Class 1:4

On Saturday (yesterday), I took my first foster/adoptive parenting/training class. 6 hours. State trainer who is an adoptive mom herself. I was looking forward to it, kind of. You know, in 6 hours I can say that I learned one thing:
--A child in foster care must have a state employee sign off on any school permission slips.

I hope these get more informative.
I think part of the issue is that well, I've already adopted 2 kids and that perhaps in the last 5 years, I've actually learned a few things. I'd much rather be required to take 24 hours of classes with other adoptive/foster parents vs. an orientation program. Oh well, only 18 hours to go!

"Hello Baby Spider"

The kids found a little spider in the living room this morning. Early sign of spring!

Zade was really excited about this. He was gentle. He got down on the floor and had a conversation with a higher pitched voice (like one would talk to a baby):

"Hi baby spider. How are you? Whatch you doin'? You goin' home? Where your home?"

He kept doing an army man crawl to follow the spider across the floor - looking over it the entire time.

FYI- Half of my posts are things that I don't want to forget; the other half are soap box topics. Hope you don't mind...

Gianna & Prayer

Gianna just informed me that she prayed to Jesus for the last 2 days. I asked her what she prayed about. She said. Jesus is going to come right into my heart. She continued:

I told Jesus all about our world. (how precious)
I prayed about our beautiful curtains, all of the nice beds in our towns and the towels.
I forgot to pray about my apple and our food.
I will pray again tomorrow about all of the rest of the world.

:)

To care for orphans & widows

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. - James 1:27

• UNICEF says there are 143 million orphans.


• According to gov. censuses, there are 2 billion Christians.


• If 7% of Christians adopted, there would be no orphans.

I recognize that not all people are called to adopt. However, we are all called to care for orphans and widows. How can you do that?

-Adopt

-Foster care

-Support children (think Big Brothers/ Big Sisters approach)

-Support Foster families

-Support Famililes who have adopted



How would you support families? Offer them a night out, provide hand-me-down clothes/toys/bikes/equipment, make a meal, pray for them, support their children with resources for the "extras" in life, come along side and see what their needs are and how you can help.



Adoption has a whole stigma with it. I'm reading a book on the role of Christians in adoption/caring for orphans. I'll probably come back and either add to this post or post again.



Don't feel guilty. Not ALL are called to adopt but ALL Christians are called to help orphans. How are you doing that?

Out of the mouths of Babes

After the globe got knocked over: "Mama, Zade dropped the world!"


G: "Mama, I'm putting on my helmet for breakfast."


And my favorite from the last 24 hours is a visual:

G wrote her first word today - "Beba". She was writing two letters - one to her uncle and one to her Great Auntie. She calls her uncle, Uncle Beba. She asked Mem for help in writing his name.

Needless to say, the adults were proud of her. Then (after raking outside, swinging and checking out the bulbs that are poking through the ground after a long winter), she came inside and wrote GIA and LEE. The "L" was backward and she announced: "I did that one backward. It's OK"....

Social Worker Thursday

Last week it was the Fire Marshal inspection (only 4 things to address).

This week, it was the social worker. Debbie is very different than the social worker we had in Arizona. She spent 2 hours here and thinks she can complete our homestudy from what she received from the AZ homestudy, what I provided today and perhaps with an email or two. Can you say ADD? Yup.

What next - All paperwork is in. She'll finish the homestudy and submit it. A licensing agent will come out (I'm hoping in March since I'm not working for a week in March but it'll probably be May). All that is left is: fix the remaining 2 things from the fire marshal (including getting an electrician out here to install some new hard wired smoke detectors) and for me to take 24 hours of classes.

My point....kiddo #3 might be here in the summer.

Now, if I can only get work to calm down. Things were a little out of control this week. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I'm excited to be off from work tomorrow. G has a pediatrician appt re: her cough.


Enjoyed having Tammy and her boys (I and Z) over for dinner tonight. I can't believe it took us 6 months to get together. A bigger thing - I can't believe I left Arizona SIX months ago today! Wow, so much has changed.

That is the official status from here.

Big question - what will life be like with 3 kids? Good thing we opted not to get the dog, right? Yeah, right!