A-"Muse"-ing Thoughts

The "Maybe Baby" - Part 5

Well, during this whole process with LSS, there was another element that was surprising for us.  Christi and I have decided that we really want to fostadopt an infant 18-months or younger.  We are open to adopting a sibling set as long as one of the children is 18-months or younger.  When we were living in California, we were told that unless we were open to a sibling set, the average wait for an infant (of any race or background) was about 9 – 10 months.  We didn’t think that was too bad, considering you have to wait 9 months for a biological child to be born.  We came to Texas assuming the same time frame.  Well, during our first restraint training session with LSS we were sharing what our desire was, and they informed us that the average wait for an infant 18-months or younger (if we are open to any ethnicity – which we are) is about 2 weeks!!!  YES… 2 WEEKS!!!  Now, that is average.  Some are placed the same day they are approved.  Others are not placed for months.  But still – the average is 2 WEEKS!  Crazy!!!

That was also exciting.  As we have gotten to the end of the approval process, Christi and I have been focusing more and talking more and preparing more for the future of having a child placed with us.  And since we don’t know if it will be a boy or a girl, or the age, there is only so much that we can do.

But, one thing that we did do is decide on the bedding for our “maybe baby.”  We decided on this very cute country scene that is green grass, rolling hills, and these cute farm creatures.

 Christi decided that she wanted to have the maybe-baby room look just like this.  So Christi went and bought paint that matches the colors on the bedding and she spent a couple of days painting the maybe-baby room.  It looks AWESOME!!!  Here are the pictures of the room right after she finished painting it (animals are still to come).  The room looks amazing with the rolling hills, the green grass and the blue sky.  Christi did an awesome job.

 

So… here we are… at the beginning of December and we are waiting for the final approval to begin the waiting game for placement!  But, God has been good… and we are excited to see the child he has in store for us. 

As you read this, please keep us in your prayers.  I guarantee there will be lots of pictures and lots more details when we are placed with a child.

The "Maybe Baby" - Part 4

I got very excited about being all DONE.  So after our file was transferred from CPS, I sent an email to Brandi asking her where we stood.  She sent me an email back being fairly apologetic, but said that it appeared that CPS did NOT inform us of some requirements in the state of California and there were additional trainings that we were missing that we had to complete, including an additional 4 hours of restraint training, a psychotropic medications training, another brief home study, and a few more pages of paper work we had to turn in.  Christi and I suddenly felt completely defeated again.  But, Brandi and LSS is NOTHING like CPS directly!!!  Brandi told me that she could work with us to make sure we could complete the psychotropic medication training. She also said the she would personally come down and do the abbreviated home study and when she came to do that she would do a private training session for the second restraint training.  WOW!  What an incredible blessing.  So, again, after feeling so defeated again, hope was back in our hearts.

We got the psychotropic medication training finished with the help of a medical professional.  We did the training and completed the required paperwork.  Then Brandi did come to our house for the abbreviated home study and to do the personal training for the remaining 4 hours of restraint training we had to complete.  The whole process with her took only a couple of hours and was done with.  It was incredible and wonderful.  So after all of this, we turned in the final pieces of paperwork.  After a few days I contacted Brandi to see where things stood.  She told me that we had one last form to FAX to her, she was waiting to receive some references back for us, and our criminal history check.  She said she also was waiting for her supervisor to give the final approval on the home study.  So, after all of that – we have finished everything and we are HOPING to be approved by December 1st, 2008!!!  WOW… CRAZY!!!

The "Maybe Baby" - Part 3

On Friday morning I called Lutheran Social Services (LSS).  The social worker whose name we were given was not in the office that day, but they asked if there was anything they could help with.  I decided to just share the reason I was calling and was transferred to Brandi – the recruiter for LSS.  I told Brandi our situation and frustration and asked if there was anything we could do.  She did tell me how we could have everything transferred from CPS over to them and that we would have a few minor additional requirements to do with LSS, but that they would make sure we were taken care of.  All of this sounded SO good and encouraging, but feeling burned by CPS, I was not getting my hopes up.  She told me that she would send over the first set of paperwork, including the transfer form to me right away so that we could get started.  I asked her more questions, and then hung up the phone after she said, “email me if you have any other questions and I will get these forms to you very soon.”  I wondered as I hung up the phone how long it would take her to actually email me the files… a week, a few days, one day MAYBE?  Again, I was not getting my hopes up.  To my pleasant shock and surprise – 5 MINUTES later I had the files in my inbox.  I was so excited.  I sent Christi a text message saying: “last night I was frustrated and ready to give up, today I am excited and have a renewed passion.”  It finally felt like something might happen.

Over the next few days Brandi emailed me multiple times regarding our case and requirements.  She also mailed us the additional paperwork that Christi and I had to complete and the schedule for some of the required training sessions that we had to attend.  Christi and I decided to get right on the paperwork and try and get it done.  Also, one of the trainings we had to do was a week later and we scheduled and went to that training.  I continued to be in contact with Brandi about the transfer of all of our other paperwork and files from CPS.  She was continuing to be on top of that and informed me that she was having problems tracking our file down and that no one was getting back to her.  I was afraid we were going to be facing the same problems as before with CPS – but Brandi assured me that she had some good connections in different offices in CPS and would make sure that this happened.  When Christi and I were down in the LSS offices for our “Restraint Training,” I asked Brandi more about the file transfer.  She told me she still had no information but had another call into an additional person and was hoping to hear something before we left her office that same day.  I happened to remember during our nightmarish-homestudy, that the home study worker said that our last name on our file was misspelled.  I asked if that was going to cause a problem and she said “no”.  But, when I remembered this, I thought this might be the cause of the problem.  Fortunately I had written down at home the way it was misspelled, so I told Brandi when I got home I would send her the information to help her track things down.  When I got home, I sent this information to her.  A couple days later she informed me that she had tracked down our entire file.  Not only was our name misspelled, but our file was located in an office completely different than where it was supposed to be.  Fortunately, it was tracked down and everything was being transferred to LSS for us!!!

The "Maybe Baby" - Part 2

Well, we did it.  We finished the home study (grueling as it was) and were waiting for the final step to be approved.  We were told it would take 7-10 days for our home study to go through.  In 7 days I decided to call and see where things were.  I tried to contact our social worker (our new one – our 2nd), and got her answering machine, which informed listeners that she was no longer working with CPS and gave a number to another woman to call with any questions.  I could not believe this.  We were now on our 3rd social worker in the 9 months that we lived here so far.

Well, again, to make a long story short… I spent the next 10 days leaving 14 phone messages for this new social worker trying to find out where we were at and if we were qualified now to be placed with a child.  When she FINALLY called me back almost 2 weeks later, she informed me that since some of our material was transferred from California, she would have to review our case and let us know what we had left to do.  I told her that both our first and second social worker had already reviewed our case – twice now.  She said that she still had to do it because she didn’t see any notes on our file regarding our status.  I asked her to please get back to me ASAP with this information because we were anxious to move forward.  Needless to say almost one more week went by without a word from her.

I was so upset and frustrated and ready to just give up.  I was ready to call it quits and try and pursue something completely different.  That night Christi and I went to a support group for Foster and Adoptive parents and met a couple at the group who were just adopting their 3rd child from CPS.  We talked to them for a while and they told us all about Lutheran Social Services – who they used for all three of their children – and all of the advantages of going that route.  At the end of the night, they gave us the number of their social worker at Luther and encouraged us to give her a call and see what she could do.  So the next morning I decided to do this.

The "Maybe Baby" - Part 1

So on Wednesday, Nov. 19th, Christi and I completed a HUGE mile-marker in our married life.  In April 2007 Christi and I started the process to become FostAdopt parents while living in Irvine, CA.  We had almost completed the entire application and many of the trainings when we got the call to move to Boerne, TX.  That meant we basically had to start everything over.  Not completely, fortunately… but it sure felt like it.  Our P.R.I.D.E training transferred and a couple pieces of paperwork did as well – but that was about it.  So after moving and trying to get our feet under us, we contacted Child Protective Services here in Texas and started the process again to be FostAdopt parents. 

We were sent about 200+ more pages of paperwork to fill out, another application to fill out, references to get, and more.  Over the months that followed, as we found time to do so and could actually get our heads above water to breathe, we would spend time sitting down and working on this.  By the end of September we had completed all of the paperwork and sent it off to our social worker.  We were informed at that time that our social worker was moving into another area of CPS and would no longer be functioning as our social worker but we would be assigned a new one.  Shortly thereafter we were assigned a new social worker who reviewed all of our paperwork and told us we were ready for our Home Study to be done.  We got a call from a contractually-employed woman who does Home Studies and scheduled for ours to be done.  Well, to make a nightmare story short… the home study, which we have found has taken most people we talked to about 4-6 hours, took us a total of 18 hours – YES… EIGHTEEN!!!  It was 18 hours of sitting and being interviewed about everything in our lives from birth to now that you can even imagine.

Blogging Challenge

Wow.  I have so many things I want to write, and so much I want to update that I don’t even know where to begin.  It is kinda sad that my blog is has not been updated more than it has, as I truly do love to write – but when my schedule is busy and things on my “to do” list have to get done, one item that is very easy to ignore, especially since it doesn’t really impact anyone other than me (and the few – if I have any left – readers of my blog). 

I realize sometimes that my problem is that I get into this mode where I feel like my blog posts have to be either super profound, super long, super meaningful, or something else.  Then, in my mind, it is overwhelming or feels like it will take a LOT of time to do – so I put it on the back burner and forget about it… out of sight, out of mind. 

I need to get it through my thick skull that I don’t have to write a novella every time I write a blog post.  Nor does it have to be some incredibly profound thought.  In fact, I need to remember that the reason that I write my blog is to share my heart and mind of what God is doing in my life… from the silly to the serious.  So, that means every blog post could be very different in nature. 

That’s so easy to write – and I know it is true – I just never can understand why I struggle to get that to sink in and act on it in my day-to-day living.

Well…. I guess blogging on occasion is better than never at all.  I do love to write, I love to journal, I love to share what God is doing in my life – and if nothing else the blogging helps me to process my own thoughts and ideas, convictions and encouragements, struggles and fears, joys and successes.  So I will continue to do so… and hope to be more consistent… but I am not making any promises to anyone.  Nothing worse than a broken promise except for the guilt that it causes.

There is much I hope to share… so stay tuned.

Sand Artist

At the National Youth Worker's Convention they have a "Sand Artist" who is absolutely amazing. I have no idea how you would learn to do this sort of thing... maybe too much time at elementary recess and no room left on the swingset??  Anyway, I took this video of the last part of his amazing sand art where he stated with the story of the Prodigal son.  This is the part where the prodigal son returns home.. and I will let you watch the rest.  It is amazing!!!

My Simpsons Character

Another fun one is found at simpsonizeme.com where you can upload your photograph and it will generate what your Simpson's character would look like.  Well, other than the end result being a bit too skinny (but it probably couldn't tell that from my head-shot picture only), here is what my Simpson's character would look like.

My Yearbook Pictures

Thanks to the wonderful feature at yearbookyourself.com, I thought I would share my yearbook pictures from over the years....  ENJOY.
1950

   
1952
 
1954

1956

1972

1974

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992


OK... here is the SCARY thing!!!  The 1990 picture looks almost 100% identical to my REAL Sr. Photo that I took in 1990 (for graduation in 1991).  YIKES!!!!   LOL

YM Survival Kit

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