Monday, December 31, 2007

Today was fun

Sort of a milestone for us. We took the 6y/o in to get his name changed at the doctors office. It was neat to change his name to his new legally given name :) And
our last name
It sounds silly true but it was an emotional moment for me. Now to get him enrolled into the military side of things

My 2007

Monday, December 31, 2007 (as posted on my other blog http://blog.gina8724.com/ )

My 2007
I do one of these corny posts EVERY year. Sort of the Cliff Notes version of my year.
This year has certainly had it's ups and downs. I started out last year with DH in VA where he was for a few months. We finally completed our home study and also got our foster care license. We were licensed in March and the same day, before the ink was dry we got placement of two brothers. Their other brother arrived about 2 weeks later.
In June we went from a house with six boys to a house with EIGHT boys when we took placement of a 5 y/o and a 3 month old. The 5 y/o was "possibly an adoptive placement". Two weeks later the three siblings left and went to go live with another family member (I still think of them often).
Come July I find out the surprise of all surprises... I am pregnant. After being told without medical intervention it wouldn't happen... well we showed them. DH was on the ship in the Pacific ocean when I emailed him to tell him we were expecting. We also learnedin July we were selected to be the official adoptive placement of the 5y/o
In August I took in a brother sister pair for a week while their foster mom was on vacation.
In September the 5y/o started Kindergarten. Out 9 y/o started in his gifted program and our 12 y/o started his last year of Junior High. At the end of the month we took placement of another 12 y/o boy.
In October. I withdrew our 13 y/o (he turned 13 in OCT ;) ) from school. He began homeschooling. Took him to yet another doctor to get a more specific and on target diagnosis on his condition. DH and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We were again separated by miles upon miles of ocean
In November we, for the saftey of the boys and myself asked for the 12y/o foster placement to be removed. That same day we were asked to take in an 11 y/o boy. We hesitated and two days after the 12 y/o was gone the 11 y/o was here. Bringing us right back up to 6 boys.
In Dec, our 5 y/o turned 6! And then on the 17th, it was made official... his adoption was finalized. We learned at this point too that the now 9 month old would more than likely be moving onto a family placement as well. We also learned we are expecting a GIRL. Wonders will never cease!
It has been a year of major ups and downs and I left out a lot BUT I included some of the more interesting points hehe.
What are my wishes for 2008? Well I want our baby girl to be born happy and healthy. I would love for the 11 y/o to get some sort of permanancy. If that means he goes back to his parents then GREAT but this kid needs SOMETHING stable in his life. He feels like he is stuck in limbo here. Who can blame him? The system has failed him more than once. I want my husband to be here for our daughters birth and though he will have to leave quickly I want him to be safe in his travels to a part of the world in turmoil. I can hope our baby will delay walking until Daddy gets home. I want my children to continue to improve in ALL that they do. They truly make me very proud. Our 13 y/o though. I hope he finds peace there is so much turmoil in his brain that some peace would be a welcome thing.
I want everyone to reach and be recognized for their full potential.If you read it all to this point I know I can count on you as at the very least an interested reader and some I know are great friends too. Thank you all for being there for me. It means a lot

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Oh wow

If we were looking to cmpete with the duggars hehe or COULD in any possible way do it. There is a sibling group of SIX.
http://www.nwae.org/c6864-69.html
They are adorable :) Well the one boy does not look like taking a picture was what he wanted to do LMAO

Monday, December 17, 2007

And with that....

We are done, today it was made official, our six year old is our son. He now has a name he is not ashamed to have called out at a doctors office. I think that part made him happiest!
He did proudly proclaim that he gets to stay with us until he is a grown up :)

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day folks!! Our little man is officially OURS! Court in the morning and wrangling all of the boys for this... well I may need a nap after all is said and done!
I am giddy excited but also in a state of disbelief that "this is it".

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Sad and peeved

First of all I put in the 'no I am not just fat I am pregnant' notice to Bears social worker(though I am ALL belly it is hard to miss). NOT that I wanted Bear to move. I really don't Though I will be honest the thought of a one year old and a newborn...scares the TAR out of me! But I let her know because when bitty baby G arrives, we will oficially, yet again, be over the state limit and be at 7 children. I have to let them know these things :( Anyway it turns out the family member who they have been talking about getting licensed to take Bear (for the last 6 months!) Has finally stepped forward now that it is looking like reunification may not be happening. So Bear may be moving onto a realative placement. It SUCKS on the one hand because he is part of our family and we have had him here since he was 3 months old. But if he has to go anywhere else, with family would be my choice.

I am a bit peeved. Yesterday afternoon Mav had a child health screener stop by andask some questions. Simple stuff for the standard reports. She wraps it up by asking if he was goint to/wanted to see his mom. No biggie right?? Yeah well first Mav asks "Which one? My bio or one of my two old adoptive moms?" The lady asks which do you want to see? Mav gets his hopes up you can hear it. He said "Yeah I would love to see my last adoptive mom and my bio mom...but the court order" That is right folks screener lady spoke out of turn and "offered" a visit that she had no right to with no real knowledge of the case(s). It is a wonder this on top of other people failing him the kid has NO faith in the foster care system!!This was after when she was here (She got here 15 minutes EARLY I had no warning time for Mav) he came home from school and the first words from her mouth are "we need to talk". The get starts to look ill, sits down while wringing his hands and says "You all are moving me again??!?!?!?!" She THEN introduces herself and with some conversational prompting by me Mav gets assured she is not here to take him nor does she have say to move him. UGH Like he needs this??

Friday, December 07, 2007

Travel

One of the good things about being a military family is that we have traveled a little. I admit not NEAR as much as we could have but we have seen a few interesteing places and got the chance to live in them for awhile. I think the one with the most to offer.... well you know that is hard. Each place has had SO much to offer. But I honestly thought we had a blast in San Diego. While not a place we wanted to settle down in it was a great place to be a tourist for a few years. There was so much in the area to see. Old Town, Coronado, Sea World, LegoLand,Harbor cruises, whale watching etc etc.
I think we did the majority of it. We had some fantastic weekends spent at the zoo and wild animal park. My kids still talk about the flamingo exhibit at the zoo and the gorillas, which of course are my favorite animals :) It is amazing the memories we took away from there. If we never lived in the area I would have to take my children there to experience all there is to see.
Trusted Tours and Attractions Has tickets to many (maybe all?) of the attractions we have been to.
If we had plans to go to Key West we would check the site out for tickets to the local attractions :)

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Kiddo

Well on the suggestion of afriend the new addition will be nicknamed Maverick...Mav for short. It is due to his desire to be a fly boy:)
Mav is a good kid. I need to do some reading to familiarize myself on how to deal with some things he has been through. He is showing NO signs now BUT not sure when things will surface. He is a good kid. Interacts well with other kids. He is very neat... as in tidy. He reminded the 13 y/o this morning to make his bed. His room has been cleaner. I try to let him know I do not expect perfection I truly think though he is walking on eggshells afraid to be moved on again