I'm sorry that I am so far behind with the blog. Life has been busy! What everyone really would like to know is what's going on with our foster situation, so I'll update on that first. This post isn't going to have any photos. I'll have to get some up another day. For now, I just wanted to get an update posted.
Our baby girl is still living with us. She will be 9 months old on Wednesday. She has 7 teeth and is crawling now. She's had a lot of reflux issues and requires a specialty formula, but other than that is doing very well. She brings us so much joy and we all love her so much! We do believe that we will be adopting her very soon. TPR (termination of parental rights) was official as of October 9th. This means that the baby's parents are no longer her parents legally and she is now free for adoption. They actually both chose to sign their rights away, and as such neither of her parents appealed the
termination. Our caseworker turned all of her paperwork over to the
adoption department and we were assigned an adoption caseworker. Our
previous caseworker had told me that the new caseworker would be in
touch shortly and that we'd probably be all finished up in time to be a
part of National Adoption Day on 11/18. She misspoke. With the drug
epidemic we have going on in the Midwest,
there are a lot of kids getting adopted right now and there are only
two adoption workers for our area. They are getting really backed up
with adoptions and it's taking longer to have an adoption finalized.
We've been waiting a month already and our adoption worker still has not
contacted us. Someone else told me they waited 5 weeks before they were
contacted. So there is no way we will be done in time for the 18th or
for Thanksgiving at this point. We will just hope for Christmas now. I
have no idea where we are on her list, as she has not responded to my
email asking about a time-frame. So we are back to waiting again. There's
lots of that with foster care.
Our summer went by quickly. I did not want to take a new placement before our planned family vacation, so instead we did a lot of respite care for other foster families who needed a break or were taking vacations that they couldn't bring their foster kids on. We also did a lot of schoolwork as we got behind when the baby came to live with us. We also had a very difficult preschooler here as well and it was just hard to homeschool. So my kids worked most of the summer so that we could catch up. We did get to take a little family getaway over the 4th of July time-frame. We went to Kansas City for a couple days and we were allowed to take the baby with us. We enjoyed out time down there. We went to Union Station, Science City, Legoland, and The Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Building. The Legoland in KC is not like the amusement park in CA and FL, but more like a children's museum style place. We also got to eat lunch at a place called Fritz's, where our lunch was delivered to us by a little train on an overhead track. It was fun and the kids loved it.
Nathanael turned 11 at the end of August. He had been dealing with warts that kept coming back after being frozen, so at the end of July he had minor surgery on his hand to have five warts removed. The surgery and recovery wound up being more painful than the doctor had led us to believe it would be. But Nathanael survived and so far the warts have not returned, so at least it was worth it.
In September, we were able to go back to our favorite beach in North Carolina (the Outer Banks) and spend a week with our dear friends. We were allowed to take the baby on this trip too. We used to go to the beach with these friends every year before we moved, but haven't gone since 2013. It was wonderful to get to spend time with them and also to be at the beach again. We were supposed to go from there down to my parents' house in Tampa, but Hurricane Irma caused us to have to change that plan. Instead, we went up to Maryland and spent a little time with my sister and her family. We had a good time with them and even made it into DC to Georgetown Cupcakes (best cupcakes in the world!!) and the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. From there we headed down to the Tampa area and spent a couple days with my parents. At this point, John had to fly back home and get back to work. We had planned it this way, but had to do some date switching due to the hurricane. He had to come back and prepare for the harvest. The kids and I had planned to stay on vacation for another 13 days without him. Our time with my parents was shorter than originally planned, since we couldn't go down there when we checked out of the beach house. (The hurricane came through the day we had planned to drive to their house.) But we were thankful we were even able to go at all in light of what could have happened. The kids had a blast in my parents' pool and spent hours and hours on end in the water. We were also able to see my brother and his wife and one of my aunts and uncles. My brother and I also got to sing special music at his church before I had to leave. From FL, we headed over to Mississippi to see John's side of the family, with a one night stop along the way in Pensacola. I needed one last hurrah at the beach! We had a good time in Mississippi too and stayed with my in laws while we were there. The kids enjoyed making music with grandma and hiking and fishing with grandpa. We got to spend some time with John's brother and his family and got to meet our one year old niece that we had not yet met.We also got to celebrate Uncle James and Grandpa's birthdays while we were there. Their birthdays are one day apart. After that, we drove back home with one overnight stop in Missouri. The kids did great with all our driving. The baby was a rockstar and I'm so glad that so many of our loved ones were able to meet her, since we hope she will be a permanent member of the family soon.
Since arriving back home, we've been busy with school and John's been busy with the harvest. This is a time of year that is very hard on all of us as John is gone a lot and we don't get to see him much and I have to do everything by myself. Although we do not like to be cold, we will welcome the winter because it means more time with daddy again. School is going well so far, so we are glad for a good start. I started a homeschool science co-op that meets twice a month about 10 minutes away and that's been going well. The kids love going to co-op and the other moms have thanked me for bringing something like this to our area. Because we are more rural, homeschoolers usually have to drive 30-45 minutes to be in a co-op. It's so nice to have something local. I am teaching middle school science in the co-op, so pray for me! Science isn't one of my strong areas, but my boys love it, so here I am. I started the whole thing for them. The Lord worked it out so that we have 22 elementary kids, 3 middle schoolers, and 6 high schoolers. I was surprised at the turnout for our very first year. We have a retired Christian veterinarian teaching our high schoolers biology. He has a fancy microscope and he knows his stuff, so it's been such a blessing to have him volunteer his time for our kids.
We have left the church that we have been attending for three years. It was a hard decision but we can no longer just put aside some of the stuff that has been bothering us about the church for quite awhile. A lot of prayer went into this decision and John had several talks with leadership before we realized that nothing is going to be changing. I'm not going to get into any details about it, but three other families left when we left for very similar reasons. It's been hard on all of us and hard on the church body as well, since it's a small church where everyone knows everyone else. We have been attending an Assemblies of God church in Omaha but don't know if we will stay there long term or not. The church is great, but it is 45 minutes away which makes it hard to get connected and be involved. On the flip side, we can't find anything like it any closer and it is actually a very diverse church, which is very hard to find here. There are not a lot of Pentecostal churches around here (our former church wasn't), and there are none closer than 30 minutes away. We tried the one that was 30 minutes away, but there was no one our age there, so that's not going to work. We are still seeking the Lord's leading as to where He wants us to be.
The kids have taken an interest in scouting this year. Hannah has joined the American Heritage Girls and the boys are probably going to join Trail Life. These programs are Christian scouting programs similar to Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, but are focused on Godly character as well as serving others. Hannah has just completed the requirements for her first badge.
We have not taken another foster placement yet. I feel that I have about all I can handle at the moment and don't feel that I can add another child who needs a lot of attention to our day and still do a good job homeschooling. I am not sure when we will take another placement, but probably not before spring. Of course, God may have completely different plans, so we will see what happens.
So that's what we have been up to. I will post when we have an adoption date.
