Vanity Plates...SERIOUSLY?

I found this on FailBlog.org one of my favorite guilty pleasures!  Happy to see someone is bringing class to our state!

Dog On It!

Well, our sweet little Brooke injured her Cruciate Ligament in her rear left leg.  I noticed Thursday afternoon she was not bearing any weight on it but she didn't seem to be in pain after I manipulated and felt her leg.   Friday morning we took her to the vet.  After sedation and an X-ray the vet said he thinks it is just a sprain, and hopefully some anti-inflammatory medication would help us avoid surgery.   So, $336 later, and Brooke appears to be on the mend.   Hopefully, we can avoid the $2,000 surgery. 

With that said, we ended up not taking the girls this weekend to give Brooke the best chance at healing.  The girls are fine with her, but she loves them so much, she follows them everywhere and wants to climb into their laps, and we have to limit her mobility for the next 10 days to give things time to heal. 

(this is a family friend w/ Brookie)

So Tuesday we will be taking the girls to dinner.  Then Friday, the girls are coming for their "respite" stay from Friday August 6-August 15.   Then they will go back to their foster mom's for their social worker to move them full time to our house August 17th! 

I miss them already, and wish we could have spent time together this weekend.  They will be here soon enough full time though, so I guess we should enjoy this tiny break we have.

The Po-Po

We live near a police officer that parks his car in his driveway when he's off.  So we drive by and my 6 year old says, "Mommy, someone's getting arrested!"  I tell her no, that is where a police man lives.

She thinks for a minute and says, "Police don't live in houses, they live in apartments".  I then tell her, no police can live where ever they want to.  

Then she says, "NO MOMMY!  Policemen live at the Police Apartment!"

Then I laughed so hard I about peed myself! 

Learning Our Lessons

Sunshine decided tonight that she wanted carrots with dinner.  Which I am totally fine with, it doesn't get much healthier than raw carrots.   Then she put about 10 on her plate after I told her not to.  So, I told her she had to eat them all.  Then she ate four and said she was full.  I told her I'm sorry she's full, but she still has 6 carrots to eat and maybe next time she would choose to listen when I tell her not to add more food to her plate. 

So she actually ate all 10 carrots, and I think she also learned her lesson.  At least until next time!  :)

What's in a name? Plus pics!

I really wish I could share Sunshine the 4 year old's name!  Let me just put it simply... she has a very bad name for a 4 year old!  She is named after an alcoholic beverage/liqueur.   It is AWFUL!  Thankfully, she has a shortened nickname that is common and fitting for her.  We will be legally changing her first name to her nickname. 

During the "tantrum" I couldn't even bare to utter her full name because it is embarrassing! 

So, you luck followers get to see many "face-less" pics thanks to the girls being obsessed with the camera, yet having no direction or angle on the pictures they take!  :)

"Pics" of the Girls!

Well,  I can't post face shots of the girls.  Luckily, they look away from the camera often.  So to end this crazy day on a positive note, here are a few shots of the girls!  All of these are originals, no cropping involved!

Our First TANTRUM!

Ugh.... our honeymoon is over, better now than later! 

So, I took the day off and took the girls to the new "water park" in town.  Basically, it's a pool with a few slides and a play area for the little kids. 

Well, it went very well for the first hour.  Then came hour two where Sunshine the 4 year old, decided sliding head first was more fun than being on her butt.   So, Mommy put her in time out.  She didn't want to sit still for time out, but finally gave in.  Instead of allowing her back into the fun part of the pool, I allowed her to sit at the entrance so she wouldn't get over heated in the sun.  It was a different color bottom than the rest of the pool so I told her she could only stay on that color.  Of course, she tested and teetered that line, so finally, Mommy had enough and said, "Final warning, once more and we're leaving".  Once more occurred about 12 seconds later.  I picked her up, then came the full on tantrum...

Over the shoulder she went as she kicked and screamed, punched and slapped, told me she hated me... etc.  At first I was cool calm and collected and explained that was fine, she could hate me, I still loved her.  Then she really started the hitting, attempted to bite, and I was forced to put her down half way through the parking lot.  At first she sat on the scorching hot asphalt, then she got up to run.... and she ran, and ran with me screaming, pleading for her to stop before she got hit by a car... honestly, I was scared! 

I finally caught her, wrestled her into her car seat, buckled her in, and took off towards home as my blood pressure slowly came down to normal. 

Then we get home, and I have to wrestle her out of the car.   Put her in her room, she's now thrashing around like a fish out of water, goes and hides in the closet.  I had to take the doors off of the closet to avoid any finger pinching.   The second door she didn't want me to take so I literally drug the door with her wrapped around it into the hallway.  She then needed to stay in her room with nothing to hurt herself with, so I shut the door and held it shut as she banged on it like a maniac.  Hoping she would give up and lay down. 

Finally, she did...

I went in and said change your clothes and we will talk.  We talked... she cried, calmly.  I cried, calmly too.  I asked why she was having the tantrum, she said because she wanted to stay at the pool.  I explained why we couldn't stay if she acted like that.  Then I asked if there was anything else, and she said she just wanted to see me.  That is why she kept banging at the door because she wanted to see me. 

So I told her I love her, but I didn't like that behavior.  I told her I wasn't going to quit on her, and we would work on this.  About that time she jumped into my arms and said, "I'm sorry mommy, I love you, I just didn't know what to do because I thought you weren't letting me come back". 

So fingers crossed, this is the worst of it.  I know she is testing me, I think I can pass this test though.  I better start studying more!

A Few Days of Fun and Family!

This week end should be fun! The girls are coming tonight around 9:00 to spend a few nights with us. My dad is in town for about 48 hours to pick up my little sister and take her back to Florida. Tonight for dinner we’re all going out for sushi at our FAVORITE sushi restaurant. I can’t wait!


I took off work Thursday and Friday and that will begin my FMLA leave. Thursday we plan to spend the day with “Poppy” and go to the movies, shopping, and just hang out so the girls can get to know our family. Then Friday, my dad and sister fly out around noon, so weather permitting, I am planning to take the girls to the new “Water Park” in town. It’s basically a pool with a playground, slides, a current river, etc. So that should be fun!

I am going to take the girls home Friday night so that my husband and I can have our first weekend alone in the last two months! That should be nice, especially considering in a few weeks we will be full-time parents!

So, that is all for now. I can’t wait to see my little girls tonight!!!! :)

We Have a Move In Date!

Wow… where do I begin.


These girls are definitely our girls! Cinderella is really a dream child. Very laid back, well spoken, calm and gathered, and just goes with the flow. She listens very well, and is very smart!

Sunshine, well, she is just as bright as the sun in the sky! She’s bursting with energy, but she knows how to keep it in check and relax too.

For the first time since becoming foster parents, we had a very fun weekend! When I put the girls to bed, I wasn’t exhausted; I was actually excited to see them the next morning.

They slept 8-9 hours and eased themselves into the day instead of waking up ready to hit the ground running!

We just couldn’t be more pleased with these girls. They’re very well adjusted and they demonstrated healthy “normal” behaviors!

So the plan is that we will take them as we wish over the next few weeks. Their foster mom is amazing and is very much encouraging our relationship with the girls. Then August 7-14th they will be with us for a one week respite (which was already planned). As long as that week goes well (which we know it will) then the girls will be moving in fulltime August 17th!

We are SOOOOO excited!

Grandma is probably going to appeal for custody, but DFS seems confident that it would take a perfect storm for her to get the girls. G-MA has a CPS charge in Maryland that she went to court there and appealed and won because no one from DFS appeared in court. So MD is appealing that now, if the charge is re-instated, then this is a closed case and the girls can be adopted, otherwise we have to wait for appeals court here in VA.

They feel there is no need to wait 6-9 more months for court, when we could get our 6 month trial placement out of the way and be able to adopt next year. So yes, there is a legal risk, but we know these girls can experience a lot in the next 6-9 months with us that they wouldn’t get to in their current foster home due to there being many other kids with them.

I will keep everyone posted as things progress.

Watermelon Nails!

The girls are so much fun.  We love having them at our house.  We went grocery shopping this morning, and bought lots of yummy foods to take to the lake tomorrow.  We also finally got to paint our "Watermelon" Nails.  Now, I am not very good at painting, and they're not very good at sitting still, so it began as a recipe for disaster!   I think the final product wasn't half bad though!

Also in this pic is one of the "Glossy Bands" we made thanks to a fun activity book I won from http://housequeen.blogspot.com/  blog site!

So the weekend is going well, and I will post more details when I'm not tucking in the girls!  :)

Bursting With Excitement!

I am SO excited we get to see the girls again today!  3:30 can't come fast enough.   I am going to leave work at noon so that I can go home and straighten up the house a little bit.  Thankfully, there is not much to do!  I set up Sunshine's room last night, and today I just need to sweep and make the bed in Cinderella's room.  I (well my sister) washed all of their sheets and blankets.   We went shopping and bought them both outfits and panties last night.  You can't ever have too many pairs of panties! 

I can't wait for them to come!!!!  I also can't wait to meet their Case Worker.  She is meeting us at the house so that she can get to know both my husband and I.  

I hope the girls are as excited as we are!

The Meeting Was AWESOME!

Well, I know most people that follow this blog saw this info in message boards and/or e-mails, but I figured I should update everyone on the visit.




We had just the greatest time meeting the girls last night. We stayed almost three hours (that flew by). They did my hair, climbed all over us, hugged us, wanted us to pick them up and carry them. They we’re just too cute.



We enjoyed getting to meet their current foster parents too. They’re an older couple who have been at this point many times before. They’ve adopted many children, and fostered many more! They feel like these girls need a family of their own, where they have younger parents. We’re elated that they feel that way!

The girls are both very smart, well spoken, and adjusted. Many children in foster care are not as well adjusted as them.


So they picked their own nicknames and they are Cinderella (6 yr old) and Sunshine (4 yr old).



Cinderella loves to do girlie things like shop, have her hair done, painting her nails, and playing with dolls. She also enjoys basketball and getting dirty though. She is 6, but very tall for her age. I would guess she will get to about my height, I am 5’11. She wears 10’s in girl’s clothes!  She has a sweet round face, and a cute little smile with a few teeth coming and going! My husband took to her quickly. She will be in 1st Grade. Kindergarten went very well for her, but she is very talkative, which caused her to get in trouble here and there. (FYI, my mom would have NO IDEA what it is like to have a 1st grader that talks to much! LOL)



Sunshine has the most radiant smile I’ve ever seen on a four year old. She has beautiful big brown eyes. She is 100% girl. I can tell that she will be a mommy’s girl. She wanted to hug me and for me to carry her! She knows her ABC’s and a lot about animals. She will be in Pre-K this fall. She also loves clothes, dolls, shopping, and she LOVED doing my hair.





They did my hair for about two hours. Braids, wetting the comb to give me “highlights”, they even pretended to shampoo it. It was the best scalp massage I’ve ever had! 





All in all the evening went better than we could have imagined. They were ready to come home with us.



We gave them pictures of our dogs, and they treasured them. It was so sweet.



We know they will love the dogs, because their foster family has 13 dogs. Our four should seem like a breeze!



That’s all for today! More to come this weekend. If you want pics, I can email them. Just message me!

Guess What We're Doing Tonight???

WoW! What a morning. So I wrote the girls case worker last night to tell her we can’t wait to meet them, and to see what their educational needs were so that we could get that process going.




As I have found out, DFS is AWFUL with giving accurate ages. So the girls are actually 6 and 4. The oldest will be in First Grade this fall, and the youngest will be going to Pre-K. Technically, she could go to Kindergarten, but she isn’t ready yet.



They are girlie girls. They like to paint their nails, and do their hair, and wear cute clothes, which is just a delight for me to hear.



I SO wish I could put their names on my blog, but I can’t, so we will be coming up with a couple of very cute nicknames.





On to the exciting news…. WE GET TO MEET THEM TONIGHT!!!! They fostermom and CW want us to meet them before the weekend so they will know us and feel comfortable coming to our house. This makes me so happy because I am dying to see them!



Then they will come Friday afternoon to stay for the weekend. Hopefully it will be a good fit for everyone.



More news to come later tonight after we meet the girls.

So what did I learn?

First, I learned that I (as well as my amazing husband) can handle A LOT!  Saturday was very trying, and tiring.  We had Little Miss, and her mom forgot to send her last days worth of medicine.  She was in ODD, RAD and ADHD mode ALL DAY!  It tested my patience to the point that I felt like I was going to explode.  I didn't though, neither did my husband, and I am proud of both of us.  

The boys were a bit of a handful when Little Miss was here, but since she left, they've been much easier to handle.

Saturday, we went to a local kids museum.  It was fun.  We basically picked the rooms with only one entrance/exit and guarded the door as the kids ran free.  My wonderful little sister was with us, and she helped out so much with keeping the kids engaged.  Because of her helpfulness, she and my husband are currently at the local Fair enjoying rides, as I wait here with the boys for their parents to pick them up. 

We took everyone to the fair earlier today and the boys did amazingly well.  They were a bit overstimulated, and tired, but they handled their emotions well.  

I want to meet "our girls".  I am tired of waiting to see their little faces.  We're "supposed" to meet this weekend.  We were slated to provide respite for the two kids 11 and 16 we did respite for a few weeks back.  We just don't want to do their respite though Wednesday-Sunday!  It's too much for us to handle for that long with those two.  We heard from our worker that they're supposed to be removed from their current home this coming week, so hopefully we can dodge that respite!   If not, I am just going to have to tell them we can't.   The 16 year old has no where to go during the day, and she CERTAINLY won't be staying alone at my house! 

We will see what happens.  I am ready for the boys to go home so that I can sleep!  I also want to say for the record, I do miss Little Miss very much.   Additionally, when I do use respite, I will actually call to check on my kids.  These boys are adopted, and their parents haven't even called to check on them!  I am a complete stranger that met them 48 hours ago....  it's just strange to me! 

What Was I Thinking!?!?

Well,  we had a call today for an emergency respite.  The other provider got sick, and they needed someone within a few hours and apparently everyone else was full.  So of course we said yes, because we would hope someone would take our girls if we had already planned a weekend away. 

So we have two little boys 3 and 4.  They function on much lower levels than their ages.  They're autistic and have limited verbal skills.  Little Miss is here until tomorrow night and man will I hate to see her go.  She is such a good girl, and I know I will be part of her life.  Her mom and I have become close friends over this week.  She is very excited for us to get our girls.

The plan is that we will be doing respite next weekend for our two girls.  I can't wait to meet them!  :)

I will fill you in as the weekend progresses and I have a moment to breathe.

Right now my husband is on a Walmart run for some weekend essentials.

Good times!

Long Weekend!

Long in the sense of extended that is!  We have had a great weekend.  Little Miss made it through the fireworks last night but she was extremely tired!  I was too.  

Honestly, she has been a ton of fun, my four dogs on the other hand have been CRAZY!  They've been up barking for the last two mornings around 5:00am.  Normally, I take them out at about 6:15.  It's hard enough having to get up and tend to them, but they wake her up, and then we're stuck tending to her well before her normal wake-up time.  

I have a feeling we will be having nap time later today.  She tends to melt down when she's tired, so I am sure I will know when it's time to nap. 


Yesterday we went to the lake.  We had a great time.  Her fostermom warned me that she doesn't like men, and she was worried she wouldn't like my husband, but she LOVES him.  She calls him dad and me mommy, it's weird because she's only been here a few days, but at the same time, she chose to call us that, so we're just leaving the names up to her. 

Tomorrow I am back to work and she is off to daycare for the rest of the week.  That will only leave us with about 3-4 hours in the afternoon before bed time, but we will enjoy every minute! 

Tons of Laughs!

The little girl we have for respite is just adorable!  She is SO smart!  She's in kindergarten (going to first) and she can read everything!   We've had some great quotes already.


She called her mom while we were cutting one of the dogs hair and said, "We're cutting Gizmo's hair, well, I'm not the mom is!"


Then my husband had watered the plants out front and she thought it was raining, then she was confused why it would be raining in the front and not the back.  She said, "The Dad tricked me!"  

Then she asked if she could go outside with "the dad".   

I am so happy she took to my husband so quickly.  Her mom warned me that she normally does not like men at all.  


This morning she was describing the family tree to me.  She said, "my foster sister doesn't look like me, she has brown skin, I think she came from a foreign country, but I love her, she speaks 5 languages!"


We're cracking up at the funny things she comes up with!  I am crossing my fingers our girls will be this funny. 

More Info Pouring In!

I am continuing to get more and more info on the girls.  So they are almost 4 and 5.  The four year old is apparently a HAND FULL!  She has been thrown out of daycare.  My FPC thinks most of her behavior issues are just from wanting attention, we will be in therapy none the less!

So we have a new tentative plan to have the girls in two weekends from now, and see how that goes.  Our worker said if it goes well, she doesn't see a reason for them to return to their current foster home.  The foster family wants them to be with us before school anyway because they will be in Pre-K and Kindergarten this fall.  

So I am pretty much JUMPING WITH JOY!   We have a long road ahead, I know!  The nice thing though is that we are kid free, we don't have our own birthchildren to worry about too.  We can focus 100% on these girls and their needs. 

The Differences in Waiting!

It is so hard for me to believe that this time, one year ago, I was on my first round of Clomid to try and have a baby!  When I look back on the last year, it is amazing to me what we've been through, and how fast my husband and I have moved through life! 

In December 2009, my husband found out his company was closing, and he would be without a job come the new year.   He found a new job, contract work, and they let him go once the work was done, and now he's at a whole new job.   We almost moved, but thankfully it didn't come to that point.  

In January 2010, we decided to stop the fertility treatments, we weren't getting anywhere and honestly, I just felt this pull towards fostering and adopting.   We were done with waiting... waiting two weeks for a negative, waiting two+ more for a period, waiting waiting waiting!  

Now here we are a year later, and we have another wait!  This time though, we're so excited.  We're waiting to meet two little girls that have NO IDEA we are dying to meet them.  They have no idea that last night we talked about bedroom layouts, and what vacations we will take.  They don't know us, and we don't know them, but as much as we're trying not to get our hopes up, we're already beginning to love them!   My dreams were filled with what they look like, what their personalities are like.  I realize that reality will hit me in the face once we meet them, and they will probably be a handful just by the nature of their life circumstances and them being so close in age.   Right now though, I am just trying to stay positive and hoping that they will like us and be a good fit for our home. 

So I will continue waiting, and after that wait ends, I know we will have to wait a little longer, but in the end, we very well may have two little girls that will be ours, and I can't think of anything better in this world to have to wait on. 

More About The Girls!

Well,  I called my FPC today to see if she could write me a letter for my Human Resources Department at work.   In order to take the week off as FMLA I need a letter stating that the week we have the girls for respite is a pre-adoptive trial where time for bonding is needed.   My HR Dept. is flexible for the most part, but they need documentation at the same time to back up them, and protect my rights. 

While I was on the phone I asked for some more details on the situation, I didn't want to keep her on the line too long though.  Basically, as it stands, the girls are almost TPR'd.   Their mom's rights are already TPR'd but Grandma petitioned for custody at the last hearing.  Thankfully, the judge denied it.  Now they have to wait to see if she will file an appeal or if they can move on in the process.  Either way, my FPC said she is 99.9% confident Grandma WILL NOT get custody. 

So I told my FPC that we're happy to take the girls even sooner if that works for them.  She is going to have their Case Worker call me to see what we can work out.  For now though, we will see them in about a month.

My husband is so funny though!  Yesterday afternoon he, my sister, and I went to see "Grown Ups", it is HILARIOUS!  During the movie he leaned over and said, "I Googled hair relaxers today".   I thought it was really cute!   

He called his mom last night, and she seems supportive.  My in-laws live in Upstate (close-minded) New York.   She voiced her natural concerns for the kids, but at the end of the day, she knows parents don't get much better than us.  She also knows that there are not many African American families that foster in our area. 

Thankfully, in the end, the people that need to worry most about the stares etc. are my husband and I, and I couldn't give a rats @$$ what other people think!   As long as those girls are happy and healthy, THAT is what matters.  

So I hopefully will get to meet them sooner than August 7th, but if not, I will be counting down the days until then!