Unexpected Rewards

Shane:

• Tried 3 different names of previous foster blessings in rapid succession before he gave up and asked, "What's his name again?!"  ;)
• Received an award for "Outstanding and Consistent Effort in 6th Grade History and English for 2011-2012"
• Received a 62/100 on his last science test

Shelby:

• Received a poster from school where her face is atop a girl's standing body. It is the weirdest looking picture since the body is upright/not in a wheelchair. Shelby has NEVER been able to stand unassisted. It's just odd to look at. 
• Shelby received an Honor Roll Certificate at school for 3.5 or better for all four quarters
• On her final typing test, she was able to do 5 wpm  :}

Steve:

• He got his xray results and they weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be.
• He found a tick late last night after our fishing adventure - ick!
• He was quite the advocate for Baby when I was taking Shelby potty at a restaurant we went to tonight for a celebration for the kids being almost done w/their first year of middle school. Steve was hanging out with the baby and apparently a woman came right up to him and started talking about the baby and Steve told her the miracle man's full story and once Shelby and I were done, he told her he had to leave to go to church and she said, "God Bless You. I'll pray for you." How sweet is that?!

Baby:

• Is just growing up before our eyes - several people have told us how big he's getting
• Is really enjoying putting toys in his mouth and playing with them using his hands
• Can't lie flat on his back anymore since he has too many problems managing his saliva and gags, chokes, flails his arms and just flat out panics.

Church:

• It was our pastor's birthday so on his birthday card, I asked everyone what they love the best about our Pastor. I asked Steve last. He read everyone's quotes. He said, "I like what Shane said" so that's what I wrote. ;)
• Last night the person in charge of the special needs event talked to me about the need for electric doors for both of the main buildings. I facebooked the need to our pastor and can't wait to see what happens.
• At church tonight a couple came to talk to Steve, the baby and I (he couldn't handle staying the whole time in the nursery again so he was asleep in my arms) and apparently we've talked to them before - truly they didn't look at all familiar, but they know us and our story and told us they talked w/their friend who does foster care and she wanted my number to be able to talk to someone with BTDT experience. Awesome!!

Wal-Mart:
We went to a different store than usual since we needed a better selection for clothes for Shelby and as we were almost done I saw a man pushing an adorable little guy in his cart and had another little munchkin walking with him. He came over to me (carrying Baby) and said he recognized me from one of my talks to the graduating class of foster parents. He was incredible - it was so fun to talk to him and I was able to ask him if he knew of this "binder" that Baby is listed in - if it's only something you might know about if you went to this once a month fair or if all potential adoptive families were aware of it and he told me they know about it - huge relief - I can't even express how awesome of a feeling that was to hear.