Homestudy update

Everything is completed with our homestudy EXCEPT for receiving the FBI clearances from our fingerprints. We've been waiting about a month and a half now. Our social worker has everything written up, she's just waiting to get the clearance so she can put that in real quick. Well, yesterday she sent me an email telling me the DOJ has told her a FBI clearance wasn't requested when we had our fingerprints done!! She's trying to talk with DOJ to see if there is a way to get this fixed with out us having to do our fingerprints again because FBI was clearly marked on our live scan form. I do fingerprints for new employees at my work all the time. We use the same machines that everyone else does for live scans. I know that if we do not enter the information in correctly the first time we have to re-do the fingerprints all together. So…I'm guessing the DOJ is no different and we'll have to have them done again… that's another $60 out the window! The bright side is I think we can request to be reimbursed from the state for it. BUT seeing how the state doesn't have any money, we probably won't see any of it for quite some time!

So that's that… we wait some more. :o(

Pen Pal

I finally found an organization where I can sponsor a child in a Russian orphanage. Unfortunately, right now is not a good time financially for me to actually sponsor anyone, but they also have the option of being a pen pal to these children…for free. So, I signed up! My new pen pal is named Sasha. She's a 17 yr old girl who has lived in a Russian Orphanage for the last 10 yrs. I'm going to get started right away on sending letters!! Not only will this be a great experience for myself, but I think it will be a great experience for Ivan as well. I'm so excited!

If anyone is interested, the name of the website to find out more information is www.sovietsksupporters.blogspot.com

Also… I received Ivan's "Superman was adopted" shirt yesterday! Thanks again Lorien. I will be posting a picture soon and will also send one out to Lighthouse Adoptions! It's so cute. I showed Ivan the shirt and told him "Look Ivan, it's says 'Superman was adopted'" and Ivan looks at me and says "Why, what happened?" ;o) I could have answered him "Well son, his planet was going to explode so his mother and father put him in this capsule thing and sent him out in to space. He crashed landed on earth and was found by a farming couple and adopted" but I think that would have just confused him more! ;o) Instead I said "He was adopted like you." I'm sure he would have found the first answer a lot more interesting though! Anyway, now he's all excited to wear his shirt!

Congratulations!!!

I recently found an old friend online who I knew while I was in the Navy. Turns out his wife was pregnant with triplets. It was their third try at IVF. They lost their son at birth on their first try. Can't imagine what that must be like.

The third time was the charm for them apparently because his wife just gave birth yesterday. They were born prematurely, so they still have a long road ahead of them, but they are here. So I wanted to send out a huge congratulations to Ben and his wife Lisa!! I will continue to pray for your little ones that they continue to gain strength, stay healthy and get to go home soon!! I will also pray for you and your wife! Take care of yourselves and again… CONGRATULATIONS!!!! :o)

Day at the Zoo and Park

It's a rare occasion anymore when David and I have a day off together. Our work schedules allow for one of us to be home with Ivan every day of the week except for two days; however, that comes at a price. So when we do get a day off together we try to do something fun. Turns out, David had training last week with weekends off, so we loaded up and headed to Micke Grove Park. We visited their small zoo and rode on all the fun rides. Ivan had a blast and so did we. It was real nice to spend the day together. I miss that... Anyway, enjoy the pictures.






































These last pictures are not of our trip as you can see. This is Ivan getting his first lesson on how to defend himself. "Stay away from my center!!"

ahhhh....

I need to get me one of these... ;o)

This is my friends granddaughter. She's so beautiful.

My things change quickly...

Well, things were going well with the little guy in our house. It was hectic and exhausting, but all things considered it was going well…. That is until yesterday. We got in to a little disagreement with how things were handled regarding a visitation and how David was treated on the phone while talking to the little guys social worker. I can't really get in to all of it, but it ends with me going down to social services to pick the little guy up, my electronic key to get in had been deactivated and the little guys social worker telling me my husband was "hostile" to her over the phone and that her supervisor would like to speak with us because "he doesn't look highly upon that especially with a foster parent". Anyone who knows my husband knows he can be a smart @ss, short and maybe talk in a tone that let's you know he's not happy, but hostile… not at all. That to me tells me she felt threatened by my husband in some way and that is ridiculous. So, I able to speak with the supervisor and told our side of the story and requested they find another home for the boy because we were not going to continue to do this. David was able to go down and speak with the supervisor and the social worker at the same time basically to "clear his name". What a mess.

I feel bad because this makes another move for him, but I also know the sooner it happens the better for him. The whole system is really messed up and frustrating. I know that by doing what we did we probably burned some bridges with our county and future placements, but to be honest I'm tired of dealing with social workers, requirements etc etc that I just don't care anymore. It is out of our control now. What happens will happen.

We learned a lot from this experience. We will not ever do foster care. People who do are saints because they are treated as if they are the "clients" of Child Protected Services instead of people who are trying to help these children. I've learned that maybe 2 children is the limit for us. More than that at one time may put me in an insane asylum. ;o) We've learned that we really do not want to have to deal with visitations, so we will only except relinquishments, safe surrenders or a situation where there may be visits but they are ending soon. Not because we don't want to have to deal with the bioparents but because we don't want to have to deal with the county social workers anymore than we have to.

So we will chalk this up to another life lesson…

Update...

I pick him up tomorrow at 10:00 :o)

Possible placement

We just received a call about a 1 1/2 yr old little boy. This will be straight foster and not for a permanent placement. I'm waiting to hear back from the county licensing office regarding some technicalities with my mom and her CPR certification. If that can be straightened out I will be picking up the little boy tomorrow morning and he'll be with us a minimum of 6 mos. I'm actually excited about it because it will be nice to have another little one in the house. The fact that I know this is temporary and he will not be staying makes it a little easier regarding knowing we will have to return him. If he was placed with us with the hopes of adoption and then we had to return him that would be a different story.

My only concern was the fact we are licensed for two children under the age of 2. If a situation came along for a sibling group that is strictly adoption, I was worried it would interfer with that. However, we have the space and the house is already approved. All that would need to be done is changing our licensing to add an additional child, which I don't think would take long. A day or so maybe?

So we'll see… we are getting our feet wet at the very least. I'm sure our social worker will have something negative to say about this, but I really don't care. We both feel this is the right thing to do. This little boy needs a place to stay until his parents get their act together and we have the space, so why not? Right?

Show of support...

I received the following email from a dear friend of mine and I wanted to share it with you all.

I received this after hearing about a local woman's husband who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq a couple of days ago. They have a 7 month old baby girl. It breaks my heart to hear of these things, especially because I know their deployments are long and I'm guessing he was never even able to hold his baby girl. I'm hoping I'm wrong.

The gentleman mentioned below is one of the lucky ones in that he is still alive. It looks like he still has a long road ahead of him though. I think it's great to be given the opportunity to show him my thanks and give him the respect he deserves.

"I wanted to share a blog w/ some of you of a friend of mine and Kelly's that was injured during some military training in Africa.

www.timwaldron.blogspot.com Please feel free to leave any post or anything you want to...or don't if you don't feel comfortable.  But him and his family would love to hear from anyone that is giving support! 

Thanks!
Tammy"

Please take a minute to stop by Tim's blog and show him and his family some support.

Thank you!!