

(Chorus)

Savior, please keep saving, me.

Featured....Yay!

Hi all - with all the craziness the last couple of months, I let time get away from me before I remembered to tell you that I was featured recently!  I am so excited! 

I am not sure if you all remember my obsession with The Ribbon Retreat + Fabric store online???  But they have a blog as well.  I submitted by Toddler Belt project as an idea of something I have used ribbon from that store for and they actually showed my project on their blog!  Yippee!  Anyways, here is the write up - I hope you enjoy perusing the blog.  I just love all the cool stuff out there - all the more reason to shop at The Ribbon Retreat!  Patrick will be sooooooo glad!  :)

Sometimes it's just what you need to hear

Awesome!! We complain about the cross we bear but don't realize it is preparing us for the dip in the road that God can see and we can't.

Whatever your cross, whatever your pain, there will always be sunshine, after the rain.....

Perhaps you may stumble, perhaps even fall; But God's always ready, to answer your call.....

He knows every heartache, sees every tear, a word from His lips, can calm every fear...

Your sorrows may linger, throughout the night, But suddenly vanish at dawn's early light...

The Savior is waiting, somewhere above, to give you His grace, and send you His love....

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

May God bless the broken road that leads us straight to where we need to be....

Alas....it must have been gas....

We heard from our FAD worker about 6:00 tonight.  The workers for this little one chose the other family.  They don't have any other children and the workers felt that this other family would be able to give her more individualized attention.  Our FAD worker said "to which I replied, you must not know my family then!"  Just another reason we love her!  :)  The supervisor for the case told our FAD worker that this one of the most difficult decisions they ever had to make.

So before I launch into my more appropriate responses, let me just get these out of the way:

1) the whole "individualized attention" excuse seems a bit like a b.s. reason to me...
2) how come it is that people think saying "this was a difficult decision" makes it any easier to accept that decision?
3) THIS BLOWS!!!

Now, back to being a good girl!

Honestly, I truly know that this too is all a part of God's plan for us.  I also know that if He did not include this little one in our lives then there is something so much better waiting for us.  I know that the decision to not place this little one with us means that she is going to EXACTLY where she needs to be for what is BEST for her.  And it feels really good actually to know that is what I really prayed all along - I won't lie and say I am not feeling a little sucker punched right now - but I am happy that she is where she needs to be.  That is honestly all I could ask for.  This has been a very hard several weeks (almost two months!) and it is emotionally draining, but in the end it is all about the child.  If this is not where she needs to be then Praise God He is wise enough to place her where she does need to be.

There is that other part of me that is not so secretly celebrating for this new family.  We were once the brand new foster/adoption family that was being considered for placement - We did it about 3 times before we got the boys - and all I kept saying was our lack of experience should not hinder us!  It was so frustrating to not be considered just because we had no experience when how could we get experience if no one would trust us enough to get our first placement?  So, I am happy that this family has been given that opportunity.  What a wonderful Christmas present for them!

The song "Praise you in the storm" by Casting Crowns is my mantra right now.  This stuff is hard - we can't do it alone - we don't have to do it alone!  How amazing is that?!?!?  How absolutely mind blowing is it that the God that created the universe and us and everything the eye can see also cares enough about me that He carried my burdens??  I have  not been very faithful in letting Him carry those burdens and so I have struggled.  I have had to walk through the fire and I have certainly been burned for my stubborn need to be in control.  I am certainly not done with learning my lesson either.  I know this will always be my struggle.  But I sit here typing this feeling free knowing that while I will always struggle with this, God will always be there to help me.  He will always forgive my lack of faith and my arrogance and He will never get frustrated or annoyed that I keep doing it over and over again.  I can just say WOW.  Our God is an AWESOME God.

So while the next steps are very uncertain and while I HATE (LOATHE) not knowing what is coming next, I also know that God knows what He has in store for us - I know we have to walk through the good and the bad to get there and in the end we will be better for it.  Praise you Lord for allowing us the opportunity to grow and learn.

Till the next Pringle Junior drama....God Bless!

After Meeting Update

No decision just yet, but here is the text exchange I just had with our FAD worker:


Carolyn: She’s adorable!!!!
Me: :) I bet she is!
Carolyn: I just presented. The other worker is presenting now. Hopefully we will know something by today, tomorrow at the latest. I’ll ask and let you know.
Carolyn: They loved your picture book.
Me: Thank you for all you have done for our family!
Carolyn: anytime

Hee hee hee! She makes me giggle. :)  So that’s it for now…..we will let you all know when we hear anything else….I am trying not to force the seconds to go faster because honestly I have a lot of work to do! But work schmork! :)

PS - OF COURSE they loved our picture ("pick us") book!  My mom and sister worked so hard on that book and they did such a great job with it!  I just knew it would be a huge hit!

God Bless!

My New Hobby

While mindlessly looking through Facebook one day I came upon an ad for a company selling "survival bracelets". I had no idea what they were but after a little reading on their site found that they were a way to carry 8 to 20ft of 550 lb test parachute cord around with you for those "just in case" situations - hence the survival bracelet. Most of the sites that I found that were selling them wanted anywhere from $20 to $25 plus shipping for one that would fit me. I almost bought one when I heard that little voice in the back of my mind (sounds a lot like my wife) telling me that I could make them for cheaper than that.

After a little Googling I cam across this tutorial: http://stormdranespbtutorial.blogspot.com/ which led me to this blog: http://stormdrane.blogspot.com/. He does all kinds of cool stuff with paracord and leather lace and provides links to where he buys all of his supplies and gear - make sure you check out his blog. I will add some at the end of this post but he has a lot more. I followed the tutorial and looked up some others and this is what I have done so far:

These are made using a cobra knot/stitch. Most of what I have done is either a single or double (King Cobra) knot although I experimented a little with the Dragon's Tongue knot as well:

After a expanding my color selections and playing around a little I have been able to make 2 and 3 color bracelets as well as some in 2 different kinds of camo:

I will list the links to stuff that I have used but feel free to look around Stormdrane's blog for other links. If you are interested in one I would be happy to make it for you provided I have the necessary colors. Let me know.

For paracord the best price/selection I have been able to find is on Ebay and the seller is local so the shipping is much faster. The others are a little bit more but the selection is not necessarily as good.

MajesticDreams Ebay listing

Supply Captain Paracord

Rotokid Shop

For the buckles I only use Creative Design Works. Best price I can find.

A couple of other necessities if you are going to get into this: a good pair of sewing scissors, a torch style lighter and a small candle.

Firsts

28 years ago I became a brother for the first time. 9 years ago I became a husband for the first and last time. 2 years ago I became a Dad for the first time. 1 year ago I became an uncle for the first time. And now I am using my first post on this blog to talk about my first second time as a Dad.

That may not make a lot of sense but it is very simple. About 3 or 4 months ago Kellie and I decided that we would go back on the vacancy list for another placement through CPS. This time would be different than the others in that we would be only taking adoption or legal risk placements. I won't go into what this means as I am sure that Kellie has covered this before but suffice to say any children that we have in our house from here on out would be staying with us instead of having a chance that they would go back. We had 3 foster placements since we adopted our boys and they have all been tests for our family for one reason or another. There have only been a couple of emails from our case worker since we went adoption only about possible placements and right now we are waiting (mostly) patiently to find out if we have been picked. As with everything in this process it takes time and without our wonderful case worker we wouldn't have any idea what is going on. We hope to hear something on Wednesday the 8th but either way this goes down we are praying for this little one to be where God wants her to be. We are not sure yet when we will actually have her if we are picked but that would make another great Christmas present... much like the boys 2 years ago.

I know that Kellie is so much better at keeping everybody up to date and nobody really wants my 2 cents but I figured that I would start putting it out there anyways. I have started my own little "crafty" hobby that I will post later with some pics to go along with all of Kellie's projects.

-Patrick

Updates

Here we are a month and a half in to this process of waiting to find out if we are selected to be the adoptive family for this little one (see the post from yesterday to know how crazy this makes me!) and we are on the cusp of knowing what God has in store for us on this particular situation.

Our FAD (foster/adoption) worker came by last night to get our "pick us" book.  She is going to use this in the meeting on December 8th to kind of give a little snapshot of our family and who we are - outside of the black and white, clinically written home study they use to "kow us".  I would like to take this moment to just mention that she is an AWESOME lady.  I so enjoy working with her!  Anyways, while she was there we talked about what to expect over the next couple of weeks.

First, the selection meeting is scheduled for December 8th at 11:00 am.  Our FAD worker will attend the meeting just long enough to represent us, answer their questions, show off our "pick us" book and such.  Then she will leave.  She is not allowed to sit and listen about the other family that is also in consideration right now.  She promised to call/email me immediately after she leaves the meeting so she can tell me what she knows - another reason she is awesome, she knows I will be going completely insane!  She said she does not know if the committee will make their decision on the 8th or not.  I guess it just depends on who is there, what they hear and if they have any further questions or checking they need to do.  And of course, she will let us know immediately as she hears anything.

IF WE ARE PICKED: The child's worker will prepare a copy of the case file for us to review.  We will have the opportunity to review the entire case file prior to placement. Someone will either deliver it to us or we will go pick it up, but either way we will have the chance to go through all of it, ask questions, do some reasearch etc. before we have to decide that we will, based on this new information, still take this little girl.  Let me back up by saying this: DOES IT MATTER????  Not really!  I am pretty certain that there is nothing in that case file that could possibly change our minds.  But they have to give us that opportunity (full disclosure and all that) and so we will take it - just because I am nosy more than anything else.  

Then once we have reviewed the file and done all the additional fact seeking we want to, we will let them know our decision (is there really any question??) and then they will coordinate with us us about placement.  Here is what I don't know - what happens after that?  I don't know if they will bring her to us immediately or if they will do a transition thing.  If it is transitional, they will let us have her for a short period (like a day) and then take her back to her foster home.  Then they will let us have her like overnight and then take her back and the progressing to a full weekend and then to forever.  The idea behind that plan is to allow the child and the adoptive family the opportunity to get to know each other, learn more about each other's needs and habits and work on developing a routine.  It is also a chance for everyone involved to determine if this placement will work - a trial run per se.  Given that this little girl is so young (she is 8 months old) I don't know if they will do the transitional thing or not.  I could see that being harder for such a young one, but then again, I just don't know. 

My guess is that if they pick us we will be doing really good to have her in our home by Christmas....

IF THEY DON'T PICK US: that's all she wrote folks!  That will be it.  There won't be anything else for us to do except see what God has in store for us next.

Our FAD worker really has no other information at this time.....she doesn't know anything about what the other family has to offer that would get them this far in the process that we don't offer - though I had a thought recently that perhaps they are closer logistically and that may be a plus just for keeping in touch with the other siblings or perhaps one of the parents is a stay at home parent.  And quite frankly it is none of our business about this other family any way.  There is no reason we need to know anything about them so I wouldn't really want to ask anyways. 

So there you have the most recent updates....5 days and counting.

God Bless!

10,080 Minutes

10,080.....that's how many minutes are in a week....that equals 168 hours or 7 days....it's all time and I guess in the grand scheme of things it is all in how you look at it.  For me, even though 10,080 minutes is the same thing as 168 hours and 7 days it still seems like this next week has already started to DRAG BY.  Why?  Well, in a roughly 10, 080 minutes we will know if we have been picked for this little one we submitted our home study for.  The "selection committee" meets on December 8th.  We don't know what time or for how long or even what happens during that meeting.  We don't go to that meeting (and I am not sure I would really want to anyways - that seems awkward) so we have no informaiton - we just get to wait and count down the days, hours, minutes....all 10,080 of them - until we find out the decision of basically complete strangers and the effect it will have on the future of our family. 'Tis the life of a foster parent or adoptive parent or both or really in many cases any parent for that matter.   It is all about waiting and what you do with the time in between I guess.

So for now, the hands on the clock keep ticking (though I am sure there are about 200 extra seconds added on for each real second...) and we keep doing what we do.  Patrick will continue to be the solid rock he always is: "If it is meant to be and a part of God's plan for us, it will happen.".  Gabe and Alex will continue to be the most amazing boys this selfish and undeserving mother has ever met.  And I will continue to be completely and utterly insane with impatience and unable to control my impusles to re-read the information we have about this little one, re-review our "pick us" book for any possible flaws that could even remotely cause these strangers to think we will not be fit for this little one, clean my house sporadically while being completely overwhelmed and distracted by all the projects I still have to get done for Christmas and pray constantly. 

My AWESOME family!  P.S. - Yes, Patrick's wildly inappropriate shirt says EXACTLY what you think it does...he's cool!

But, you aren't surprised by that too much right?  It is after all the dynamic that has been the Pringle Jr's from the very beginning.  As I said recently to my mother - in - law (who is AWESOME by the way!) - Patrick is the ynig to my yang or vice versa.  Not sure which one is the crazy one and which one is the solid, practical, calm one, but you get the idea.  Gabe and Alex are the glue that holds it all together and God certainly has His hand in all of it.  So I will continue to work on letting it go.  I will have to re-listen to my encouraging songs again so I can remember how nice it is to not have complete control after all!  I forget things sometimes you know!  :)

Till next time!  God Bless!