Doctor's Appt

I took Baby to his first pediatrician appointment since he's been with me. He is still 15.65 pounds, and a little over 25 inches tall.  His head, which has always seemed too narrow to me, is a cause of concern for the ped. She checked his soft spots and those have closed too soon so between the craniosynostosis and plagiocephaly, she is submitting a referral to neurology. She sent over a prescription for his eczema as well. It took until the last minute for the original doctor's office to fax Baby's immunization records to the doctor's office so he was able to receive his 4 month shots today (2 in the same leg and an oral vaccine) and we have another appointment in two months. Poor guy's been extra fussy despite me giving him pain meds every 4 hours and extra spitting up.

We got a call from the woman who placed Moose with us to take a one year old. She was surprised I still had the Baby. It hasn't even been two weeks yet!!

Yesterday when Respite was here with Shelby, Moose was down for a nap so I ran to the library and was gone MAYBE 10 minutes tops. I came home to him awake and crying for her. I took him and he immediately settled right down. Awww - I felt bad for both him and Brit and was honestly surprised he cried for her since he loves everybody but at the same time I felt like he's truly bonded to me. I know he has but to see the proof like that, it did this momma's heart good. He smiles all the time for me but, anyways...

Per the last court hearing, he's supposed to have 2 visits w/biomom and 1 visit w/biodad per week. It's Wednesday night and there have been no calls to set up any visits this week at all. Tomorrow I have plans from 1:30-5:30. Don't know what's going to happen. Not my problem but I still stress over these things.

Anyways, off to get more stuff done since he's taking a late nap. Not sure how that will pan out for our sleep tonight but oh well!!

Fantastic Weekend

We had a wonderful, and busy, weekend. We had movie gift cards so the five of us went to see the movie Dolphin Tale - such a good movie - on multiple levels. Saturday was Shelby's A.C.T. games try outs, we went out to lunch then we went to Shane's football game that we didn't allow him to play in due to his horrific progress report card. Sunday was church and the four of us got baptized. It was an amazing experience - there was a BBQ/pot luck, people were mingling, there was worship music and testimonies shared then we broke off into groups and Shelby went first, then Shane, then me, then Steve was baptized. I spent some special time with the Pastor of our church and his wife who held "Moose" during the time we were baptized, and we were able to spend some quality time with our friends Carl and Laura (love them and their hearts), and a few of the other staff at church. Today, "Moose" and I had a much needed home day.  A nurse came over to do a few assessments, took some measurements and gave me some information. A friend came over right as the nurse was about to leave and she got to meet our adorable lil punkin.  We are definitely into a pattern during bed time. The rest of the day is nap and bottle and play time.  Still absolutely adoring this child God blessed us with.

9/23/11 Court Date

I had a wonderful, wonderful day with our precious baby boy we've now had for 1 week. I talked with one of the social workers this afternoon about biomom and biodad's court date this morning.   Basically the next court date is October 17th with no change in placement until then, Biomom will get 2 visits a week and Biodad is allowed one visit per week. Our precious lil guy has a new social worker so I called and left her a message. The five of us went to the movies to see Dolphin Tale and loved it. Moose was perfect during the movie as I suspected he would be!  After we got home, we had some sweet bonding time together and he went to bed about normal time. This weekend will be busier than usual with activities we have planned both days but we are excited. What we aren't excited about is Shane's progress report card he showed us tonight. We are making him sit out tomorrow's football game due to the horrible grades and Steve and I will come up with a game plan for him beyond not allowing him to use any of his prized electronics for the time being. 
Anyways, I love, love, love my blue eyed baby - so very grateful God blessed us with him. :)

Moose's BioMom

Steve's nicknamed out current foster blessing "Moose" since he is just so dang cute and chunky. I had a WIC appt today and he is 4 1/2 months old and weighs 15 1/2 pounds and according to the WIC report, he was 8 weeks early!  I received a call from Sarah, a worker I've seen twice - last Friday when I went to pick up Moose and on Tuesday when I took Moose to have his visit w/Biodad. Biomom was somehow granted an emergency visitation for today. Sarah asked me if she could pick him up around 6:30 since she had a 4-6 p.m. meeting and she would have mom meet us at a mall relatively close by. Biomom adamantly refused to meet Sarah - she demanded Sarah bring Moose to the location she saw him at last time and also complained about the time since he typically is sleeping by 7:30-8. Sarah allowed the location to change but let it be known Biomom was lucky to get a visit at all today. An hour later, Sarah called back again and told me she had cancelled her meeting so she could be at my house at 3:30. Biomom apparently nursed Moose up until last Friday and gave breastmilk to Sarah to give to me. She also said because she nurses she should be allowed to have daily visitations. Sarah told her that wasn't going to happen. Biomom also shared w/Sarah that she's 3 months pregnant (Moose is 4 1/2 months old) and that she doesn't want her unborn baby - she will give this baby to a cousin. This cousin doesn't want Moose but is apparently interested in the newborn. Our past 2 foster blessings biomoms had babies within a year of their babies being taken away.  I truly shouldn't be surprised any more at what happens but today was definitely a wild ride. I can't wait until tomorrow to find out what happens in court.

Settling In

Baby is simply amazing!!! We are all completely in love with this adorable blond haired, blue eyed happy baby boy. On Saturday we went to Shane's football game where a grandma loved on him and he slept on her chest :) and we went to church where he was lavished with love in the nursery. Sunday was a home day where he got to test out more of our baby "stuff" (boppy, bumbo, bouncy chairs, etc). Monday was another easy day - Steve went to work, the big kids went to school and Baby and I bonded and snuggled and had a fantastic day. Tuesday was busy with appointments including a visit with his biodad. Today (Wednesday) was another home day except for a walk in the stroller to the local library. I checked out my books then before the library closed I read him a few books in the children's area. When I stood up to put those books away, he initiated the library's purple carpet with a huge splat of spit up. I quickly cleaned up him, the carpet and myself and we were on our way home. We saw our neighbor Dell as we were almost to our driveway and I introduced them. He typically is asleep by 7:30-8 which is wonderful since it gives me time to get everything ready for my early morning ritual of juicing Steve's and my breakfast drink, making Steve's, Shane's and Shelby's lunches, making their breakfast (as much as I can) before getting Shelby up for the day. Tomorrow we have an early morning WIC appointment. Hopefully court won't be continued on Friday (his bioparent's third court date for the week) and we will know more about the plan for this sweet little angel. The way he smiles and gets so excited - just precious!!! :)

New Baby!!!

After our latest foster blessing left, Steve (my hubby) requested a 30 day break from babies since we have had a lil munchkin in the house for over a year. So, the break was over on September 15th and on the 16th, we received a call about a 4 month old baby boy. The big boys (Shane and Steve) were at a friend's house so Shelby and I took off and picked up our new bundle of joy. He is just precious!!! HUGE blue eyes, not much hair except for the top of his forehead and right next to one ear. He is super mellow, happy, easy-going and just so much fun!! By the time we brought him home, it was 9 p.m. so I put him to bed after a bottle he drank while sleeping. He woke up 3 times in the middle of the night for more bottles. The first time he truly saw us was around 7:30 a.m. He had a great morning then we all went to Shane's football game, came home for dinner and for Shane to shower then we were off to church. By the time we got home, he was sleeping so I had a bottle ready, took him out of his car seat, fed him and put him in the crib. He slept better last night - probably partly my fault since I fell asleep after feeding him his first bottle and he didn't wake up until 4:30 for another one. He's had a wonderful day so far - it's a home day today/Sunday. He's been able to test out different things like the boppy pillow, the pram, the high chair that reclines, new toys, hanging out on Shelby's lap, etc.  Shelby has a friend over now, the big boys ran to Winco and now Steve left to visit a friend.  Sweet boy went down for a nap so wanted to catch up really quick. So glad to have a baby here again and what a sweet, happy boy God blessed us with! Truly grateful :)

Foster Blessing #2 - Z

Shortly after Ty left to start his happily ever after with his grandma and half-siblings, we received a call for a 2 day old baby boy. Of course I said, "YES!!!" so off I went to the hospital to pick up "Z." He was at a different hospital than Ty, with different procedures for discharge. Hmmm, 2 hospitals down, how many more are there in my area to learn the drill??? ;)  He was badly bruised from delivery - it seemed as though his entire body was black and blue.  He soon became our "Holiday" baby since we were blessed to have him in our lives for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Z was a very sweet, easy, happy baby. Out of the 6 babies we've had, Z was definitely the most mellow and by far the chunkiest. He was happy whether he was in my arms, in the bumbo, in the swing, in the playpen...he was just a super good natured little guy.   Biomom used narcotics while pregnant and while in labor but, thank you God, he never showed any withdrawals or affects from the drugs.

I had to take him in for a cheek swab so they could determine paternity. During that time, his biomom and her boyfriend (the presumed father) met me at a CPS approved location for two visits. Once the results came in that that man was NOT the father, biomom never showed up for another visit. Z and I still had to go (per the social worker's orders) another six times and wait for at least 15 minutes and she never showed up.

Ultimately, after 11 weeks with us, Z was adopted by his maternal grandparents who we met on the day we placed Z into their arms for the first time, armed with plenty of pictures (of course!!!), all of his favorites and enough clothes, diapers, wipes, bottles, formula, etc. to last a week.

We are considered emergency placement which our county considers 30-60 days. He went past that and was the baby we had the longest...until our miracle baby - foster blessing #5 came along.

We love you Z and hope you are so happy with your grandparents.
Thanks for being our Holiday baby!!!

Foster Blessing #1 - Ty

This is the start of a brief overview of the foster blessings we've loved on thus far. To protect their identity, I will never use their full names (we've always used nicknames), nor will I ever be allowed to post pictures of their face.

I received a call for "Ty" - a precious baby boy who weighed 2 pounds at birth and weighed 4 pounds when I met him for the first time at 5 1/2 weeks of age. The hospital he was at required me to watch a series of videos before he would be allowed to be discharged to me which I immediately watched so there wouldn't be any glitches. I held him as much as possible over the next 2 days before he came home. Shane and Shelby were born at 29 weeks weighing 3 pounds each so having a teeny tiny baby in my life again was wonderful. Ty was blind and had heart issues so our first set of appointments were to the cardiologist and the optometrist.

Over the course of the seven weeks we were blessed to love on Ty, God healed "our" sweet boy! He left being able to see and his heart wasn't "broken" any more!!! We took him to his doctor appointments, he had visitation with his paternal grandma who ultimately adopted him, he went with us to church where everyone was amazed at his tiny size, and to Shane's football games. A friend who is a professional photographer took Anne Geddes-style pictures of Ty plus I've always committed to taking hundreds of pictures of our foster babies for their forever families to have photo documentation of their precious child.  Shelby adored getting out of her power wheelchair and sitting in the Lazy Boy chair with Ty bundled up in her lap. Shane liked watching me give Ty baths (he was such a water baby!!!) and I used Shane's football gear for some great pictures (Ty easily fit into Shane's helmet, etc.)

Dealing with CPS, and the overworked social workers was definitely a wake up call to how much the system needs help. Thankfully, we never had any crisis to desperately need to immediately talk to anyone but it was eye opening nonetheless.

In my office, I have a photo wall with framed bible quotes (James 1:27 and Matthew 25:34-40) and a family picture of the four of us with each foster baby plus my favorite picture of that particular baby so I can see Ty's precious smiling face every day.

The song Amazing Grace has new meaning to me since Ty ("I was blind but now I see") since from the very first baby we welcomed into our home, God has shown his mercy and grace and miracles have abounded.

<3 We love you Ty.  <3
Thank you for being the first for us...we will NEVER forget you.

September 11, 2011

For the husband who told his wife he loved her before his plane went down in a field. For the wife who stopped in the stairs to call her husband to say she will love him forever. For the mothers and fathers who kissed their kids goodbye that morning for the last time. For the policemen, firemen, and other rescue workers who rushed in to help others and lost their lives. For the soldiers who fought back and made the ultimate sacrifice. Today, tomorrow, years from now, we will remember..

James 1:27

James 1:27 - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.