Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The weekend before last was picture day for Faith's dance class. She cried, screamed, tore her costume, threw her hat and wanted nothing to do with the affair. Needless to say our expectations we extremely low for her dance recital debut this past weekend.


Turns out she was holding out on us (and just waiting for an audience......)




And for the encore....



Special thanks to my AMAZING friend Kristin who has volunteered every Saturday for Faith's class (and who encouraged me to find a class like this for Faith in the first place!)


And thank you to all of the wonderful people at Dancin' Dreams for making our little dancer's (and her parents') dream of being a part of something like this come true!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

What this picture proves



We are finishing our basement.

When we moved into our humble abode five years ago we were sure we would not outgrow this house before it was time to move out of what was billed a "starter home." We were not anticipating having a child 10 months after signing off on our first home, nor could we imagine that our house would not be worth what we bought it for when it was time to sell.

So far we've made do with our 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 1,300 sq. ft. home. Faith loves the window seat that overlooks the culde-sac and the spare bedroom is now a playroom filled with her train table and gazillion tiny pieces of this and that (Faith is now in the tiny pieces toy stage- you know the type of Mattel toys that come with a million little plastic pieces that all seem very important when you purchase whatever it is but only days later end up strewn about the house- and forget trying to organizing it all- the pieces are far too random to be categorized.) Needless to say her playroom has served its purpose and we haven't had need to expand- until now.

Oh no, it's not what you think. There is not a bun in the oven, or even something even remotely close to that but we are adding to our family a different way.

Before Brian and I were married we always knew we'd adopt. Two biological children, and two adopted was our plan. We even considered adopting before having biological children- but of course life has a funny way of changing your plans.

We've been thinking seriously about adoption for the past few years. We initially looked into international adoption but could not afford it. Domestic, private adoption was also pricey, and we were not sure we wanted to adopt an infant (we have a child who still does not sleep through the night, so adding another child who needs care in the night is not ideal). So we are going the route less traveled, the route that brings that reaction, "are you crazy?!" We are going through the foster-to-adopt program in our county. We are not doing this because we want to "try a child out" before adoption- believe me- WE WANT TO ADOPT. It just doesn't work that way. We have gone through eight weeks of pre-fostering/adoption classes that have ingrained the phrase, "you are fostering with the HOPE of adopting." The truth is 85% of children who enter the foster care system are reunited with their birth families. We are doing this knowing that we will foster children who will follow this path, but our hope is that we will have one who is a part of that 15% that need a forever family, and we know ours has a lot of love to give.

So there it is- the next step in this crazy journey. Of course we're crazy, of course we're getting into this over our heads- but that's just the type of people we are. Over the past few years we've learned to accept that traditional child rearing just isn't our thing. We are ready to rise to this challenge and we are ready to fill that room with someone who needs it, not plastic pieces.

We will definitely keep you updated, and I am sure I will use this blog as a catalyst to document this journey. We have done all we've needed to on our end (the training, paperwork, etc.) we are just waiting for the home study and final approval- which is sure to give Brian enough time to finish that basement.




Oh and to answer the question from the title, this picture proves it's time for a sibling (or else PETA is going to picket our house). :)

Jen & CO.