The Cutest Craziest 8 kids I know.
When people stare at us (which happens ALL the time in California!) I just hope they know that I love them all. That I'm not just some crazy mom with too many kids. I am CRAZY, I'm not saying that I'm not. But its a purposeful kind of crazy.
(it kinda looks like I have a couple sets of twins in there)
January, February, March and April! Woah! I may be just a little bit behind. Going to have to do the fast forward version because I'm in California for spring break and besides not having all my pictures, I am not willing to take on that catch up project on vacation!
January we had Ruby's birthday, February we had Isaac's birthday and Penny's birthday. March we had Luke's birthday and baptism too! But I'm already getting ahead of myself. A few days before Penny's birthday, DCFS came to my home and told me to have the 3 kids ready to move to Nebraska in 2 weeks. Ouch. Talk about a near breakdown. It was a really tough week. We searched for a lawyer and finally found one. After we met with him and stopped the order to remove I felt a lot better. During this time I also learned that the judge thought the move was a bad idea too. So, we had the biological family on our side, it seemed the judge, and then we hired a lawyer. So what happened? DCFS came crawling back to our house and announced that after a lot of meetings and thinking it through, they decided that they would allow us to keep the kids after all. This means that we would not have to fight DCFS which means we wouldn't have to pay for a lawyer and that adoption would be much easier. When you don't have to fight a messed up system that seems to have all the power, life is good!! We were thrilled with the news. We don't have very fond thoughts of DCFS through this process, but we are trying to stay positive and cordial with them so I won't write anymore on the matter. After all that drama, we looked forward to our week long vacation in California. After watching an amazing performance from Isaac, Luke and Penny at their Elementary school musical, we packed up, ready for our trip! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you ask) for Kyle, I found a house I liked one day and we put an offer on it the next day and it was accepted! On Kyles birthday! We found out as we were driving the 12 hours to California. Kyle is in the process of starting his 4th job and buying a house and adopting three children. I've already started to pray for him. You should too:)
Many of you received our Christmas letter. In it, we explained how we felt strongly that our foster son was unhappy and needed more attention, attention we couldn't give him. He stayed for long periods of time with another foster family who was amazing. We asked DCFS to consider permanent placement with them, we felt like that was the best choice at the time. DCFS said no, and we accepted that. However, we feel that the time he spent with the other foster family wasn't pointless. It provided much needed rest but most importantly, it helped our foster son through whatever he was going through and allowed us in the meantime, to become better equipped to care for him. He has since had tubes put in and we believe that his ears (which were some of the worst the doctor had ever seen) were a big cause of his constant crying and unhappiness. It makes us sad to know he was in so much pain for probably most of his young life. We are hopeful the tubes will help him feel better permanently.
We are really excited to add our three bonus kids officially to our family. It is a long process and needless to say a little nerve-wracking until the papers are signed and that judge hits his gavel. We hope to see the end sooner than later but it could be up to 6 months (sometimes longer) before we can legally call them ours. We will try and stay busy in the meantime--trying to get our house on the market FAST and sell it FAST and move in FAST. Because that is how I like to do things.
That is my update. And now here is the best part of the post--Pictures!!
From Luke's baptism
April Fool's Day Dinner. I have never served meat loaf (and I will never serve it again, grosses me out) but that pink cupcake is meat loaf and pink potato frosting. The Meal is fish sticks and veggies--but really it is wafer cookies rolled in peanut butter and crushed corn flakes and the veggies are candy shaped like veggies. This meal took forever but the kids loved it!
We tricked Oliver and Mya the best!!
The school musical
cute villager, big bear, and flighty dwarf
And now for the beach pictures...ahhhhh
Max has not been very sure of the beach. But he is slowly warming up to it!
We found out Penny is part fish.
learning the art of going cross eyed and making his mommy go crossed eyed too!!
I think in 10 years these pictures will become a joy to look at but right now, it is a little irritating how we can't seem to get a family picture where Oliver isn't making faces, Simon isn't pulling hair, Mya leaves her shirt down.......
This is actually real hair pulling caught on film. hahaha Sorry Luke.
If you look closely at Oliver in most of the pictures he is making faces. Face after face after face after face!! Grrrr and so funny!!
Thanks Gieslers for coming to visit!!
