Wednesday, April 25, 2007

New Job is going good

Well I made it thru the first week on the new job and I LOVE IT! I can not believe how different of an environment this is to work in. The people are so nice. I truely believe this is my dream job! Hubby is finally accepting the hours and realizes that it's not such a bad deal afterall.

The weekend was BEAUTIFUL here! I need to learn though - that I need to get out of the sun for a little while once in a while! I'M FRIED! They are teasing me here at work today that I just may glow in the dark! OUCH! Every move I make hurts. This will teach me!

I was 15 min late for work this morning though because when I went out to back my van out of the garage - I happened to notice out of the corner of my eye a 4 legged, long haired, animal with long horns!!! I was like oh shoot! (but a little plainer english!). By the time i got back in the house and called hubby to come home, there were 8 of our 14 cows out! Uh OH! He came home but he work 35 miles away so here I am standing on the deck watching these animals walk around my yard! I'm not super comfortable with them yet so he doesn't want me out by them alone until they get to know me and I get to know them better. Oh well. He came home and we got them back in and now I'm at work for the day.

Nothing new on the foster care front. We had gotten a call on 3 little kids a couple weeks ago but I'm assuming they never pulled them from the home cause I haven't heard anything since. Hopefully one of these days we'll get something again. We've had an empty nest since March 5!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Interview Questions

I have answered the questions that Yondalla had asked and hope that helped shed some light on who I am and why we do what we do. I was wondering if anyone out there had any other burning questions that they wanted to ask. I will do my best to answer them for you. I'm still pretty new at this blogging stuff and although my counter says people are visiting and I know some people are but was just curious.

I start my new job tomorrow and am SOOOO super excited. I may not check back in on here for a couple days depending on how much "homework" I bring home but know if you ask me a question - I will answer it.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

How and Why we do it (as asked by Yondalla)

1. What is the story, reason, explanation for how you got into doing care?
Hubby and I got into foster care after dealing with infertility for about 3 years. We had been through NUMEROUS fertility treatments with the same result in the end - NOT PREGNANT. We went to a local adoption meeting and just didn't feel right about that. Even though we would love to adopt an infant we just didn't feel that we were at the right time in our life for that. Then we checked in foster care and within 2 weeks our paperwork was hurried thru and we had 2 boys in our home.

2. What do you wish you had known before you started?
A lot of things but to name a couple....A. That not all social workers give a rats butt about the kids they place in your home. All they want is the kid out of their hair and into yours. B. That they system does not always care what is in the best interest of the child. They care what is less headache for the courts to deal with.

3. What skill did you need to learn (or still need to learn!) to do it well?
How to attach to the children without attaching to them??? Does that even make sense? We learned quickly with G that we got attached to her in the wrong way. You can love the kids but to a point still have to keep a wall up emotionally or it can be very heartwrenching when they leave!

4. What is the best, most rewarding part of doing care?
Knowing that you are giving the children a safe home and love when they need it the most. Also being able to experience so many of the children's accomplishments with them!

5. How do you take care of yourself so that you can keep on giving care?
This has been a struggle for me. It took me a while to "Get Over" G leaving us. Basically I now don't let myself get to that point with our foster kids. I love them and treat them as I would my own and yet there is a wall that I put up so that I can protect my heart to a point. One thing I have found is that we eat better meals when we have kids in our house and we eat at a decent time of the evening. :-)

6. What did you learn about yourself from giving care?
I have learned that I was not a patient person to begin with . I have learned that you can not compare what you learn from one child to another child that is placed with you. I have learned that I am a pushover when it comes to that little face looking up at me smiling and saying "pease" instead of "please" :-)

I hope this helps someone out there. If anyone else has answered these questions, I'd love to see a link to your answers. Maybe I can learn something from you too!

We Knew Little that morning....

1 year ago today was one of the worst days of my life. At 5:40am I awoke to our phone ringing. I saw on the caller ID that it was my parents. I knew something wasn't right. They don't call at that time of the morning for nothing even though they know we are awake. My grandpa P(mom's dad) had passed away. This was very unexpected to us. He had been in a nursing home for the past 14 months and in and out of one for the 8 months prior to that but he wasn't sick. He was having issues with his legs and alzheimers (this was never diagnosed, but he had all the symptoms of it!). He had talked to his CNA at 4:30 that morning and she told him she would be back shortly with a nebulizer treatment cause he was sounding a little wheezy with his breathing - he was just getting over a small cold. At 4:45am she went back with the RN and he was gone! We had just celebrated Easter with him 2 days before that! And the thurs prior to that we had him at the clinic because he had fallen and broke his wrist. They wanted to do surgery and we told them no because it wasn't a really bad break and why put an 81 year old man thru a surgery that is not mandatory? I'm sooo thankful that I was with him then. He was sooo special to me! After all, I was the only grandkid that he ever "hit"! :-) I say "HIT" like that because when I was about 4 years old my sis and I were staying with them. There was a thunderstorm and I was scared so I went in and tried to wake him up to sleep with him and i touched his arm and I startled him and when he raised his arm up - he "hit" me! I never let him forget it! He always called me "OLD MEAN JO". He was such a special man!

Grandpa - I know you are in a better place now and watching down on us. I want you to know that We Love You and we think of you dearly. We knew little that morning that God was going to call you home and although you are not here with me where I can talk to you I know you are not far away! How is Logan? I'm very thankful that he now has you there with him. Tell him his Auntie J loves him! I Love You and Miss you every day! XOXO Old Mean Jo & K.


On Aug 14, 2006 I lost my other grandfather (Grandpa K) after a couragous 17 year battle with cancer. He lived in OK with my stepgrandma and we didn't see him often. Maybe 1 time every couple years. This was also a difficult day! I'm thankful (to a point) that we didn't see him as often though as the cancer took quite a toll on his body. I remember this grandpa picking my twin and I up at the same time and setting us on his shoulders! He was such a strong man! By the time he passed away there was nothing left to him but skin and bones! He had suffered greatly and I know he is at peace now having a good time with Grandpa P.

Grandpa K - You knew that you would be soon going home to be with Jesus and I'm thankful that dad and Uncle Paul got to see you the week before you left your home on earth for the much brighter home in Heaven. I know that meant so much to my dad. I wish we could have been closer to eachother, but I always knew you were thinking of us and I hope you knew we thought of you often also. We think of you often and miss you. XOXO K&J

Monday, April 16, 2007

NEW JOB!!!

Ok, so by the title - you have probably figured it out. I have gotten a new job! I'm SOOOO excited. This is what I have always wanted to do. I'm scared and nervous because i've been at my current job for almost 5 years and it's comfortable. This new job is being the Business Manager at a local car dealership/auto body shop. (Currently I'm the office manager at an independent auto body shop). I have a degree in Finance so FINALLY after graduating from college 8 years ago I will truely be doing what my degree is in. Not that the accounting that I have been doing all along doesn't pertain but I am sooo excited.

On the other hand, this will probably be my last post for a while. Not only with the job change will I be super busy but with no foster kids and none on the horizon, I'm just not sure what I would post about. There are also some issues at home that have surfaced and I have A LOT of thinking to do about where I see my life, my family dreams, etc. To put things in a nut shell, the person that I thought I shared all my dreams of a family and future plans with doesn't have the same feelings that I do. I'm going to end on that note for now.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Placement is not coming....

Well our hopes are dashed again for our 8 yr old girl placement that we were hoping for. Now her foster mom where she is is going to get licensed to provide foster care by herself. S will go to respite care in a different city for a few weeks right after school gets out so foster mom and foster dad can do the divorce thing without her in the house. Then mom plans to get licensed and all this has to be done by the 6th of June. Oh well, I guess it isn't meant to be for us. I am just getting so frustrated. We get our hopes up and then shot back down again time after time after time. I know this is how it works but it is sooo hard.

I spoke with our social worker the other day and she has no kids on the horizon that are going to be needing foster care placements either. I can't believe in a county our size (we're not huge but we're not exactly small either) we have only a handful of kids in foster care. That is a good thing on one hand except that she did tell me there are kids out there that social services thinks should not be in their homes but we have a "3 ring circus" that doesn't like to get involved in juvenile matters. How pathetic is that? I guess it doesn't surprise me. I've seen enough in my short time dealing with the system to know exactly what she is talking about.


I have been searching the adoptuskids.org website looking at the profiles of children on there. I did find a sibling group of 3 brothers (very young) that I made an inquiry on. I'm not holding my breath to hear anything back on them (boy I have a poor attitude these days...) but we'll see what happens if anything.


A whole different subject.....

I have FINALLY found a new job (I think). I had an interview the other day and they said they would call the beginning on next week. This makes me sooo excited. I need to get out of this job that I am currently in. One of our technicians here is also looking at making the job move to the same place I am checking into. I think we could do so much for Vision's auto body shop. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Friday, April 6, 2007

Happy Easter

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Long Weekend and a Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it. We are staying home as my father-in-law went to my sister-in-law's for the weekend and we are doing chores for him. Will have Easter dinner with my parents on Sunday at their lake home which is only 9 miles from our house.

On a different note....

The 7 yr old girl that we checked into thru our AASK program a few weeks ago supposedly was going to be available after all. We read her complete file and agreed to take her. They told us she would be coming on Easter Monday. GREAT! Then this past Wednesday I got a call that there is a family meeting on the 12th and she won't be moved until after then??? GO Figure. Some days I really wonder about this whole process. I told our worker that I will believe she is coming when they are on my doorstep with her. What a roller coaster. That is the hardest part of this whole thing.

I also have been doing some looking into adopting from Guatamala. I've also been interested in this country. I would love to hear from anyone who has any experience/information on this.