Ironman---- in a month

The YMCA is having an Ironman Challenge that started today and goes for a month. Stephen, Melynda, and I signed up. So between now and January 15th, I have to run 26.2 miles, bike 112 miles, and swim 2.4 miles (80 laps). I haven't exercised much since we moved, expect running up and down stairs all day. :) Tonight we went over and Stephen biked 15 miles and I biked 13.5 and ran 1.6. Melynda was at mutual. At the end of this month long challenge is another Sprint Triathlon like the one we did in August (1/4 mile swim, 6 mile bike, 2 mile run), so we're hoping to be able to do that one after this month's "training" challenge.

Anyone else crazy enough to join in with us?

Panic Time

What is the scariest thing a mom can face? Losing a child! Today we thought we had lost Lincoln and my stomach is still in knots 2 hours later. He had been playing store down in the basement with the other kids and no one realized he came up. I was cleaning the kitchen and getting ready to make cookies when the other kids came up. I asked where Lincoln was and they said in the basement. I sent someone down to get him and they came up saying he wasn't there. I knew he had been tired so I ran up to look in his bed and after a quick run through the house, I couldn't find him anywhere. I yelled for all the kids to help and we all started searching. I knew that most likely he had hidden somewhere and fallen asleep. It was nap time and the kids have been playing hide-and-seek a lot lately and he loves to hide. BUT I also knew he can open the front door if it is not locked and a neighbor had returned a movie and we hadn't locked it when he left. I worried that he had tried to follow TJ when he left and went out front by the road. We live off a fairly busy road where people drive WAY too fast! We are quite a way off the road, but not too far for a 2 year old to wander. I knew he had no coat or shoes on, but I honestly had no idea when I had last seen him. The kids all claimed they had seen him just minutes before, and I knew he had been running with them all afternoon up and down, but I couldn't have said if I last saw him 5 minutes earlier or 20 minutes earlier. They had all been playing together great and I had taken advantage of that to clean.

So after about 15 minutes of panic and searching EVERYWHERE, with Trish running down the street and the boys searching outside, I called Stephen and went systematically through the house again looking in every cupboard and under every bed. I kept thinking he has to be asleep here somewhere, but at the same time all sorts of horrible things were also flying through my head. I called 911 and she was just dispatching officers when I found him! He had crawled up on Adam's top bunk, wormed under some covers and fallen asleep. I was so grateful! But so full of adreniline and fear. Not a fun experience! I am so glad he was okay and just sleeping, but it was not a fun half hour!!!!!!

Photos of other kids

Since I just uploaded Eli's photo's I thought I would do some of the other ones Melynda took for her class as well. Of course, Melynda was behind the camera, so I don't have any of her. :) We did get a family one taken by my sister in law at Thanksgiving, but the camera was set on landscape and we have kids moving in almost every shot.

Photos of Emilio (Eli)

I was reminded by a friend last night that I haven't posted any photos of Emilio (whose new name will be Eli Jack Cox). So here you are. Trish (who is also changing her name to Melynda Elaine Cox) took the pictures as part of her digital photography class.

Emilio

I really thought I had posted at least once since bringing Emilio home from Texas. We flew down to San Antonio on Friday, then drove 3 hours to Corpus Christie to meet him. His caseworker was there (who had only met him the day before) and his foster family. I had taken some gifts that we could play with him, Candyland, toy cars, that sort of thing. We spent about 2 hours there at the foster home that night, then went to our hotel.

The first meeting went better than I had expected, I think in part because it took longer to get there than we planned and he was waiting for us. Plus we brought gifts. Always a good thing with a 6 year old. He is very sweet and affectionate and energetic. VERY ENERGETIC! We had not even seen a recent picture, so I was pretty nervous on the way to that first meeting.

On Saturday morning, we picked him up at 7:30 and followed his foster dad and foster brothers to the beach for a beach clean-up. He was excited to be with us, but still nervously looking for them. As the day went on, he became more comfortable with us and excited about the things we were doing. We took him to the aquarium, then to the dollar store to pick out 2 surprises (a task that took about an hour), then back to the hotel to play with the things we'd each chosen at the dollar store and go swimming. (Stephen and I chose things like play-dough and toy soldiers). At first he were scared to go swimming, but I'd packed the life jacket, and once he saw he could float, he was thrilled and wanted to stay in the water forever. Unfortunately it was too cold for me for long, so I watched Emilio and Stephen swim.

He stayed the night with us at the hotel and the next day we went to the beach for several hours. Stephen and I loved the beach and could have spent the whole day there, but Emilio wanted to go back to the hotel and go swimming again with the special life jacket. We had him with us all day Sunday and took him back to his foster family around 7 that night to say goodbye to them. We went back to the hotel without him. They give you this "break" time without the child, so you can talk and really decide if you want to proceed.

We did, so the next morning we went to his foster home one last time at around 10 and drove to his school with his foster parents. (Emilio was already at school, just like normal). We took treats for his school class and he said goodbye's to his teachers and friends, then to his foster parents, climbed in the car, and headed off to the airport with us. Kind of crazy when you think about it, but he was eager to go and excited about his new family. It was hard watching the foster parents say good-bye, knowing he had lived with them for 18 months and that they had done a good job teaching him many things. We drove to the airport and flew home, getting home very late Monday night. Emilio had fallen asleep in Denver, slept that whole last flight and as he was carried to the car and then the house. When he woke up the next morning, he was able to meet his siblings. They woke up gradually which was perfect because he was able to spend 10-15 minutes with one before the next kid woke up.

As I type this up and remember those feelings, it is amazing how well things have went over the past few weeks and how much he is starting to fit in. The first few days were hard in that he followed me around all day, like a new toy at Christmas, saying "mom? mom? mom? mom?"Kind of like the seagulls on Nemo. There is still a lot of adjusting going on. It's got the challenges of a new baby with fitting another person into the schedule, plus the fact that he already has an active personality and opinions on how to do things. There was A LOT that was new or different. Some good, some not from his perspective. Home cooked food instead of McDonalds. Chores. Scripture study. Younger siblings. New toys. Space to run (his foster home had no grass, just a small concrete pad to play on). He loves the dress-up box, and still spends most of his time wearing either the superman or spiderman costumes.

It's been a long, busy 3 weeks, not just with Emilio. My uncle Dave who was 58 passed away on the 7th and the following week we went to his funeral and then I went to Rupert for the graveside service (I left Stephen with all the kids.) We've been working and painting and cleaning a lot at our old house to get it ready to rent, and we are still working on unpacking here. Add in regular school (plus trying to figure out what Emilio even knows and where he is-- I'm homeschooling him too), chores, cooking, laundry, and just regular daily activities for 9 people and it's been a bit crazy! Plus Stephen and I had to talk in church last Sunday and help the kids prepare a musical number. (They did great and even Emilio learned the song and sang with the other kids.) So that's why I'm so behind on posting anything! But we are starting to get into a routine. It's busy and crazy and wonderful all at the same time. And probably going to get busier with the holidays coming up!

The other kids are adjusting pretty well too. Tyler loves having him home everyday (he hated days when Jeanisha and Ryan were both in school) and loves having someone who is "as hyper as I am". Jeanisha loves having someone who will play Candyland over and over and over. Adam had a hard time at first because Emilio would mix up him and Lincoln and call him "baby" and that is about the most offensive thing you can call a 3 year old. Emilio is getting used to Lincoln and no longer feels like he has to report to me every little thing Lincoln is doing like he did at first. Ryan is liking school more. We told him he could decide to stay in school or come back home and he wants to stay in school at least until the end of the semester and the choir concert (He goes early 2 days a week for a special choir class). Lincoln's hit the terrible 2's with a vengeance and is constantly into something or causing chaos somehow. Trish is thriving with homeschool and blossoming in her testimony. She has enjoyed putting together FHE lessons and learning to simplify things for the kids, even more so now with everything being completely new for Emilio.

Overall, we've come a long way in the past 2 months and seen some major changes. A new house, signing adoption papers for Trish, getting Emilio, and starting public school with some of the kids for the first time ever. It's amazing how much stuff can be crammed into 2 short months!

We've moved

The last few weeks have been CRAZY!!!! We did end up getting the house and are all moved in (sort of--- lots of stuff is still in boxes, but it's all here now). The seller finally signed everything and the loan funded the next day and we started pulling out carpet that night. We replaced most of the carpet in the house and repainted pretty much EVERYTHING!!! I think we figured we painted on 18 gallons of paint and primer. There was so much cleaning and scrubbing that we stumbled home exhausted late each night and got up early to come back the next day while the kids were at school. I had some wonderful friends who helped a lot, especially Melania who was here almost every day through the whole process. She was an angel in disguise and we never would have made it without her. She helped me figure out the colors and I love how the house looks. She also painted an amazing border in my bedroom and it looks like something out of a magazine. Once we get it unpacked, I'll try to remember to upload pictures. We moved on Labor Day and have been unpacking like crazy.

In the middle of all that craziness we signed the paperwork to start the process to adopt Trish. We have to be "pre-adoptive" status for 6 months before it can be finalized, so we should be able to finalize in March sometime.

We also were able to set up the dates to go meet Emilio-- in less than 2 weeks!!! Stephen and I will fly down to Texas on Friday and meet him, then spend a few days with him, and if all goes well, we get to bring him home with us! We're excited to meet him and hope that everything goes well.

There's never a dull moment around here, that's for sure!

Patience with an Almost Closing

We signed all the closing papers for the house today, unfortunately, the seller decided that she didn't understand everything she was going to sign, and didn't show up for her signing. So, we're still in limbo! Her realtor is hoping they can resolve everything and have her lawyer explain it AGAIN on Monday and re-sign everything on Tuesday. I am a bit annoyed because she already flaked once and delayed things a week, then said okay, I'll sign, then nevermind. . . . . Come on already!

We've also been waiting a week with no additional word from Texas about Emilio. I would really like to know when they want us to fly down and meet him. Just a little thing, right?

We also started Ryan and Trish in school/seminary this week by the new house. Jeanisha starts Kindergarten on Monday. Jeanisha and Trish are both on A/B days, but the days only match up every other week, so I get to make LOTS of trips back and forth (20 minutes each way) which is going to get old fast.

But, the key to the whole thing is patience. And just in case I wasn't getting the message through life, tonight when we went to the temple, the name of the person I was proxy for was Patience. I guess I needed a real clear hint. She was born in 1800 in England. Does this mean the craziness of my life is all part of a plan with pieces planted over 200 years ago? I guess if she waited 200 years for her temple work, I can wait another week. But I'm really tired of learning this lesson!

Skinny Boy

Tyler is super skinny. He always has been. He has no bottom! He is constantly tugging up his pants, even with the adjustable elastic waist thing inside. Yesterday, I was tired of telling him to pull up his pants, so I cinched in the waist as tight as I could. The pants finally stayed up. About 30 minutes later he comes in from playing and asks me to loosen it so he could use the bathroom. I told him to just unsnap them and go. He said, "What? I never undo them, I just suck in and pull them down." Poor kid, he's 8 years old and never learned to unbutton his pants to use the bathroom. He honestly had no idea that's what the snap in the front was for!

Limbo (venting)

I feel like our whole world is in limbo. Our house is on hold because of legal wording on the promissory note the bank is asking the seller to sign, that seller now won't sign. We were supposed to be signing yesterday. So we're holding our breath, waiting to hear what the bank and seller work out.

In the meantime, the judge in Texas approved visitations with Emilio and if we are still wanting to proceed after meeting him, she approved placement with us! So it looks like the long wait is finally drawing to a close! Then it will be 6 months until we can finalize the adoption. (It's been such a long, draining process, it almost doesn't feel real right now!) It is wonderful and we are excited, it's just hard knowing when to schedule the visits (and a little nervous feeling, like a blind date that will go straight to marriage 2 weeks later). We are trying to figure out when we can go to Texas in the next couple of weeks, while not knowing if/when we will be trying to paint, clean, recarpet, and pack. And I don't want him to get here while we are right in the middle of packing and moving. We need to be settled first, at whichever house, so things can be as normal as possible for him to settle him. And we don't want to visit and then have it be a long wait until he comes here to stay. I can't imagine what a 6 year old must be thinking and how scary the idea of getting a new family must be, especially when it is people you've never even met before! At this point, he hasn't even seen a picture of us.

To add to the craziness/confusion, we had decided to put Ryan and Jeanisha into regular public school this year. The school by the house we are supposed to be moving into is a really good school and I think Ryan would do good seeing what public school is really like. (Right now, he's on a "grass is greener on the other side of the fence" kick. He keeps telling me, "Public school kids don't have to write their answers as complete sentences. Public school kids don't have to show their work on long division. Public school kids get to play computer games. . . . ) I'm not sure where he is getting these ideas, but I think it will be a good experience for him, IF we move and are in the boundaries of a good school. I am still not willing to send him to the school right down the street from us now. As far as Jeanisha goes, she will love kindergarten and having someone give her schoolwork to do all day, and the school by the new house does an A Day/B day, so she can still homeschool part time and I can still take the kids at home on field trips and other activities because we won't have to work around being home in the middle of the day everyday. But, again, if we don't move, she is not going to school. And school in the new neighborhood starts NEXT Wednesday the 18th, so I feel like I need to make a decision soon, but I can't without knowing on the house.

I have a pretty good idea of what I will be using/buying if we end up homeschooling those two, so if it ends up going that route, it won't be too hard to get up to speed. I do have Tyler's stuff figured out and ready to go. Trish is on the waiting list for IDEA, so she is in limbo too. She should end up getting in, but if not, I'll have to get her registered with a different virtual charter school. So I can't really order her stuff yet either, although I do have most of it listed out. And with Emilio, I know he is in 1st grade, but don't know much about his learning style or what he needs or where he is academically.

I feel like I'm on one of those amusement park rides that spins you all around and upside down until you don't know which way is which and what way is up. And I'm ready for it all to stop so I can get off and things can be "normal" again!

Sprint Triathlon Pictures

The pictures from the triathlon are on web, but I'm not sure how long they will be up. (These are the expensive ones, we didn't have a camera since we were all doing the race.) Stephen's bib # is 313, Janet's is 189, and Trish's is 114. We all look pretty tired. Here is where you enter the bid #'s.


Stephen's swimming pictures are half way down the page here. He is in orange shorts.


And really, now that we are a few days past the race, I think I would do it again. Anyone want to join us in October?

Sprint Triathlon

Stephen, Trish, and I did a Sprint Triathlon last night. The race is a .25 mile swim (imagine one time around a high school track), 6 Mile Bike ride, and 2 Mile Run.

The race was VERY hard!!

They split the race of 400+ people into 9 groups, starting 10 minutes apart.

It was 96 degrees.

The swimming section was a lot harder than we thought it was going to be. We all got kicked a few times in the water. We were wrong in our calculations in the swimming pool (we were off by a half) so the real swim race was REAL hard. Stephen and Trish would agree with me on this.
When I (finally) made it to the first marker in the lake, I was completely exhausted. Luckily there were plenty of other slow swimmers, so I had company.

After the swim we went to the 6 mile bike section which was mostly flat, but the two bridges at the half way point got a lot bigger when you went over them (Stephen had told us they would be flat.) There were several bike wrecks with paramedics assisting people along the course as we made it through. I was just grateful not to be one of them. At the end of the bike race we all felt tired but pretty good.

Then came the transition to the run.

Running after you have swam and biked is an interesting feeling. Your legs tell you that you are doing it all wrong as you are trying to make your body run. It takes a little while to remind your body how to run. The run portion was 2 miles long and my body was not happy with me at this
point. It was all I could do to convince myself to keep going and get it over. At that point I just wanted to be done!

All three of us finished, which is awesome.

So here are the times.
Stephen 55:49
Janet 1:22:09
Trish 1:24:31

Trish would like to do another one. I don't know and Stephen says he doesn't know if he ever wants to swim again.

Summer is flying by!

This summer has been so busy and fun and crazy. We've been going, going, going. In July, we went camping to Garden Valley and saw 2 plays, The Wizard of Oz and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It is an outdoor theatre and is in a beautiful area. The following week my sister Sariah came to visit and Tyler and Jeanisha went to spend a week at Grandma and Grandpa's. We went skating and send Sariah and Trish out on their first date (from my house). The next week we went to Utah to see Stephen's family. We always pack a lot into our visits. We went to Lagoon with my family on Tuesday, to Antelope Island out in the Salt Lake on Wednesday, rode the Frontrunner train to Temple Square on Thursday, then to a "fun center" on Friday. The fun center has roller skating, an arcade, bounce houses, and climbing gym thing. Several cousins were able to come and the kids had a blast. That night we had a big barbq at Grandma and Grandpa Cox's house with everyone there. I think we counted 29 people, 12 adults and 17 grandkids. It was fun to see everyone and just visit and have fun. Saturday we went to Fort Buenaventura's Pioneer day Celebration. We went last year and the kids enjoyed it both years. One of the highlights was canoeing in the lake. On the way home, we dropped off Ryan to spend the next week visiting my parents and enjoying one-on-one time with Grandma and Grandpa. They brought him back home last Saturday when they came up for my cousin Lindsey's wedding.

In the middle of all this, we've been getting ready to move to a new house. It's not very far from here, but it's much bigger and on almost an acre! I am so excited for the extra space. It was a shortsale that we put the offer in on in May, so the process has taken awhile, but we should be closing on Aug 16. We are basically just waiting for the seller to get all her stuff moved out. The yard is pretty overgrown and neglected, but has a lot of potential. We've been working on packing up and getting ready to move.

Things are also moving along with adoption and hopefully by the end of August we'll know for sure which kid(s) we will end up with. Either Emilio (6) from Texas or Shania (5) and Kayce (2) from Oregon. It's been a crazy journey, but I know Heavenly Father will bring the right kids home to us.

Commercial made by the kids!

This is an anti-smoking commercial that the kids made up and filmed today! It's pretty cute! Enjoy!

Giveaway: Fruit Roll-ups and Granola Bars

This summer, I had a chance to try some snack products from Costco through MyBlogSpark.com. And I get to give away a "Costco Sunny Day Snacks Pack!" To enter the giveaway, read the review, and leave a comment with your favorite summer snack idea. Make sure you also leave a way for me to contact you if you win. You can get additional entries for posting a link on Facebook or Twitter, or sharing a link on your blog. Just post a comment saying you did that. I will draw a winner on Thursday July 15th, so make sure you enter by then.

So what is a Costco Sunny Day Snacks Pack? It is 2 boxes of SimplyFruit fruit roll-ups (42 count), 1 box of Chewy Trail Mix Granola bars (48 count), and a $25 Costco gift card!

I love Costco size packages because then one box actually lasts my family for a while. These fruit roll-ups are softer than regular fruit roll-ups and more like fruit leather. The variety pack includes strawberry and wild berry, I would have liked to have more varieties, but these are both good. Trish claims they taste better than regular fruit roll-ups because they are not as sweet. The other kids seem to like both equally well.

The Trail Mix Granola bars are more substantial than Quaker or Sunbelt granola bars. They work great for a fast breakfast on the run or snack in the car. These ones are the fruit and nut variety with raisins, dried cranberries, almonds, and peanuts. All of the kids liked them except Tyler because he doesn't like raisins.

Overall, these are both great grab-and-go snacks for summer. They were a hit with the kids and enjoyed by the adults as well. And you can't go wrong with a $25 Costco gift card to go along with it. So please enter the drawing and I'll post the winner next Thursday. (I will put numbers in a hat and have one of the kids draw.) Please make sure I can contact you for shipping info or I'll have to choose a different winner!

The product I was given to review, the prize pack, information, and giveaway have all been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Busy, busy, busy

I can't believe it's been 2 1/2 weeks since Trish came. This summer is going so fast!!! Everyone has adjusted really well, and it seems like Trish has been part of the family for much more than a few weeks. The novelty has pretty much worn off and she is just one of the gang now. She is great with the kids and has enjoyed being able to be a kid herself as she does things with them.

We've been running 3 miles almost every night (Trish and I are planning to do a half marathon this fall), went to watch my brother at Special Olympics, went to Bio Blitz at the Wildlife Refuge, fed the ducks, went to the zoo, went to the Discovery Center Science Museum, went to Messiah's Mansion (a life size replica of the tabernacle in Moses time), had Cub Scout Day camp, and spent the last 3 days doing Idaho Youth Games. For the Idaho Youth Games, Trish volunteered with Stephen and I and had lots of fun helping the other kids do swimming, bowling, a one mile race, a mini triathlon, and a "fun night" with lots of bounce houses and activities.

She has jumped into the youth activities at church and is going to be leaving for girls camp on Monday morning for 4 days! She is also taking 2 high school classes this summer, Health and Eng 10A, so she spends time each day working on those. I think she has been surprised at how busy we are and how many fun things there are to do. She also loves to take photos, so now I have tons of fun pictures to add to the blog; I just have to get her in front of the camera too!

Here are some pictures from the zoo!

She's here!!!

We picked up Trish yesterday, finally! We are happy to be through with this set of hoops and I think she is happy to be settling in. It will be an adjustment for her to get used to the kids, and hopefully the kids will move past the novelty stage quickly. They want to follow her everywhere, sit next to her, help her. . . . Jeanisha is especially loving it and copies everything Trish does. If Trish has eggs, Jeanisha wants eggs, if Trish puts ranch on her sandwich, so does Jeanisha. Trish seems to think it is cute for now. Hopefully Jeanisha moves past it before it becomes annoying. She is just so excited to finally get a sister. And to have it be a big sister who likes make up and clothes and girly stuff is just bonus!

Patience

I don't really like learning patience. I would really like to just see where I am going and not have to trust. We still don't have Trish. They didn't give us some paperwork they needed to have filled out before our home visit until Friday the 21st. (We were planning to get Trish on the 22nd.)The different regions of the state have a hard time working together and communicating, plus the caseworkers are a bit overloaded right now. But it's still frustrating. I turned in the paperwork on Monday, they came and did the home visit on Tuesday and told me we needed a screen around the fireplace and to get the carpets cleaned. I knew they needed cleaned, but I was waiting until we finished potty training Adam. And they had told us over and over in our 27 hour training class that the home visit was not to look for cleanliness, but for safety issues. (And I had everything else clean and ready anyway.) Luckily, I have a good friend whose husband has a carpet cleaning business and he came the next morning. My carpets look brand new, which is pretty impressive considering the wear and tear that comes from 5 kids! (If you live in the area, their business is Superior Cleaning and the number is 453-2945.)

She came for the revisit on Wed. afternoon, and passed us off to get our foster care license. Thursday I tried calling every 30 minutes, but the phone system was down or something and I was never able to get through to Trish's caseworker. Then they were off for a furlough day on Friday, and then the long weekend. Maybe we can make something happen this week.

Update: I just found out TODAY that the office I was working with was closed on May 27th due to budget cuts. Nice of them to let us know. The phone number I have was disconnected and I've spent the morning tracking down the caseworker's new number, only to get a message saying she will check her messages after she gets all moved over to the new office. At least this explains why I couldn't get a response to phone calls or emails all last week! Patience is NOT fun!

As far as Emilio goes, we've went through the big box of paperwork, and the additional paperwork they sent last week. We are waiting to hear back on a couple things, but then hopefully we can proceed there. So much for being able to bring him home in early June, we havn't even went down for a visit yet. We were told by friends to expect the process to take 4-6 months, even though the state workers were saying 2 months. Every step so far has taken much longer than we were told, so we just keep waiting and praying for it all to work out.

And, just in case we don't have enough waiting to do right now, we put an offer in on a short sale house yesterday in Nampa. I guess I'll learn patience one way or the other.

Adoption update and Moving beds

Ten more days until we pick up Trish. This is an old picture, but doesn't she look sweet? Also, the box of info on Emilio was sent out today! So things are finally moving with that. Maybe??? The caseworker is back from family leave, so that should help.

We've been moving furniture and food storage and making room for 2 more kids. We cleaned out the food storage/storage room and moved Lincoln's crib in that room. Then we bought some bunkbeds off craigslist and set them up for Jeanisha and Trish. Once we got them all set up, we realized they block the window/fire escape, so we're going to have to trade them with the one Ryan and Adam are using right now. Hopefully we can get that done tomorrow.

We have taken 4 of the 9 required 3 hour classes to be certified for foster care and just have a few more hoops to jump through. We will finish classes on the 21st and go pick up Trish on the 22nd. She is coming for a 2 week trial to see what she thinks about being part of a large family. She's never really been in a family with lots of younger kids, so hopefully the noise and constant busyness won't be too crazy for her. The kids are super excited. We spent Sunday, May 2nd with her and she seemed to fit in really good and said she felt like she belonged. The kids loved her too! It will be an interesting summer!!!!

Do we want a teenager?

This past week has been a little crazy. Last August, we tried to adopt a teenage girl, but they placed her with her foster family. Her adoption disrupted (didn't go through), and she moved to another foster home. This last week, I got a call at 1:59 pm asking if we wanted her. The state wanted to just sign over legal guardianship to us. "Oh, and the meeting to make a decision is at 2:30 pm, (that day), so if you could please let us know by then."

Hello, I spend more than 30 minutes deciding whether to put the kids in swim lessons or not. And you want me to decide if I want a teenage daughter in 30 minutes. We hadn't heard anything from her or the caseworker since last August, so this totally came out of the blue. And the timing just seems really bad where we just got matched with the little boy in Texas.

We had a 20 minute phone conference with her, the caseworker, and the school counselor where we talked about our rules and expectations. I wanted her to really think about what she would be getting into. We also researched guardianship and learned it is NOT a good option. It is not good for us, it is not good for her. The only people it is good for is the state because it basically moves her off of their rolls, like she aged out of the system. We told them we would not do that, but that we would consider having us live with us under the foster care guidelines on a trial basis. We have only spent 2 hours with her, last August, and had 2 caseworkers there redirecting the conversation. So we want time to get to know her better, and for her to get to know us better and see if this is REALLY what she wants and is willing to commit to making it work. So we are spending this next Sunday with her and then taking the foster care classes in May and then she will come live with us for 2 weeks the end of May. And we'll see what happens after that. She may decide that a family with 5 kids is more than she bargained for. Or it may be a great fit and we'll end up adding a teenage girl and a 6 year old boy this summer. I just keep telling myself it will all work out how it is supposed to.

Not the Easter I imagined

This has been quite the weekend. My sister went into labor yesterday morning, so we have her 3 kids in addition to my 5. All was going great until yesterday afternoon when I was helping the kids dye eggs and Lincoln starting throwing up. EVERYWHERE. A couple hours later, Adam started, followed by Jeanisha, then Karma's 2 year old. (We've been everywhere together this last week during spring break, so both groups of kids got exposed.) The kids threw up constantly all night long. 4-5 times EACH! And of course the little sick ones aren't the best at hitting a bucket. My wonderful husband slept on the floor to take care of Adam and Jeanisha, my mom who had come up to see the baby slept on the couch to take care of Karma's kids, and I slept with and took care of Lincoln. At 7 this morning, Stephen went to sleep and my mom and I continued cleaning up throw up and doing the mountain of laundry until she had to go home.

Stephen and I figure we have cleaned up more throw up in the last 24 hours than in our 11 years of marriage combined. It's been that bad! Luckily of the other 4, 3 have complained of stomach aches, but not thrown up, and Ryan has been fine. So they have played games and watched TV all day. I'm hoping they aren't just waiting.

We told the kids we emailed the Easter bunny and asked him to come later this week when people aren't sick. We didn't get to watch any of today's conference, or make the Easter dinner I had planned. But I don't think this is an Easter I'll forget.

We were selected!!!!

We got THE call yesterday from our social worker that we have been selected as a match for a 6 year old boy in Texas. The picture is from Jan. 2009, so it is old, but it's the best we have at the moment. He is in Kindergarten and loves to play with cars, color, and listen to stories. He likes to play outside and tends to copy other children. (They felt having lots of kids to copy would be good for him. Yeah! Finally someone who sees our larger than average family size as an asset!)

They are getting all of the information from his case file ready to send to us. They have to go through and mark out and identifying info like SSN's and addresses and last names. They said that can take up to two weeks, but they sent it out "with a kind request for expedited service." We'll see what expedited service means when working with government agencies. :) Our social worker said to expect it to take a month. This file is likely 1000-2000 pages!

Once the caseworker gets it back, it will be overnighted to us, and we will be asked to look through it quickly for any deal breakers or things that would make us say he won't fit with our family. If we don't find anything immediately, they will set up travel arrangements for us to go down to Texas and meet him. We will then be able to look through the paperwork in more detail. We have received a 22 page summary already that was very up-to-date with information from this past month! That in itself is pretty amazing.

So, hopefully we will get the box of paperwork relatively soon, and be able to make a trip down to Texas. Emilio's worker is wanting to move things along and hopefully get him in our home the first part of June as school ends.

We are very excited!

Playing House

My poor daughter needs some sisters!!!!

Jeanisha and I were talking about things she liked to do when she plays at friends' houses. She listed off several things she like to do, then said, "But there is one thing I don't like."
Me: What's that?
Jeanisha: I don't like it when they say 'let's play house.'
Me: Why not, lots of little girls like to play house.
Jeanisha: Because I don't know how to play that game.

I explained that playing house just means pretending to be a mom and taking care of doll babies and pretending to cook dinner and stuff like that. She looked at me for a minute, and then said, "No mom, that's just playing."

Cheap Prescription Glasses

I just ordered 2 pairs of glasses from Eye Buy Direct and got them yesterday. They cost me $21 total for 2 pairs with shipping! They seem great and my prescription works perfect. They don't seem any different from my old, much more expensive ones. They are metal frames and look cute. I only had an old prescription from 2004 and it worked fine, so if your vision doesn't change you can use whatever prescription you have. You can upload a picture and "try them on" on the site. The buy one get one sale I used ends this week. You can also email me or comment with your email address and I will also send you a link from my account on the site good for 10% off. I don't know if you can stack them. But $10 a pair for prescription glasses without having to go to an eye doctor is a steal!

Free Money

Everyone likes free money, right? There is some jumping through hoops involved, but you can get $225 per person (more if you happen to have a Bank of America credit card). (The $150 from Key is only in certain markets, but all of Idaho is included.) Here's the link to see if your area works: Key Bank Promo

Here's how to do it: Key bank is running a promo where you can get $150 for opening an account. You do have to do two payments (pulls, like link it to a cc or ING, explained below) and a debit card purchase. You also can't have opened one in the last 12 months. I've done these many times in the past. It's not too hard. Minimum opening is $125. If you want to do the next part, put $250 in there.

I used an ING account for my pulls. If you want to open an ING savings, I can email you a link to get $25 free money there just for opening it. I'll get $20. That one is totally painless and easy. :) You do have to fund it with $250, but I don't think there are any requirements for having it sit there. If you open the Key Bank first, then the ING, you can pull $100 one day and $150 the next from Key (you can schedule them both at the same time). Leaving $0 in Key. You still have to keep the Key account open for 180 days, and get out your free money, but then close it because after a year, there will be a $20 annual fee (it's waived the first year). Plus, Key does this often and you can do it again 12 months after you close the account.

Once you have the $250 in ING, you can open an ING checking account, transfer the money there and do 3 debit card transactions to get a $50 bonus there. Then you can move the rest of the money back to regular accounts and close everything if you want (I like ING and use it for my savings account).

Total free money $225 per person (remember you can do it for you and your spouse, just do individual accounts, not joint).


Now if you happen to have a Bank of America CC, they are offering $75 if you open a checking account with them. Again, close this after the minimum times and you can do it again next year. Let me know if you have questions. ING and Bank of America should work anywhere, not just Idaho. $600 in free money for me today, Wahoo!!!

Best places to read

The boys spent the entire day reading. This afternoon I told them to go outside and this is where I found them. Ryan was up in a tree and Tyler was lying on the driveway. "because it's warmest here"


The other kids enjoyed the sunshine too. Adam took off his shirt because it was "too hot" Ryan and Tyler then found new reading places, but they stayed outside. And Ryan enjoyed spending the whole day in his pajamas.

No school day

I told the kids we were taking today off of school and they could stay in pj's as long as they wanted. So what did they do?

Danced around singing The Verb Song at the tops of their lungs until they all knew it by heart. I could probably sing you the whole song too. :)
Played "Take Off" a geography quiz game.
Read, read, read and read some more. Tyler is devouring Magic Treehouse books and Ryan is reading Harry Potter 3 again.

Jeanisha did tell me it wasn't fair that I wasn't helping her with her school and that it was my job to help her do at least a few pages of math. I agreed to 4 and told her she could write me a letter saying why she should do more school. (which meant I got to spell words for her to write for the next 45 minutes)

Her letter said: "Dear mom, I like doing school because I want to catch up with Tyler. Jeanisha"

Now they are outside playing. And our "non-school" day has ended up being pretty educational.

Toilet troubles!

Adam was the last kid to go brush his teeth tonight, and there were no older siblings in the bathroom with him. Stephen walked in a minute later to find him swishing his toothbrush in the toilet.
Stephen (calmly): What are you doing?
Adam: I got too much toothpaste on my toothbrush.
Stephen: So what are you doing?
Adam (matter-of-factly): Washing it off.

He has a new toothbrush.

And unfortunately, he is proud of his new toothbrush and was excitedly telling the other kids about it like it was a great reward.

Add to this Lincoln. That kid LOVES the toilet. It's a daily battle to get all the kids to keep the toilet lid and door closed, especially since I'm trying to potty train Adam and the other kids are helpfully taking him frequently. (Both Adam and whoever takes him get a treat if he goes.)

I swear Lincoln watches for the door to be left open and his faces lights up with joy when he manages to get away with it for a minute. So far today, he's managed to put a spatula, a spoon, and a bottle of salad dressing into the toilet! (The salad dressing was when I was bringing in and putting away groceries.)

I do watch the kids, I promise, they just think the toilet was made for their entertainment.

Adoption Rollercoaster and FAQ

Adopting is so much harder than a pregnancy! The emotional ups and downs are draining. The committee meeting for Janiya and Tommie was on the 17th, and the 15, yes, 15 people who were making the decision, said we would be an incredible family for these kids. But then they told us they wanted to just wait for another 4-6 months, leaving the kids in their foster homes and see if they are "more ready" to be adopted. Apparently, all 15 couldn't agree in 2 hours. (Can 15 people agree on ANYTHING in 2 hours??? I've been in groups that spent that long debating the design for a t-shirt.)

I asked what they planned to do and they had no plan, other than to wait. I pointed out (nicely) that 4-6 months is FOREVER to a 5 and 7 year old. They then said that the decision had been made, and if we don't have a different placement in 4-6 months, we will be in a "priority" position to adopt these kids. I was SO frustrated!!!!! It really seems like NO ONE cares about these kids at all. I was even told, "These kids have been waiting for a family for so long, another few months won't make a difference." and "These kids don't know what adoption is or that there is a family that wants them, so it doesn't matter." Hello???!!!???

So, after the emotional crash of what was supposed to be a pretty sure thing (we were the ONLY family they were considering), I started focusing on our next committee meeting for Cheyann which is this coming Friday. Preparing for committee is draining. The worker representing us has a copy of our homestudy, but then I spent 3 hours on the phone answering questions about our family and how we would meet the needs of this special little girl and everything else you can imagine. You feel like you have to have the answers for everything. Three hours is a LONG time to be grilled on a phone call. I also made her a photo book of our family for if we are chosen, so she would have something to use to get to know us a little. In this case, there are 3 families selected by the caseworker. Each family is represented by a social worker and the case worker represents the child. All are presented to a committee of 3 people, who have never met any of the families, or the child, and they choose the family (in a 3 hour meeting). Kind of crazy, I know, but at least it is 3 people, not 15, and they have to leave the meeting with a chosen family. Then the selected family will get a lot more info on her and have 7 days to decide whether to proceed or not. Then the family goes and spends a week with her in Oregon, they go home, and the caseworker brings her to her new home 1-3 days later. So if it happens, it could go fast.

Then today, we were contacted by Janiya and Tommie's worker who said "they" want to have a conference call with us on Monday. I don't even know for sure who "they" entails. So maybe something will come of that. I really wish I had a crystal ball!!!! So, in the next week, one of four things will happen.
1. We could be told we get Cheyann= Happy
2. We could be told we get Janiya and Tommie= Happy
3. We could be told we get both and have major decisions to make= Happy
4. We could be told we get none of them= Major emotional crash

So 3 out of 4, I can be hopeful right???? The crashes are hard, kind of like I would imagine an early miscarriage. You have spent time planning and dreaming and figuring how this child would fit into your family--if selected, they could be in your home in less than a month, or it could take 3-4 months. There is a lot of unknown. You also know a little about their personality, but you've never actually met them, usually. Janiya and Tommie's was also hard because we'd been working to get to that point for so long. We first inquired on them back in September and were told we were a potential match in December. Then after getting lots more information, we had to wait 6 weeks for the match meeting. We'd also been pretty confident because we were the only family. I hadn't even envisioned they would just want to keep them in foster care forever (or 6 months, which feels like the same thing right now)!

The main thing we've learned so far is that nothing about the process is "normal." Every state is different, sometimes every county. And even when there are "standard procedures" that doesn't mean they will be followed. Pregnancy is much easier!

We've been asked several adoption related questions lately, so I figured I would answer them here instead of in the comments. If anyone is interested in really doing this yourselves, I would be happy to help you figure out how to get started. I still believe it will all be worth it in the end!

Where do you find the children?
Adoption photolisting sites like www.adoptuskids.com or http://photolisting.adoption.com/ Most states or counties have heart gallery's with pictures and bios of waiting children. Many are often featured as "Wednesday's child" on TV or in the newspaper

Who are the kids?
Kids whose parental rights have been terminated for one reason or another. Abuse, neglect, or drugs are the most common reasons. Many of the kids are developmentally behind because they missed out on the attention and love healthy families take for granted. Most of them are older than 3 or 4 and most have special needs of some kind (emotional, developmental, mental, or physical.) Sibling groups are generally harder to place, as are older kids.

How much does it cost?
Much less than international!!! It really depends on your agency. Our homestudy was $800, the networking fee for them to talk to other agencies was $750 (most states won't talk to us directly), and then there were the charges for physicals, background checks, classes, etc. We will also pay to go meet the child and spend a week or more wherever they live now. There will also be finalization costs, but most of those are usually paid by the state placing the child. So, in the end, our financial cost will be $3000- 5000. The emotional cost on the other hand. . . . . .

Where does time go?

December and January have flown by and now February is almost half over. So much has happened. I have so much to blog about and so many cute pictures. I think it's a bit overwhelming to me because I am so far behind.

Here are the highlights, more pictures will hopefully follow.
Stephen and the boys went to a BSU game in December and loved it.

Then Stephen and I went on an amazing cruise from San Diego to Catalina Island and Ensenata, Mexico. It was WONDERFUL!!!! So nice to get away for a few days without kids and just be people instead of parents. It was fun to go exploring and have adventures. Stephen loved the endless food, I liked the chocolate buffet and yummy desserts. The kids all loved having special time with grandparents or cousins. Everyone felt like they got the best vacation ever!

Then came a visit to Rupert while my dad had his appendix taken out, a quick trip to Utah, Christmas, and another visit to Rupert. We spent all of December packing, traveling, unpacking, and repacking. It was lots of fun, but exhausting.

In January, we started to catch up and the Lincoln caught RSV and spent a week in the hospital. He is doing better now, but it's always scary when one of the kids is that sick.

Another thing I'd planned to blog about and never got around to was the wonderful new kitchen floors and bathroom floor my amazing husband put in. (I was reminded as I looked through all the pictures.) He did a great job and they look wonderful! I LOVE not having carpet in the kitchen anymore!

Adoption update

We are still working to adopt and things are looking promising. We have 3 kids that we are being considered for. Siblings Janiya and Tommie (7 and 5) or Cheyann (8). The decision meeting for Janiya and Tommie is on Feb. 17 and the meeting for Cheyann is Feb. 26. We would love any prayers that it will work out for the right kids to come to our home!

Here are links with pictures for Janiya and Tommie.
http://www.heartgallerytampabay.org/children/tommie_janiya.php?gid=12
If you click on view photos under their picture on the left, it will pull up 2 more pictures.


Here is the pictures of Cheyann
http://www.nwae.org/c7646.html

Funny, Sweet, and Random Comments

I've been collecting some of the great comments the kids make and wanted to share them here. Enjoy.

I was teasing Tyler and stuck a little sticker on his forehead that said STAR and told him "That's what you are." He went over to the mirror to see what it said and came back over all indignant. "I'm not RATS!" He took the sticker off and threw it on the ground. Then I had him read it and he wanted it back on.

Adam was eating his sucker and started complaining. "My sucker is too hard, I can't eat it." I told him just to suck on it. "I can't, it will get my mouth dirty."

My brother Gary is married to a Mary. I also have a sister named Karma.

I bought some Marionberry syrup and the kids love it, but they call it "Mary an' Gary" syrup. They also call Carmel Corn "Karma" Corn.

Tyler at Christmas gave me a snowflake necklace, he was so excited about it. More excited than even opening presents. He kept telling me, leading up to Christmas "You are going to squeeze my guts out when you open my present."

Then on Christmas morning, one of his presents was the movie "G-Force." It was probably the 3rd present he'd opened. He then convinced the other kids to stop opening presents and to go watch the movie. They sat and watched the whole thing before going back to open the rest of the presents. (We were able to feed them breakfast while they watched, so it actually worked out pretty good.)

Now for the sweet ones. Our cat Lucy got hurt and her leg had a big bloody sore on it. The kids were pretty worried. They were working on schoolwork and Tyler stopped and came to ask how to start a fast so he could fast for her to get better.

I couldn't find a library book, so I offered the kids a $1 reward. Ryan went racing to his bedroom, and just then I found it. He was disappointed and told me, "I was going to my room to say a prayer because I know Heavenly Father would help me find it and then I would get the money."