It Feels Like a Dream

Earlier in the week Joselin spent the night at our house.  She was in a mission to see what everyone wanted.  I think that she also wanted to talk to me about her new boyfriend.  The old Joselin would not have talked to me about her boyfriends.

I was driving her home and she told me that it feels like a dream.  I asked what was a dream and she said her life right now.  She said that she didn't ever believe that she would be living the life she is living right now.  She has a normal boyfriend relationship, a new apartment where she could have her dog and most importantly she feels like a part of the family.

All the kids are questioning each other about what they want for Christmas.  Packages are piling up under the tree.  All the normal activity of a big family....and she is a participant in it all.  In the past she was on the sidelines.  She was moping and just never happy.  Now I can see the happiness.  The willingness to talk about stuff and confide in me.

We haven't always had this trust.  It has taken so long to get to this point. Our troubles with communication started in Guatemala when we went to pick her up. The problems weren't because of the language differences, they were because of trust issues.  When she met with her mom she was given a cell phone number.  We didn't know this.  We also didn't know that she lost it.  We found that out about 2 years later when she was mad and yelling at me for taking her moms phone number.  Huh???  We did not take the phone number.  I never saw it and have no idea what happened to it.  She didn't believe me.  She had spent so much time being mad about it that she couldn't change direction.  It took her a few more years to believe that I really didn't take it. 

Without trust, building a relationship is very hard.  When your child is unable to talk to you about things because she doesn't trust you then it the typical opportunities to build that relationship do not exist.  We had many one sided conversations.  On a few occasions she did open up to me then she retreated back.  It was so frustrating.

So, yes, it does feel like a dream.  After so many years of trying to build that relationship it has finally happened.  Trust has finally happened and we can build from there.

Crafting Away

I went Christmas shopping and Sarah kept the kids busy......

 

(Photo credits to Sarah)

 

 

One week to Christmas, I am not ready.....are you?

Adoption Complete

 

We got to the courthouse a little before 11.  Around here you get to court at the time you are told and then you wait until you are called. You don't know the order until you are there waiting.  We were told that we were last, thankfully there weren't many cases.

 

We waited our turn.

 

Emma decided this morning that she didn't want to go and that was fine.  She went to school.

 

We got into the courtroom and then we had to wait again.  Apparently the judge didn't know there was an adoption and he had to read the complaint.

 

Larissa sat a little too long.

 

Kassi with her GAL.

 

Our judge after the adoption.  He was the same judge that completed Anthony and Larissa's adoption.  Same DSS adoption worker and lawyer too.

 

Officially we have another teenager. 

 

Welcome to the family Kassandra Ann-Marie.

 

Celebration at Wild Wings.

Baptism

 

Our teen made the decision to accept Jesus Christ as her savior.  She was baptised on Sunday.  Today....adoption.  More on that later!

Thoughts

I wasn't going to write anything about Friday's tragedy.  As I watched the incident unfold I was shocked and deeply saddened that someone would attack babies.  I pray for all those families in CT.

I think that everyone out there has already said many things about it and I don't have anything profound to add.  I will however say that everyone is quick to jump on gun laws.  I think that the problem is deeper.  The problem is that there are people out there who are willing to kill babies.

I don't know yet what the situation was in this case but I would have to suspect mental illness.  I know what the struggles are for parents to get good mental health care.  It is tough.  It is isolating for the parents.  For the children there is bullying and rejection from peers and society in general.  There are a lot of families out there struggling with mental illness with nowhere to turn. 

If our society continues to ignore this problem then it will not simply go away.  I imagine that there is someone out there thinking that they will top that shooting.  These are scary times.

As I spent time with my 6, 7 and 7 year old children over the weekend I knew that this incident could have happened in my community as well.  As a country I would hope that we could unite and realize that we need to get to the root of the problem.

Moving Along

Today our teens GAL visited. Hopefully after the tour of our house he will give a positive report on Monday!  The house was a mess.  What can I say? It is what it is and we didn't really prepare for his visit.

He probably got a clue when I answered the door.  I was upstairs belt sanding a high spot on the floor when he showed up.  I answered the door and then stepped outside to pat off all the sawdust that I was covered in.  Yep, a definite clue of our craziness.

Then he sat down and asked how many kids we had........

(The state says that the paperwork will be at the courthouse on Monday for the adoption so we are on for Monday at 11am.)

Paperwork

Our adoption lawyer called us today.  They have everything ready on their end for the adoption on Monday at 11.  Our teens GAL is supposed to meet with her this week,.  We missed his call today but will set up a meeting tomorrow.

HOWEVER, the state has not sent our lawyer the required packet of paperwork.  If he doesn't receive that packet we will not be able to do the adoption until next year.  Yep, we are waiting on paperwork that should have already been done.

Please pray!