Nutcracker

We are very busy.....will be back when the Nutcracker is over.

The Roll

Years of training the kids have gotten us this close.......

Anyone have success in this area?

Court

Getting behind on blogging and forgot to mention that we had court for little man to change his case from reunification to concurrent reunification/TPR. Previously I had gone to court in my county so the procedure was a little different in this other county. When your case is called only the people interested in that case go into the courtroom. Normally the judge asks who is in the courtroom and as a foster parent we are introduced. However, this judge did not ask so I was not introduced. It was somewhat frustrating for me because the lawyers for the mom and dad and the social worker all stated that they had no contact with the parents. This left open the option that although they sent letters to the parents that perhaps they didn't receive them.

Well, no one talked to me and I do have contact with both the parents. I told the parents when court was and what the plans were. I have several phone numbers for each of them. However, I didn't know how to speak up in court.

The judge did grant the change in the case. After everyone was dismissed I went up to the lawyer for DSS and told him that I had contact information for the parents and phone numbers. The judge heard me and called everyone back into court so my information could go on record. I gave them all my contact over the last month and all the phone numbers so lawyers could try to contact them. I also sent the social worker copies of the tests talking about court.

Next step is for the social worker to file for termination of parental rights. Could take months. For us it means that we have to complete an adoption homestudy. So we are completing the paperwork and asking for references again. We have been called by adoptions and they sent us the application. It has been a while and we have done so many that I don't remember what all we have to do!

Finally, we move forward..

Extravaganza

Larissa is taking classes that include walking the runway and acting. She has been enjoying it and I have been very surprised by how well she is doing. The age group that she has been in is 13 and up, she started right before her 13th birthday so she is the youngest person in the class. Her group has been amazing. After experiencing bullying in may areas of life she has been treated great and is accepted by this group of people. 

Towards the end they put on an Extravaganza. The participants put together their own outfits and had a commercial that they speak.  There were agents there from LA, Atlanta, New York and some local groups. The theme was fire, earth, wind and water. There were two groups, the kids and teens/adults. Larissas group did fire, earth and wind while the kids did fire, earth and water. 

For Larissa's fire walk we went to Goodwill and bought black and red leather coats. I bought some other colors and we spiffed up the coat.

 

Earth was jean shorts with earth colored shirts and wind was an outfit that they picked out.

I dropped Larissa off at 8 am and left her (hard to do!) and we came back at 4 pm for the show.

She was most worried about her commercial but she did well.

Doesn't she look so confident and strong!

They had an awards ceremony. The bottom 2/3 got ribbons, top third got small awards and then they gave awards for the top three.  Larissa got a small award for speaking which we were happy with then she was in top three for the other three walks. She is very strong in her walk, one of the best in the group.

Larissa loved it. She even enjoyed speaking. Getting up in front of all those people and speaking was huge for someone who had selective mutism.

After the show she had an agent who came up and gave her a card. He said he would be contacting her agency about representing her in LA. He did contact her agency. We haven't decided what to do! California wasn't really in our mind but she says she wants to go unless it is too much trouble.  Logistically it would be a nightmare. We will be talking to our agency about it more after they come back from a show in Dallas. Oh my! Then Benjamin says he wants to model.....

Halloween 2018

We had a pretty low key Halloween here this year. The kids did their pumpkins when Kathy was here and we enjoyed baking the seeds. Larissa enjoyed dressing up for dance.

I took all the kids out to a couple of local churches to go Trunk of Treating.

Anthony no longer trick of treats but they did have popcorn and cotton candy at one of the churches.

After the kids loaded up on candy I took them to a few select neighbors who wants to see the kids dressed up. It was a school night so we ended very early but gathered a lot of candy.

Now I just need to book the dentist appointments and take the rotting pumpkins off of the front porch!

Halloween for me just isn't like it used to be. I do it for the kids but honestly, I could do without it! Benjamin did enjoy his uniform, he wore it for weeks and continues to wear it!

How do you feel about Halloween?

Friends on the Move

Kathy and kids left on Sunday morning. They spent time at our house and still left friends! I consider that success. It is amazing how much our families have in common.

I sent them off with some rocks but still need to do Ty one.

They are slowly making their way back home.They have lots of rebuilding to do in an environment that has completely changed.