Saturday, March 27, 2010

Waiting on the Puppies and Adoption Stuff

Copper is due any minute.  Today is Day 63, if my calculations are correct.  Puppies are usually born between day 62 and day 64 gestation.  We should have puppies today or tomorrow.  Or we could have them at the most inconvenient time ever, on Monday.  She's getting pretty restless today, so we may see puppies later on this weekend.  I'll be sure to post pictures once they're here.

Our 9th anniversary was Wednesday.  Mike took off work that day and we all went to the health department to get TB skin tests and then took Rachel and Porter, along with Mike, to get physicals.  We had to get all that done to finish up some paperwork items.  That afternoon, I told Mike we needed to get some stuff taken care of in the back yard, including taking the swings down from the swingset because they had been chewed by the dogs and couldn't be used.  He heard, "take the swingset down."  So we spent a good hour taking down the swingset.  It's amazing how much faster you can get that stuff down than it takes to set it up!  We'd been planning on taking it down anyway.  The wood was not good and the kids got lots of splinters nearly every time they played on it.  It wasn't horrible and didn't need to totally come down before our home study, but it did. :)  Oh well. Then the kids and I cleaned up sticks, various little trash pieces, and dog poo out of the back yard.  What a lovely, romantic way to spend our anniversary! :)  Then Thursday was our home study.  It went great, I think.  The lady that did it was the one who did our training these past several weeks and she also goes to our church, so I was not nervous at all for her to come over.  I feel very comfortable with her.  We have to do a couple more things before we're finished with licensing, including getting Mike in for CPR and first aid training, but once we've got all that stuff done, we're good to go.

At first, we thought we would want a boy that was younger than Rachel - preschool age for sure.  The more we've been in our classes and the further we've gotten in this process, our age has progressively increased.  We really feel like God is not calling us to foster an infant.  He may not even be calling us to foster a preschooler.  We look online at some of these kids who are ready to be adopted now and our hearts are stirred by the elementary age kids.  Those kids who have so much of their lives in front of them, but are so unlikely to be adopted, simply because they aren't babies.  Because we're more open to older kids, there's a chance that we could be able to go directly to adoption rather than having to foster-only first.  With the way the states go, the children have to be in our home for at least 6 months before we can legally adopt them - even if their parents' rights have already been terminated.  If we take a child who's parents' rights have not yet been terminated, we risk having that child go back to their bio parents.  That's pretty much going to be the case if we wait for a preschool age child.  If we choose a child who's on one of the Heart Galleries in Arkansas or anywhere in America, one who is a bit older, the parents rights have been terminated already and therefore negates the risk of them going back to their bio parents.  That in itself is a strong pull for us to consider adopting an older child.  We are looking constantly at all the kids who are ready to be adopted.  We wish we had enough space and financial means to take a hundred kids!  Our hearts break for all these kids!!  We are just in prayer right now that God will show us the plan that He has already laid out for us and that we'll have eyes to see and ears to hear what He has in store for us.  We want to be wise.  We want to be obedient.  And we can't wait to meet the child God has already chose for our family!

Monday, March 22, 2010

This. Is. Not. Good.

Copper is pregnant.  Again.  By accident.  And I'm not one bit happy about it. 

She went into heat in January when all the snow and sub-zero temps were going on.  We were diligent to keep her and Kramer away from each other and had strict instructions that when anyone ever let them out to go potty, they were NEVER to be out together at the same time....  Weeeeeellllllll....... there was one day when I realized after about 30 or 45 minutes that they'd been outside - together.  Suckola!!!!!!  I didn't see any deeds being done, but then again, they'd had plenty of time to...you know...and apparently they did. 

I've noticed that Copper had begun to look as though she was gaining weight.  I didn't think much of it due to the colder weather and not as much exercise, but then it just kept increasing and a little nagging voice said "she's got puppies in there."  I've been in denail for about 2 weeks.  I've felt of her tummy and haven't really been able to feel anything.  Until last night.  I felt a dad gum puppy move.  GRRRRR!!!!  Given that movement and the undeniable fact that she's showing the obvious signs of being preggers, I can't live in denial anymore.  We're going to have a littler of puppies sometime within the next few days, if my calculations are correct.

This is so not the time I wanted to have puppies!  At least it won't be a hundred degrees outside and we won't have that to worry about.  We don't have any major plans to be gone any time soon.  And we're on spring break this week which is good for me to watch her and be right here when she goes into labor.  But we're about to start fostering a child!  I mean, for the love of Pete!  And I've apologized to Copper profusely.  I feel horrible for putting her through this again so quickly.  We sure didn't have that planned for her.  She WILL be getting an appointment made to get fixed as soon as this episode of puppies passes. 

So, if you or anyone you know is remotely interested in a boxer puppy, let me know.  Apparently we'll have some soon.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

CPR Saturday

I have several items to write about, but lately there hasn't been a lot of time to sit down at the comptuer and get it done.  As is the case this morning as I right this.  I'm just finishing a bowl of raisin bran and about to get ready to head to CPR class today.... by myself..... which is part of the rest of the story that I want to right about.

So - off I go to pretend to save a life.....

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Foster/Adopt Blogs

I'm on the hunt for other bloggers who are fostering to adopt.  I've found a few.  I've got them listed on a blog roll on the right side of my blog.  But I want to have some more.

If you know of anyone that's fostering or is adopting through foster care and has a blog, please let me know.  I'd love to have more resources!!

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Another Day, Another Class

We have another training class today.  Thursday night was about visitations that foster kids have with birth parents.  I've got to be honest and say that the idea of that does not thrill me in the least.  I could write a whole post just about that notion.  But I lack the time today.  Because...

We have another six hours worth of training to sit through today.  The first session is on discipline.  I've heard a little bit about what we can and cannot do, so I'm interested to see what they say today.  The second session will be on adoption, which I'm a little more pumped about.  There will be an adoption specialist there, so I'm sure we'll have plenty of questions for her.  That's the part that I'm really looking forward to today.

Oh, and I'm also looking forward to getting some lunch 'to go' and having a picnic of sorts with my hubby on the Fayetteville Square!  That will be my favorite part of the day, I'm sure.  I hope the weather holds out and is as nice today as it was yesterday.  I'm so ready for spring, it's ridiculous.

Lastly, I'm SOOOO excited for my friends The Maners!!  They passed court in Ethiopia and will be leaving to go get their son on March 27th... FINALLY!!!  Woohoo!!  Congrats Robyn and Ryan!  You know we're overjoyed for you right now and can't wait until you get home with that precious boy!