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Sorry for the "going private" thing. What a crazy week last week was!! Some friends and I launched a special project to raise money to buy ALL the children in our county some AWESOME Christmas presents.

We have almost met our goal of $5000!!! I can hardly believe it. I am totally blown away by the generosity and support from almost everyone I know and lots of people I don't! It has been overwhelming in a good way.

So, if you would like to help us wrap up this project, go to our blog 

www.fosteringchristmascare.blogspot 

Read how this came about and think about how you might want to be involved. It is exciting!

It's that time of year...

The kids are selling nuts. 

They really want to win some prizes. 

So....here is a message from Caraline :)

Re-Do's

We are still working (and probably always will be) on some things with the kids that we learned at the ETC conference. I told Jeremy last night that the redo thing applys to me too! My "Try that again with respect." :) :) has turned into, "TRY THAT AGAIN WITH RESPECT.....!!!!" You get the point :).

Today is a new day and I am looking forward to another day with these little people. Seriously, friends, I really think that when they came out all sweet and snuggly I thought they would just BE GOOD. Not sure which fantasyland I was in at the time, but I am a constant work in progress, so why I set my expectations SO high for little people is a mystery to me. I have to give up my perfectionistic tendencies daily around here. It might surprise you that I have some if you come over!

God knew what he was doing when he arranged the birthorder in our house! Had I parented #2 first, I would have been rather full of myself.

I am loving this blog. We were able to hear her speak about their journey at ETC and she is working through the tools taught there with her children. Good stuff!

http://www.onethankfulmom.com/attachment-and-trauma/my-learning-curve-a-real-life-re-do/

We are off to lunch with the big kids today and Cara is having a friends over after school. Looking forward to a good day.

Girls Night Out

On Friday night I took Cara out for some one on one time and we had a blast! She is a funny little girl and so sweet. Jeremy had her conference at school and it went really well and I thought to myself, "there are really good things about this, and there are some bad things about this." As a teacher, I know that the easy kids are a dream come true, but I also know that they sometimes get lost in the crowd a bit because they don't need much. I think that can happen in a family setting too. As parents, we have noticed from day one that Cara was our easy kid. She slept great, she was rarely unhappy and just an easy little baby. She would be singing in her crib when we woke up just waiting for us to come in. She was always full of smiles and still is. 

Sometimes the child who doesn't require as much work just needs to know that we appreciate them and love them and want to give them just as much attention as their siblings who * might * need more guidance :)! So, with that in mind and also just because I hadn't done anything with Cara alone for awhile that was fun (not running an errand), we got ourselves ready and when Jeremy got home we took off. 

She picked what she wanted to do and I enjoyed just saying YES to all of it. We probably spent too much money.......but we did have a ton of fun together!!!

First stop was the nail salon. 

At this salon, they have a mini pedicure which is a lot less expensive.

She was cracking me up....when she is all by herself, she has a whole lot to say. She said,

 "Mom, this is F-U-N!" 

Our next stop was dinner. It was a toss up for her. She was trying to decide between PF Changs and Bravo and in the end Bravo won out. The girl has good taste. She told me all kinds of fun things during dinner. It is so interesting the things she tells me. She's got the scoop! This is going to be really beneficial down the road since Jake doesn't tell me anything about school ;). 

After dinner, we headed to Target to pick up a birthday present for her friend. 

This is with one of her best buddies from school last year. This sweet girl was a huge blessing to me as I prayed that Cara would make good friends. Unfortunately, her family didn't come back to school this year (but they do hope to next year) and these girls really miss each other. I am so glad her Mom called and invited Cara to her party. It was such a fun and happy reunion!! And, since she is on our way home from school, I think we will be picking her up some and seeing more of her.  Isn't she adorable??

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.