The sick house

Everyone in my family is sick right now except for me. I am trying my hardest to stay well but I am really tired of taking care of so many cranky, sad people. Hopefully we are at the tail end of it.

Still figuring out myself

Do you ever feel like you are going through changes all at once and it is uncomfortable and necessary at the same time?

That is where I am at right now. I gave up on my dreads. I know that if I stuck it out in about two or three years I would have wonderful hair that I would love but I was not willing to be that patient. So, now I look like the little picture on my blog again. My daughter is really happy because she never really liked it. I think she likes it when we look like each other.

I spent some time yesterday planning out a schedule for what I would do with LuLu during the days and cleaning my house and doing the things that need to get get done. Today I realized that I am not that kind of person. We like to go with the flow and see what happens for that day. There are somethings that we do every week but for the most part I like to see what happens with naps and how everyone is feeling and work around that. I thought I was a schedule person but I think maybe I am not.

I also have realized lately that I am parenting LuLu like I did Kli and they are so very different that it is not working. He loved to go to classes and wanted to go to school when he was three years old. He is very independent and likes to do things on his own. LuLu is not like that. She told me that she does not want me to leave her at classes with kids all by herself. She told me that her favorite things to do are go to the library with me, go to my husbands office with me, and take walks with me. Do you see the pattern here? (with me) I have decided that we are going to enjoy this time where she wants to be with me because I know there will come a day all to soon when she will want to do things on her own.

I have gone to the office with my daughters two mornings in a row now and sat in on the morning meeting. I have wanted to be more involved in my husbands business ,LJ Urban, but have not really known how, so we decided this was a good place to start. LuLu loves it, little bird rides in my carrier and usually takes a nap and we are all happy. It has been a good two days and I am excited to see how it goes from here.

And for the next while (for however long she wants it) we will be going to the office, the library, and walks...together

A little more about me

I feel like I write about my kids a lot and I know they are the most interesting, the cutest, and just all around more fun than me but I thought I should write a little about myself.

A few of my thoughts on aging;

I am actually liking the idea of getting older. I will turn 29 this birthday and it really does not stress me out like I thought it would. I think that the older I get the more I understand about myself. I don't let things bother me as much and I like to think that I have more wisdom. I truly enjoy my friends and family. I am liking myself more and more the older I get.

My thoughts on the health scares;

I think that if everyone would just do everything in moderation we would all be a lot healthier. There is the soy or dairy debate. At my house we drink both and also almond milk, rice milk, and hazelnut milk. We eat mostly healthy food but we have treats now and then. My kids watch some tv but not all day long. Everything in moderation has become my motto.

My thoughts on being to busy;

I do not function well if we are to busy but I cannot be home all day long everyday so we mix it up. Our standing appointments right now are ballet on Mondays, soup night every other Tuesday, our video series that we are hosting on the alternate Tuesday and that is it. The rest of the time I like to play it by ear. Have friends over, go to the library, take walks, and then all the other things that have to be done to run a household. It is a good balance for us and I am glad to have found it. It is always something we are tweaking but things are working pretty good.

And just a little fun thought,

I have been wondering why the parents at my sons school do not really talk to me. If my husband goes there he ends up talking to someone for a long time. The most I get is a smile and a hi. Then on Friday when I picked up my son it dawned on me that they might not think that I am his mom. It might be that they are thinking I am the babysitter, or something. I get this a lot with my kids but I had not put the two and two together. I have been told many times that I will one day be glad that I look young but maybe that is why I am not upset about getting older. Just a thought.

It feels like fall!

Sorry about all the house pictures. I have a teething baby that does not think night time is for sleeping anymore. I am standing at the bar in my kitchen with my baby in the carrier typing with one hand and trying to get her to sleep.

It is a great day though because it is the first day that feels like fall. I
LOVE this time of year. It has always been my favorite. I like all the seasons for different reasons but fall is the winner.

I love the crisp cool mornings. How it is cool but not cold. I love the food that we eat at this time, the soups and breads and apples. I love the clothes that I get to wear. I love being cozy in the house with a fire.

It rained tonight and the smell was amazing. As we drove home the sunset was a bright pink and just so pretty.

I am getting excited. There is an electricity in the air, I can feel it. And it is going to be a wonderful new season.

Our living room and a peek at our yard

The garage that we spent all weekend organizing and now we can get to our bikes

My house and the history behind it.

I promised pictures of our new house so long ago but you know how it is when you move and it is taking us forever to get fully moved in. I thought I should start this with a little history of our houses and moving. We have been married for seven year. In that seven years we have moved ten times. We have moved for many different reasons but I think this is the house that we can stay in for a long time. We usually say that with almost every house we have ever lived in but I am really hoping it is true with this house. For one because I love this house, for another reason, I do not want to move our family again. This is a house that we could raise however many kids we end up with. It is in a great location. And until God asks us to move again this is where you will find me. I thought I would post pictures of the rooms that we have finished completely. That way I will be motivated to move through the house getting every room done. We worked really hard this weekend on our garage and Kli's room. I got some of the ideas from a good friend who has a great eye for room design. He is so happy with his room and I find him in his loft really often. He reads every chance he gets and now he has his own little place to do just that. So here are the first house pictures.

My baby can do push-ups!!

My work in progress

I have been hesitent to share this picture because my hair does not look how it will after some time. . About a week ago I went and had my hair locked but it will be awhile before it will be really locked. It is something that I have wanted to do for awhile but finally went for it. So now I just have to wait for the final result.

The many faces of LuLu

Walking around in a fog

The last couple of days I have felt like my head is full of fog. The baby has not been sleeping as well as normal. She is getting some teeth and pretty cranky. She does not want to be put down much so I am lifting a 22lb weight all day while trying to get the other normal day stuff done. Everytime one of the kids asks me a question I feel like it takes so much effort to answer. I have to really concentrate. I think the only answer is to get to bed earlier tonight and try to start over tomarrow. I hope a good nights sleep will clear the fog from my head

Foster care - adoption or Fos-adopt

We are nearing the end of our journey with our adoption. Now that we are getting close to being done I feel like I can share knowlegably. I did not want to share until we had experienced the whole thing. We are not quite done but so close that I feel able to share.

I share this because I am passionate about what we have done and what needs to be done. I do not share this to make anyone feel guilty or to say that one way is the only way, only to share my observations and experiences.

My husband and I chose to do a foster-care adoption when we decided to adopt. This was not our first choice because we had a lot of misconceptions that a lot of poeple have.

The misconceptions that most poeple believe to be true for local adoptions are...

1. that is is hard to get a baby
2. that it has to be an open adoption
3. that the chances are high that you could get the baby taken from your home once placed there.

We thought these things and have run into many poeple that belive these things. We have found that they are not true. We started working with this really great agency that is Christian run and doing a wonderful job. After they described the process to us we knew it was a fit for us and our family.

The way it goes is this. You get a home study done just like for any adoption. You tell them what you are looking for in a child. We said, up to two years old, boy or girl, any race, healthy.
Then when all the paperwork is done you are in child-search. This is the point where the agency will look through their files and try to find a good match. When they find one that looks good, they call you, tell you the details, and you can say yes or no as to moving forward. If you say yes, they contact the child's social worker and then that social worker makes a decision on weather or not to set up a meeting.

A quick note.. we said yes to 8 or maybe 9 children and did not move onto the next stage with them. Sometimes there are a couple of families that send in their homestudy and they pick someone else, sometimes they just do not think you are a good fit.

But if they do pick you for a meeting, you go to what is called a disclosure meeting with the child's social worker and your social worker. For us we heard about our baby on a Wednesday, we met with the social worker on Thurdays morning, she liked us, thought we were a good fit and said we could pick her up on Friday morning. It went very fast. They tell us that is pretty typical once you get to that stage in the process.

When we picked her up we were then and are still the foster parents. We do have to go by the foster parent rules but they are not many and not a big deal. We have monthly planned visites from the social worker and there are a few other things we have to do. We feel like it is not that big of a deal compared to what we get for a little inconvience right now.

There are a few hearings that happen while the child is with you but we did not have to go to any of those. She has to be in our home for six months before we can file for the adoption and we are almost to that point. Then we will file adoption papers through the agency and get an asigned court day where we will go to court with the baby and she will become officially ours. She will get a new birth certificate with the name that we named her on it and it will all be done.

So, I am writing this because I want to spread that word about this great program that our state has set up. They have really worked to change things in the last four or five years and although things are not perfect I think it is a great step in the right direction. They are working to place children that are adoptable into families that are going to adopt them as soon as possible. They have made it very inexpensive. We payed a total of 1,500.00 dollars over a few months and will get all of that back because the government pays you while you are a foster parent. The child also gets medi-cal until the child turns eighteen. It is very afordable especially compared to overseas adoptions. The other big plus I think compared to international adoptions is that they get to be in your home while all the legal stuff is being worked out where in an international adoption you have to wait until that is all finalized before you can take them home.

There are so many kids in america that need to be adopted and I do not think enough people understand the process. When we asked our adoption agency what we could do for them because we felt like they have done so much for us they said, just to spread the word about fos-adopt. So, that is what I am trying to do.

I hope this makes sense and is not to boring and technical. I will write more about the feeling type stuff but I felt like I needed to get the facts out there. If you have any questions, at all, please feel free to ask me.

First Day of Second Grade

My boy is in second grade. I cannot believe his is in second grade. He has been counting down the days until school starts. This boy was born for school. I told him last night that I did not think I would let him so go school, his answer... You have to, it's the law. Where did this boy come from. He has the funniest come backs sometimes that make us laugh so hard.

This will be his first year at a "big school" It is a private school so it is still pretty small but his firs two years, preschool and kindergarten were at a start up school with just a handful of student and then for first grade I homeschooled him. I think it is going to be an adjustment for all of us but good overall.

He is growing into such a great kid. He is my picky eater but he is learning to be quiet about it. He is a talker but usually has interesting facts to teach you. He loves to read. Comic books are a favorite right now. He is so sweet to his sisters. He has told me a few different times that he is really glad that we got our baby. And he plays well with LuLu.

I am excited to see how he does this year. I pray that he will make good decisions. That he will make friends and be a good friend. That he will do well with the school work and not get to distracted. I have a feeling we are in for a good year.

( My hard drive on my computer broke just before I was going to post this so it is a little late getting it put up. It is now the end of the week and he had a great week)

If you have not read this, you should...

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