I wish I had something fun and exciting to post, but I really don't.
Unless you think chasing two sometimes-crabby toddlers around the house/yard/store all day is fun and exciting.
I did make the Pinterest Flubber with the three bigger kids yesterday. They LOVED it.
I've been mentally preparing for the start of the school year, but now it's time to start more than just mental preparation. As we always start on the Tuesday after Labor Day, we have just over two weeks until the first day of school. Each year since moving here, I have been presented with at least one additional challenge: this year brings several. Hunter will be in eighth grade and Kaleigh in second (which I think is the harder of the two for me to wrap my head around!) K3 will be doing more Pre-K work this year; we will have a little more focus than last year, but I still plan to give her more play than anything. Last year, in addition to my three students, I had a (mostly) infant. This year I have two toddlers. It will be an adventure for sure!
I've maintained a pretty decent summer routine, but I'm sure it would bore the reader, so I won't detail it out here. But I think having that daily routine will help the transition back into the school year go a little more smoothly.
I have a few more things to get - I'd like a large bookshelf for the school room, and the kids still need notebooks - and I have a few little school room projects to do. I need to make die cuts for the calendar, hang the white boards, and do a little rearranging to make the area more study-conducive. Other than that, I'm feeling pretty ready.
I didn't get nearly as much done as far as house projects as I wanted to this summer. I'm hoping to cram a lot into these last two weeks, but we'll see.
Happy Sunday!
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
and sometimes...
...the wheels of justice turn as they ought to.
Our little K4 was TPR'd yesterday.
There are, as usual, still 30 days to appeal; but they have no legal grounds, so it's not very likely.
It is almost unbelievable, after all we've been through with every other child, to have a case end this quickly. (**Sidenote: Please don't ANYONE use the word "deserve" in a comment; I absolutely despise the word.) It hasn't even really hit me yet. In fact, because this happened so fast, we have to wait longer than we've ever had to to finalize adoption. She has to live with us for 6 months before we can adopt; so an adoption is schedule for..........drum roll please..........February! This means all of our adoptions so far will be in the same month.
If you pray, please pray - or continue to pray - for our K3. The wheels continue to turn very slowly in her case. Please pray that her TPR will be finalized by December, the main reason being that I don't think I can bear for her to have to watch another child adopted before her. She has been with us a year and a half, and she has been in care for 3 years - almost 75% of her life. Of course there are a multitude of other reasons we are praying for her TPR to be finalized by December, but I really really really want to finalize her adoption at the same time as K4.
Her TPR was referred last week (still annoyed about that, since it could have been done in April and filed by the DA in May), so I'm just hoping the ball will get rolling again quickly. Everyone who is involved from a legal standpoint has been involved since the beginning of her first TPR, which is fairly uncommon, but a really good thing in this case. We are praying and hoping that the judge will want to get this going and overwith, knowing how long she has been in limbo.
More to come. Thanks in advance for all the thoughts and prayers!
Our little K4 was TPR'd yesterday.
There are, as usual, still 30 days to appeal; but they have no legal grounds, so it's not very likely.
It is almost unbelievable, after all we've been through with every other child, to have a case end this quickly. (**Sidenote: Please don't ANYONE use the word "deserve" in a comment; I absolutely despise the word.) It hasn't even really hit me yet. In fact, because this happened so fast, we have to wait longer than we've ever had to to finalize adoption. She has to live with us for 6 months before we can adopt; so an adoption is schedule for..........drum roll please..........February! This means all of our adoptions so far will be in the same month.
If you pray, please pray - or continue to pray - for our K3. The wheels continue to turn very slowly in her case. Please pray that her TPR will be finalized by December, the main reason being that I don't think I can bear for her to have to watch another child adopted before her. She has been with us a year and a half, and she has been in care for 3 years - almost 75% of her life. Of course there are a multitude of other reasons we are praying for her TPR to be finalized by December, but I really really really want to finalize her adoption at the same time as K4.
Her TPR was referred last week (still annoyed about that, since it could have been done in April and filed by the DA in May), so I'm just hoping the ball will get rolling again quickly. Everyone who is involved from a legal standpoint has been involved since the beginning of her first TPR, which is fairly uncommon, but a really good thing in this case. We are praying and hoping that the judge will want to get this going and overwith, knowing how long she has been in limbo.
More to come. Thanks in advance for all the thoughts and prayers!
Faith
Faith is what it's all about.
It's not about the outcome.
It's not about whether God "actually" had my family's best interests in mind (He did, btw).
It's about whether I had faith.
Did He take care of me? Did He take care of my family? Did He provide for us?
Of course He did. He promised He would. That was, therefore, a given.
What matters is....
Did I have faith that He would?
It's not about the outcome.
It's not about whether God "actually" had my family's best interests in mind (He did, btw).
It's about whether I had faith.
Did He take care of me? Did He take care of my family? Did He provide for us?
Of course He did. He promised He would. That was, therefore, a given.
What matters is....
Did I have faith that He would?
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
The Wheels of Justice...
...don't always turn slowly.
Because sometimes they don't turn at all. And is it VERY frustrating, to say the least.
If I could tattoo a verse to the inside of my eyelids, so that my human brain would not so stubbornly forget that it is there, it would be II Corinthians 12:9, for a MILLION reasons (not the least of which is the context from which it comes, which is an entirely different blog post altogether!)
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Today was not one of my finer days as a cog in this process. Today was a day I allowed myself to become overwhelmed with frustration over a screaming toddler, a sassy teenager, and a system that at times does the exact opposite of what it claims to do. Today was a day I was more thankful than usual for God's grace, because it was a day I needed it more than any other day.
Too bad I still forgot at times throughout the day to accept it.
At the end of this very long Jonah day, when I keep mentally coming back to chiding myself for not remembering the free gift of grace that was available to me all day long, the only positive thing I can take away with me is that it will still be there tomorrow. I'm so thankful that God doesn't say, "Well, you screwed up. And too bad that was your last chance. Sucks to be you."
Even Paul had to continually ask God for forgiveness - I know because he was human too. And how else would he have finally learned to boast in his weaknesses, plural? That certainly isn't something that we as humans could possibly learn overnight; we HATE our weaknesses and instinctively want to hide them, not boast in them.
So I will ask God for His forgiveness for my failures today, and for forgetting I do not have to let frustration overwhelm me, and I will ask Him to help me remember His grace tomorrow.
Because sometimes they don't turn at all. And is it VERY frustrating, to say the least.
If I could tattoo a verse to the inside of my eyelids, so that my human brain would not so stubbornly forget that it is there, it would be II Corinthians 12:9, for a MILLION reasons (not the least of which is the context from which it comes, which is an entirely different blog post altogether!)
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Today was not one of my finer days as a cog in this process. Today was a day I allowed myself to become overwhelmed with frustration over a screaming toddler, a sassy teenager, and a system that at times does the exact opposite of what it claims to do. Today was a day I was more thankful than usual for God's grace, because it was a day I needed it more than any other day.
Too bad I still forgot at times throughout the day to accept it.
At the end of this very long Jonah day, when I keep mentally coming back to chiding myself for not remembering the free gift of grace that was available to me all day long, the only positive thing I can take away with me is that it will still be there tomorrow. I'm so thankful that God doesn't say, "Well, you screwed up. And too bad that was your last chance. Sucks to be you."
Even Paul had to continually ask God for forgiveness - I know because he was human too. And how else would he have finally learned to boast in his weaknesses, plural? That certainly isn't something that we as humans could possibly learn overnight; we HATE our weaknesses and instinctively want to hide them, not boast in them.
So I will ask God for His forgiveness for my failures today, and for forgetting I do not have to let frustration overwhelm me, and I will ask Him to help me remember His grace tomorrow.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Free Will
Why is it that when things are going really bad, and we are feeling at our worst, and life seems like it just can't get any worse, and we're miserable beyond belief to the point we just want to tear our clothes and put ashes on our heads... Why is that when so many of us say, "I really need to straighten my life out and get right with God." We cry out for Him, beg Him to remove our affliction, promise we will turn 180 degrees and go where He's called us to go.
And then when the particular storm has ended, and the boat seems righted again, we are soooo quick to place the credit anywhere but on Him. "Good thing I learned those relaxation exercises or I'd never have gotten through that." "Glad I worked so hard putting in overtime at work so I could get that extra money to solve that problem." "Thanks God, but I guess I've got this after all, so nevermind." We might as well thumb our nose at Him and say, "HA! Joke's on you if you REALLY thought I was gonna do that!"
I know some people that have made me wonder why God doesn't keep them in distress, keep their lives in a constant state of turmoil (and I guess I don't know for sure that He doesn't, since turmoil in the heart cannot be seen with the eyes).
And then I realized that if He did that, it would be the equivalent of placing a spell on someone to make them love you - if you have to do that, it's not true love, so what's the point? In other words, taking away our free will, which He does not do. And if that's the absolute only way a person is going to walk with God - if he's in turmoil - then what's the point?
When I was a kid, I used to lie in bed at night and beg God to take away my free will. "Please God," I'd pray, "I know You give us a free will, but please take mine away so it's not such a battle to do what's right all the time." I just wanted to be perfect, for Him. And every time I screwed up and did something wrong, I would lie there at night wondering why God let me do that.
It's still a dichotomy to me, this desire to do right battling the sin nature, while also knowing we will not be perfect this side of heaven. I'm thankful Paul wrote of it, if for no other reason than to know I am not the only one to be confused by it. "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." (Romans 7:19, KJV) or " For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." (ESV)
But back to my original musing. If God brings or allows turmoil in your life, and you realize you need to turn your life back over to Him, don't change your tune once the difficulties go away. If you're willing to follow Him when things are rough, why wouldn't you want to follow Him the rest of the time too?
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Waiting
I think when you're a foster parent, you do a whole lot. Some of it is just regular parenting "stuff": you give baths, play on the floor, read stories, teach life skills and lessons, discipline. Some of it exceeds the bounds of parenting birth children. (Some of the "regular" parenting requirements also exceed the usual limits.) The list is exhaustive, and varies greatly from one foster family to another.
But I think one thing all foster parents would agree on is that there is one thing we do more than anything else: waiting.
And that's what we're doing right now. In so many ways.
For starters, we are waiting to see if a letter gets signed by a judge by Tuesday. If it does, then the snag is resolved and our K4, who arrived again on Friday, is here to stay. If it doesn't, she has to return to the previous foster parents on Tuesday and then come back on Tuesday. This constant back and forth has been hard on her and made it very difficult to get her into a routine and help her start to understand the boundaries. So we pray this letter makes it to a judge to be signed by Tuesday, so that this time, the progress she has made will not be undone.
Secondly, we are waiting for K2's new TPR paperwork to be filed. It could have been filed in May based on the legal timeline, but the CW is not on the ball, and doesn't seem to care that this child has been in the system for over 2 years now. I realize CWs are overloaded and extremely busy, but I would think that a child who has spent so much time in limbo and who KNOWS it, would be at the top of the priority list. As of Thursday, the paperwork had not yet been sent to the DA's office, so now two additional months have passed in the life of this little girl who regularly asks me, "Are we gonna adopt me?
Thankfully, we know that everything is in God's hands. It's hard to believe there's Someone who loves my babies more than I do, but there is, and I have to trust that He is going to take care of them, while praying that He sees fit to place them in the earthly care of the family that they truly belong to.
But I think one thing all foster parents would agree on is that there is one thing we do more than anything else: waiting.
And that's what we're doing right now. In so many ways.
For starters, we are waiting to see if a letter gets signed by a judge by Tuesday. If it does, then the snag is resolved and our K4, who arrived again on Friday, is here to stay. If it doesn't, she has to return to the previous foster parents on Tuesday and then come back on Tuesday. This constant back and forth has been hard on her and made it very difficult to get her into a routine and help her start to understand the boundaries. So we pray this letter makes it to a judge to be signed by Tuesday, so that this time, the progress she has made will not be undone.
Secondly, we are waiting for K2's new TPR paperwork to be filed. It could have been filed in May based on the legal timeline, but the CW is not on the ball, and doesn't seem to care that this child has been in the system for over 2 years now. I realize CWs are overloaded and extremely busy, but I would think that a child who has spent so much time in limbo and who KNOWS it, would be at the top of the priority list. As of Thursday, the paperwork had not yet been sent to the DA's office, so now two additional months have passed in the life of this little girl who regularly asks me, "Are we gonna adopt me?
Thankfully, we know that everything is in God's hands. It's hard to believe there's Someone who loves my babies more than I do, but there is, and I have to trust that He is going to take care of them, while praying that He sees fit to place them in the earthly care of the family that they truly belong to.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Snag
We've hit a bit of a setback.
I can't disclose the details, but keep us and the Ladybug in your thoughts and prayers. The most important thing right now is her best interest.
Thanks in advance!
I can't disclose the details, but keep us and the Ladybug in your thoughts and prayers. The most important thing right now is her best interest.
Thanks in advance!
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