THE BIG NEWS!!!!!!!

Ok, so here it is! We've been making a decision for a few months now. Since Little Miss left our home, we've been agonizing about whether to continue foster care or not. Most people didn't know this. Most people assumed we were just waiting for our next placement. I have a deep passion for foster care, but as great at Little Man's exit was, was how awful Little Miss's was. I loved both of these children as my own. Little Miss's exit was unsure, unstable, and dragging. I knew she was getting ready to leave, but the dates kept changing. Her family wanted her with them, it was all just a mess. Even after her family got her, it still wasn't over. So we were deciding what to do next. As a family, we feel strongly about helping children, but at this point, we didn't think it was right for our family to have to say goodbye to another child. So we started talking. And talking, and praying, and talking, and praying and talking. Well, you get the point. So what is our news? Get to it already.

We have decided to adopt!!!! We prayed about it for weeks. We came to the decision to adopt pretty easily, it was the from where that was the major question. I was set on international, Ethiopia to be exact. Johnny wasn't keen on that. I wanted a baby, he didn't want to 'start over'. We looked into adopting a multi-racial child from a domestic agency. My friend had used them and at the time, they only charged fees for home studies. Sadly, they have changed their fee schedule and it was more than international. I couldn't get over the fact that it seemed like buying a baby.(this was this particular agency, and not a shot at anyone who adopts domestically) At least with international, the fees make sense, the flights, the hotels, the foster program, you're supporting the orphanages and such. But these are just American mothers living their lives. None of the money went to them, so I couldn't figure out where the "placement" fee was going to.

So after a lot of thought and prayer and talk, we decided to look into waiting children. They are mostly older kids. We have decided to add to our family from these children. As of right now, we do not have a particular child in mind. We are talking with our social workers about in-state children, and then we'll learn more about out-of-state.We are considering 1-3 children, as sibling set. We're looking at no older than 9. There are so many children available for adoption. We're excited to be adding to our family. We're looking at a girl, but will accept a sibling set with a boy in it. The boys were excited and definitely wanted a new brother over two sisters :) We talked to our amazing social worker to find out all we need to know. We have to write a narrative about our family and she's going to send it around. As of now, we are officially an adoptive family! In meantime we will be working with social services as a respite family. I'm happy to still be in helping foster families while we wait. As for how long this could take? We're not sure. We're in the lead already. We've had two foster children, we have a valid home study, and all our background checks have been cleared. So it's basically just waiting for the right children. They will be foster children for 6 months, according to the law. And then there's an additional 1-3 month wait for the official paperwork to come down. We can't wait to get started! We're grateful for any good thoughts, prayers, and support while we wait for our forever child or children. . God has blessed us beyond measure and we trust in His timing to bring us the child or children meant for us! 

Paws to Read

Our library has a great program called Paws to Read. The boys get to pick a book and read to the sweetest dogs for 20 minutes. They love it. It's a great time for them to just read our loud, but no one is correcting them or judging them. It's nice.

Shane and Otis

I very much want this dog!

Jackson and Wally.

There was also a mask making station.

Fort Time!

The boys worked hard this weekend. I took a nap :) When I woke up, I was ambushed by Team Anderson. They have been working on this fort for awhile, but they finished it up this weekend. Hopefully it will lead to lots of outdoors time this spring and summer!!!

This is the bunker portion

The fort, complete with windows.

The beam in front of the fort. To be fair, it also says "you can use it if you ask" and it has our phone number.

Team A

Everyone in the bunker.

You can't see it from the top :)

The big news is coming soon.

Tonight, in fact. I already have the blog written and ready to go. I just have to wait for the all clear from our meeting tonight! I'm so excited to share our news with you all!!!!

Ouch

My head hurts. We are in the middle of a major life-changing decision. We have the main part of the decision decided, but which way to go from here is the hard part. Every time I think I have it, poof, another choice comes into play. I just want to head forward, get researching, get ready, and get moving. Anyway, I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth (to all of my 9 readers), but once this plan is in motion, believe me, the blogosphere will explode!

Another Giveaway at Pitter Patter Art.

Pine Wood Derby.

 The Pack 175 Pine Wood Derby was today. We were there forever! The kids were having a blast, of course, but it wasn't particularly exciting for me. I'm glad the boys had a good time though. It was Jackson's first time as a Scout doing the race, he was over the moon excited. Johnny did a great job as MC of the event. It was a great day for the boys!

I was two feet away :)

From the Mundane to the Miraculous

I'm doing a blog over HERE. I'm diving into God a bit and seeing what I can see. It's been pretty amazing so far. You should pop over and read it. :)

Love Really Is The Answer.

    So I'm a blog follower and a facebook fan. I follow lots of people that raise their children differently than me, gave birth differently, and school differently. Lately it seems that we, as mothers, are tearing each other down rather than being a support system for each other.
There are so many things to argue about:
home-birth, natural birth, epidurals, c-sections, breast feeding, bottle feeding, which formula, pacifiers, vaccines, organic food, processed food, homeschool, private school, public school, working moms, part time moms, stay at home moms, religious upbringings, natural family planning, birth control, quiver-full, co-sleeping, crib sleeping, family beds, cloth diapers, disposable diapers, spanking, time outs, and oh so many others. Even within these groups there are arguments. There are so many ways to bring up a child. Not all can be right, not all can be wrong. I'm just a guilty about judging other mothers, and I'm aware of that, and I'm working on it. I'm talking about, the way mothers are being viciously attacked.
    My dear friend posted a picture of her baby taking a lick of lollipop and the masses attacked! I've seen friends verbally assaulted for their choice of delivery and their choice of how many children to have, or not have. Because of technology it's gone way beyond simple quiet judgments. It's going into someones home, into their safe place, and attacking them for their choice of child rearing. It's being brave behind the keyboard and saying things that would never, nor should ever, be said to a persons face.
    We are all different, we all have different views. The majority of mothers are trying to do the best with what they know or what they are willingly to learn. None of us are 100% correct in our choices. What works miracles for one family, could be the downfall for another. There's no need in tearing each other to emotional bits when we should be uniting as mothers and being supportive. If a mother asks for advice, give her your honest answer, if she doesn't follow it, take it at face value. She probably doesn't think that you're wrong, just that it won't work for her family.
    God entrusted these being into our care for the time being. We only get a short amount of time to raise them into productive adults. I would love my community and my support system. I'm lucky beyond measure at the wonderful women that I've met. We need to help each other get these children into adulthood as whole and well human beings. We need to just love one another and give support as it's needed.

Giveaway.

Go over to Pitter Patter Art for the chance at a great give away!!! She's pretty awesome!!!

Tid Bits of Our Downstairs Life.

I was just snapping some random shots around the downstairs and thought it would make a neat blog. So this is some tidbits of our life. When we're downstairs anyway :)

Sam and his polka dot box.

In Mario jammies playing Wii.

Sam's corner of the world when he hurt his neck.

Wii being played.

Shane checking his chore list.

Chore list and Extra Money list.

We have to plan 4 months in advance around here.

My cool yard sale find.

In our entry way.

Our entry way.

My alarm system :)

Darn you winter!

My boys playing.

Our new additions.

This plant has not grown in two years and then started pouring out of it's basket!

Playtime!

My "office"

Winter Wonderland!

It started snowing on Christmas night! It was more snow than we've ever had here. It was great, we were trapped inside with movies and snacks. I loved it! Johnny had an idea to have the scouts go outside and make snowmen for a contest. We made two different ones. We also made snow cream for the first time. It was good, tasted just like vanilla ice cream! It was a great vacation. It was my favorite!

Jackson stayed inside the first time around.

The next day, he wanted to play.

Jack's snowman.

We made snow cream!

Shane's Cub Scout snowman.