Thanksgiving 2012

This year's Thanksgiving was memorable to put it mildly.  We invited my dad and sister to visit.  My sister

also brought her two very large dobermans.  They drove through the night Wednesday and arrived early Thursday morning.  Just to make things interesting, we got a call for a placement of two little boys Wednesday night just after dinner.  They showed up around 8pm and then the fun began.  Thursday morning we awoke to 4 children (two of them brand new), 3 dogs, 2 cats (who quickly decided to go into hiding b/c of the new dogs!), and 4 adults.  Kyle got right to work on the Thanksgiving feast and that left the other 3 adults to tend to the dogs and children.  You would think 3 adults would be able to handle 4 children (after all I

handled 5 all by myself not all that long ago), but you would be wrong.  It was absolute CHAOS.  My poor dad spent most of the day underneath Hannah and Tater Tot which left Heather and I to tend to the new boys whom I'll call the Shrieker and Flop.  The Shrieker decided he would only be happy if he was held, preferably by me, but Heather would do.  Flop liked to wander and because of some serious medical needs and an inability to answer to his name he needed to be kept in eyesight pretty much at all times.  It was an exhausting day!  Dinner was delicious, but the actual act of eating was exhausting as well.  I don't think I took a single bite that was actually warm!  A first for us, both Shrieker and Flop will eat absolutely anything

you put in front of them so at least we didn't have any whining for treats instead of vegetables.  There was however lots of whining for more food, vegetables accepted, by Shrieker!  That kid can seriously put away the food! I think he, at 14 months, ate more food than any of the other kids aged 3-6 1/2!  It's nice for once to not have to worry about meal times and whether or not I'm going to be able to get the kids to eat.  At least I have 2 slam dunks that will make me feel like a good mom by eating their veggies when I serve them!  Hannah, fortunately, really likes both of the boys and has been a big help with them now that my dad and Heather are gone and the children out number the adults 2 to 1.  Tater Tot on the other hand is NOT impressed.  She's not cool with the fact that the attention that was once lavished on her is now split 4 ways.  She also has a serious issue sharing toys and neither boy is super good at that either.  Consequently there have been numerous scuffles over toys and rivers of tears have flown.  We have no idea what the boys' future looks like, but

 we are praying through whether or not we will be able to care for them long term given the fact that they both have serious medical needs and we also have 2 other children to care for.  Please pray for us that we would make the right decision for our family and for the boys.

Photo Notes:  Since I can't post pictures of many of the people that were in my house this Thanksgiving you'll have to settle for some pictures of my handsome dog nephews, Maverick and Heinz.

Why I Do It

Some of you locals knew Kyle and I's foster sibling set of 3 sisters. They arrived on our doorstep just before Easter Sunday last year. That Sunday Kyle heard Matt Redman's song, 10,000 Reasons for the first time sung in Easter service. It's a beautiful song and he went around singing/humming it for the next several weeks. Because of his constant singing of the song (and it's recent release and frequent play on KLove) the girls immediately took to the song as well. They christened it, "Daddy's Song" or sometimes, "Oh My Soul." From then on they went around singing it the best they could. Their lyrics were comical at best, but the intent was pure. They had finally replaced the trash they had walked into my home singing (songs with lyrics that actually made ME blush-think the Discovery Channel song and worse) with something much more appropriate and for that I was thankful. Every time it came on the radio all 5 children in my van belted it out. It was like a chorus of angels (or at least that was what I had to imagine to keep from going crazy from the earsplitting, off key voices!) For 5 months that song was a constant presence in my house. It was a frequently requested bedtime song and I soon wondered if they would ever move on to something else. I was getting a bit of tired of it despite the beautiful song it was.


Fast forward to a few weeks before the girls left us. I had to take them to emergency respite with a fellow foster mother in Fremont whom I had never met. I was not happy about it, but I had no choice.  This amazing woman was not only a veteran foster and adoptive mom, but she was also at that very moment hosting 2 Italian high school foreign exchange students when she agreed to watch my girls. While there, the girls of course went around singing their song. KLove was also playing pretty much constantly at her house so eventually 10,000 Reasons came on and the girls shouted, "That's Daddy's Song! Turn it up!" Granted they could have asked a bit more politely, but hey, it was a big improvement from the grunts we got when they came. Anyway, as the day went on the girls asked to watch TV or a movie and instead this fellow foster mom got on You Tube and looked up the video to 10,000 Reasons. The girls were thrilled and watched it on constant replay for almost a half hour. All this time the foreign students were just watching, listening, and taking it all in (they had just arrived in the US the day before!) and probably wondering what on earth they had gotten themselves into. I picked the girls up at the end of the day and took them home and that was the end of the story. Or so I thought.

Fast forward  again 3 more months. The girls have moved on to another foster home. We have another foster placement. Today I took Hannah and Tater Tot to Fremont for the National Adoption Day celebration. The foster mom who had helped me out happened to be there with her family (biological, adopted, foster, and foreign exchange). We chatted briefly and she asked where my girls were. I explained they had moved to another foster home closer to their birthmom. Beginning to choke up, my new friend said, "I think about them every day." She then went on to tell me that because of the insane number of times the girls watched that Matt Redman video, one of her exchange student daughters grew to like the song and bought the CD on itunes. She listened to the whole thing and eventually began asking questions about the messages in the songs. She then borrowed a bible from her host mother and started to read it. Because of my girls and that one song, this young woman was now very close to accepting Christ as her personal savior! My friend said that every time she hears that song she tears up and thinks of my girls and the eternal impact they've had on her exchange student.

Who would have ever thought that 3 little girls being neglected and abused coupled with an inept and unethical DHHS caseworker could ever have been used for good, not just good, but GLORY!?! But it happened my friends, it did. If my girls hadn't gone through what they did they wouldn't have come to my home. They wouldn't have heard that song and grown to love it. If their caseworker had done her job I wouldn't have needed respite that day. If I hadn't needed respite, if I had refused to leave them with someone I didn't know, I would have never met my friend and her new exchange students. If my girls hadn't played the heck out of that song who knows if that young woman would have bought that CD and grown to question the message on it. I often wonder if what I do makes any difference. Many of our kids will be destined to head right back into the same awful circumstances they came from. Our care won't have really changed anything. BUT God has a plan. Just because I don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist and just because I don't see the fruits of my labor doesn't mean they aren't there. I feel so fortunate to have seen my friend today and heard her story. It was the wake up I needed to snap me out of my pity party. To stop me from wondering, "Why on earth do we do this? Why do I subject my family to this chaos and upheaval that is foster care?  Why do I allow myself to get attached to these children only to have my heart broken when they leave me for less than desirable situations? Can we really make a difference? Does their time with us even matter at all? Why do I set myself up for the lifetime of  pain from not knowing what their future holds when they leave me?" This is why I do this. God can use me even if I don't know what He's using me for. I just have to be willing.

Interview With Betty Anne

This year I participated in the Adoption Bloggers Interview Project again.  I was paired with an amazing birthmother (or tummy mommy as her daughter refers to her) named Betty Anne Davidson who blogs at http://bettyannescott.blogspot.com/  Betty Anne placed her daughter Chloe for adoption 7 years ago and has an open adoption with her  parents.  She and her husband Scott  now have a son, James, who  is a year and a half old, as well as a new baby girl that is due to be born ANY DAY!  Please head on over to her blog and show her some blog love (and to check out the tons of sweet new baby pictures that I'm sure will appear shortly!).  She blogs about adoption, motherhood, and life in general as a NICU nurse. 

Check out the other bloggers who participated in the interview project by going to the link below. 
http://www.productionnotreproduction.com/2012/11/adoption-blogger-interview-project.html


1. What kind of a relationship do you have with Chloe? How often do you have contact and what kind?

Hmm...great question. I would describe our relationship as "acquaintances". She knows who I am. I know who she is. We hear lots ABOUT each other, but we don't really know each other all that well. Her parents have very open conversations with her about me whenever Chloe asks a question. I really appreciate their openness with her. It seems to me that she knows talking about me, or adoption, is not a taboo subject at all. It's part of her life story.

We see each other 2-3 times a year. Sometimes we (Chloe and her family, me and my family) meet up somewhere, like a park, and have a picnic and hang out for a few hours. Last year I went to their house (about 30 minutes from mine) to watch a Christmas parade. In the earlier years of her life, I went to their house frequently for game nights and other social gatherings. Her and her family came to my wedding, which meant THE WORLD to me


  2. Do you wish you had more/less contact with her or are you happy with the amount of contact you have now?

I definitely wish I had more interaction with her than I do. She's this little person that has impacted my life more than anyone else on the planet and I want to know all about her. However, if I want to know her and I want to her to know me, we have to spend some time together! Hearing OF each other through mutual people isn't quite enough to have our own relationship. (Her mom and I talk and text way more frequently than we actually get together.) I feel it's important to mention that I can't blame anybody but myself for the amount of time I do or do not spend with Chloe. She is very, very available to me. She doesn't live far away. Her parents are reeeeally open to her having a relationship with me. The only barriers are time and effort. When Chloe was younger, I was single. I spent a lot more time with her then. Now that I'm married, working, and have a family of my own, time gets away from me. I hope and pray that our lack of face to face time doesn't translate to her as a lack of caring or interest on my part.


3. Has Chloe asked why you placed her for adoption? If so, how old was she when she asked and did you or her adoptive parents answer her? What was their/your answer?

She hasn't asked that yet. At least not of me. I'm not sure if her mom has fielded such a question in their many conversations about adoption. I look forward to the day she asks me this and DREAD that day all at the same time. My fear is that she won't understand. That she'll believe the lie that "I just didn't want her." That is so ridiculously absurd and couldn't be further from the truth. The truth is that I wanted more for her than I could provide at that time. I wanted a stable home environment with a mom AND a dad. Her mom may argue with me over this, but I believe I could have done the mother-role as well as her mom does. What I couldn't offer her, though, was the modeling of a healthy relationship with a husband, or a healthy relationship with a dad. Besides my inability to financially and emotionally provide for Chloe and I, the father/daughter relationship played a HUGE role in my decision to place Chloe for adoption.


4. What kind of a relationship do you have with Chloe's parents? How often do you talk/see each other?You mention in your blog that you met them through your parents' church.  Do you still go to the same church?

I cannot say enough kind things about Chloe's parents. They are such incredibly giving, gracious, loving people. They allowed me to be so involved with Chloe the first year, which meant the world to me. They didn't seem to feel "threatened" by me having a relationship with Chloe directly. That speaks volumes to me about them. Melissa, Chloe's mom, and I touch base mostly through email and texting. We usually reconnect every 2 or 3 months or so. We don't all go to the same church anymore.


5. What kind of a relationship do your parents have with Chloe and her parents?

Chloe and her brother Shiloh both call my parents Meemaw and Poopah, just like my nieces do. They have grown up knowing my parents as another set of grandparents, although I'm sure the relationship connection is a little fuzzy to them. My mom provided child care for Shiloh and Chloe at various points. (ex: 1 or 2 days/week for a few months when Chloe was a baby. then 1 day every other week when Chloe was 6 or 7.) I love that my parents have gained another grandson through their relationship with Chloe and her parents. My parents knew Alvin and Melissa before I did. It was through their connection at church that I was able to know of them and picked them as parents for Chloe.


6. What does Chloe call you? Did you choose the name, her parents, or Chloe herself?

Chloe calls me Betty Anne. In her first few months of life, Chloe's parents and I had that conversation. They asked me what I wanted her to call me. Without hesitation I answered "Betty Anne". I didn't want to be labeled an "Aunt" or "Cousin" or some other relative that I really wasn't. I absolutely wasn't comfortable with "mom", because I didn't feel that was true of our relationship. She grew in my belly. I birthed her. Yes, that makes me her biological mother. But to me, "mom" is a term for whoever is there at 2am holding and rocking the crying child, making day to day parenting decisions on behalf of the child. That's not me. So we settled on her calling me by name. I think her parents do use the term "birthmother" as well when describing our relationship. In the past few years sometime, Chloe took a liking to the term "tummy mommy", as she understood she grew in my tummy before living with her parents.


7. Does Chloe wonder why she was adopted, but James and new baby on the way were not? How have you/do you plan to explain that to her?

If she hasn't already wondered this, I'm sure she will at some point. I think it's a great question and I hope she asks me one day. As I explained (in question 3), it all had to do with life circumstances at the time she was born. I'm now in a place (stable home, financially secure--or at least MORE so than before!, emotionally much more stable, married to an amazing man) to provide a loving home to a child. I think as a young adult, she will be able to understand this. I don't know, though, about her comprehension of this at age 8. Everything is so concrete to 8 year olds!


8. What has helped you cope during your hardest moments of grief?

Faith, supportive family and friends, reading adoption related blogs online, and TIME. These things all have played an important role in helping me get through the really rough days.


9. Have you ever wished you made a different decision or regretted the decision you did make?

Yes and no. I have always felt very assured of the decision I made to place Chloe for adoption, but that has certainly been painful at times. The day I left the hospital without Chloe was without a doubt the worst day of my life. It was so unnatural. It hurt.so.badly. I wanted to get her back to ease the pain! But at the same time, I knew that the decision I made was the right one, and "getting her back" wasn't in her best interests, it would just serve my own needs better. So I cried and mourned the loss of raising this incredible child. And (like I mentioned in #8) through faith, supportive family and friends and reading about other people's adoption stories online, time passed and the pain eased up significantly. With each passing year, the pain subsided a little and peace and contentment prevailed about the situation and my decision. Then I got married. Sometime during the first year, I was taken aback by my renewed grief and sadness I felt about Chloe. I think what was happening was that I knew beyond any doubt that I could not parent a newborn at the time I had Chloe. However, 4 years later when I got married and was in a much more stable situation, I could parent a 4 year old. I had to remind myself that if it was the right decision to place Chloe for adoption when she was born, it was still the right decision 4 years later. After repeating that to myself over and over, peace and contentment returned.


10. What does your husband think about open adoption?

Based on my husband's grunting answer from the couch just now, I guess we'll skip this question. Short answer: he's for it. But apparently he's not interested in elaborating at this time. :)


11. In your job as a NICU nurse, have you ever had the opportunity to counsel other women facing the same tough decisions as you did?

I have encountered a few birth mothers in my nursing career thus far. I haven't really shared my story with any of them because I wasn't sure of the appropriateness of that (since this is my place of employment and usually I was caring for the birth mother's baby). In each case I made sure the social worker involved with the birth mother knew that I was more than willing to talk with them or just listen.

Family of Four

We are back to being a family of 4.  Today our 5th foster placement showed up.  We had done respite for her  back in September so we already know her which is nice.  Hannah was both excited and a bit annoyed that she was coming back.  She's glad to have a playmate and roommate again, but bummed that she's going to have to share her stuff again!  Today after school they made "soup" together outside using leaves and dirt. They seemed to have a good time.  Bedtime went ok too.  I wonder how long the honeymoon will last before we see how our new family dynamics will turn out?  Wish us luck! PS  She came to us with a nick name already so from here on out I'll refer to her on the blog as Tater Tot!

Rough Week with a Happy Ending

 

It was a rough week at our house this week.  Hannah had several major meltdowns during the after school hours.  She managed to physically hurt me bad enough that I will bear the marks of her aggression for quite awhile.  She also finished up kicking the last of her door jam off of her door so that the next kick fest could very well send the door off of its hinges.  Anger management has not gotten any better with therapy or the meds thus far.  However, I did get to spend some significant time with her today while under the influence of the meds and she exhibited control with another little boy at the museum rudely ripped the police cruiser radio out of her hand.  I was quite proud of her for that and praised her profusely.  As it was happening my heart went nuts, sure there was about to be a nasty scene, but my little one kept her cool! :) Today we had a fabulous day together.  We needed it.  When too many rough days/weeks pile on top of each other it's hard to drag yourself back up and remember the good times.  Today helped me to remember the good times and to give me hope that maybe the right dose of meds can help her keep her anger/impulsivity under control enough to think about the consequences of her actions before she makes her choice of response to a situation. 

Report Cards

Report cards came home last week and Hannah's academics were fine of course.  We found out she's reading middle of third grade level and is right on benchmark for end of first quarter 3rd grade math.  She's in first grade!  Her work habits/social skills section on her report card wasn't quite as rosy, but it was better than I expected.  The teacher listed that she needs to work on assuming responsibility, practicing self control, and respecting the rights and property of others.  She loves writing stories and is actually pretty good at writing a coherent story with a beginning, middle, and end.  They have not sent home an evaluation that lists where her written language skills are since most of her classmates are just focusing on getting a single complete sentence down on the page that is legible and uses basic writing conventions, but I would guess she is at least middle of second grade for it. 

After the biting incident we started a trial on medication.  At first we thought we were seeing some pretty severe side effects after the first day on the meds so we stopped them after one day and called the doctor the next business day to check in.  She confirmed what we had already thought about which was that the medication SHOULD have been out of her system by the time we experienced what we thought might be the side effect so it was probably something else and simply a coincidence that it happened on the same day we started up the med trial.  We tried the meds again that next day after talking to the doctor, and after 2 consecutive days on them we have seen no serious side effects and only a little bit of appetite suppression.  We have also not seen any real improvements that can be measured, but she is on the very smallest dose possible and not even up to the normal starting dose for this particular medication.  Apparently the doctor did not even expect any results at this stage, she was just ruling out negative side effects.  I'm guessing that if things stay the same, sometime next week they will up her dosage. 

  

Hannah's Halloween costume for the year is finally finished.  Ever since she's been old enough to choose her own costume she's asked for something that was difficult (or impossible) to just go out and buy, so for the last 3 years I've had to make her costumes.  I'm not a crafty lady and I can't operate a sewing machine on my own (even though I DO have one) so this is always a difficult task.  I have to create something with as many premade parts as possible that needs a minimum amount of hand sewing to get me by.  This year she wanted to be a grey wolf.  I thought I was off the hook because surely wolf costumes existed.  Well, they do, but only for toddlers or in the form of the Big Bad Wolf or werewolves for adults.  So, I was stuck with making her costume yet again.  At least this year I was able to cheat a bit because I managed to find a winter hat that was in the shape of a wolf's head to use as the head (in years past I've had to create a head on the hood of a hooded sweatshirt).  That only left me with finding the appropriate color sweatshirt and sweatpants, stretchy gloves, and tube socks.  The only thing I had to actually sew was the tail onto the sweatpants.  It was a one afternoon job to get it all done.  That was SO MUCH easier than her Bolt or Toothless costumes that I almost wept in relief.  It's not the best wolf costume to ever come around the pike, but she likes it and that's all that matters. 

October

 

Somehow September slipped right by me and now October is more than halfway over too!  Since I last wrote, Hannah graduated from daily visits to the Severe Behavior Clinic to every other week once a day for an hour.  That is much more doable although I still feel like we spend all of our time in the van!  First grade seems to be moving right along for Hannah.  Her teachers really have no complaints and she seems to be enjoying herself. 

Report cards come out tomorrow so it will be interesting to see what her social skills are marked like.  She did, however, have her first incident of aggression at school for the year.  A little boy in her class pinched her (we have yet to figure out the reason-did Hannah do something to him first or was he completely unprovoked) so she bit him-hard.  Of course this meant another office referral and it came at the absolute worst time as we were about to leave for a trip to Minnesota that very afternoon!  After all the lying and omitting of the truth we think we finally got to the bottom of things.

  Then yesterday I found out that the incident wasn't completely over because Hannah had neglected to return the signed office referral to her teacher.  Apparently she had thrown it in the trash.  It took quite awhile to wade through all the lies on that one too, but I think we eventually got there.  After the biting incident we finally decided to give medication a try to help her control her impulses.  We actually start that this weekend.  I'm quite nervous about it, but I at least know that it's easy to change our minds and the meds leave no lasting side effects after they are out of her system if they don't work or we don't like what they do.  Wish us luck as we embark on this latest leg of our journey.  Last month we did a brief respite foster care stint with a little 3 year old girl.  She and Hannah got on pretty well and I miss her now that she is gone, but BOY OH BOY was she a ball of energy.  That kid went nonstop from the time she woke up until the time she finally crashed at night.  The sad thing about her was that she was now our 5th placement we've had that had no idea  how to cuddle and had never been read to or sung to at bedtime.  Again and again I am amazed at how many of the basic "rights" of childhood these kids have never experienced.  :(  While the respite munchkin was here we also hosted a series of guests.  My dad came to visit and then my best friend Sarah and her family stopped by for a night too.  I am reminded again and again at what a blessing from God our house is that we can house extra children as well as guests and still have everyone be comfortable. 

Hannah decided last night to try out for a speaking role in our church's Christmas program.  I didn't get to watch the tryout, but Kyle said she did a great job and was one of the strongest readers he heard.  He also said she was one of the youngest so that may very well affect her chances at actually getting a part.  Still whatever happens, I'm proud that she tried and at least she'll be guaranteed a spot in the chorus despite her off key singing voice! 

Next month I am participating in the Open Adoption Bloggers Interview Project again.  Last year I interviewed a  birthmom named Kate and it was an awesome experience.  I can't wait to see who I get paired with this year.  There is still time to sign up if you are interested and blog at least occasionally about adoption.  Simply click on the button at the top of my page and it should take you to the registration page. 

Photo Notes:  The pictures are from a weekend trip we took in September to a local wildlife preserve.  I think Hannah enjoyed chasing the chickens in the petting area more than she enjoyed the wild animals!

P.S.  I hate the new blogger format and I cannot make my posts look like I want.  My text and pictures keep getting all jumbled up.  Until I figure it out, I apologize for the inconvenience of having to read the disjointed text.

First Grade

Once again I let months go by without updating the blog.  When last I wrote we were a family of 7.  Now we are back down to a family of 3 again.  First the toddler left in July and then the new girls left the first day of school.  The house feels so empty  now.  We are all already itching for our next foster placement.

This summer we spent our days pretty much in the van.  The girls had therapy and summer school and Hannah finally came up on the waiting list at the Severe Behavior Clinic.  That made for a TON of driving.  In fact, we are STILL driving to Omaha every single day.  Hannah started first grade a few weeks ago and things seem to be going fairly well so far, although the honeymoon did not last nearly as long this year as it did for kindergarten!  She's already had 2 stealing incidents in the first 2 weeks of school. 

Lately Hannah has been hounding me for horseback riding lessons.  I've done some searching and hopefully we'll check out a few stables next month.  That should make her insanely happy. 

We are Still Alive

Ok, so I know it's been almost 3 months since I've posted, but I've got a good excuse.  We've been busy!  Since my last post we went from a family of 4 to a family of 7.  Boy has our life changed!  Hannah has done remarkably well with the change.  She now has a roommate for the first time in her life and has gone from only to oldest to middle child very quickly and with little fuss.  The biggest problem she has had is that the new girls lie A LOT and also tell "stories" that Hannah instantly recognizes as baloney and she just can't handle it.  She insists they are wrong/lying and then a huge argument ensues and she can't let it go and escalates and then things get physical.  Not ideal, but then we expected much worse. 

Since I last wrote Hannah finished Kindergarten, learned to ride her bike without training wheels, and ditched the back on her booster.  It's been a big few months for her.  Instead of try to fill you in with words I think I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

Big Girl Bike

Riding a bike has been a struggle for Hannah from the very beginning. As a toddler she couldn't figure out how to keep her feet on the pedals of a push bike and then it took her almost 2 years longer than her peers to learn how to pedal a trike (long after she was far too big for one) and keep her feet on the pedals and steer at the same time. Once we moved onto regular bikes with training wheels she was already pretty much too big for most of the bikes that are sold with training wheels. We got the biggest one we could, but her confidence was shakey at best. Last summer everything came to a head and bike riding became torture rather than fun. She was too big for her bike, too heavy for the training wheels, and too scared to ride with even the tiniest bit of wiggle. So, we bit the bullet and took her to an actual bike shop. They fitted her for a correctly sized bike (way bigger than the one she had) and installed heavy duty training wheels on it. Hannah is now flying around the neighborhood on her bike. She's throwing fits when I ask her to get off or tell her I can't take her out to ride right this second. I never thought I'd see the day when my little girl actually WANTED to ride a bike, but it's happened and I couldn't be more proud of her!

In other news, more big changes are up for the Spontak house. We've got 3 new foster care placements coming to stay with us sometime this week or the beginning of next. Two of the girls are very close to Hannah's age so this should be interesting. She's not really had to share any treasured possessions (other than mom and dad!) with the Hurricane since he's too little to play with most of her stuff, but all that's about to change. They'll even be sharing clothes since the older two wear the exact same size as she does. I'll keep everyone posted on how the acclimation process goes for the entire household. It's hard for me to believe that in the time span of 2 months I will have gone from a mama of 1 to a mama of 5! Crazy! At least that's as full as our house can get for awhile since our van can't haul any more than that! However, I'll let you in on a little secret that even Kyle doesn't know yet, I've already looked into what 8 passenger vehicles are out there! Insane I know, but the 3 that are coming have a 4th sibling that we don't have room to transport and that just breaks my heart. BUT, for now, a family of 7 is as big as we can get.

Photo Notes: Notice the color coordination of the bike and helmet. I don't think that was on purpose, we've had the helmet for a long time, but I can't be entirely certain! Notice how far way she is from anyone that could possibly save her if she started to fall in that last bike picture! That's a BIG deal for her! The last two pictures I just couldn't resist adding on. They're from a daddy/daughter wresting session one weekend.

March

I have a feeling March is going to be a rough month. Kyle has already traveled out of state once and he is schedule to go out of state (and out of country) at least 3 more times this month. Hannah gets all out of sorts when he is gone and even the toddler, who I will hereby refer to as the Hurricane on this blog, seems to be affected by his absence. When he's gone I don't sleep well and that affects my patience to boot. It's a vicious cycle! We also have a 6 day weekend coming up this week. Hannah's school's "spring break" is actually 2 days off at the end of one week, the weekend, and then 2 days off at the beginning of the next week. The change in routine and the lack of structure on breaks really throws Hannah off as well. Add to that the fact that Kyle will also be gone for half of that break and we're prepping for disaster!

On a positive note, the door alarm is working. We do not believe Hannah has managed to leave her room even one time without our knowledge and that goes a LONG way to easing my fears about the medication stealing. There's still always the daytime that she could go for it, but at least I'll be awake and alert to her absence. I try not to let her out of my sight for very long at a time.

We had her latest IEP meeting and got things set up for next year. They even added some specific and measurable academic goals to ensure that she's not being allowed to simply slide by not learning since she already meets grade level standards. They identified that her reading level was at the beginning of 3rd grade level and her reading goal is to be at the beginning of 4th grade level by the end of first grade. I think that's actually a very ambitious goal since 3rd grade is where reading gets tough. You stop learning to read and start reading to learn. Comprehension and vocabulary knowledge as well as life experiences become a bigger part of reading than decoding and those are the things she sometimes struggles with. Her math goal is to be at the end of 2nd grade level by the end of the year. I actually think that is a skimpy goal since she's mastered much of 2nd grade material already. She's only doing first grade curriculum because there are a few holes in her knowledge on a select set of concepts. Her overall knowledge and computation ability is already into the 2nd grade level now. She continues to have her various social skill and behavior goals and now has OT goals as well since that was finally added to her IEP after the full evaluation the team did a few months ago. In general, I'm quite pleased with her IEP and I think it should set her up for success next year. The biggest factor will be her teacher. The wrong teacher could be her demise. This year the principal hand picked her teacher and it was a perfect fit. I HOPE they do the same thing next year.

Hannah's ability to spell and write complicated sentences has really blossomed the past month. I'm quite impressed by her progress. They do a lot of writing in her classroom and she does quite a bit in the resource room as well. Writing was one of her biggest weaknesses going into the school year and now I would say she's above grade level on it too!

Hannah continues to grow into her role as big sister. Jealously still abounds, but she did express to me the other day that she hopes the Hurricane gets to stay forever. She likes to play with him (in small doses) and he wakes her up every morning which she pretends to hate, but really loves! Working the behavior plan is tough with the Hurricane around, but somehow I'm making it work.

We Got In

Well, we got into the Severe Behavior Program. Now we sit on the waiting list. The wait could be months and months or it could be a few weeks. We don't really know. I'm just thankful we got in. I was so worried that, as scary as it's been here lately, it wouldn't be bad enough to qualify us for the program, but that it was too bad to be helped by the regular psychologist. They've prescribed a 3 day a week treatment to start with for 1 1/2 hours a day. This means that we won't have to pull her out of school, at least not completely depending on the time slot we can get into. The doctor assured me that they have ways of recreating the behaviors we see at home in the clinic, but every once in awhile they have a kid that plays "nice" and won't repeat what they normally do. He said in that case they wouldn't be like the mechanic who, when you take your car to them when it's making that funny noise and it doesn't make the noise for them, tells you there is nothing they can do if it doesn't make the noise when they drive it. He said that if she won't display her behaviors in the clinic then they will put cameras up in our home and tape the behaviors. He said in no uncertain circumstances would they discharge us from the program until her behaviors are actually better. That just made me feel so good. I feel like so many professionals have either not believed what we have said, have given up on us, or just passed the buck and said "here, this person can help you better". I'm really hoping this is it.

In other news, the door alarm has arrived and is installed. For now, it is working. We are pretty sure we have known every time she has opened her door and so far she has not tried to sneak out and do something scary. The job card system doesn't seem to be working, but since we have no better solution until we get into the behavior program we'll keep at it.

Ok, so it's been a few days since I started this post and we just got back from a workshop hosted at Hannah's school by a business that runs a behavior day program for kids with problem behaviors. We wanted to go just to hear the information, but it also counted as continuing education that we have to do to keep our foster care license. The high school child development class and their teachers provided free childcare while the workshop was going on. The ironic part was that as the workshop was going on and they were listing off all sorts of problem behaviors Kyle and I would turn and look at each other and say "check!" Hannah had them all! Then, when I went to pick up the kiddos from the childcare room, both the high school students and their teachers were raving about how wonderful both of the kiddos' behavior was! Really? It'd been a tough day for both of them. Too bad that behavior couldn't last. Hannah made it home, but then fell completely apart. She'd had a rough day before at school too. It can be so frustrating that it's the comfortable situations that allow the acting out instead of the uncomfortable ones. Sigh. . . .

Never Dull

Life it seems is never dull around here. You know how you read something and you think, "Wow! That's crazy/funny," but it's only funny because it's not happening to you and you know it'd never happen to you because things like that always happen to someone else? Well, that's my life. I'M the one who those things happen to! Kyle's been gone on a business trip to Germany for the past week and the kiddos (mostly Hannah) decided to really give it to me while I was doing my single mommy gig. Before even a day had elapsed Hannah had cut her hair again! I believe this is the 7th, maybe 8th time she's done this. This time she decided to cut the bangs she had created the last time she got ahold of the scissors completely off. She has maybe an 1/8 on an inch right at the front of her forehead left. Then she got into the baby wipes and scattered them about the toddler's room for the dog to shred. Seriously, shouldn't that phase have passed when she was like 2? Next she decided to douse the cat in baby shampoo. Let me just say that the cat was both angry and humiliated. I still haven't managed to get it all rinsed out of him yet and I'm covered in scratches from the attempts. It's quite difficult to hold a cat by the scruff while also wielding the sprayer and trying to scrub the shampoo out. Finally, a few nights ago she figured out how to pick her door lock (the door alarm still isn't in yet so we HAD to switch the door knob around while I was here alone) by prying a nail out of the wall and using that to pop the lock! She did it several times one night before I finally figured out what she was doing and where the nails were coming from. Now all pictures and nails are removed from her room. It's starting to look pretty bare in there! Oh, and just to be sure I preserve everything, a few days before Kyle left Hannah was supposed to be doing a job card chore. I had to supervise the toddler so she was left alone for periods of 5 minutes at a time. After one of those 5 minute intervals I went to check on her and it was like all heck had broke loose in the basement! Paint was smeared on the walls in several places. The paint bottles themselves were coated in paint and then doused with glitter. The dollhouse roof had been repainted. The floor was covered in glitter. There was paint on the carpet. AND she had left a trap for me of a pool of paint on the bathroom floor for me to step in and track all over the place. This was actually the 2nd trap she had set for me. The first one she made a trail of Q-tips leading to behind her chair to try to fake me into thinking she was hiding behind there instead of in my bathroom getting into my body spray. I'd say I made a fatal parenting error by allowing her to read Roald Dahl's book Matilda!

In other news, the school system finally did thier full evaluation of Hannah for her IEP eligibility. The information the psychologist gave was no surprise. We already knew she is freaking brilliant. He mentioned that she has some executive function deficits, but that at the moment they really aren't much of an issue due to her age, but will most likely become more of an issue as she gets older. That was the first I had heard of executive function problems. We actually thought we had managed to dodge that bullet. I guess not. The big kicker was the OT's report. They assessed her fine motor skills, her sensory system, and her vision. I had no idea that OT's dabbled in the vision arena, but apparently they do. Her fine motor skills were perfect. No surprise there. She showed significant sensory issues. Also not surprising. What was surprising though was that the OT felt that she had some visual processing problems. She said that her two eyes do not work together correctly and that that could be the cause of some of her hyperactiveness. She also said it could cause reading problems down the road when the type gets smaller and the white space on the page lessens. She recommended she have an evaluation by a behavioral optometrist for possible vision therapy. UGH! That's all we need, more therapy. I read up on vision therapy since I'd never really heard much about it and I can't say that I'm convinced. A lot of what I've read seems a bit like voodoo science and there seems to be no real evidence to back it up. We are definitely going to have to do some thinking about that before we jump into something else. Anyone else know anything about vision therapy or had your child do it?

Finally, Wednesday we have Hannah's evaluation at the severe behavior clinic. Apparently, even if she does qualify for the program, we will be put on a waiting list for services. It could be quite awhile before treatment could begin. Sigh. . . .

Hannah seems to be settling into sisterhood well enough. She's had her moments of jealousy and still gets quite clingy, but I see her enjoying our new little one as well. Whenever something annoys her, such as crying, I try to put it into the perspective of how she used to do it when she was a baby. That seems to help a bit. She's been very curious about how she was when she was the baby's age. We've watched some old home movies of her at that age and then compared the two of them. Boy was that a shock. She wasn't nearly as physically competent, but boy was she a lot more verbal!

Photo Notes: All of these pictures are from December. We've got swim lessons, Christmas, and working in the shop with Pap.