Foster Parenting is hard

Things have been a little crazy around here.  We're all grieving in our own way over Jennifer having to leave.  When you bring a child into your home and love and care for them, it's so hard to let them go, even if that's what's best for them.  I think Rebekah and I are suffering the most from this loss.  We're the ones who spent the most time with her.  Rebekah and Jennifer got along so well, and they were both so glad to have each other as sisters.  Since Jennifer left Rebekah has been handling it better than I thought she would, but all of her grieving is coming out through her not being able to sleep.  (And she asks a lot of questions about Jennifer and where she's at, where she's going, when we'll get to see her again...)  Aside from taking care of our children I put everything I had into helping Jennifer learn to cope with the challenges she's been given, and we made so much progress.  She gained a light in her eyes, and she became truly happy, which her parents' commented they hadn't seen in years.  I was so grateful to the Lord for guiding me in what to say and what to do to help Jennifer, and she did so well for the most part.  But, her brain has some serious defects from FAS and trauma from a poor early childhood.  There was only so much I could do.  During the times the she lost control and went literally crazy- there was nothing I could do because she was a different person then.  She couldn't be reasoned with or comforted.  Jennifer has such a sweet spirit, it's just stuck in a body with a messed up brain.  Losing her has sent me through all the stages of greiving.  Even though I know she's going to be in a place where they will have professionals that can work with her more readily I keep wondering, Is that really what's best?  Doesn't every child deserve a family?  Oh how I wish I had more skills so that we could have kept her in our family. She was doing so well in so many ways.

When we go to visit her, it seems a part of her had died.  The light is gone from her eyes. It makes me want to cry and bring her back home again. But, we can't.  We have no say in the major decisions in her life, and now that she's not in our home, we have no say in anything at all.  It just makes me so sad to see her like that.  I really hope the state is doing what is best for her.  I know they are trying, but taking her out of our home was clearly damaging to her.  How long will it take for that damage to be repaired?  or will it ever be repaired?  Life is just hard sometimes.  But we have to keep moving forward.

I've been trying to figure out what to do with myself.  I spent so much time talking to and working with Jennifer, now she's gone.  Now what do I do with all that time?  I guess I'm feeling a little lost and need to come up with a "new normal."  I know my other three children need my time and attention, but right now they don't seem to want it.  They spent the last three months following Jennifer around and playing what Jennifer wanted to play, that they didn't get to play the way they used to.  So, during the day they have just been playing and playing, and enjoying having more control of their play. 

We sure learned a lot from having Jennifer in our home.  It sure made me grateful for the children that we have, as challenging as they are- they are mine forever and their behaviors are manageable!  (most of the time)

This has been healing for me to type. I know that life is hard, but the Lord only sends us challenges that we can handle.  Our family will get through this hard time and be better off for it.  And although we miss Jennifer, it is also a relief to have her living else where, because things got VERY stressful sometimes.  I know God lives and that he loves and watches over us.  I am so grateful for all that I have been blessed with.  I have a loving husband, three wonderful children, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am truly blessed. 

Amazing Daddy!

Can you believe that he can still carry all three of them?

We really do have an amazing husband and father.  It's been so nice to have him around this summer and not so overwhelmed with school or work.  (The perks of being a university professor.)  Timothy has worked very hard to get our yard looking nice, and to plant and care for a garden and lots of new fruit and nut trees.  He's planted two cherry trees, two hazel nut trees, three peach trees, a pear tree, and an almond tree.  When these all get big enough to produce fruit and nuts, I'm going to have my hands full of canning all the produce!    

 

Family bike ride

 Last Friday we packed our bikes in and on the van and went for a family bike ride down by the river. 

 We got Jennifer an adult tricycle, which she LOVES!

 Daddy pulled the boys in the bike trailer

 I pulled Rebekah behind me on her bike using a trail gator.

We had so much fun!  We rode over 4 miles!  The kids actually took turns riding on the trail gator.  We had to go a little slower than we normally would have because it was Jennifer's first bike ride, but she did great and we all had a good time!  We wish she could still be with us... but that's not our choice.  

We hope we gave her a good three months that will help her in her future life.  At least now she has a bike to get around on since it's unlikely she'll be able to learn to drive.

Hyrum's haricut

 Hyrum wanted a haircut like Daddy...

so he got it...

for a few minutes anyway.  :)

We love Daddy!

Hyrum

The children just LOVE their Dad and want to be like him.  They love playing his trombone, especially this Pbone Mini.   Hyrum is actually getting pretty good on the trombone.  He hasn't been able to play any songs yet, but he's been developing his embrasure and it learning about how to play different notes. The other two just blow into it and make noise for fun.

Rebekah

Brigham

 One day not too long ago the children decided that they wanted to be like Daddy and that meant putting on his clothes.  They all dressed up in Daddy's clothes- including socks and shoes. :)

Rebekah (she has to have a patch on her left eye everyday for 2 hours for her amblyopia)

I sure love these little guys. They bring so much joy to my life!

(I love their Daddy lots too!)

I'm back (hopefully)

I've taken a 7 month break from writing on here, but I think I want to start up again.

I'm NOT going to attempt to catch up, but I will try to give you a summary of our crazy life over past little while.

We visited Timothy's family for Thanksgiving- that was fun!

My family came down to visit us for Christmas- We loved having so many family members visiting. 

January and February were pretty normal family life.

March we added a foster child to our family.  Jennifer is a 16 year old girl who struggles with so many things developmentally, physically, socially, mentally, and psychologically.  She was  a nice addition to our family, but earlier this week something went wrong in her brain and she went crazy, so now the state is looking for an institution for her where she can receive professional care 24/7.  We plan to stay a part of her life through visits, phone calls, and letters.

The children are handling her leaving well. But the last few weeks were very stressful for all of us and we need a break.  We're not sure if we're going to keep doing foster care or not.

How's that for  a seven month summary?  :)  I'm hoping to start in at blogging a couple times a month for family and friends to see what is going on in our lives.

Thanks for all of your support.

Happy Halloween!

 

We are having a great Halloween, we hope you are too.

I've been spending the last 2.5 months making costumes and I've been thoroughly enjoying myself. Sewing is a stress relief for me, and heaven knows how much I've needed some stress relief.  The nice thing about sewing (especially now that I have a permanent place to sew and can leave everything out) is that I can do it in 2 minute stints in between taking care of my children. 

 I let the children each choose what they wanted for Halloween. 

Rebekah- I mean Tinker Bell (the modest version)

Rebekah chose to be Tinker Bell.  She LOVES Tinker Bell for some reason even though she doesn't like the movie Peter Pan.  But, I've been discouraging the collecting of Tinker Bell objects because I don't want her surrounded by immodest fairies.  But, we're working on finding ways to cover Tinker Bell and I altered the costume pattern to be modest.

Hyrum- I mean the Runaway Pumpkin

Hyrum LOVES pumpkins.  His favorite book is the Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis.  He knew what he wanted to be right away... A Pumpkin!  He was so excited about this costume!

Brigham- I mean Mr. M&M

Brigham LOVES chocolate- especially M&M's!  So naturally he wanted to be one for Halloween.  He wouldn't tell me what color of M&M he wanted to be, at least not one color.  Every time I asked him he would say, "red, brown, and purple"  or on another occasion, "All the colors, I want to be a rainbow M&M."  I wasn't quite sure how to do that so I decided to make it green to coordinate with Rebekah's costume.

On Saturday we took the children to a farm to play and get pumpkins.  

The characters at the farm

There was so much for the children to do there!  They had a blast and the weather was perfect.

This is the corn slide.  The children got to slide down a huge pipe into a huge box of corn.

They got to ride on horse swings made from tires and old farm equipment.

Rebekah Flying like a fairy on the jumping pillow

Brigham enjoying himself

The Runaway Pumpkin kept rolling off the pillow like a pumpkin rolling down a hill- until he was asked to stop by the pillow supervisor.

Below is the children playing in the wooden ship at the farm.

Us on the back of the pick-up truck.  (Timothy took the picture)

In front of Wick-a-dee Witch's house right next to the pumpkin patch.

Climbing the hay- they weren't excited to sit for yet another picture.  

Each of the children picked out a pumpkin and got to paint it for Family Home Evening.

In our backyard

Our ward did a Halloween activity at a neighborhood park.  The children had a good time  and got too much candy.   We won the prize for the best family in the costume contest.  On Halloween they get to wear their costumes to school, then that night they get to go trick-or-treating to some neighbors.

Timothy and I dressed up in Victorian era costumes.  I made a fancy dress that I was excited to have finally finished (I started making it over 6 years ago.)  Timothy wore his tux and I made him a top hat and cravat and he made a walking stick.  I decided if anyone asked who we were dressed as I could say Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy.  No one asked who we were, though we did get  a lot of compliments on our costumes.

I started making this dress on a whim and realized just how much work it was going to take and committed myself to finishing it even if it took many years.  And it did.  I worked on it for about two years and then we adopted our children and I quite working on it until recently.  I figure it probably took me between 50-80 hours of work to make it.  (Including making the hat and the hoop skirt underneath.) It has been fun and now that I'm finished and it turned out so well I feel like I could make just about anything.  (Probably not true, but it's fun to think about the possibilities.)

Happy Halloween!

Birthday Boy!

Hyrum (my not-so-little baby) turned FOUR today!

 Hyrum got a monster cake for his birthday.  I wish I had a picture of his face when I first showed it to him.  His mouth opened wide and his eyes were dancing.  He really liked the cake! (At least the way it looked, he didn't eat much of it.)

 He blew out his candle so fast I couldn't get a picture of it.

 He sure is a funny kid!  He keeps us laughing.

Rebekah enjoying her cake and ice cream

Hyrum playing with the candle

 Brigham enjoying the cake and ice cream (at least he ate some cake- the other didn't really eat much of it.)

 Opening presents. (If these pictures bore you just skip to the end, they would bore me if it weren't my own child.)

 Rebekah gave Hyrum a phone from her own toys.  It was very kind of her to make that sacrifice for Hyrum- she really liked that phone, but knew he liked it too, so gave it to him for his birthday.  So sweet!

 Brigham gave Hyrum a Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD- they already watched it today and love it!  I thought the older two may not like it since they already know their letter sounds, but they really seemed to enjoy it anyway.

 Nana and Papa gave him some books, stickers, a football (skyball), and a wind up car that shoots off from a launcher.  He really likes the car and Brigham is jealous of the car.  We tried telling Brigham to go find his birthday toys to play with, but he just wanted Hyrum's

 Daddy gave Hyrum a ...

...You guessed it ... a camp chair.  He was excited about that.

 I gave him a big stuffed frog (from a thrift store) and a mini cooper model car.  He loves both of them!

 This is Hyrum showing us how big he is now that he's FOUR!

Hyrum is starting to let his personality shine through again.  (It got lost for 4 months during the move.)

He's a funny guy with a lot interesting ideas.  He's so fun to be around when he's in a good mood because he keeps us laughing with his sense of humor.  He recently started preschool which he doesn't like, but his behavior has improved since starting so I know it's good for him.  He's gradually getting more independent and starting to play more.  We love him and are sure glad  he's a part of our family!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HYRUM!