So, talk to me about adoption...

We have been doing respite on a regular basis for a large sibling group for the past several months. It is now looking like their case will go to TPR soon. We are thinking about asking to be considered as an adoptive placement for them if/when it reaches that point. That would give us a total of nine children at home.....so a lot to consider. It would be a huge challenge, just considering the logistics of managing a household that size, w/o even factoring in the foster care baggage that would come with the children. Nine kids...wow. BUT I love these kids and it feels so natural for them to be here. We have a lot of children in and out of the house for respite care or friends of my bio children. Many of these kids we like and enjoy but we do not feel the same connection to most of these kids that we do with this sibling group. I can easily imagine them as part of our family.

I feel a little overwhelmed at the thought of adding that many children at once. However, when I analyze exactly what makes me feel overwhelmed it is all things that can be worked out, such as the need for a larger vehicle, more bedroom furniture, possibly adding on to our house. Things that are really minor issues when considering the long term. My hesitation is not about the kids only about the practicalities of putting a total of 11 people in this house.

Prayers for wisdom for my husband and I are appreciated! We have a lot to consider and work out. Prayers for these sweet dc are welcomed also. I so want them to have some permanancy whether it is with their birth family, with us, or with another adoptive family. They've been in foster care for years and it is TIME for them to be settled somewhere.

Talk to me about your adoption experiences, especially if you have added a large sibling group to your family.

Another rant

I've been patient....really, I have. But you know what? I'm tired of being patient. We've been licensed as foster parents since last October and have only had one extremely brief placement of our own. Every time I have the radio on I hear recruiting ads for foster parents. The meth problem in our area is growing---there are meth busts in the paper all the time and most of the time there were children involved who are taken into custody. There are kids who need foster parents! We are willing to take them! Why don't we have a placement??????

I feel like we have lived in a state of anticipation (waiting for "the call") for months and months. It's exhausting and draining.

Small Rant

UGGHHHHH!

Why, why, WHY do so many people feel the need to invite my children to Bible school at their churches? And especially, why do people ask me about it in FRONT OF my children.....including mentioning the pizza party or clowns or whatever "draw" they have so that my children will want to go and I will look like the bad guy for saying no?

ARGHHHHHHH!!!!!! Several invites already and it is only the beginning of June.

My 6yo is going to Bible school at my parent's church in a couple weeks. I'm fine with that because she loves stuff like that and she will be in my mom's class.

That is IT though! I'm not sending my kids to a strange church for Bible school---I will take care of their spiritual training at home, thank you very much (not that there is a lot of spiritual training going on at most Bible schools). And we are BUSY already....I'm not looking for anywhere else to send my kids this summer.


ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Farmer's Market

Our farmer's market season is underway. We are vending at two markets this year. A busy Saturday market and a smaller, newer, weekday evening market. I'm mostly pleased with how it's going so far. The soaps are not selling quite as fast as I had hoped but I am getting good feedback from the people who are buying. I didn't really know what to expect sales-wise and I think we are doing okay. My son is selling excess produce from the garden and excess periennial starts. He is selling out at most markets (but he hasn't had a huge quantity to start with yet). More produce will be ready soon. The markets should pick up in the next few weeks. It's almost strawberry season here and that will draw huge crowds to the market. Hopefully many of those new customers will be interested in soap. :>)

Respite again

We did more respite care last weekend. There is a lot I like about doing respite. I get a chance to know the kids w/o having to get involved in all the drama of their court cases, visits, etc. Also, usually before their quirks move from 'cute' to 'annoying' it's time for them to go home.

This group consisted of three sisters. Ages 11, 8, 5. They were from a city and clearly were used to city life. My 6 yo took great pride in showing them the goats, chickens, deer heads on the wall, etc. I could tell they thought they had been abandoned in redneck-ville. lol They are very sweet, quiet girls. I hope they weren't too terribly bored here. I have decided I need to invest in some books/activities/games/????? for pre-teen girls if we are going to continue to do respite for that age. Any suggestions? We're set up with boy stuff and little girl stuff but not much to do for older girls.

The only issue was that there turned out to be more transporting involved than I had been told upfront. When I was first asked if I could do respite, no transport was mentioned. (But I didn't think to ask either). Then it turned into "they might have a visit but since it's a holiday weekend I don't think they will" and I was left with the impression that someone would pick them up at my home if there was a visit (not sure if that was my misunderstanding or if I was intentionally led to believe that). Then a few hours before they were to be dropped off it was "Oh btw, you'll need to take them to _______ (city over an hour away) for their visit and then pick them up again 5 hours later." HUH???? At that point I should have said, look, that's not what I agreed to, you'll need to make other arrangements".....but I was feeling trapped because I wasn't sure if I had misunderstood all along that this transporation was going to be expected and I didn't want to leave the other foster parent in a lurch.

So I took them. $60 in gas and a lot of driving time out of my weekend. I'm not in
foster care to make a profit but I also cannot afford to have to spend money from our personal budget on respite transport. I'm not even sure how much I'm being reimbursed for caring for them...probably about $75 (it was just for one night) but I won't see that money for a month.

I learned a valuable lesson. Next time I'm called about respite my first question will be "How much transportation will be expected?" Then if it changes later I can confidently say, "I'm sorry, that's not what I agreed to do."

Say Cheese!

I just finished my third batch of goat milk cheese. So far I've made chevre, fromage blanc, and fromagina. All 3 are soft spreadable cheeses, similar to cream cheese. Yum! I made one batch into a cheese spread seasoned with creole seasoning, black pepper and onion powder. It was so good! I spread some on a tortilla, added some fresh lettuce (from our garden) and made a roll up.

I'm hooked! This is so much fun. :>) I need to get this baby goat sold so we can have more milk for the house.

I want to try mozzarella next.

So much for that.

So much for blogging every day in May. lol Between a slow computer, slow internet, and an ISP that was completely down for several days I didn't keep up. I'll try to do better from now on. :)

The kids are all asleep. This is the last night the respite kids will be here. It has gone very, very well. I couldn't ask for a better group of kids! I'm going to miss them when they leave. Hopefully their foster parents will want to use us for respite again.

A great homemaking website

I've been on Laine's email list for over 8 years. I have gleaned so many good ideas from her letters. Check out the archives at http://www.lainesletters.com/