Last night we were able to get craft time in!

The kids used some of the peel and stick foam stickers in a beach/underwater theme and put them on foam covered journals. We gathered stickers, journals, and letters stickers and markers to write/spell out the word journal, they each chose to write it.


They had fun placing the stickers where they wanted.

Braeden used a lot of yellow - his favorite! The little kids just used paper and made pictures with the stickers which they loved!

After, we had them each write on the first page. Olivia wrote about her first days in Florida and Braeden drew and wrote his name. Then he told me his favorite things so far, I wrote them down, and he drew a picture to go with. They are going to do that each day over the summer. A great way to remember the time.

Still time to get your free $25! I have received over $100 with my first $25 free for signing up and then having others sign up that I referred. I've gotten some great items!!! :) Don't miss out! :)

Red Letters Campaign has started a great new thing, Blog Buzz. They ask three questions each week and bloggers can choose one or more of these to answer on their blog. By adding the RLC badge, the answers are then fed to RLC and someone going there to read the answers to one of the questions is fed to all of the posts that relate to that question. Very cool!

The question I want to answer this week is on choosing an adoption agency.

Since I was adopting through foster care, this was somewhat different than if you were to adopt "regularly" through either domestic or international means. Most of all it means, especially to me in a small area, that there aren't many agencies to even look at or "choose from."

When I began the process I knew NOTHING and I mean NOTHING of fostering/adopting or how to even gain information on this subject. Today with the internet and yahoo groups and blogs as they are, I would have no problem navigating the maze to come. Since I worked as a special ed teacher, I went to our school social worker to ask about foster care and where to even start. She directed me to start at the state agency in town. So, I called and began the process of being licensed. Looking back I would have done things very differently. The main thing I would tell people to do is find foster parents in their area and ASK THEM! In my area we have three foster agencies. One is the state agency and there are two private agencies. You DO NOT have to go through the state agency to be licensed, the process is the same for all public and private foster agencies, with some minor variations. They all work with state children. I had no idea at the time. The DCFS agency I began with was not great, but I have heard many in many states and even my own who have wonderful experiences with theirs. It is completely dependent on each individual agency. That is why the foster parents in the area would have tremendous experience and voice to give to anyone who is searching for a foster agency.

Many times caseworkers do not do the best job they could. I feel for them as they are hugely underpaid, but they have the JOB to protect children and some of the things I've seen don't completely follow this. I've had many who don't return calls, don't know how to properly transport the children in their care for visits, etc in proper car seats for ages/weights, don't keep correct documentation, on and on. Experienced foster parents in your area can give you knowledge prior to your start with an agency.

Questions I would ask of foster parents and agencies in foster/adopting:

How respectful is the agency of foster parents as a team member in the reuinification of this child? While I and many others go into foster care with the end goal of adoption, foster children have the primary goal of reunification. I know that if a parent can truly work through their circumstances and get their lives together, then they should by all means be able to have their child "back." And I know that God uses me to give those children stability in the days they live with me. But if they can't I want to know that this agency will do what is best for the child. Agencies are typically paid more to keep the child in their home than they are for that child to have their rights terminated. I want to know that this is not an agency's priority, but that they will truly look at the best interest of the child.

How often do caseworkers turn over? Many times caseworkers leave agencies that are not doing the best work for children. But sometimes caseworkers leave due to money and job changes. It's hard to tell, but at my current agency which I am leaving soon, all of the people who were then at the start have left. The agency I'm going to has two of the caseworkers and the people there have mostly been there a long time.

How do they feel about placing transracially? For me, I didn't care if the child was purple, I wanted to be a home for children who needed one and was prepared to help them in any way I could. The state agency I began with, while they outright stated they would place any child in a good home regardless of color, did not speak that through their actions. They did not place many children with me at all, yet AA homes had numerous children. A friend of mine had a 3 mo old baby girl who had a 4 year old brother placed separately. She is AA and so were the children. They wanted the children placed together but she didn't think she was capable. She told them I would take them, but it took 2 days of her almost forcing them before they finally called and I took them in.

What are agency "rules" about length of time a child is with you when termination occurs and then looking at family as placement? Meaning, here if a foster child has been in a placement over a year and termination occurs, the foster home should be first priority with no regard to extended family or anyone else. That child has a bond with you and it should continue, if you are willing and able to adopt. This does not always happen. If relatives haven't come forward within a year, why should they just hand a child over to someone they don't even know when now the parents cant' care for them. But it's done. And RAD is created when these bonds are broken. Ask about the agency's feelings and rules. If you don't know them, they will walk all over you in some cases.

I'm sure there are many more questions but that is all I can think of for now. Hope it helps!

Yay! Summer is finally here! We had our last district day of school on Friday. And while I love teaching and love my class, I adore summer. Not because I'm done with work, but because I'm able to be a stay at home mom. I relish in it. I wish I could do it full time, but I just have not come up with the way to do it yet. (Still would need some income as a single parent.)

This summer is going to be crazy busy for us!!!

The first weekend was spent getting ready for our trip to FL and getting most of Girlie's things together in anticipation for her transition to her new home shortly after we returned. Lots of laundry and cleaning and taking out garbage and tying up loose ends and finishing those end of year items.

Monday, June 2 was spent mostly in Chicago for Olivia's three month check up at Univ of Chicago. Went very well. Her nutrafill (SP?) count had been extremely low for a while and they were watching it, readying the switch from one of her meds to a new one. Then her count unexpectedly rose. This time it was down again, so they changed over the med. No big deal, except that the new one is a liquid only until you reach the adult dose, and we were so good with all pills! So much easier for traveling. At least this liquid doesn't have to be refrigerated, that does help tremendously. After her appt, we went to IKEA and picked up a few things for the basement. I'm changing it over from being a huge toy/play area, to more of a family room, still with mutitudes of things to play with. We grabbed a new tv stand, another computer desk ($40), a chair ($15), and an as is huge "leaf" that hangs on the wall (You have to see it it's so cute!) for only $3! I haven't taken it out yet, but it looked like all parts were there, and I've looked at them every time we've gone. We also went to Woodfield Mall to eat at Rainforest Cafe as a special treat.

That day J met with our agency about Girlie. They presented her in a very negative way, but J was ready for everything they had to say and showed how prepared and thought out she was. She will begin transitioning there when we return. They want to transition her slowly until the 15th. I had asked for July 1st to be her last day. I am still transferring my license the 1st, so I hope they're ok with that. The slow transition really seems silly to me. First, with her RAD she does not discriminate new and "old" people and really wouldn't have much of a transition anywhere. Honestly. But with J, she knows her extremely well and J has even had her over a weekend, with no issues. They want to start with a 3 hour visit, then 5, etc. Seems like a drawn out process when it doesn't need to be. Oh well.

Tuesday June 3 I had to renew my driver's license. Braeden had diarrhea twice the day before and had to stay home! I thought I was in for trouble. But, he did really well and we ended up not being there long at all. We had DQ after for a treat.

Wednesday morning was the ACR about Liam. His mom didn't even show!!! There was some info in my copy of the paperwork that I never used to get before. I don't know if the caseworker (CW) doesn't know what to put for me and what not, or if I should get this info, but it was nice to see. It talked about the reasons he came into care. It was hard, but good, to read. They did put in writing in the paperwork that they will not be looking at grandma as a placement as he has been with me so long, so I'm extremely glad of that. Although I was nervous at seeing mom now that she knows about termination, I kind of wanted to in hopes that she would ask about visits and communication, etc.

We left for FL as soon as the meeting was over, driving through the night and arriving at 5:30am our time, 6:30 FL time. The kids did GREAT!!! They each had about a 5 min stint at some point in the day with crying, and Liam cried about 15 min around bedtime because he wanted a drink and as I was driving in mountains there wasn't anywhere to pull off right away. But that's it! They were soo sooooo good! Makes for such a great drive!

We are in FL now and having a great time. Liam and I are a little red, even after spf 50, but having fun. Already found some great deals and I saw Indy last night. To tell you the truth I was a little disappointed. I liked the movie, but I really liked how the first three had a religious "theme" to them, especially the third. This was about aliens. Kind of disappointing to me, but the movie was good overall as a movie and I liked how some of the old faces were back. :)

We'll be here until June 22. Liam and Olivia will be in day care/day camp the whole next week. Liam has court on June 24, so Braeden and Girlie will be in care that day. June 26 and 27 I have day long workshops for school I'm attending. Braeden also has a week of Little Farmer's camp in the mornings one week, Olivia has three days of Girls camp all day long, Braeden has his circumcision appt for July 2, we go to New York July 19-26, then we go to Orlando on Olivia's Make a Wish trip August 4-10. August 11 I'm hoping to start the boys back in day care and use that week to get my classroom ready for our first day of school which is August 18. This summer is going to fly by!!!

Sorry I have no pictures of craft time for last weekend, we just didn't get to it. :( BUT, we have some great things to do down here with a "beachy" theme, so be looking for those! I'll have to see how to upload pics from here. It's also hard to get computer time as it's in the room Liam and Olivia (my two good sleepers) are in and I usually get on at home after they're in bed.

Tomorrow we head to Krispy Kreme for breakfast and then to Barnes, where my dad works part time to get the discount, to see some of his coworkers/friends who we see everytime we come down. They get to be like family!!! Hope all is well in your world, I try to read when I can!