The Past Few Weeks

July has been a pretty busy month so I haven't updated much. My niece and nephews were in town for a couple weeks so we were busy hanging out with them. I ended up getting sick just a few days after they got here. I had a sore throat/cold/really tired. I spent a few days on the couch just resting hoping to get rid of it quickly. However, it ended up lasting pretty much a whole week. We did enjoy getting to see them though and went swimming a few times and went to the movies! I'll post a few pictures below. Remember how we did respite care about a month ago? Well since that girl is the same age as my niece and pretty close in age to my nephew she came over and swam with us and played with them. They had a good time. When we picked her up we had my niece and nephew with us and we went back to our house. When we got out of the car she was telling them how she had a room here and how much she missed the animals.

My niece and nephew kept calling it _______'s room each time they came over.

My in-laws came by our house to drop some stuff off after they dropped the niece and nephews off and Family Core called. We had just come inside and I said, "Aaron that was your phone ringing." I looked at it and I said, "It was Family Core!!!!" I ran to my phone and I had a voicemail and M (our worker) said I was calling about a few placements if you could call me back." We immediately dialed her number and talked to her. It was a possible placement of a sibling group of 3. A 4 year old, 2 year old, and a newborn girl. We got all the information and said that yes we would accept it. She said she would call the investigator back and get more information. However, by the time she called back another agency had already found a family. She then told me that she was going to call us on a different placement the following day but since she already had me on the phone she would tell me now. It was a sibling group of two that were 4 and 2 years old. She said to think about it overnight and call her in the morning. We went out to dinner and talked about it and decided that we would say yes.

We spent the next few days getting things ready and all cleaned up. We were very excited and looking forward to them coming. They were to be with us indefinitely. They had a return home goal but it was a very new case so they would've been with us for a long time most likely.

It ended up that the kids were much more of a challenge than we thought. There were a few things we didn't know ahead of time but found out once they dropped them off that concerned us a little bit. The whole weekend was very exhausting and challenging. I won't go into a lot of detail on here but we had to call their caseworker and have them moved to a different home. I think they needed more experienced parents not first timers. We could tell it just wasn't going to work for Aaron and I so it would be best to move them.

I wasn't feeling well the last day they were here. Early that morning I woke up with a headache and felt like my face was on fire. I was freezing but sweating and had a sore throat. It kind of subsided for the day but right after the kids left my sore throat kicked into high gear, I got the chills, 102 fever, headache and body aches. I ended up going to the doctor on Tuesday and they did a strep test that came back negative. I felt terrible all week long. My throat was so raw it was almost unbearable to swallow. I'm finally starting to feel on the mend now.

So that kind of updates you all as to what has been going on.

We're not sure what this means as far as future placements. M said that this kind of thing happens and that it won't affect us getting future calls. Aaron and I have been discussing what to do. We know we need to lower our age range probably to 0-younger than 2. And also just take in one kid at a time. We felt way in over our heads with both of them and with their ages.

Aaron is ready to just go with that. I on the other hand am more concerned. I feel like this experience has made me concerned/worried that maybe I'm not cut out to be a mom or maybe kids aren't a good thing for us since we couldn't handle these 2. I've been spending time praying about it and I'm just not really sure what to do at this point. We'll see what the next few weeks brings.

Excited

Hey all! Happy Friday. It is most definitely hot out there today. I went to grab some lunch from Mcdonald's and the temperature on the sign said 104*. YIKES! I think tomorrow is our last day of this nasty heat wave. My niece and nephews are in town staying with their grandparents so we beat the heat today with some swimming. (pictures later)

In other news I spoke with our licensing worker today and we got some good news. Not any news on a placement yet. But, she told me that "little one's" (exclude her name for privacy) caseworker was so impressed with all the things we did with her that she is very excited to place some kids with us soon. M (our worker) said this other caseworker couldn't believe we were a newly licensed family.

We still haven't received our "official" license in the mail yet but hopefully in the next 2 weeks. She said DCFS is running verrrry slow right now. But, once the license is all taken care of we will be put on some list (not sure what it is called..couldn't understand her) to where we should receive more calls.

M said we should be prepared to hear from her very soon. Also, that we should enjoy it just being the two of us as much as we can because it could end soon. As much as this excites me it also gets my hopes up. And, I'm not a fan of getting my hopes up. I've had it happen too many times in the last 3.5 years to only end up upset in the end. I know this is in God's hands so I take comfort in that.

Anyways, we're looking forward to seeing what is coming next!

As M called me we were getting ready to take my niece and nephews to the pool. In all the excitement from the phone call, I hopped in the pool with my phone in my pocket. Aaron wasn't happy with me as a new one cost $230. OUCH!

Sorry if this post seems really scattered. I feel that is how my brain is today.

Have a good weekend!

Baby/Toddler Shopping

Aaron and I went shopping the other night to buy some baby/toddler items. Things we felt we should have if we got a call on a child that we needed to go pick up asap. We'll pick up some more gender specific things once placed but for now I settled for gender neutral.

This is what we've picked up so far

-2 baby blankets
-4pack receiving blankets
-2 fitted crib sheets
-2 sippy cups
-2 toothbrushes
-kid toothpaste
-kid mouth rinse
-thermometer
-nail clippers
-Cars and Princess silverware
-nightlights
-wipes
-toothbrush cups
-Johnson's baby wash and lotion
-toddler car seat
-extra set of twin sheets (in case there is an accident)

Do you see the Spongebob fabric under the nightlights? I figured I would make another pillowcase, just like the monkey one but with boy fabric. I can just switch out the pillowcase if its a boy or girl. If we ended up with 2 kids I'd just get another pillow.

Ok, so all you moms out there....what am I forgetting? Things that are more of a necessity those first few days? We wanted to be somewhat prepared if we had to go pick up a child at 3am and didn't want to spend a lot of time at the store. I realize I don't have any diapers but I don't want to go out and buy one of each size that maybe we would never use. Diapers are something quick we can run in and grab.

Brut Deodrant

Here it is folks! The long awaited deodrant post. Haven't you all been on the edge of your seats waiting? Due to us being a little busier than normal this weekend because of a little sweetheart the post is later than I thought it would be.

Now on to how I got the deodrant for only .08 each. Our local Kroger store had it on sale for $1 each. I ended up having coupons for $1 off 1 deodrant. Therefore, all I had to pay was tax which was .08 each.

I bought 20 coupons for the Brut on Ebay for $1.75. I only ended up getting 15 deodrants since the store ended up being out of stock.

Overall I spent $2.95 for the coupons and deodrant. The normal cost for the deodrant is $2.69 each. Thats like totally amazing!!! I'm so excited.

No More Naked Finger

Aaron's new ring finally came last week so no more walking around with a naked finger!

Respite Care

Wow. What a weekend. Some of you already know, but if you don't, we did respite care for a 5yr old girl this weekend. Respite care is basically just short term care for the child's current foster parents. Reasons for the foster parents needing respite care could be that they just want a little break or maybe they have something going on that they can't take the child with.

Anyways, Tuesday morning my mother in law and I went out shopping for a baby shower gift for a girl at our church. After shopping we had some lunch and then headed home. Our licensing worker called shortly after I got home and said, "I have a question for you. I was wondering if you and Aaron would want to provide respite care for a little girl this weekend." After I got some information from her I hung up and called Aaron. It took us about 5 seconds to decide that of course we would do it. We were told her foster parents would give us a call to set up times and such.

We were over the moon excited for this. We knew it was just respite care and that she would return to her foster parents but it was still an opportunity. An opportunity to care for this little girl and maybe open a few more doors for placements later.

Per licensing standards we have to have all chemicals moved up and locks on cabinets. Basically a safe house for children. Well we didn't have locks on cabinets yet and some chemicals were still down. We didn't see a need to do all these things now since we didn't have a placement. It would just remind us of the fact that we're childless.

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday night getting all those things done. It took a lot of time so we ended up thinking maybe we should have done it beforehand. The animals knew something was going on and kept following us around the house as we were moving lots of things around.

This little one would be joining us from Thursday-Sunday. I had lots of things planned such as swimming, fingerpainting, sidewalk chalk, playdoh, and bike riding.

When her foster mom dropped her off I was shocked as she jumped out of the van and came all smiles up the sidewalk with her Minnie Mouse suitcase. I showed her foster mom the room she would be staying in and we talked for just a minute. Thankfully there were no tears when she left. We immediately started playing and having a good time.

She did so well, I was so proud of her. She listened very well and we hardly had any problems. She got upset at Walmart because the horse wouldn't work. I put a $1 in that stinkin horse and it wouldn't move. She ran over to another machine and I said, "No we're going home, the machines aren't working." She got upset and started crying saying she really wanted to ride one. She even did a little feet stomping. It didn't last long and I talked to her about it when we got home.

We went to church this morning and I couldn't believe how well she did. She didn't hardly make a sound. It was so cute because she walked down and sat on my father in law's lap and stayed there the whole time. I heard her whispering a few times but nothing else.

We went out to lunch after church today and the waiter was taking our orders. He came over to me and I ordered my food and handed him my menu. He said, "Um..what do you want for her?" I was like oh duh. I'm only used to having to worry about ordering food for myself.

Aaron and I noticed we did a lot of spelling this weekend. C-A-K-E, B-I-K-E R-I-D-E, P-A-R-K. Lil cutie picked up on everything we said. It was like she could hear everything we said no matter how quiet we were. We did a lot of whispering and tip toeing around when she was asleep. Its funny because earlier tonight I got up to walk to the bathroom and tiptoed down the hallway forgetting she wasn't here anymore.

I ended up doing a photo book at Walgreens that she could take home with her. That way maybe she would remember us. She really liked it and was carrying it around with her. I printed off tons of pictures and plan on putting them in a photo album. I'm thinking I will get just a really big 4x6 photo album and then I can put picutres of all the kids in it. I can take cardstock and cut it to that size and write the child's name, their age, and the dates we had them. Then I can put all the photos in the slots and then just keep going with each child. Maybe we'll end up filling a few albums. Who knows...God already has that planned out.

She was such a cutie and I miss her so much already. It was so hard to let her go back to her foster parents. Aaron and I already felt attached to her. We can't imagine how upset we will be if we take one in for a few months or even a year and then have to send them home to their bio famiy. Its not something we can ever prepare for. But knowing that we stepped in and provided love and care during that time makes me happy.


I'm so thankful for this opportunity. It was such a good first experience dealing with a child in foster care. We'll be praying for her that God would be holding her close and healing the pain in her heart.

We're praying for more opportunities and of course an adoption opportunity.

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!!

Dial Soap

I've mentioned before how I've been doing some couponing here and there. Lately I've been checking the sale flyer and if there is something on sale we use, I try to find coupons on ebay. My latest purchase was Dial soap. They were on sale for $1. Since we will always need bathroom hand soap I headed over to ebay and located some coupons. When I had heard about people actually buying coupons I thought that can't be worth it in the end. I stand corrected.

I found 20 coupons for $3. It seemed a little high but there were 20 of them and it paid off. The coupons were for .35. The store I go to will double those to .70 so I ended up getting the soap for .35 each (tax included) Overall I spent $7. If you include the cost of the coupons it was $10 overall. But, I wasn't including the cost of the coupons since the money to buy the coupons was from an item Aaron bought at a garage sale and then re-sold it for more on ebay.

Normally the soap cost $1.59 so for 20 bottles it would have been $31.80(tax not included). Of course I wouldn't go out and buy 20 at a time but eventually I would have bought that many over a period of time.

I called Kroger before we left because I wanted to make sure they still doubled coupons. I saw at a Kroger in Texas they didn't anymore. The kind (I mean rude) lady on the phone said that yes they do double but they will only double 2 like coupons in one transaction. Are you serious? That means I have to do ten transactions to make it work!

I ended up doing 5 transactions one day and 5 the next. I didn't want to make the people behind me too mad! Crazy coupon policies!

I'm excited and it felt like such an accomplishment! We won't need hand soap for quite some time! I usually don't find a lot of things I can stock up on but when I can I try to.

FOSTER CARE UPDATE: Nothing to report unfortunately. Our licensing worker was on vacation this week so I plan on calling her towards the middle/end of this week to touch base. The agency is offering a discipline class sometime soon so we would like to get signed up for that. I'm also considering talking to them about volunteering. I haven't completely decided yet if I want to add that to my schedule or not. If I do I would probably only do it until we received a placement. Who knows..maybe they don't even need any help. I've posted before about The Forgotten Initiative and how they serve local foster care agencies by doing different projects and supporting the agency workers in their difficult jobs. Of course you can volunteer through them but I kind of wanted to stick with the agency we are licenced with. I thought it would be great to help the agency in any way I could and it would also help us to stay involved. Helping the agency can help the workers better support and care for the children! So, I'm still trying to decide but no other news in regards to a placement.

Stay tuned for a post on deodorant and how I ended up paying .08 each (tax only)!! Have a good week everyone!