Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Birthday Party
The party's over! Perhaps I will have my life back now:) Seriously, though, we had a good time celebrating Rylin's 2nd birthday. Since our little grill master has been so into cooking lately, we ran with the cookout theme. We had some great weather and even better friends join us...
Everyone took their turn for a photo op
Rylin was enthused over his first present from Gramps and Grammie!
Homemade aprons were the party favors
Though the cake was the more difficult to execute, the hamburger cupcakes were the big hit!
Rylin was in awe of the sparkler "2"
Tess & Rylin
Rylin got all kinds of fun presents and enjoyed playing with friends and family. We all had a great nights sleep after a long day!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Checking In
I'm way behind on blogging because my free moments have been wrapped up with planning a certain 2 year old's birthday party, designing that same little guy a Halloween costume, and working on Foster Care training. Add in Bible Study Fellowship, that I started a couple weeks ago with some friends, and working at my old job (a furniture showroom) on Saturdays and you'll see why I'm one busy gal. Still, I shall vow to be better!
Lots to update and share...first, Rylin's playroom was featured on my most favorite design blog Ohdeedoh! I seriously had a mini dancing celebration when I saw it for the first time! I am so honored it was chosen and it has inspired me to continue with a few other creative projects. I also joined Pinterest (as if I needed something else to do) and I've been collecting all kinds of ideas. More to come on that.
As I mentioned, our Foster Care training has been pretty time consuming. We finished our last night of six week PRIDE training last night and still have a few more days of other kinds of training in the next two months. When all training and paper work is complete, we will start our homestudy...hopefully to be approved/certified by the end of the year. I'll be adding some info for those interested to the side of the blog that includes all our requirements. They are quite extensive, even more than with our domestic adoption ,but the process is actually shorter.
Rylin has been active as ever and enjoying Mother's Day Out! Can hardly believe he'll be two in less than a month!
Lots to update and share...first, Rylin's playroom was featured on my most favorite design blog Ohdeedoh! I seriously had a mini dancing celebration when I saw it for the first time! I am so honored it was chosen and it has inspired me to continue with a few other creative projects. I also joined Pinterest (as if I needed something else to do) and I've been collecting all kinds of ideas. More to come on that.
As I mentioned, our Foster Care training has been pretty time consuming. We finished our last night of six week PRIDE training last night and still have a few more days of other kinds of training in the next two months. When all training and paper work is complete, we will start our homestudy...hopefully to be approved/certified by the end of the year. I'll be adding some info for those interested to the side of the blog that includes all our requirements. They are quite extensive, even more than with our domestic adoption ,but the process is actually shorter.
Rylin has been active as ever and enjoying Mother's Day Out! Can hardly believe he'll be two in less than a month!
Friday, September 9, 2011
Summer Wrap Up
You may remember our Summer Bucket List. Has it really been three months since we made it?! Well, we have done some seriously fun things, and although I'm sad our summer is over, I'm definitely ready for the cooler weather and fall activities! So here's some pictures documenting some of the fun we had...
Pump It Up Jr.
Sonic Happy Hour (we did this one more than once!)
Spray Park
Turned our office into the playroom
fig preserves...yum!
cooking out with friends
Pump It Up Jr.
Sonic Happy Hour (we did this one more than once!)
Spray Park
Turned our office into the playroom
fig preserves...yum!
homemade ice cream (also done more than once this summer)
the beach!
...and lots more that I didn't document with my camera but still great memories!
Saturday, September 3, 2011
First Day Of Mother's Day Out
No I haven't been dreaming of this day for weeks. It is nothing like me to order a matching backpack and lunch box well in advance. I definitely didn't stay up several nights before sewing a coordinating nap mat. Or did I?
Yesterday was Rylin's first day of Mother's Day Out. To say I was more excited then he was, is probably an understatement. We met his teachers last week and he got to play in the classroom while Jordan and I went to orientation. He pretty much made himself at home and went straight to cooking at the play stove. I said a little prayer that he didn't scare the teachers with his boundless energy as we left him, and they were still smiling when we picked him up so I suppose he was on his best behavior. We'll see how long that lasts!
It was fun preparing his little lunch and packing it in the morning. I have recently become a follower of This Lunch Rox. She makes all kinds of creative and healthy lunches for her kids and the silly themes she comes up with are right up my alley. Makes me think of notes in my own lunch box, peanut butter sandwiches and ice in my milk...yuck! My Mom tried:) I went easy on the first day. (didn't want his teachers to think I'm going to be the high maintenance mom)
It was fun preparing his little lunch and packing it in the morning. I have recently become a follower of This Lunch Rox. She makes all kinds of creative and healthy lunches for her kids and the silly themes she comes up with are right up my alley. Makes me think of notes in my own lunch box, peanut butter sandwiches and ice in my milk...yuck! My Mom tried:) I went easy on the first day. (didn't want his teachers to think I'm going to be the high maintenance mom)
He was such a big boy carrying his backpack in the door. Then as soon as we got to the classroom he realized what was going on. Not a happy camper, but that didn't stop me from making a quick escape. I set out to tackle the mile long list of things I had to do while not caring for a almost two year old. I even managed to finish them all thirty minutes before I had to leave to pick him up, so I sat down in our living room chair and sighed. A mother's work is (almost) never done!
When we (Jordan had to go with me) finally picked him up, he was happy to see us. He got a little report that he had laid on his mat good and LOVED music time....and that he made his teachers smile a lot!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Here We Go Again
So I've been trying to compose this post for a while now. This is my attempt to write what our hearts have been thinking for months.
We have known that adoption was in our future again in light of our infertility issues and desire to have a big family. (ok...my desire, Jordan's fear...haha!) Seriously, though, we have thought about it a lot in the last year. Because of the lack of specific planning for time with adoption, we have gone back and forth with when to start the process again. Would it go as quickly as Rylin's adoption or would we be waiting? With all the decisions about when to start the process (finding the finances, making room in our home, and telling our families) we had always assumed that we would continue with another domestic adoption similar to Rylin's. We had considered other types of adoption..Foreign Adoption was so expensive. Many countries who's adoption programs were in full swing a few years ago (China, Russia, and Ethiopia) are at a near stand still now. And Foster to Adopt. Well that just wasn't for us. That was complicated. We love our open adoption and that seemed like a tricky thing in a foster situation. Possibly children with lots of baggage. Legal hoops and then there's always "we'll fall in love and then loose them". No, that was for someone else. So when a stirring began in me a year ago, I don't think we were quite prepared for where we'd be now. God has a funny way of changing our perspective.
Almost two years ago, our class at church began to volunteer with a group called CityHouse. An organization who's mission is caring for children who are victims of neglect and abuse. We did things like yard work, organization of supplies, and home repairs as a class. Then, when looking for a place to get more involved, I found myself at an all day training to work with the kids housed at their new foster group home, My Friends House. To say that the reality of what I'd be facing as a volunteer came across daunting, is an understatement. I left wondering if I had lost my mind, but kept reminding myself that I loved kids and I could handle it. After all, I knew that God calls us to take care of "the least of these" and this was going to be my ministry(and concrete way of pushing that little foster care voice out of my head).
After my first night as a "Rock and Roller" (rocking and caring for babies), I cried the whole way home. Not only was the reality of abuse and neglect painful to witness, for the first time, the "foster child" had a face to me. More than just an imagined, hurting, baggage laden kid. I saw the universal need for love and experienced funny little personalities longing for attention and starved for affection. How could anyone reject them? Why would anyone hurt them? I would have taken each one of them home had they let me. The fact that I didn't get to choose their name, didn't take them home from a hospital, or didn't know every detail about their sorted past really didn't matter.
I began doing more research on fostering and adoption from foster care and shared this new interest with Jordan, who was a bit perplexed at first, but willing as always to hear me out. I signed us up for a conference at a near by church last November, where we heard speakers from all sides of the foster care/adoption circle. When we left the parking lot at the end of the day, Jordan conceded that he was on board. Whatever that meant. He got it too.
We have known that adoption was in our future again in light of our infertility issues and desire to have a big family. (ok...my desire, Jordan's fear...haha!) Seriously, though, we have thought about it a lot in the last year. Because of the lack of specific planning for time with adoption, we have gone back and forth with when to start the process again. Would it go as quickly as Rylin's adoption or would we be waiting? With all the decisions about when to start the process (finding the finances, making room in our home, and telling our families) we had always assumed that we would continue with another domestic adoption similar to Rylin's. We had considered other types of adoption..Foreign Adoption was so expensive. Many countries who's adoption programs were in full swing a few years ago (China, Russia, and Ethiopia) are at a near stand still now. And Foster to Adopt. Well that just wasn't for us. That was complicated. We love our open adoption and that seemed like a tricky thing in a foster situation. Possibly children with lots of baggage. Legal hoops and then there's always "we'll fall in love and then loose them". No, that was for someone else. So when a stirring began in me a year ago, I don't think we were quite prepared for where we'd be now. God has a funny way of changing our perspective.
Almost two years ago, our class at church began to volunteer with a group called CityHouse. An organization who's mission is caring for children who are victims of neglect and abuse. We did things like yard work, organization of supplies, and home repairs as a class. Then, when looking for a place to get more involved, I found myself at an all day training to work with the kids housed at their new foster group home, My Friends House. To say that the reality of what I'd be facing as a volunteer came across daunting, is an understatement. I left wondering if I had lost my mind, but kept reminding myself that I loved kids and I could handle it. After all, I knew that God calls us to take care of "the least of these" and this was going to be my ministry(and concrete way of pushing that little foster care voice out of my head).
After my first night as a "Rock and Roller" (rocking and caring for babies), I cried the whole way home. Not only was the reality of abuse and neglect painful to witness, for the first time, the "foster child" had a face to me. More than just an imagined, hurting, baggage laden kid. I saw the universal need for love and experienced funny little personalities longing for attention and starved for affection. How could anyone reject them? Why would anyone hurt them? I would have taken each one of them home had they let me. The fact that I didn't get to choose their name, didn't take them home from a hospital, or didn't know every detail about their sorted past really didn't matter.
I began doing more research on fostering and adoption from foster care and shared this new interest with Jordan, who was a bit perplexed at first, but willing as always to hear me out. I signed us up for a conference at a near by church last November, where we heard speakers from all sides of the foster care/adoption circle. When we left the parking lot at the end of the day, Jordan conceded that he was on board. Whatever that meant. He got it too.
Since then, we have gone to our agency's orientation and spoken with several foster parents about their experiences. We have done our best to educate ourselves in the areas of our insecurities. We know that it won't be easy and we can't do it without our friends and family, but I can't imagine a more supportive group! I'm learning a lot about trusting God and following his lead even when it seams like the "difficult" route. Just because it's hard doesn't mean we're not called to do it. In fact, I think most things God asks of me are challenging. To my faith, my character, and my own will. I'm lazy, selfish, and a small thinker, but I know he wants me to be proactive, self sacrificing, and a big dreamer in what he can and will do.
So here we are. Last week we started the eight week training at Buckner. We still don't know all the answers or what our future looks like, but we're trying our best to let God fully shape it. After all, our idea of family has changed more than a few times in the last seven years!
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