'The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.'
We met some friends at the zoo this morning. (yes, all 5 by myself.) The plan was to head directly to the fountains, so thats what we did. I tried to position myself so that I could see both sets of fountains and the playground from one spot. That's a feat in and of itself. :-) Anyway, I was sitting on the ground trying to coax Jojo into playing in the water, when a I hear a little voice saying Mommy, mommy and look up to see Princess Petunia running toward me. Can I tell you how hard it is to stay composed at a moment like that?
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
"I've never been in a foster home before"
*a few definitions (as best we can tell)
CA/N ~ short for child abuse & neglect
CA/N workers ~ the folks who investigate reports of child abuse or neglect and do the "dirty work" of removing children from homes, etc
SW ~ short for social worker, each foster family has one. each child that comes into care has one as well.
'this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'
Princess Petunia is back with us, and her next court date is August 30th. This means we'll have her for the summer, at least, and she'll start school here as well. We're excited, thankful, nervous, overwhelmed --- pretty much every other emotion you want to throw in there, we're feeling it.
The kids are thrilled, and we had another banner play day at the house. Princess Petunia hasn't skipped a beat. We've had no tears still; she told me that she cried all her tears out at the hearing this morning, which as Mimi said is both sweet and sad at the same time. She also told me that she had never been in a foster home before. I told her that she was in luck b/c we had never been a foster home before either, so we'll just figure this thing out together. She gave me one of her huge grins at that.
As far as visits with mom go, we don't have a gameplan yet. Matthew (the CA/N worker) told us that there wasn't one ready and that as soon as Princess Petunia had been assigned to a new SW, we'd be getting a phone call. All mom wanted to know about us was whether or not we go to church.
Jared & I took the whole crew to wal*mart tonight after supper. And yes, you do wish you could have been a fly on the wall to witness that. The looks of horror and amusement on our fellow shoppers' faces were classic. Princess Petunia came to us with nothing except the clothes she was wearing and a stuffed animal named Jingle. I remember from our classes that this is pretty normal. So anyway, we headed to the store, loaded up on groceries and new clothes. And because Princess Petunia had mentioned doughnuts as one of her favorite foods, we made a Krispy Kreme run on the way back. Nothing like Krispy Kreme & chocolate milk before bed.
Not sure what our plans are for the rest of the wk. Jared is hoping to take off work some so we can do some family things. Princess Petunia is very impressed by the Summit and is interested in checking it out. :) I'm thinking the splash pad, the zoo, the gardens, McWane Center may all be in our very near future. Hope our friends & family are up for playdates!
Please be in prayer for our sweet little friend....
CA/N ~ short for child abuse & neglect
CA/N workers ~ the folks who investigate reports of child abuse or neglect and do the "dirty work" of removing children from homes, etc
SW ~ short for social worker, each foster family has one. each child that comes into care has one as well.
'this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'
Princess Petunia is back with us, and her next court date is August 30th. This means we'll have her for the summer, at least, and she'll start school here as well. We're excited, thankful, nervous, overwhelmed --- pretty much every other emotion you want to throw in there, we're feeling it.
The kids are thrilled, and we had another banner play day at the house. Princess Petunia hasn't skipped a beat. We've had no tears still; she told me that she cried all her tears out at the hearing this morning, which as Mimi said is both sweet and sad at the same time. She also told me that she had never been in a foster home before. I told her that she was in luck b/c we had never been a foster home before either, so we'll just figure this thing out together. She gave me one of her huge grins at that.
As far as visits with mom go, we don't have a gameplan yet. Matthew (the CA/N worker) told us that there wasn't one ready and that as soon as Princess Petunia had been assigned to a new SW, we'd be getting a phone call. All mom wanted to know about us was whether or not we go to church.
Jared & I took the whole crew to wal*mart tonight after supper. And yes, you do wish you could have been a fly on the wall to witness that. The looks of horror and amusement on our fellow shoppers' faces were classic. Princess Petunia came to us with nothing except the clothes she was wearing and a stuffed animal named Jingle. I remember from our classes that this is pretty normal. So anyway, we headed to the store, loaded up on groceries and new clothes. And because Princess Petunia had mentioned doughnuts as one of her favorite foods, we made a Krispy Kreme run on the way back. Nothing like Krispy Kreme & chocolate milk before bed.
Not sure what our plans are for the rest of the wk. Jared is hoping to take off work some so we can do some family things. Princess Petunia is very impressed by the Summit and is interested in checking it out. :) I'm thinking the splash pad, the zoo, the gardens, McWane Center may all be in our very near future. Hope our friends & family are up for playdates!
Please be in prayer for our sweet little friend....
And so it begins
We had our very first child brought to us last night just after 8:45. Tara had called earlier yesterday afternoon just after 3:00, and her first words to me were, "This is the call you've been waiting for." I'm not sure that I completely focused on anything else that she said after that. I know that I hastily scrawled some notes down on the first bit of paper that I could find so that I'd have at least some information to share with Jared. Rach & I spent the next hour readying her room and then we waited....
The children could not have been more excited; this was better than Christmas or birthdays for them. We had to keep reminding them to not overwhelm our new little friend, but I'm pretty sure they did anyway. However, I think that having 3 little people just swoop in at the door and whisk Princess Petunia away to play was perhaps the very best welcome we could have hoped to give. The 4 (Jojo was already in bed) of them played and giggled and chatted like they were old friends. No tears, just laughter and running around, well as much running around as Jared & I would allow.
We had just a glimpse of Princess Petunia's fear when we cut the lights off for the first time. That was quickly remedied with a couple of nightlights. She was out for the night in less than half an hour. I can't begin to imagine the stress of her little day.
I'm about to awaken little Princess Petunia as she & her brothers have a hearing scheduled for this morning to determine the validity of their being placed in care. If the judge determines that their removal from mom was warranted, Princess Petunia will come back to us. And if not, she & her brothers will go back 'home.' We're praying that the short 12 hours that we've had with her won't be our last.
The children could not have been more excited; this was better than Christmas or birthdays for them. We had to keep reminding them to not overwhelm our new little friend, but I'm pretty sure they did anyway. However, I think that having 3 little people just swoop in at the door and whisk Princess Petunia away to play was perhaps the very best welcome we could have hoped to give. The 4 (Jojo was already in bed) of them played and giggled and chatted like they were old friends. No tears, just laughter and running around, well as much running around as Jared & I would allow.
We had just a glimpse of Princess Petunia's fear when we cut the lights off for the first time. That was quickly remedied with a couple of nightlights. She was out for the night in less than half an hour. I can't begin to imagine the stress of her little day.
I'm about to awaken little Princess Petunia as she & her brothers have a hearing scheduled for this morning to determine the validity of their being placed in care. If the judge determines that their removal from mom was warranted, Princess Petunia will come back to us. And if not, she & her brothers will go back 'home.' We're praying that the short 12 hours that we've had with her won't be our last.
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