~Happy 5th Birthday~

5 years ago this sweet little boy came into the world.

He couldn't have made me more happy to be his momma!

 

2 years old!

Mason loves all puppies, transformers, trains, dinosaurs, and cars.

He is not a fan of the heat or long car rides.

Mason is our special little boy and we love him

 to the moon and back again!

 

Mason will go to a new preschool starting next week.

He will go 4 days a week in the afternoon.

~Crib~

We have a crib! It finally arrived.

 

Now we wait to see how long before we need it.

~Training~

The last two days have been very interesting. Danny and I completed 16 hours of training for Foster Care and Adoption. We met other couples who are starting their foster care journey and some who already have placements and have adopted. We learned many new things. I can't say how much I appreciated Danny's good spirits about sitting in a small conference room for 16 hours.

 

I think the biggest thing I learned is that we should never judge the person next to us. Everyone has their own story. We really have no idea what a child or person has been threw until they tell us.

 

Another thing I learned, that stuck out to me in this training was that no matter how badly we want to help every single child out there we just can't. We have to know that we can't fix them all. We need to just hope for the best and remember helping even one child is better than not helping any.

 

 

~One Month~

One month ago today I had an ultrasound. The results were not good. I spent most of the evening with tears.

Tonight I had date night with my husband. We had time to chat of course about the kids and worry if we'd go home to a messy house.

After I got home Alayna was upset she didn't get to go with us. So her and I went for a walk. She is so much fun. She counted 1, 2, 3, 5....I reminded her she forgot 4. Then she pointed out some bikes and purple flowers... She sure kept me moving.

~Mason's Room~

Mason's room is one of my favorites in the house.

Maybe because I can keep it clean the longest.

 

 

We recently made him a simple closet since he did not have one.

(those are all the daycare mats for naptime on the floor.

I wish I had another place to keep them).

When Mason needed a new bed we decided to get a trundle bed.

This will work great if we have a Foster Care boy here or he ever has a friend over.

We just finished off the room this weekend by adding the blue shelf on the wall

and the small dresser. The dresser is nothing fancy but should work for foster care.

Right now I have the daycare blankets rolled up in the bottom drawer.

The shelf I got for just a few dollars off a local garage sale site.

It was perfect since it was already blue.

I painted the letter M he has on top.

Mason's room is really considered the den.

We've been talking about adding French doors to the room.

 

 

We bought this crib but are waiting for it to arrive.

This will allow us to take infants for foster care!

Hoping it will fit somehow in Mason's room.

~Not much to say~

We finally got a report about the child I inquired about. Since confidentiality is an issue here I can't really say much about what I read. I can say I feel bad for the child that he has been in a few different homes and is separated from his siblings. At this time our worker does not feel this is a child we should pursue to adopt because we already have five children and she would worry about their safety. I trust her judgment 100%.

~Almost got stressed~

Yesterday I made a call to register Danny and I both for an adoption training. This is mandatory for both us if we plan to ever adopt. Its a 2 day training, Friday and Saturday. This particular one is coming up soon and located two and a half hours from home. I called. Lady put my name down and said another gal would call me with the details and answer any questions I had about the training. We booked a hotel room. We made plans for the kids to spend time with my sister-in-law, mom and sister.

Today after I had finally sat down for the first time my phone rang. It was gal calling me back to answer questions. WRONG. She was calling to tell me we would be put on the list for the next class. They would be setting the date soon. I explained to the gal we wanted the training this month and that we made arrangements to attend. The lady yesterday said she would put our name down. The gal said the class is full. I then explained we already booked our hotel room! Thankfully she was nice about it. She said the lady yesterday shouldn't have made it sound like we'd be able to attend for sure but she wouldn't have really had any idea the class was full. Then she also said she understood why I assumed we were signed up. So she said class will be full but we can attend!! I felt very relieved.

I'm looking forward to 16 hours of training crammed into 2 days! I mean really, who wouldn't be excited.

~Foster Care~

Yesterday was an exciting day for me. I have always wanted to do foster care. I am really lucky to have a husband who is on board with this as well. I first attended the orientation meeting back in March. We then sat around thinking weather or not we should go ahead and proceed. After a month we decided to go ahead. We filled out the right papers, had a meeting with the foster care licensor, got finger printed, added beds to our home. Last night we met with the licensor again and completed the process for getting licensed.

Now that does not mean we will be placed right away with a child. Of course we pray God's timing is right when we are placed with a child and that he has their best interest and ours in mind. Its kind of an exciting thing but at the same time its a tough and sad thing. Many of these children come from homes where they are abused or neglected. We would never want that for any child. We are planning to take only one child at a time but did have the licensor license us for two just in case their is ever a sibling group that needs a home. We could then consider it. We can care for children newborn-7 years old. Foster care parents are allowed to set the age of children they prefer to work with.

I also wanted to note that on July 30, I sent an email to inquire about a child on the MN ADOPT website looking for a home. Our worker (licensor) said for some reason its taking awhile for them to get back to us. They have to email info to the worker because of confidentiality reasons. All we know so far is this child is available to be adopted by a MN family, he likes pizza, he wears glasses and is 6 years old. Hopefully we will have more information on him soon. Its so hard to wait and be patient. Our worker did show us a map yesterday displaying how many different people and families a worker has to deal with. It made sense why it takes so long.

That is it for now.