Fourth 4th

Lil M and I celebrated our fourth 4th (of July) this year. :) I find it somewhat amazing that it's been FOUR years!! Amazing and awesome and ... boy, does time fly! She is such a blessing and I couldn't be more happy to have her as my daughter.

We didn't do anything super-special over the fourth... we did have T and baby G and baby B with us... so, it was a full house. By Sunday, though, everyone was gone and Lil M and I went to see some fireworks. That was fun. We sat on her Dora snuggie, lol, as it was sort of impromptu.

Lil M is in gymnastics and seens to really enjoy that. She's also starting piano and seems excited.

We had a foster with us from Feb until June 20... she was Baby B and is a beautiful little girl. Her mom (20) came to live with us from May 26 to June 21. She was a head case, and made it pretty stressful for all of us. I loved having Baby B around, but am glad the situation is over, as it was pretty terrible and stressful for me, in particular.

So, I'm glad to have some time with just me and Lil M for now. I've been asked to do respite for this weekend, and it seems ok. Otherwise, I'm just going to try to have fun with my 4 year old!! :)

Peace.

Goings on

Let's see... T is 21 weeks 6 days pregnant. Definitely showing... we got a lot done around the house today, nothing big... just the standard kind of chores. We're doing well at the moment, for which I'm super thankful. :) Lil M is, too.

Lil M doesn't seem to like soccer as much as I thought she would, which she started 3 weeks ago. Not sure what I'm going to do about that. My friend MK suggested I take her out of it, and I might do that. She might just not be ready for it. This program has something like 70 kids... and I think it is a bit overwhelming for Lil M and her two friends (Aria and Becky). The three of them seem to get run over by the bigger kids most of the time. I haven't decided if I'm going to give it one more week or not. She's at the age where I don't want to force her to be miserable... if she likes it, great. If not... oh well. The coach was kind of snarky to me, so that's a deterrent, as well.

She IS darn cute in her soccer clothes, though. :D

I had to get a new AC/heat unit last month. I also had some back taxes to pay (crap). And I had to get a new washer. Good news is that I can pay payments on the AC/heat thing... Thank God.

My little family here makes me very happy. We've made the downstairs office into a baby room, and we know T will have a boy... named Gabriel (Gabe... or baby G). Nope, no M name for him... darn!! LOL

Random picture goodness from the past couple of weeks...

T from today sporting, G, the Baby Bump
Labor Day weekend cutie patootie
Labor Day weekend, just us girls. :)
Lil M on her 'camping' cot...

Shower breakthrough

Lil M doesn't like showers very well. She's much more partial to baths. Tonight, though, she did GREAT and had a shower! She got in and put her head back for me to wash her hair and everything. It was amazing. Now, I don't want her all grown up or anything, but it is nice to be able to have her take a quick shower if need be. :)

We went garage saling with Sis yesterday and got her some new clothes for summer. Garage sales are great for getting toddler clothes. We ended up finding a couple of new play dresses, too. I'll get pics, but she is so cute when she plays dress-up.

T isn't really talking to me, but that's because I've taken her phone away for a week now. Since she had a problem last week with showing her anger, and the other stuff, I just feel like she needs something more than I've done so far. I'll just say foster-care is tougher some days than I thought it might be. I actually wonder how we'll get through it. But I'm trying.

Lil M is always my shining star. I love her more than words can even describe.

Peace.

Pics

Here are some new pics.




playing dress upPeace.

And broken...

The snow actually broke the table. wow. It bent the leg and just fell over.


I took some silly pics tonight of the girls... T was wearing Lil M's shoes and they were both posing for pics... and just generally being goofy.
Could they be any cuter?!!!

Meow and Monkey were, of course, involved in the craziness. :D We don't have cabin fever, do we?!!

Peace.

Respite

I might have the opportunity to take a young boy for respite care this weekend or next. Actually, they've asked me to consider fostering him, but I'm not sure yet... he has type I diabetes (juvenile, inherited type) and I'm a little scared of that responsibility. However, he is old enough to give himself his own shots and mostly needs supervision in that area.

Sis is concerned I might take on too much. She says, I can never do anything small... always has to be big... but I didn't pick this one, they picked me. Regardless, she is right and I do not want to get into a situation where I'm too overwhelmed. But I am seriously considering the respite at least and see if it would even be something I could handle. Plus, they have to accept me, too, at the state level because of his medical condition. So, might not work out after all.

Any thoughts or prayers are welcome.

So, how does this work for me? Well, in everything, I take it up in prayer... simply put, I talk to God about it. I do have a few trusted friends/relatives that also help, but I'm a big prayer gal. With prayer, the thing you must always remember... it is God's time and you need to actually listen after you've asked the question. Please go check out the other ideas here.

Peace.

Licensure!!

I'm so excited... I thought I was going to have to get the dogs to the vet today or tomorrow to finish my foster parent licensure... but they just needed the rabies proof (which lasts until 2011 for my dogs). So, they went ahead and are licencing me today!!!!

WOOOHOOOO!

I'm so excited!!!!!!

It will be awhile, maybe, who knows... to get a referral or to be asked to foster a child, but the licensure is complete today!!!! :D I guess I'm now a Foster (hoping foster/adoptive) Parent in waiting for this agency.

Now, onto figuring out this Kazakhstan thing. One thing at a time, right? ;-)

Happy, happy dance!

Peace.

Foster adopt

I'm looking into foster-care / adoption programs here in my area. I'm going to a SAFY meeting tonight. It is an organization that helps special needs children. I'm not sure what all is involved, so I'm going to check it out. I've also got a call into the local foster/adopt Childrens' center.

That's about all that's on my mind today. :)

Peace.