Im here

Just wanted to check in to Blogworld and let ya'll know Im still here. Trying to catch up after our weekend in Atlanta. Hope to post more soon!

Sprinkling the Carpets

Im sorry I did not clarify though I must admit I got a kick out of the comment.

We have three cats so once or twice a week I sprinkle some Pet Fresh Carpet Freshner on the carpet. It masks the smell a little bit! :)

DSL AND MY WONDERFUL GIRLS!

YEAH we got DSL! I have never enjoyed anything more... ok so I exaggerate at times but it is incredibly exciting. Now maybe I can go about updating this blog with a Link section and other stuff that I have been wanting to do. Before it took so long to get anything to take that I would just give up. Another cool thing is being able to listen to music. Right now I am listening to AllWorship.com. (Thanks Brandy for mentioning it in your blog). I am listening to praise and worship.
We started preschool this week. Its going pretty good though I see areas I really need to organize more. Ok just changed to Contemporary Worship... yeah I think this is more what I like. Back to homeschool. The littles seem to be enjoying it. I am also on day 3 of the MOTH schedule. Loving it. We have not followed it totally yet but thats because we are still in the rough draft part.
I have had to keep my five year old home from school for 6 days already this year. When my dad died she missed two days of school. Then she came down with an upper respiratory infection and missed three days. Now she is out again with... ready?... head lice! YUCK! Im at my wits end but she went back to school today. I think I have the buggers licked. If not look for us on the news. Our house will have burned down and our family will all have shaved heads. Can you tell Im not dealing well with this new parenting journey?
We are heading up to Atlanta for Labor Day to see my husband's oldest sister. We are also hoping to hook up with one of his best friends while we are there but we have not heard anything from him yet. We go back to Tampa in a few weeks for the baby dedication of our sweet goddaughter who was let out of the hospital a month ahead of time. She is doing great. I cant wait to hold her. Its a dedication which is different then a Christening in that mom and dad will be committing to raise her in a Christian home. She wont be baptized. Mom wanted her to be but dad argued against it for a long time and stood his ground. Anyway after that we should be home for awhile and then we are going for a week at Thanksgiving to North Carolina to see my friend. Im so excited. I love to travel. In all of this hubby and I are trying to plan a weekend mini vacation. We want to get a hotel room down by the beach and take the children swimming everyday and stay up late playing games and eating takeout. We have been wanting to do this for some time. Just our little family but things keep popping up. But hubby has sat down and really started trying to fit it in lately with the emotional ride we all just went on. We think it will do us all some good to get away.
Hubby and I got up at 6am this morning and spent 30 minutes in prayer together for our children. We have been wanting to do this for awhile but someone kept hitting the snooze button and before we knew it it was 7:15 and I was 30 minutes late for my routine and 45 minutes late for prayer. So last night we put the alarm clock on the other side of the room. When it went off this morning I got up turned it off and stumbled over the bed to wake up hubby. After the 30 minutes were up we both commented that we felt awake and refreshed and he sat down and read his Bible while I got a shower and dressed for the day. It was a nice time. Prayer has really been our hearts the past few months. It all came to a head this weekend when our preacher preached a GREAT message on prayer and the power of it. Sunday night I made sticky note reminders with Bible verses and we put them all over the house so we can remember to pray. Funny thing is you can glance at them and just disregard but when I find myself doing that I force myself to go back and pray. I think its really helped and I am excited about the prayers we have both sent to God. Even our eight year old has had a good time reading the Bible verses and asking questions. I just feel that our house is so peaceful this week and it has to be the attitude of prayer around here.

Around the House:
Following the MOTH schedule has been going GREAT! We are getting so much done. I have not yet completed a full hour of chores in the AM like I would like but we are slowly getting there. There are many areas I have to tweak but thats the great thing about the MOTH is its so easy to tweak.
My kitchen and living room have stayed fairly clean all week. I am on schedule with the laundry. Although I had to mix it up a bit. Typically the girls' laundry gets done on Tuesday and the boys' on Wed but this week since the boys were running low on clothes I decided theirs needed to be done Tues. Did not make a big difference. Im on the third load of girls' clothes right now and have about one load left maybe another small one after that. Tomorrow is towels and Friday is sheets. This is the first time since I came up with the laundry schedule that we have been on task. So its exciting.
I am having to clean all the beds and furniture and toys and bedding really well thanks to the pestilence that has come upon our home. I read somewhere that tea tree oil will help keep the eggs from sticking to hair so we are using that in our conditioner.... IT STINKS but it really seems to be working as I have found only a few nits on my 3 year olds head and none on the 8 year olds. In the past when we have dealt with this plague it has rapidly spread to all the girls. So I am thankful for that.
In the latest issue of Laines letters she suggested toilet bowl cleaner to clean your shower with the admonishment that you scrub and rinse really well. Since the dollar store did not have The Works when I went in the other day I will try the toilet bowl cleaner. I did find the all purpose cleaner that I like the most at the Dollar Store so that was exciting. :)
I am taking over the bill paying. NOT the finances but the making sure the bills get in the mail or get paid on payday. Im excited about it and already have all the bills we are going to pay with tomorrow's paycheck ready to go. The Lord has really blessed us financially the past few months. We are so excited and just praising God.
Oh I just have to share this. The other day I was working in the girls' room so I asked my 8 year old to wipe down the kitchen counters. She did that and came to see me. Then I asked her if she could sweep the kitchen floor. She was very excited but wanted to make sure that if she swept she would get to use the Swiffer mop as well. I told her sure. Now I left ALL of this to her without really checking because I was in the middle of something else. I figured when I was done I would go inspect and then we would go over it together again. A learning experience. OH NO! She did a perfect job. The kitchen looked beautiful. My five year old wiped down the kitchen table and picked up the clutter in the living room and after I sprinkled the carpets the eight year old vacuumed. THEN last night 8 year old helped me clean off the table after dinner and she put all the food away by herself. I am truly blessed to have such great girls. They are so eager to help and learn. The 8 year old wants to learn to sew... Im setting up my sewing area so she can learn straight lines. The five year old is getting ready to do some simple hand sewing projects. Basically straight lines. Im so excited!
Ok better get back to work. My littles are napping and its project time for me. :)

Word Verification

I have added word verification because I have had two instances of comment spam. I am grateful for this feature... :)

Clarification

DO you not believe that children will get hugs or be told that they are loved in non-christian homes??? that seems a bit narrow minded. i am just going on what you wrote here!!! Anon.


I guess I could have clarified more. I apologize. What I really meant was we need homes which will raise up children to know God's love. That will demonstrate God's love through the love in thier homes. We also need homes where these children will get hugs and be told "I love you". I say again this is not the norm in some foster homes. I have seen children shipped from one home to the next because they broke a rule. They stiffen when you hug them because they have no idea why you are touching them. I have seen children that the very first time you say I love you to them they immediatly parrot it back and then dance around the house singing it because...they have never heard it. My ideal is that all foster homes would be Christian homes so these children could find the love of Jesus and that I dont apologize for but there are some really great non-Christian foster homes too.

1 Corinthians 13 for Mommy!

Just a little something I did the other day when my children had driven me to wit's end.

1 Corinthians 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
1 Corinthians 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1 Corinthians 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
1 Corinthians 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

1 Corinthians 13 for mommy!
1 Corinthians 13:4 Mommy suffereth long, and is kind; Mommy envieth not; Mommy vaunteth not herself, is not puffed up,
1 Corinthians 13:5 Mommy doth not behave herself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1 Corinthians 13:6 Mommy rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
1 Corinthians 13:7 Mommy beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Hope you can use this too BEFORE you yell at the children to STOP swinging from the ceiling fan for the 400th time! :)

Foster Parent Questions

Wow I love comments especially when they involve questions... especially when they involve questions about my children! I love talking about my babies! So Mina I will attempt to answer all of your questions!

How many kids of your own do you have and how many foster kids? All the children I have right now (5) are foster children. We should begin the adoption process on our three girls sometime next month and then it could take MONTHS to finish it. As far as children of our own we pray everyday that God would open my womb. We have faith that He one day will... kinda funny story. The state of Florida says you can only have five children in your home as a foster parent. (Sometimes they make exceptions as you saw) Hubby and I were discussing it one day and wondering maybe if we were not supposed to adopt our five children from the state and then God would give us our own biological children. We know we would love to have a big family so we are kinda wondering if that is God's plan because like I said before we both firmly believe that the day will come when I have my own baby.

How do you give the foster kids the sense of stability/permenancy that they deserve and need even though they and you know they will be moving on again? PRAYER! The minute the child comes through our door we pray pray pray over them. Claim them as our own and cover them with protection. One thing you dont know is what kind of evil these children have attached to them. We just start at the beginning and pray it all off of them. No we dont wail and scream and shake the child. We simply hold him and claim him as our own. My husband claims fatherhood over the child which puts him in the spiritual leader seat. We believe that as long as that child is with us God recognizes us as his parents. We also have a policy that we will keep the child until they go back to thier parents. NO matter how difficult. Now of course we would have to reevaluate this policy if a child entered our home who was a threat to any other children already in our care. We also accept each child as our own for however long he is here. We take them on trips, to family outings, out to eat... whatever we are doing. Now this might sound like common sense but believe it or not some foster children spend more time away from thier foster family then they do with them.

How long do you typically have foster kids? Well in the year and 3 months we have been doing this we have had our 2 year old for one year and 3 months. We had two little girls from Labor day til the middle of October. We have had our two girls since the middle of October. We got a little boy the Friday before Mother's day and he is still here probably will be til after the first of the year. We got another two year old right before the fourth of July and he went home this week. We got our other little girl in the middle of July and will be adopting her. So out of 8 children so far we have only had three leave us and they were only here for about a month.

Do they get along well with your own kids? We dont have children of our own but I will tell you I am amazed at how well all the different children get along. They basically behave like siblings. Fighting one minute defending to the death the next. They are all rather bossy but seem to handle each other well.

How do you assure that your own kids' needs are met while meeting the special challenges associated with many foster kids? Honestly, we have not had hardly any special challenges. I believe that prayer has kept us from some of the tragic stories you hear about these foster children. Believe me when I say all of these children in my home right now have every right to be bitter, resentful, distrustful.. but they are not. They are happy well adjusted little people. Just like anyone else's children. They get into trouble like other's children as well. They are by no means perfect but I have not seen any behavior that is not typical for another child thier age. I have had someone at almost every agency we have worked with remark that my children do not resemble typical foster children. All I can tell you is that God is the authority over our children. We establish that day one by giving the child to God. We also use consistantcy. Consistant love, consistant discipline, consistant expectations. The children THRIVE on consistency. Its like I tell most people about my eight year old who is my biggest challange to date behavior wise... she has had eight year of inconsistant harsh discipline. With one month of consistant loving discipline I alread see changes in her. Such as true repentance when she does wrong and a heart seeking after God.

I love being a mommy no matter whose children they are. All of my children but one call me mommy and the one who doesnt came from a very loving home where his mom made some mistakes. God gives us strength patience and perserverance when we think we cant take one more step. We are so blessed to be the parents to these children and if we had our way we would NEVER stop fostering. I hope I answered all of your questions. I hope others would feel free to ask questions about fostering. There is a lot of stuff not understood. One thing is sure though we need good solid Christian homes to foster. Too many times these children are put in a godless home where they are given the basics but do not get hugs and I love yous. One goal I have for each child in my care is that they leave my home knowing the words to Jesus Loves Me. If they can sing that song then they can understand that they are never alone and that Jesus always loves them.