Home Inspection Day

  We are officially relicensed for another year of foster care. For some reason every time we get ready to relicense our  home I go into panic mode. Is our house clean enough? Do those bags under my eyes make me look like an insane person? Then every time we meet with our licensing person and its easy, she even answers any question I'm afraid to ask case workers. Plus sometimes she even lets me know more about cases/rumors and puts my fears at ease. She really is one of my favorite people who work at the child welfare office. 

 We're also preparing for another placement. Only a couple days, we're doing respite for another foster parent. The one that had Princess before she was placed here. We get to have 2 little girls for 5 days. A 3 year old, we'll call her Sparkles, and a little one who is going to be 2 soon, we'll call her Snuggles. Hopefully we'll also be getting their little sister from the hospital ANY DAY now! Although to be honest I hope that we don't get the call for the baby until the girls are back with their other foster mom... 7 kids might be a bit much for me. 

 I am so excited to maybe get a baby but I keep telling myself not to buy anything. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Last time we thought we were getting a baby I went out and I bought some stuff and then we didn't get her. I was crushed even though I knew it was better for her to go to family instead of having to be moved later. I have since decided that buying things before hand is a jinx. I will instead have to run out and get stuff if/when I get the call. 

An Ah-Ha Moment

 Over the last few weeks I've been worried that we were on the sh*t list with the foster care workers. No calls in over a month and then no placements since May?! Oh my goodness someone must be mad! First I emailed a supervisor that I feel we know pretty well asking if its just been slow or something else is up. I didn't get a response. That of course is what sent me into panic thinking that we'd done something wrong or made someone mad. No I didn't bother looking over facts in my head like: She may be busy. We are constantly told by social workers how much they love our family. We always try are best to help the social workers and don't talk about anyone behind their backs.

 After a week of no response I was going crazy. Seriously asking Hubs if he'd said something when he dropped off paperwork. If he had done something wrong like beat a kid in public. (Hey I said I was crazy, ok? My mind wasn't thinking straight.) Finally he said to email someone else because the supervisor is probably busy and our email probably got buried and its not a big deal. Ever the voice of reason my Hubs. Following his advice I emailed our licensing worker. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before but I love our licensing worker. She responds quickly and seems to know the answer to any question and if she doesn't she will find out the answer and get back to you.

  I got her email back almost first thing the next morning since I sent my letter in later in the afternoon I expected that. She said that it looked like we were on the list wrong. We were on there as only respite and emergency care. Then she proceeded to add us as long and short term care too. Hubs and I later realized we'd gone down to just respite and emergency because we went on vacation in June and didn't want a longer term placement here when we were leaving. Now I feel equal parts relieved and stupid for freaking out.

Soccer, Football and Preschool Oh My!

 So Bug and Smiles went to dad and grandpa that Tuesday. I think I forgot I had the blog so I didn't update and haven't updated for awhile. The grandpa and dad seemed AMAZING they were wanting to know anything about the girls that I could tell them and kept thanking me which made me feel good. It was one of those reunions (well Bug had never met him so not sure what you'd call it for her) that make you feel good inside. One where you know they are going to love the children and do whatever they can to be good parents. Maybe not perfect but who is?

Super excited for school!

Seriously? What's up with the pirate face?

Whats up with my life now? Well, both my littles are in preschool. Princess is in an early intervention preschool because they say she has social and speech issues. I think she's just shy because at home she talks a ton and is very out going with people she knows well. For now she only goes 2 days a week and the bus picks her up at our door and drops her off at our door. She loves her bus, she gets a sticker for buckling herself in and its almost always the first thing Princess shows me when she steps off the bus. Plus the driver always compliments her outfit and flattery will get you everywhere with Princess. Moose started preschool as well but his was the free preschool that our school district is doing now for 4 year olds. He goes 4 days a week but I have to take him, no bus :(. I made both of their outfits for school and appliqued the first letter of their names on the outfits. I didn't make Moose's shirt but I did make the pants. I made everything of Princess' outfit, including the bow.

Watching for her bus

Done with pictures

  My older boys are homeschooled. We use k12 which is sort of a combination of homeschool and public school. Its considered public school and you don't need to buy any of the curriculum. We also qualify financially to qualify for a computer. They actually sent one for each boy this year since they had online classes at the same time. There is also a teacher my job is to be their 'learning coach' which means I'm basically teaching, grading and doing everything BUT there is another person in charge of helping my kids learn. Their teachers also do online classes, tutoring and answer any questions my boys or I have. She is also the one who gives them their quarterly assignments to make sure they're actually working and occasionally asks for work samples. I love it. There are some issues but most of them are minor in comparison to the benefits. For first day of school this year my big boys wore their pjs.

Legoman, in Christmas jammies

Sleeping in on the 1st day

Captain

Getting to work first thing by playing
some online games

   Both big boys are in sports this year too which is keeping us busy. Legoman started soccer and Captain started football again. This is Cap's 2nd year of football and he has changed so much since last year. He is FAST and focused and determined. Last year he'd get distracted by everything and lost interest while playing. This year he is one of the best on the team (keep in mind I am his mom and maybe a little bias). He is loving it and his coach is loving his new attitude. Legoman is doing pretty well with soccer but he's a bit more interested in socializing with his best friend than putting in his full focus. As long as he's having fun I'm happy.

Absolute Chaos :)

 So we've sort of started adjusting to Bug and Smiles. Since I know they're very temporary to our home I'm basically treating it like an extended play date. Yes my house is a disaster zone, I don't know if you can go two feet in any direction without finding a toy but guess what I don't care. The only thing that has been a serious struggle to keep up with is dishes. 6 plates for 3 meals a day adds up quick and that's just for the kids. I'm trying to not stress about everything though. It doesn't matter if the toys aren't correctly sorted and put away every night. It doesn't matter if Mommy is so exhausted she can't read Sneazy, the Snowman one more time.

 Instead I'm focused more on making things easy for the girls. Yes I'm including Princess in this. Little girl is green with jealousy. She isn't so happy about sharing her toys, I think it'd be easier if there was only one new child to focus on but right now she has two kids who don't understand that taking things out of her hands isn't ok. Bug is being a bit more spoiled than she would if she were a long term placement. We have been rocking and cuddling her till she is almost asleep before putting her to bed. Not a good habit I know but she loves it and I don't see any need to let her cry. Hubs loves it she snuggles with him while he watches tv.

 Yesterday we had to take Smiles earrings out. She pulled one of them out during bath time which let me see how swollen they are. The holes are leaking blood and a greenish pus. She's lucky I didn't get sick. I'm not sure what the rules are but I took the earrings out so I could clean her ears really well and put some triple antibiotic on them. I really don't want to put the earrings back in since her ears are really tender and I had to fight her to clean them. I can't see putting an earring back in a child who's fighting me tooth and nail to keep me away from her ears. Oh and we know how old she is! She's 2, just a month younger than Princess but she's got about 4 inches and 10 pounds on Princess.

 Both girls liked church yesterday. Bug loved being the center of attention with the nursery workers. She was held and focused on pretty much the whole time. Princess didn't like that at all because normally she gets a ton of attention and this time it was less than normal. Then Princess tripped and fell in the mud which was pretty much the end of the world. She spent the rest of the day whining to daddy that her hands were dirty even after they'd been cleaned.

 My boys are pretty much hiding out. Legoman has been hanging out at his friends house, they're going to go see the Lone Ranger today. Cap and Moose have been playing together more than normal. Sometimes they go and play with the big boy legos in the big boy room other times Moose watches Cap play on his Kindle.

Tomorrow we hear from the girls' worker about the plan for moving them. I am kind of glad, its been fun but I am EXHAUSTED. Six kids is way harder than I thought.

TWO new kiddos

 So we're only supposed to be open for one girl 0-12 months. Now we have TWO girls. Bug is 15 months and Smiles is.... well actually we have no idea how old she is 2 or 3 is my guess though. The social worker didn't even know the girls' names. Hopefully she has more information tomorrow when she comes back tomorrow. This is a short term placement, since its a holiday weekend they should be leaving Tuesday.

 Poor things seem to be worn out though. I gave them both baths. Little Bug doesn't have much hair so I was able to get it brushed out pretty easily. Poor smiles though had mats all through her hair. I've never seen kids hair that matted. She kept saying 'ow dat hurt. don hurt my head'. Poor baby she did really well letting me braid it up for the night though. We'll see how everything works tomorrow after they've got a good nights sleep.

Its official, meet our little princess

Everything went smoothly. The adoption was done over the phone. I'm so happy everything is done. She has felt like ours for a long time now so this was just a formality but it still doesn't feel real.

Isn't she the most beautiful little girl ever? After we were done we went out for lunch and got her ears pierced. She'll get a new pair of earrings on the anniversary of every adoption day.

One more week to go!

 The countdown is killing me. Everything is so close to being done but I still have to wait. I don't want to order the adoption announcements and jinx myself. We have an appointment scheduled to pierce her ears that same day. She has been watching videos of kids getting their ear's pierced and she still wants to do it. I tried warning her that it hurts a bit but she seems to think that the kids who cry are just babies. We'll see what she says when she's the one in the chair.

 On another note we are potty training our little Princess. So far its really easy. Like strange easy. I let her pick out some panties and that was all the motivation she needed. My boys I bribed with M&Ms but Princess is good with just getting to wear her panties and being able to flush the toilet. Not sure if I really want her out of diapers for our Disneyland trip but we'll see how it goes.

Well :P

 So while we were waiting for the reschedule to meet Pixie we got and email saying that family had stepped up and they had to take 90 days to consider them and determine if they're an acceptable placement. We're a bit bummed but at the same time better to check out family first instead of after she was placed with an adoptive family.

 I hate hearing that family took so long to step up, I always think I would've been quick to respond if a family member was in care. Of course I have seen a few instances where family didn't even know what was going on. Experienced it myself with one of my cousins, luckily there was another family member closer to the situation and she was there.

 9 more days till we finalize with Princess!