Wordless Wednesday

Here is my entry for Wordless Wednesday. My nine year old daughter likes to create things. She’s always making, or remaking something, sometimes with my help, sometimes on her own. She decided she wanted to make a t-shirt using some of the fabric paint we have. I dug out a white t-shirt for her and she asked me to trace, in pencil, what she wanted to write. Here’s the final product. I love my daughter. **If...

A New Beginning

Begin Today is the day to begin. This new year is a blank canvas upon which you have the delightful opportunity to paint. As you do, be authentic. Your greatest accomplishments are the ones that contain the greatest quantity of you. Be innovative and creative. The challenges you face will melt away when you apply fresh, original thinking to them. Remember not to take yourself too seriously. You’ll climb much higher...

Wanting/Not Wanting This Year To Be Over

I’m usually an optimistic person. I get that from my mother. But 2007 really kicked me in the ass. Hard. This year, for the first time ever, I have mixed feelings about starting a new year. Usually I look forward to new beginnings, be it a new day or a new year. So many stressfull and painful events happened to my family & I this year and to 2007 I say, Good Riddance! You’re like an annoying guest who over...

Quick check-in

Just wanted to say a quick hello and that I’ll be back around more after the holidays. This is a hard time of the year for my family & I, since losing my mother in July. I hope all our visitors have a wonderful holiday. Share

Grateful

I’m grateful for my children because they have taught me so many things….even things I didn’t want to learn. My youngest (my nine year old daughter that we adopted at age five) teaches me to not take life, or myself to seriously. She also teaches me about unconditional love and what that really means. My middle one (daughter age twelve, adopted at seven) teaches me empathy and forgiveness. My oldest (fifteen...

Halloween 2007

For Wordless Wednesday (#307) Share ...

Four Year Adoption Anniversary

October 30 was our 4 year adoption anniversary. We do something each year to celebrate, remember and honor the day. We usually do something fun and there’s also lots of reflection and looking at photos throughout the day. We feel very lucky to be a family (except Cimion, who has trust issues to deal with). This year we decided to stay here. Unfortunately for him, Cimion won’t be there (he doesn’t come home...

Hello, I’m back-and thank you so much.

First, thank you so very much for all your wishes, condolences and thoughts. They have been a source of strength for me through this very difficult time. I appreciate them more than you could ever know. There were about five comments during July that I haven’t let through yet. With making all the preparations for my mothers service, handling her affairs and trying to get through some very difficult days, I saved them...

Update

New update: This is very hard for me to type but my mother passed away yesterday. She’s had a long battle with health problems and yet was the happiest person I knew. She loved life, nature and laughing. I won’t be around for a while but I will return because I learned from my mother that life is to precious to not live it the way you want. *********************************** My mom is in the hospital and...

Our Adoption Story: Part Five

Here is a post from the Forever Parents adoption forums dated 9/30/03, the date our placement officially ended. Today, Sept. 30, marks the end of our 90 day “trial” with our kids. As the Grateful Dead say…”what a long, strange trip it’s been”. Over the next 1-2 weeks, the state will sign a consent form that gives us the okay to proceed with the adoption and then we have to sign (with a...

My Children’s Former Foster Mother

For Wordless Wednesday: My 12 year old, with her former foster mother Pat. She’s holding one of Pat’s current foster children. This photo was taken at the birthday party of my childrens former foster brother, who was adopted the year after we adopted our three. Yes, we’re like one big happy family. Share Tags: foster...

Three Things I Want My Kids To Know As They Grow.

…and what I’m doing now to help them. 1) I want them to know that learning is a natural part of life. That’s it’s not something seperate from life…not something done in a building from Monday through Friday with weekends off. As unschoolers, my children get to see learning all around them. It’s not something they’re made to do, there are no grades or tests needed to prove that they...

A Young Adoptee Deals With Past Hurt

I recently posted about my 12 year old daughter discovering that she’s an “adoptee”, which is why I chose the title of this post. If you’ve read our adoption story, you know that she and her siblings were removed from their biological home and placed into protective custody the day before her 4th birthday. *sigh* What a burden for a little girl to handle. Her first full day in the foster care system...

Finding Out You’re An Adoptee

My 12 year old daughter just found out that she’s an ‘adoptee”. No, we didn’t just tell her she was adopted. She already knew that being she was eight years old when we adopted her and her siblings. What I mean is she just found out that there’s a “word” for someone who has been adopted. She thinks it’s pretty cool. We happen to be having a conversation the other day while she...

Our Adoption Story: Part Four

Our placement started July 2, 2003. This was a very big step for all of us. It was during two previous placement that they were returned back to foster care by the two familes that originally had wanted to adopt them. I knew that ‘C’ & ‘S’ were hesitant and scared when our placement started and they had a very right to be. Here we were, the third couple telling them that we were going to be their...

Eight Facts About My Adoption Journey

Kathy over at My Crazy Life tagged us. If you haven’t taken a look at her blog, please do. She started it in February and writes about her journey with infertility and adopting through the foster care system, which as we all know can be quite a rollercoaster. The tag is that we have to post eight random facts about ourselves. Since this is an adoption blog, I’ll keep mine related to that. I was also tagged at my...

Our Adoption Story: Part Three

We continued to visit with them on the weekends and talking on the phone during the week. Billy was able to get every weekend off for several weeks in a row so we could have time with them. I felt very strongly that we not buy them a lot of gifts or take them to many places in the beginning. There is a tendency to give foster children lots of stuff, I guess to make up for the shitty life they have. But I think all that does...

Adoption Article Featuring Our Family

Article published Jul 10, 2005 in the Star Banner Three adopted children enjoy new life, parentsJoanne and her husband Billy wanted children, but Joanne was in her 30s when they married and did not want to go through a slew of immediate pregnancies. So, they began looking into adopting. When a counselor suggested that they consider adopting a group of siblings, they decided that is what they wanted to do. The private adoption...

Our Adoption Story: Part Two

Our homestudy got approved after a couple of weeks and we continued looking at files. We found one of two girls and decided to meet them at one of the picnics. They were 6 & 7 year old and we deicded to find out more about them. About a week later we were told that the younger one was being to abusive to the other and they had decided to adopt them seperately but that the younger one wasn’t ready yet and they asked...