colalicious top 10

colalicious is the baby of the family. he. is. awesome.
so we shall take a little time to delve deeper into what makes colalicious so amazing, fantastic, and cute.

1. colalicious is learning to walk. he's 15 months and can cruise with the best of them. not too interested in letting go, though
2. colalicious can make an elephant-like noise with his mouth and LOVES to imitate you when you make the noise too
3. colalicious eats everything in sight and can often be pacified by simply putting more food next to him. pretty easy going, i must say
4. colalicious loves to dance and kick his legs. he looks a bit like a frog attempting to jump. interesting
5. colalicious has 4 teeth and my, what big teeth they are. it's amazing what he can accomplish with just 4. makes me wonder what i need all my teeth for
6. colalicious is sick constantly. always on at least 3 meds. when he's sick he's on 6. we've gone 4 months between hospitalizations, so we are making great headway!
7. colalicious can clap and wave bye bye. these are huge steps in baby land
8. colalicious likes to play with his nebulizer and will actually put it up to his mouth to pretend to get a treatment. pretty hilarious since he screams bloody murder while actually GETTING the treatment
9. colalicious always wakes up at least once between the hours of midnight and 4am. he apparently really likes to scream his head off during this time. soothes the soul, i guess
10. colalicious, if he were not sickly, would be the most easy-going baby on the face of the planet. i look forward to seeing what he's like when he (hopefully) grows out of the sickness part

so there you go. all four kids are present and accounted for.
mediation for colalicous and z-diddy is tomorrow. this is parents' opportunity to relinquish their rights instead of having the rights taken away by the state.
we'll see. i'll let you know.

e-money's top 10

to parallel z-diddy's, i thought we'd move on to elijah's top 10 fantastical qualities of gigantic proportions.

1. elijah has cute big ears that, when persuaded by someone's fingers, will dance to any beat. video to follow once he's officially ours.
2. elijah is our little servant-hearted giver. when you say something like, "you took my pillow, z-diddy," elijah will go get you another one without you even asking.
3. elijah has a speech delay and a lot of what he says needs interpretation... such as: "me me dee"
which apparently means "medicine." who knew?
4. elijah has a favorite pair of my flipflops that he wears around the house ALL the time. they are teal, and he gets mad if anyone touches them or even so much as looks at them. he's into accessories.
5. elijah loves to throw his own stuff away after a meal, switch clothes to the dryer, and put clothes away. i really lucked out.
6. at nap time every day, elijah sits on the couch or our bed and says, "batch mooovie?" which is his way of asking to watch a movie. and everyday the answer is no. and everyday he cries.
vicious, vicious cycle.
7. elijah likes to wear hats that make his ears stick out. (see number 1)
8. elijah can now get himself dressed with a little bit of help and then proclaims to the world "I DID IT!"
9. elijah is now talking back, which truth be told, is kinda hilarious. in the car the other day i said, "you guys stop yelling!" to which he said, "no, you top yell," to which i said, "you're crazy," and he replied, "no, you!" kinda hilarious for a kid who can barely put a sentence together.
10. elijah is really sweet with the baby. he likes to play with him, blow raspberries on his tummy, and push him on a riding toy. this usually ends in tears with the baby falling off, but it's the thought that counts, right?

z-diddy's top 10

i asked the hubs if he wouldn't mind me taking a pic of one of our foster kiddo's ears or feet or cute smile (without the whole face) and paying tribute to them on this here blog.

he said he didn't really feel comfy with that, since we're not supposed to post their pics online.
--rule follower. and i respect that. especially when the hubs is so cute! -who can argue with that face?!

but nevertheless i figure i should take the time to tell you a little about each kiddo in our home, and since i just did a gotcha day post on gabe, i'll do the next kiddo in line...

our eldest-newest foster son, let's call him z-diddy.

z-diddy is a special little man. one with many unique qualities, most of them delightful, some not so much. let's do a top 10, shall we?

1. z-diddy looks like a chimpanzee baby when he's wet in the bathtub with his hair all crazy. a-dorable!
2. z-diddy likes to be rough even when others around him do not.
3. z-diddy loves cuddling and ANY form of touch where he is RIGHT NEXT TO YOU.
4. z-diddy is GREAT at cleaning up toys once he gets started.
5. z-diddy has some sensory issues that we are currently working through and even though we have a long way to go, he has made lots of progress! go big boy!
6. z-diddy can answer questions from our discipleship time like, "who made you" --"God"; "why did God make you?" --"for His own glory"; and "where is God?" --"everywhere!"
7. z-diddy is gabe's partner in crime. they do EVERYTHING together. it usually involves getting into trouble, but they grin pretty cute while it's happening.
8. z-diddy can now get himself dressed with little-to-no help from us. independent little guy.
9. z-diddy spills a drink all over our table at least once a day, but always acts as if it's a shocker. the real shocker is why we don't just make him use a sippy any chance we get. ;)
10. z-diddy puts on daddy's shoes and walks around the house waving goodbye and telling me he's off to church or work. pretty darn cute, if you ask me.

so there you go. our little guy has changed a lot over the last 8 months that he's been in our house. we are very proud of him and can't wait to see what his future holds. (hopefully with us...pray hard.)

gotcha day

here at the ol' homestead it's gotcha day. 2 years ago gabe became a part of our forever family.
since i don't think i've shared the story, i thought this would be a good time to do it. i was going to write a book about our experiences with this, but since i now have four children, that'll probably never happen. this is long, but i think it's worth it. here's the story of how we began:



gabe came into care just after he had turned one. i worked with him on my caseload when i was an early intervention specialist. i loved his squishy forehead and lovely chubby cheeks. he was the cutest little guy i'd ever seen. in late december of '07 the foster mom let me know he would be available for adoption. without thinking, i let her know that maybe my husband and i would be interested in adopting him into our family. this probably was a bit premature, since my husband had never even heard of this child. we had always talked about fostering and adopting, but we had also talked about WAITING to do it. foster mom liked this idea and got pretty excited, which made me realize that once again that i had spoken without thinking OR checking with my husband. nevertheless, i spent the next 90 minutes of our appointment plotting and planning how i would present this idea to the hubs.

i have been told that i tend to jump into things too quickly. i really enjoy planning outlandish things but then freak out and don't actually accomplish any of them. it's a cycle and i'm quite fond of it. but turns out there's a problem with this because it doesn't require any trust in God.

so as i met with my husband to discuss the possibility of adopting a child 3 years earlier than we had ever expected to start a family, i pretty much vomited out as much information as i could. yeah, i'm definitely not the play-it-cool and wait-till-he's-in-a-great-mood type. once i let him know my plan, he quickly said no. there were lots and lots of reasons why adopting a child at this time would not work out for us, and he listed all of them.

but i pressed on. and not tactfully or graciously, i might add.
by the end of the dinner, the hubs had agreed to attend a meeting with me in january about fostering. after that, we would see.

after that meeting, the hubs was as burdened as i was about fostering, and he said he felt comfortable going forward to the next step of the process. so we agreed to pick an agency. and the hubs let me know that if obstacles came up, that would be God's way of letting us know He was closing a door.

no obstacles really came up. although gabe's casemanager wanted him and was proceeding with trying to adopt him as well, we pursued getting licensed as a foster family to foster-adopt gabe. the thought occassionally crossed my mind that if we got licensed and didn't get gabe, this would all be for nothing, but i trusted that God had His hand in this and that He would show us what to do.

we got licensed faster than any other couple through that agency. 6 weeks. all the pieces fell into place. it was between us and the casemanager. the agency would choose.

i got a call on a wednesday that the agency had not received our homestudy. after a day of panic and hurried phone calls, it got sorted out. by thursday afternoon i had a voicemail from the adoption worker.
--in a serious and hushed tone, "marge, when you get this, please call us back."

uh oh

when i called they said, in a serious and very sad voice, "ok marge, they've made a decision. and...well...i guess i'll just read it to you. ahem. 'we, the state, have determined that marge and her hubs (changed for the sake of privacy) are the best fit for this child."

she was so mean to trick me into thinking we were not being chosen. ;)
well to make a long story short, they had me on speaker phone and i screamed so loud with excitement that several other office members came in to see what the commotion was all about.


and that was it. we found out that thursday, and the following wednesday we had gabriel in our home playing with a train set. and we've never been the same since.

after a mandatory 6 month waiting period with gabe in our home, he was adopted into our family forever. and that, my friends, is why we celebrate "gotcha day."
ps: with this story usually comes a lot of questions. please don't ever hesitate to ask us about fostering or adoption. and please don't hesitate to send friends who are considering it our way. we love to encourage others on this journey.

first day of school

update from last time: we still don't have an answer from CPS. basically, the adoption of elijah miguel will either happen in a week or will be postponed due to a new law that passed about the paperwork process. we might know by tonight, but i would not recommend holding your breath for someone to call you back. i am not too worried about it. the good news is, he will be ours eventually. and that is a blessing. and the rest will work out. God has a plan, and it's perfect, so i'll just trust in that.

BUT...onto happier, non-CPS-related news.
today was the three oldest boys' first day of mother's day out. i got some pretty cute pics that, of course, i can't share because the kiddos are in foster care. but here's one of gabe. this time next year, he will be in kindergarten. i'm not gonna lie, i teared up a bit dropping him off in his new class. and while they're at school, i get to blog, vaccuum, fold laundry, and sort toys. productivity, here i come. oh, how i've missed you so.


ps: isn't he a cutie pie? i shall keep him.

defiance

CPS should pay me money to recruit people into fostering and adopting through the state.

but at this moment, i am not a good person to advertise.

there is crap going on. i'm sorry. that's not diplomatic. --there is POO going on.

and i won't go into details because by the end of this day, it might change.
but at this moment, CPS is ticking me off.

i shall handle it with grace and dignity.
BUT
i defy CPS. i defy the way they bureacratically handle families.
i defy the way they don't return calls.
i defy the way they act as if they have no personal responsibility at all.
so it's back to utter defiance, people.

i'll keep you posted.
and CPS, gird your loins. i will kick you in the face if you continue to mess with our family.
the end.