Friday, November 28, 2008

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Monday, November 24, 2008

Matthew Chapter 25

On Sunday during church, I had a moment that changed my whole perspective on fostering. Steven ended his sermon with Matthew 25.

Here are the verses:

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

The part that stuck out to me was: in prison.

Both of J's parents are now in prison. Maybe our job is not to fight for them to stay with us. Our job is to love and care for them while we have them. Our job is to make sure that we help the next home as much as possible. Maybe we are supposed to show them Christ's love. I had such a sense of peace about it all. I can't change anything about where they go next, but I can help their transition go really well. I can help their grandmother with clothes and diapers and birthday gifts. Maybe she will allow us to stay in their lives and we can still impact them in some way.

Today, we had a great visit with their grandmother. It was so interesting to get her perspective on everything and I mentioned being a part of their lives. At first, I didn't get much of a response, but then she said that she would invite us to J's birthday party.

She also talked to J about coming for a visit to her house. J said, "will you take me to church?". That is J's favorite thing to do. She loves church. Maybe her grandmother will keep taking her because J asks her about going to church.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Control

We have been working with J a lot on control issues. She has had to survive for so long and is very independent. In a way, this is a good thing. What other two year old can get themselves dressed completely, including shoes? It is so different from Maggie who would prefer that EVERYTHING was done for her. :)

However, this independence rears its ugly head in ways that are so hard. She wants to do everything for herself and be in charge of everyone and everything in the house. She is very bossy to Maggie and R. The other day she was in the front of the house in her tshirt and diaper and had her finger pointing in the air telling R and Maggie what was about to happen. I told her that children wearing diapers were not in charge of everyone in the house. It was so ironic.

She has had to be self sufficient and we have to teach her to be dependent on us. Many times during the day, we say, "J, you are not in charge. You don't have to be in control. Mommy and Daddy will take care of things. Don't worry about it." It's almost like you could pull a string on the back of my neck and I would quote this verbatium.

The other night, I couldn't sleep. I can't seem to fall asleep because I worry about what is going to happen to them next. What if R can't sleep and is crying for us? What if they are scared? What if plagues me til I am exhausted and finally fall asleep.

I started praying and thought about J and her issues with control. I heard the word "control". It came together for me. Just like we have to teach her how to give control to us, we have to give the control to God in this situation. He has in under control already. We can't be in charge. He is our Daddy and will take care of the kids when we aren't there.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Nursing a baby

I was rocking R (trying to get that boy to take a nap) and had a blanket over him.Maggie said, "Mommy, when are you going to nurse him?". I told her that I couldn't do that. I tried to explain why this wouldn't happen. It was kind of confusing to her. But, then she said, "I have a great idea. Why don't you just drink a whole lot of milk and then you can nurse him?"

Duh, why didn't I think of that?!

Thanksgiving fun at school

 

 

 

 
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I like pizza, Steve.

November 17, 2008
TiVo, Dominos: Broadband Never Tasted So Good
When the moon hits your eye with a big pizza pie, thank TiVo and Dominos. Beginning today, TiVo subscribers can order pies for delivery or pick-up from the pizza maker.

Hungry viewers can order pizza when they see a Dominos ad on TiVo and click "I want that" through their remote. TiVo subscribers will be able to set-up a user name and password on Dominos.com and each time they use their TiVo remote to place an order, they can log-in via their account number.

Through the TiVo/Dominos interactive system, subscribers can also create a custom pizza from television and select types of crusts, toppings and sauces. Users can also track pizza delivery timing. The companies promise that pies will be delivered in 30 minutes. The new service is free and payable in cash upon pizza delivery.

The new service gives new meaning to the term couch potato, and in fact, the companies' marketing executives refer to the service as "couch commerce."

"Joining forces with Domino's Pizza creates an effective marketing and commerce tool for Domino's while enhancing and further distinguishing TiVo as the ultimate way to watch TV with a closed-loop advertising experience," said Karen Bressner, Tivo's senior vice president of advertising sales, said in a statement.

Or, as Bressner put it, the deal is an "advertising solution as commercial avoidance continues to increase."

So, get the door, get the scale, its Dominos.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Friday, November 14, 2008

Only 40 days til christmas!

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build a bear

I'm "working" at the coffee shop aka surfing the net and enjoying some time by myself.

I think I might buy this for myself for Christmas. http://www.buildabear.com/shop/productdetail.aspx?ProductSKU=13868&Category=moose&CallingPage=ProductSummary

Isn't it cute? His antlers light up.

(back to "work")

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Telling them about Jesus

I was putting Maggie to sleep and we were talking about England. Here is the conversation that followed:

Maggie: What language do they speak in England?
Me: English like we speak here.
Maggie: Do they know about Jesus in England?
Me: Not everyone.
Maggie: We need to go to England and tell them about Jesus.
Me: Uh, okay. Let's go.
Maggie: What about those Indian guys from our planet?
Me: What?
Maggie: You know, those guys that walk by our house everyday. You said they were Indian.
Me: Yes, I do know.
Maggie: Do they know Jesus?
Me. I don't know.
Maggie: We gotta tell them about Jesus, Mommy.
Me: Okay. We got a lot of people to tell about Jesus.

Mixed blessing

Yesterday was a court hearing for a NRFM (non related family member..whatever that means). She is fighting for custody of the children. She was denied previously, but is fighting the court.

The case was continued because now J's paternal grandmother wants both of the kids. I have such mixed feelings about this. I think it's important that the kids stay together. They are really the only stability that they have in each other. However, this grandmother is not related to R. And she has only met them once, which was 2 weeks ago. I guess we're not related to R either, but whatever.

I called the lawyer to ask if we can fight for R. I was told that the grandmother is shaping up and should probably receive placement within 30 days. When I told the lawyer, he was shocked. (Don't lawyers and SW talk to each other?!) He didn't know that things were progressing with the grandmother. He said that he would fight for them to stay together, but he was still fighting for them to stay with us.

So, basically who knows what is going to happen?The next court case is the beginning of next month. At that point, they will (hopefully) make a decision between NRFM/grandmother/us.

Keep on praying for us. We hope that if it means that they have to leave that they will leave before the first of the year. We can't take them with us to my stepsister's wedding out of state. I don't want to have to find respite for the week and then have them go a couple of weeks later.

Monday, November 3, 2008

today

Today, I took Maggie to see High School Musical 3. My friend. Laura, sent us free tickets to see it.

I have never seen someone so excited. She was sick from yesterday, but she was so excited. She was dancing and singing during the first half of the show. I didn't watch most of it because I was watching her watch it. She just danced and hit me on the arm because she was so happy.

There was a weird commercial for Jon and kate plus 8 before the movie started. Kind of weird. It's funny how Maggie noticed the product placement in the show. She was pointing all kinds of stuff in their show. Of course, she is a tv fan. Tonight, she told me that she had to watch the new Dora show because it was a prime time premiere episode on tonight.

R got a first haircut today. Let me tell you. He hated it with all of his heart. At the end of it, he threw himself on the floor in a gigantic fit. Lovely. All of his curls are gone and he looks like a little boy instead of a baby girl. It's a good look for him! He has gotten a little more 18 month lately. I told the SW today that it was pretty funny, because he was going to have to throw bigger fits than that to get us to notice. It's like little baby fits. Awww.....

Also, we heard today that it's almost certain that they will go to a grandmother. I am not happy at all about this. However, I have to be okay with it. It's just so sad that they will be leaving us and it's sad that they have to move again. Poor little guys. We are still just praying about the whole thing.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Silly little guy

Steven rearranged our entire kitchen today. Like everything out on the counters and back in and rearranged back into the cabinets. We set up a small snack area with snacks in small baggies that is reachable for the kids. Right under that shelf is the shelf with dog and cat food.

R has decided that he is hungry all the time. And he wants to feed himself. So, he was signing "more" and I told him no more snacks. He opened up the cabinet near the snack shelf and handed me a can of Friskies cat food. Then, he signed "more".

Then, I was drying my hair in the bathroom. Maggie was talking about something of great importance to her and I was not really paying attention to R. After I finished drying my hair, I turned around. R put an empty box of Cheez Nips in the toilet. He carried the box all day hoping that there were be some Cheez Nips in the box. I guess he was tired of there not being any snacks in the box and put the box in the potty.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

A small crack?

Tonight after her bath, J ran to the living room and then came back to the bathroom and screamed, I have to potty. She went to the potty and actually went! YAY! Steven and I did the potty dance and she was so excited. She started laughing and shouting and then cried a little. But, a happy cry. I hugged her and then we went to get dressed. She said, I have to go potty again, so I followed her back to the potty where she went again. Again, a potty dance and excitement.

But, then, she let me in a little. She tickled me and we played a game where she was running from the snapping all-dagators and I would save her. Then, she let me rock her and we talked about her favorite color.

It was interesting. It was so different from our interactions all this last week. She has pushed and pushed me away. She loves Steven, though. But, in a way that pushed me away from her. All day, we fought and fought. So, tonight, we ended on a high. I kissed her goodnight and she said "i like you". sigh.