Well......

We are not happy here in South Carolina.  We thought that we were waiting for a clearance letter for the girls.  The biodad has signed off, the mom has signed off and TPR was completed for the legal dad.  Yesterday we got a letter in the mail from DSS.  This letter was informing us of a TPR hearing for in March!  TPR for the FATHER'S ONLY.  Yes, it had father's only in bold print.  No name.  How many fathers do the girls have?  I am assuming that they are TPRing against any other possible father.  Uh, shouldn't that have been done when they TPR'd on the legal dad?  Why now?

So, April is not going to happen.  Now I am guessing August.  It will not happen before the school year is up.  It will not happen before our planned adoption celebration Disney trip in June.  At this time I can only hope it will happen in 2013. 

We are not happy.  I feel as though DSS has done more harm to these girls than their parents did.  All the moves and then all the delays.  We are in 2013 and still no permanency is in sight.  We had planned on redoing our homestudy in June and looking to adopt again.  We were concerned that they would close our file after the girls were adopted and we would have to redo a lot of stuff.  Well, no concerns there, we will still be active foster parents in June.

I would love to take the kids to the lawyer and have her explain to the girls why they are not adopted yet.  Instead, I am going to the state DSS directors office after I get out of class tomorrow.  I am not going to complain over the phone, I am going in person.  I have dusted off my suit and found my high heels.  I will talk to someone.  I don't expect that any changes will be made for our case or otherwise.  I just feel that my girls need to have a voice.  They are not just case files but girls who need permanency.

This is just crazy. 

Long Term Community Health Care

Many months ago I applied for help with my mom.  We were put on a waiting list.  In the mean time I hired someone to come on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to give me a break. 

A short time ago my mom started to decline.  She could no longer stand and rotate so I got physical therapy to come in and work with her.  They worked with her and when she did not make any improvement then they had to sign off.  Their parting words were to put her in a nursing home. 

Just when I was thinking that I needed to put her in a nursing home Long Term Community Health Care called and said that we had come up on the list for services.  They will be provide diapers, pads, wipes and someone to come into the home Monday through Friday for a few hours.  They will start on the 15th.  I start student teaching on the 15th.  Kind of funny how that worked out!

Although things are covered for now I realize that it is time to find a home for my mom.  She is getting to hard to transfer.  The other day I was transferring her and she picked up her legs!  She was about 170 lbs of dead weight.  I am afraid that one day I will drop her.  At this time I am the only one in the house who can transfer her safely.

So, I am starting to look for a place.  I am not sure when I will move her but I am pretty sure it is within the next few months.  Hard decision to make but I think that it is the right one at this time.

Back to School

 Christmas break went very well.  There were fights, lying and typical kid behavior but there was also a lot of playing together.  I huge improvement over last Christmas break. (LOL, see Anthony in the background?  He was told not to kick those balls in the house, no denying it this time!)

 

Larissa got some new books and processed them into her library.  I have to say that the books have been taken care of much better since the library entered our home.  I would suggest having a library in every home. 

 

I realized today that we do not have a checkerboard in the house.  We received a bunch of poker chips and the kids made up their own checkerboard. 

Shhh....everyone is playing and there is no noise.  That doesn't happen often.

 



 

Apparently cats like IPad's too.....

 

 

All the kids started back to school on Thursday and I start back on the 11th.  I start student teaching on the 15th and life around here will get very crazy.  I am dreading it in some ways and looking forward to it in other ways.  I just worry how things will go with me being gone during the day.  I am sure that it will be fine, the house will probably survive.  It just means that most of my free time will be gone.  Will I be as patient when I have no down time?  I hope so.

 

Today my moms case manager came over.....more on my mom tomorrow. 

Where have I been? Painting, painting and more painting!

I have a friend who decided to open a consignment store. She asked me for some animal print furniture. So...... my dining room became a total mess.

 

Leopard print dresser....

 

 

 

Zebra print dresser....

 

 

Then, since I have so much free time on my hands (just a little sarcasm) I took on the task of fixing and painting some of the furniture that she was buying.  I am really enjoying doing this for her.  I have a week until I start student teaching so I am trying to finish as many projects as possible.

 

 

A work in progress...

 

Now I have been asked for my business card (which I don't have) and have some jobs lined up.  Tomorrow I meet with one person to get a piece of furniture for painting.  I think that life just might get a little interesting around here.  I wish I had just a few more hours in the day.

Tomorrow, a kids post.

Christmas and Beyond

(Warning, picture overload!)

 

 

My mom was happy with her gifts.  Buying for her was very hard.  In the end she got a very soft blanket, clothing and mostly sugar free candy.

 

Tasha had a flag flown in Afghanistan on Sept 11th for her dad.  I was shocked because she normally procrastinates as bad as I do.

 

Tasha got me a fire pit.  I hope to get some marshmallows today to try it out.

 

This was my Christmas request, a Silhouette Cameo.  I hope I have some time soon to try it out!

 



Joselin requested that I make her a minibar....a week before Christmas.  So on the 23rd I started it....pictures will come later.  She was delighted with the end result.

 



 

Everyone was happy with their gifts.  No tears, no complaints, no outward jealousy.

 

The kids enjoy the library and play with it often.  The gift was for Larissa and I questioned that when it grew after I was given a free library cart and found a magazine rack for less than $3.  This project was actually quite inexpensive to do.  The biggest expense was buying more books (as though we needed more).  I mostly added more chapter books to our existing books.

 

In the end I decided to keep it as Larissa's gift because she was the one who inspired me to build it in the first place. As time has passed I see it was a good decision. 

 

Larissa is the most fair child of the little ones and she happily allows others to be the librarian.  Having one child in charge of determining who the librarian is has made it much more peaceful.  Given the make-up of our kids I would have been constantly mediating conflicts over it.  On Christmas it was made clear that Santa sent Larissa the gift and the decisions were up to her.  After only a few challenges, the kids have accepted her authority over it after they realized that she was fair (and mom was going to back her up).

 

The house is pretty quiet as the kids are enjoying the time with their new toys and electronics.  Hopefully the newness of their Christmas gifts will wear off right when it is time to go back to school.  I believe that they go back next week.  I guess I should look at that. 

 

When does your kids Christmas break end.  Do you homeschoolers follow public school schedules?

My Elves

 

After the little ones were asleep, everyone went to work finishing up Santa duties.

 

I had to laugh when Kassi asked if they were reading the English instructions. 

Hahaha, great training.

 

Christmas is so different when you have little ones and older ones.  Enjoying the experience of doing Santa duties is really fun.  It was a great evening as my older children shared life experiences and gave advise to my younger older children.  Funny how teens listen more to their older siblings than they do to their mom. Watching your children getting along to accomplish a task is really enjoyable. 

 

As we headed to bed I thought just how very blessed we have been this year.