7:00 Friday Night

Tonight we got another call from Children's Division. We said yes and I have two precious blonde boys sleeping in my spare room tonight. It's been a surreal past few hours. Jimmy is still in Minnesota, but I did consult him before saying yes :). These boys are an emergency placement and probably won't be here very long. In the 2.5 hours between the call and their arrival, I got Samuel in bed asleep and then started doing very logical things like dusting the baseboards and detailing the cabinents- clearly pressing tasks that needed to be taken care of, right? I just couldn't sit still.

My angel of a mother came over and helped me, which was a good thing because the boys really didn't want to go to sleep, even though it was past 11. Can't blame them, can you?

So here we go... we're officially foster parents!

PS Jimmy has SO many good stories from the adoption conference this weekend. He said it was like a "firehose" of information. I am looking forward to hearing more from him... sounds like it was an incredible time.

Another Place at the Table

I love to read and after just the synopsis for Another Place at the Table by Kathy Harrison, I knew I had to get ahold of this book. The author has been a foster mother to almost 100 children. She wrote this book to tell the stories of some of the children that she has worked with over the years. It is extremely well written and, while parts are hard to read, I highly recommend it.

While I'm on the foster care topic... here's something I've had trouble with the past few days. I have been trying to pray for the foster kids that could be in our home. The part that is making my stomach hurt is that while I'm praying for them, I know that they are suffering (or will suffer) neglect or abuse- because that is what would cause them to come into foster care. So the words for my prayers haven't come very easily. Lord, protect them. Lord, help them be strong. Lord, help them be resiliant. Prepare us.

Tomorrow night Jimmy heads out of town to the Christian Alliance for Orphans conference in Minnesota. It's held at John Piper's church and there are over 1000 people attending. I'm really excited that he's going. We are in the process of helping start an adoption/foster care/children in need ministry at our church. It sounds like the conference will have lots of great teaching / resources / networking. Not to mention that John Piper is teaching! They sent out an email with prayer requests for the conference listing smooth preparation, protection of the presenters/attendees and this last part which I love... "That God’s great love would become deeply real in the lives of countless orphans, and the Church, as a result of seeds sown at the conference—growing for years and even decades to come."

And to make the post longer (and to talk about something that has nothing to do with foster care!).... can I tell you how much I love Chik-fil-a? Samuel and I went there today and he told the lady at the register that he was sad the cow wasn't there (some weekends we drive by and the cow mascot is walking around outside). She turns around and gives him a stuffed Chik-fil-a cow. He looks at her like she gave him a million dollars! When we say thanks, she says their company line "It's my pleasure." Seriously, I love it. The food is good, service is always fast and they cater to people with kids. They bring my tray to the table. AND they have bendy straws so Samuel can drink his milk with less chance of dumping it. It's the little things!

Need a necklace?

I just got these cool necklaces in the mail today and I'm excited! I've referenced a blog I read about girl doing mission work in Uganda. She talked about these necklaces and I read about the women who make them and was hooked, so I bought some. Super cute! The necklaces are bought from the women- helping them have employment- and then 50% of the cost goes back to the ministry that works with them. Love it :)

First zoo trip of the season

After being married for almost eight years to a St. Louis guy, we have put many of the St. Louis/KC debates to rest. He can say "soda", I can say "pop". I can cheer for the Cardinals occasionally. He can say he "likes" living in KC. I can say there are things in St. Louis that are better than KC. Take the zoo, for example. In St. Louis, it's free, big and seems to have a lot more animals than our KC zoo. KC zoo is $11 and sometimes we do a lot more walking than animal sighting. Nevertheless, Samuel loves the animals, so this week I found myself buying a zoo pass and heading out for our first visit of the season. Samuel loves the animals, he loves the rocks, he loves running on the paths and he loves his friend, Bella (see evidence below). It was a good outing!

MO Heart Gallery

The Missouri Heart Gallery will be at Crown Center from April 30-May 16. It's a way of showcasing children in foster care who are ready to be adopted. It breaks my heart to look at their pictures. You can look online or you can go on down to Crown Center.

In case you are wondering why I keep blogging, which my husband asks me often :), part of it is to hopefully cause others to think about fostering or adopting. Is it working!? I think when people are honest about their journeys and the process and some of the "scary unknown" is taken away, both domestic/international adoption and foster care seem less challenging. Jimmy and I have found that once we were better educated regarding the huge need, it is hard not to respond somehow!

Need some Monday perspective?

Read this post! My good friend's brother is serving at an orphanage in Peru and his stories help keep my eyes on what (and Who!) is really important.

Let's go fly a kite...

We just got back from the kite festival at Longview (the community college where I teach). I wasn't sure what to expect, not being a kite expert myself, but it was impressive. And when the novelty of the kites wore off for Samuel, thankfully he had some buddies to run in circles with around the trees. It doesn't take much to keep things exciting for him :).

Foster care update: no baby at our house! We thought maybe on Wednesday, but then we found out the judge ruled that the baby can now go home with his parents. This is good for him and them, I know. After hustling around to be ready, we just had a bit of a let down, but that is all part of this experience. So we are back to waiting for another placement. Yes, more waiting!

I am LOVING the spring weather. We have been outside a lot and even planted some tomatoes, peppers and green beans. I hope something grows for Samuel's sake- I'm not much of a green thumb. We are growing some beans in a plastic bag (you remember this from elementary school? Wet a paper towel, put it in the bag with a couple of beans and tape the bag to the window?) so Samuel can see the process. Hoping that part of the "process" involved green beans actually growing from them. We'll see! Our sweet neighbor brought us flowers from her yard the other day. I didn't know tulips were capable of opening this much- amazing, right!?

En español por favor

I know there are some other families out there trying to teach their kiddos Spanish. I thought I'd pass along a blog that has great ideas/resources. Recently they highlighed these Singalingo CDs. The couple who writes/sings/sells the CDS are incredibly dorky (go to the Singalingo website and check out the yellow pants... enough said), but Samuel was hooked after one time through the CD.

Lunchtime conversation

Samuel: You're a girl.
Me: That's right. What are you?
Samuel: Nino (Spanish for boy... yes, I'm proud)
Me: What about Daddy? Es un nino o es un hombre? (Is he a boy or a man? and yes, we speak a lot of Spanglish here)
Samuel: hombre
Me: What about Ga-ga (Grandma Beyer)?
Samuel: He a lion.

I was so proud until that last bit of confusion... both with the pronoun and my mom being referred to as a lion. Sure keeps lunch conversation interesting though... :)

Hello, Friday

Well, we still don't have a foster placement yet. Baby boy was supposed to arrive Monday, then mid-week and now they're just saying they'll call when they know more info. So it's more waiting for us! I know I should be grateful for a few more nights of uninterrupted sleep, but I'm a little cranky about the unknown. I keep trying to shake up my type A control freak self, but it's hard!

We are SO grateful for the friends and family who have helped me gather clothes, infant gear, offered to watch Sam, etc. We'll be even more grateful when we are putting it to use!

We've been telling Samuel about the baby coming to stay. He woke up the other day and said "I watch Diego with the baby?" and "I share toys with the baby." Poor thing- he's confused! I didn't want to surprise him, so we've been talking about it, but he must wonder. There are so many great books/resources on adoption, but not as many on foster care. I need to read up on how to better prepare Samuel for foster children. We've been careful not to use the word "brother" or "sister" because I don't want him to think that a brother or sister can come to the house and then leave, but I'm not sure if that's the best way to go about it or not.

So that's the news from here! Assuming that the baby doesn't join us this weekend, we're looking forward to a date night with some friends on Saturday (Mexican and margaritas- yum!) and that's about it...

Happy weekend...

P.S. One of the other sweet adoptive moms I met in Guatemala is Lindsey Wheeler. She's now on staff with Show Hope (Steven Curtis Chapman's organization) and she wrote for their blog recently. So many cool things going on with this organization!

Great Expectations

In college there was a Steven Curtis Chapman song out called Great Expectations. While a bit cheesy, I found part of it flitting through my head today and looked up the lyrics. Here's an excerpt:

So wake the hope that slumbers in my soul
Stir the fire inside and make it glow
I'm trusting in a love that has no end
The Savior of this world has called me friend
And I, I've been invited with the Son
Oh I, I've been invited to come and ...

Believe the unbelievable
Receive the inconceivable
And see beyond my wildest imagination
Lord, I come with great expectations

It's been quite a weekend around here. Two great Easter celebrations with family and some crazy cleaning/organizing/painting/prep for our first foster baby placement. He's supposed to come tomorrow, but we'll see. One thing I learned during Samuel's adoption is to guard my heart and have low expectations for how I think things should go. So tonight I feel a bit numb (could be that I stayed up until 2 painting last night and I'm delirious :)). I'm excited to care for this little baby. I'm not excited about the sleep deprivation that will come with it. I'm telling myself I'm ok with the unknown... how long will he stay with us? How will Samuel respond? I've had a lot of people say "Oh, you're going to have your hands really full." Thanks. Got it. I'm already nervous and those comments just make it worse :), but Jimmy reminds me that we are stepping out in faith. So Lord, I come with great expectations-- use us, strengthen us and help us see what You are teaching us in this!

The mid Missouri Easter tour

We had a whirlwind weekend! Saturday we went to Jeff City to see Jimmy's family and Sunday we went to Warrensburg to see my family. Both days were beautiful weather which was such a blessing. Samuel enjoyed seeing his cousins and being outside. Here are a few pictures...

Another call!

Just got home from the Love It Again kids consignment sale here in Blue Springs. Lots of cute stuff- if you're in the area, I recommend it! This was my first time as a consignor, so we'll see if I sell much!

I went this morning to shop... for newborn/0-3 baby boy clothes! We got a foster placement call for a little boy and we're excited/nervous/scared! Of course I've saved most of Sam's clothes, so I have 6 months-2T clothes in abundance and thanks to Jimmy's sister, I have tubs of girls clothes birth-2T, but no little guy clothes. I picked up quite a bit at the consignment sale, but if anyone else has newborn/0-3 boy clothes that you want to get rid of, we would love to take them off your hands!

So here we go!