Abby's First Day of School

Abby started back at preschool the first week of September. She loves her teachers, her friends and learning. We are so thankful for this school. All three of our kids have attended and we hope that B will too!

If anyone can tell me how to rotate these pictures I would be so thankful! I have them edited correctly in my photo software, but they come into blogger like this. Very frustrating.

Abby is such a precious little girl. She is beautiful inside and out. Her heart is sweet and I just love her to pieces. She has a big imagination. She is quirky and unique and her very own person.

She can be very quiet at school, which is a surprise to me because she has a whole lot to tell me about after.

She is the tiniest in her class, but she doesn't seem to know it!

I am so thankful God let us have our sweet little Abigail Kate.

In case you are wondering...

Found this when we arrived home from Nashville. Love it so much!

Try that again with RESPECT please :)

Jeremy I just got home from an awesome weekend away. We hadn't been away without any children in a long time. It was WONDERFUL!! He had been in Alabama and I met up with him in Franklin, KY and we continued on to Nashville.

Thursday night we got Chipotle carryout and ate in the room and watched TV! We are soooo exciting :)! We woke up Friday and had breakfast then headed to the Empowered to Connect conference where we heard Dr. Karyn Purvis speak for the next two days on caring for children from hard places. It was amazing information. She is a smart, compassionate, funny women who has taken scientific information and developed wonderful tools to work with kids who have been through abuse, trauma, difficult pregnancies etc.

There are so many things I want to say about this, but one of my favorite things is that Jeremy and I went together. This was huge. We both got to learn these techniques instead of me coming home and trying to remember them and implement them in our home. Like they said at the conference, you need to be on the same page and it needs to be the right page. We were not on the same page a lot of the time and we were clearly not on the right page in many ways :). We are so excited about some new things we are going to be doing in our home and as we continue to work with foster children. We are so thankful to my parents who kept our kiddoes over the weekend and to Hazel and family for keeping B as he still has to stay with a licensed family.

So, one thing we are implementing into our home with all of our kids is a team spirit.
We have three rules to promote teamwork:

1. Stick together
2. No hurts (inside or out)
3. Have fun


And.....like the title says, "Would you like to try that again with respect, please???" You will probably hear us saying this a thousand times a day for awhile. I have already said it in the school office, dr's office, van, a parking lot, wal-mart and target (and it's only Monday!). And, I will make my very best effort to get down on their level, make some kind of touch connection and say it with a kind tone. And you know how I know it's working....they are saying it to each other! Too funny....

Abby was pitching a little fit in the van on the way home because she wanted a piece of candy. She just couldn't bring herself to ask in a kind way and I heard Jake saying over and over to her....."Abby, if you just ask with respect she will say yes." And I will say YES as much as possible.

Some of the information was scary to me. Early trauma, abuse and neglect does some serious stuff to little brains. I tend to prefer denial over the facts, but I am so proud of myself for listening well, taking good notes and praying 2 Timothy 1:7 a whole lot ("for God did not give us a spirit of fear..."). It is exciting to see that someone (Dr. Karyn Purvis - - who I will be studying anything and everything she has written) has spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars doing scientific research to offer HOPE to these precious children and the families taking care of them.

You might also hear me saying, "use your words" over and over and over!!

Such a great time.

Jake's Arm

Friday was such a great day until about 4:00 when things went a little crazy. It was Jeremy's birthday and I was hoping to meet some friends for pizza that night for a last minute get together to celebrate. I was getting the girls and B ready while Jake was riding his bike when all the sudden he started pounding on the front door. Then, he screamed a horrible scream, "Mommmmmm" and I knew something bad had happened.

I opened the door and he held up his arm. It was horribly curved. Then, he tried to lift half of his arm (about half way between his elbow and wrist) and it just flopped around doing circles. It was disgusting and scary and we both panicked. Okay, I panicked and he cried. It was horrible.

Several friends came to help with the other kids and he and I rode in the ambulance to the hospital. We had a great couple of doctors there. They loaded him up on pain meds and set the bones. We go back tomorrow to see if things are staying in place.

She did good :)

 

Cara did great today and her doctor (same guy that did B's tubes a week ago) was able to cauterize both sides so hopefully no more nosebleeds. She looks so pretty in that blue color, doesn't she?? And, she was thrilled to have two blue icees. 

I love that girl. She has such a sweet and kind heart. I enjoyed being with her and getting her ready and helping her to feel better. Jeremy says we are a bad pair when it comes to hospital stuff, 

but we did good today ;). 

I was looking at her and thinking about when she had tubes at 18 months and was in disbelief that she is now almost 7 and in first grade. 

Good thing she is my mini-me and plans to live in the neighborhood when she grows up!! 

Getting Stuff Done

We are all adjusting to being back on our school schedule. I am trying to take the kids in the mornings so Jeremy can get to the office early as much as I can and so far it is going well. We leave the house around 7:35 and get there right on time at a little before 8. Jake hops right out and then I circle the lot a couple times while Cara works up the courage to get out of the van or spots Mimi and walks in with her. Progress :) At least there are no tears.

Speaking of Cara....

First grade is going great. She seems to enjoy eating lunch at school. She loves it when she sees Jake and he gives her a hug. We gave him a big "be nice to your sister....she's nervous....you're the big brother" speech and he seems to have heard it. He brought home a paper the other day that was all about him and my favorite part was when it asked, "what do you like most about yourself" and he answered, "I'm the most trusted child because I'm the oldest." Ha! Good one, buddy!

Cara is crazy nervous about having her nose cauterized tomorrow.  The very small surgery is at 3:20 and she can't eat anything all day. Really?? I've got bets on Jeremy cancelling it because of the drama that we are expecting when she wakes up. Thank you to the doctor who felt the need to refer to the procedure as surgery and talk about her being put to sleep right in front of her.

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In other news, things are slowly moving along with B's case. Our court date was cancelled because of a mistake. It was scheduled to be heard before a magistrate and needed to be heard before the judge so now we wait for a new date. I am hoping for a September date, but have been told late October. Foster care sure can be frustrating, but one thing for sure, you do have plenty of opportunities to learn patience :)

For the most part, we just go with the flow, but from time to time I just wear out and feel exhausted. It was that kind of weekend. This parenting gig is hard work. Foster parenting is hard work. Is it bad that I'm dreaming of Florida already?? I am really hoping we will be celebrating in January!