New Blog for a New Project

I'm not shutting this blog down, but just so folks will know what I'm up to and why I'm not posting here as much....I'm starting up a new blog that will feature our family profile for the next adoption. Many of the agencies that we are hoping to network with for the next member of our little circus are wanting electronic profiles now, so a family "adoption" blog seems perfect for that purpose. I'm going to have it password protected for privacy, but if my family and friends would like to take a peak when it's done and offer constructive criticism.....just let me know and I'll let you in. :)

Tagged!

Okay I was tagged by my sister Jess http://www.jessy-eighthearts.blogspot.com/ to post the 4th picture in the 4th file on my computer. This happened to be the fourth picture in the fourth file on my office computer and, since it matches the Disney "theme" that Jess started in her last blog post, it seemed appropriate. This is a shot of me and Sky and my sister in the background watching the "Beauty and the Beast" show at Disney World 3 years ago.

Sky had the greatest time that morning in the Magic Kingdom, and she so wanted to see the "princess dance" as she referred to this show, but she pooped about 15 minutes in to the music. I love this pic because it is one of the few sleeping pics I have of Sky where she looks like a baby still (in reality she has become quite the BIG GIRL *sniff*) .

We all want to go back to Disney so desperately and hope that maybe in a year or so our family will be complete, and we will be done saving for adoptions and eliminating debt, so we can make the grand celebratory trip.

On the adoptions front.... We have officially closed our foster home after finalizing the Peas adoption 2 weeks ago. We have turned in our medicals, fingerprints, background check authorizations, vital records, and personal biographies into our new home study agency. We should be ready to start home visits for the home study after the new year and hope to have a completed home study by early spring. Woop-woop! :) Can you join me in praying for a new kidlet in the crew by the end of 2009?

What do all these pics of glorious chaos signify?

This many kids in a courtroom can only mean one thing.....

....WE FINALIZED THE PEAS ADOPTIONS!

I don't have elegant phrases to express how happy and relieved we are. All I can say is that today is a beautiful day to be a family.

Halloween Pretties

One of the coolest things about having a large family is being able to dress your kids in multi-person themed costumes for Halloween. I LOVE IT! :) Being a literary gal, I usually choose a theme from a children's book. This year was Charlotte's Web. S was Charlotte. MP was Templeton the Rat (how appropriate.....*wink*). JP#1 was Fern Arable, and JP#2 was piggy perfect as Wilbur.

Back in Blog Land with Some Thoughts About My Family

I haven't been updating the blog for a few months due to general craziness in our lives. The story behind the craziness is too painful, convoluted, and long to get into, but it looks like everything is settling out now. So, I wanted to get back into updating the blog and thought I would start with something I wrote a few weeks ago.

It's a series of things that I wish folks that we meet or encounter out and about would understand about my very special family. It's not a rant at anyone specific person or situation, but a general wishlist of things I pray that the world could just "get" about the Edwards' and the thousands of other special needs adoption families. I know I'm largely preaching to the choir among my family and friends, but here goes:

Things I Wish People Would Understand About My Family

1. My children have been through perdition. Just because they are clean, well-fed, charming, and bright when you encounter them doesn't negate all of their memories and all of their feelings about the YEARS when they were in danger. Please don't presume that we should all "just forget about it."

2. My children have difficulty with honest relationships. Trust is a new concept for them. They exploit, manipulate, and deceive because that is what it took to survive. That doesn't make them exploiters, manipulators, or deceivers by definition and it doesn't mean that I'm at fault for their behavior.

3. I am not parenting these children because I couldn't get anything "better". I'm not the parent of sloppy seconds. My children are not a consolation prize for infertility.

4. My infertility is not a judgement against me, some divine sign that I'm really not cut out to be a parent. Please don't presume that there must be something "wrong" with us as a family if we can't make biological babies, and don't assume that I don't have normal mommy feelings and frustrations just because I should be forever "grateful that someone let me raise THEIR CHILDREN."

5. My children will not be who they are right now in 5 months, 5 years, or 5 decades. They are growing and changing. I am growing and changing. Please don't assume that one low point in our life as a family is who we are for all eternity.

6. I am not doing this for the money. You are not entitled to know how much I am "paid" to take care of these children. I don't ask you how much you make at your job, please don't feel like you should get to know how much my children receive in a subsidy. It's THEIR money. Not mine. Not yours.....even if your tax dollars do go towards it.

7. What my children have been through and are going through is not catching. You can't get it by being informed about it, so don't hide in your ignorance because it makes you "sad" to think that children have PTSD, RAD, or other emotional problems. You can't get it by being tolerant, compassionate, or concerned, so don't just write us off as friends, as pupils, or as fellow Christians because our issues seem too big for you.

Becoming a Family in Christ...The Peas Baptism

Last Sunday, the Peas each received the first sacrament, the grace that makes so many other graces possible....baptism. We also participated as a family in a public rite of thanksgiving for their adoption. And, as the cherry on top, it was Sky's first Sunday as an acolyte. It was a big, big day all around. I was so proud of each of my children, and so blessed to hear them say "we do" when Father asked them if they took me as their mother. I love how adoption mirrors the way that Christ makes us part of His family. He chooses us. He makes His home with us. He indwells us with His Spirit....His unique vision. And we become His children. God Is Good!

Summer Birthdays Are So Fun!

Pea #2 and #3 had their birthday party this weekend at our camp on Lake Toledo Bend. It was a blast. The luau theme made the day, and they were so cute in their grass skirts. We put the poles in the water for a bit, and Pea #3 caught her first fish! Happy Birthday!

Sky's Birthday

My cutie is six years old! Oh my goodness! We had a western party with stick horse races and a water gun shoot-out. I can't believe my sweet baby is half-way to adolescence. In two more weeks we'll do it again when the double trouble team turn five.

Getting Lost....Saying Goodbye

I lost my babies. It's something I have said dozens of times. Today driving across a lonely stretch of highway it struck me that this turn of phrase is too obscure and innacurate to describe what happened to me and my babies that died.
I was taking the children that are with me to an appointment that would never be kept with a man who believes that he too simply mislaid his progeny the way someone else might lose track of a set of keys or the change from a five dollar bill. Yet, no matter what he believes, his children aren't lost or stolen or discarded. They are placed in the arms of someone who has planned and dreamed of them, who loves them, who will treasure them. Neither are my babies lost. They are in the arms of Jesus who knew them and planned them and treasures them. He's keeping them for me.
I got to say goodbye to my babies. I got to tell them how much I loved them and wanted them and would miss them while we are apart. The Peas' birth father was given the same opportunity today. He didn't say goodbye. He believes that he and they are the victims of some catastrophe, some happenstance that will surely rectify itself. You can't acknowledge a mischance with the finality of goodbye. Goodbyes are for purposeful journeys. I'm glad I gave myself and my babies a goodbye. I'm glad I see the purpose of their journey through death into eternal life.

TPR.....

stands for termination of parental rights, which is what occurred for the Peas birth father this past Monday. It's been a long journey, but the Peas are one step away from being legally cleared for adoption. The burden that has been lifted from our souls is just unbelievable. It's such an amazing gift to just be a family with no qualifiers and no limits on what that means.
God Is Good!

Book Character Day

Here they are - three of my favorite book characters dressed up for their Children's Book Week celebration at school. Pea #1 is the Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George and Peas #2 and #3 are Max and Ruby from the series of books by Rosemary Wells. This little exercize in literacy and costuming was sprung on me with a little under 48 hours notice.

I managed to come up with something because after all I'm a librarian with an encyclopedic knowledge of picture books and a positive glut of costume accessories and craft supplies tucked away in the most disorganized closet to ever grace a building erected with tax payer monies. (Translation from over-educated and over-complicated Anglais to regular work-a-day English: I'm a kiddy book geek with a work closet full of random collections of junk.) I shudder to think what this little assignment did to the average mom or dad whose 9-to-5 job involves answering phones in a law office or selling insurance policies! EEK!

Sky's class didn't participate this year, but she wasn't too disappointed as she is looking forward to her end of the school year Field Day on Friday. I am sure that I will have a pic to post of that soon.

School Pictures

I got the proofs for school pictures in everyone's "send-home" folders this week. It blessed my heart and picked me up from a rotten week at work to see all of my kidlets smiling faces.
I just love school pictures, although I HATE the actual day of school picture-taking. It's always the morning that Pea #1 has 4 cowlicks in the top of his hair, Pea #2 has managed to black her eye AGAIN, the other two angels can't find white socks that actually match each other, and someone is totally out of clean underwear! Now, I know that underwear don't actually show in school pictures, but I secretly fear that the photographer will be able to tell from the way they sit that their drawers aren't daisy fresh.
Anyway, we did make it to school picture day with clean drawers and made it all the way up to picture time without our spiffy non-uniform clothes getting soiled. The results should prove fabulous, and I will be dispersing prints of their smiling faces liberally.

My Easter Lilies!

This is a pic of our sweet, sweet girls in the Easter dresses I made for them. Excuse the rumpled hair and unkempt feet, but I put them into the dresses to try them on at the end of the day just before they got into jammies.

I just think they have the sweetest smiles. The dresses came out very nicely, even though I am not a true seamstress by any means. They are made from embroidered pillowcases. I did the embroidery -- which took about four times as long as the sewing of the dresses.

I am so excited for them to wear them on Sunday. I love Easter....it is my absolute favorite holiday. I like it even more than Christmas. It's all about new beginnings and the abundance of grace. I appreciate Easter so much more since I became a mama. I don't know that I really understood the love that Christ has for me, until I saw it reflected in my children's eyes when they look on His cross and sing about His name.

Turning A Corner

Last week, the Techie and I turned a significant corner in our parenting journey. For the first time ever, all four of our kidlets had perfect behavior reports for the entire week. I cried. The mother of the President, the mother of Miss America, the mother of the Nobel Peace prize winner could not be more proud than I am of those five little stars in five little calendar squares in a perfect little row.

Of course, life being what it is, I had to go out of town on a business trip for two days this week, and two of the kidlets decided to reward my travelling ways by racking up some very dramatic red frowny faces. Yet, I still stand tall in the knowledge that for one brief shining moment I was the mother of four -- count them, FOUR -- students of the week! :)

No one can take that away from me.

Hello, to everyone who ends up reading this! I guess my first post ought to cover a little about me and mine......even though the only people who will ever end up reading this are my own sweet family and friends and already know more than they'd like to about yours truly. Nonetheless, an intro seems rather obligatory.

I'm in my 30s.....and married to the Tech. The Tech and I have four children in our home right now. Sky -- our forever princess -- made us mommy and daddy through the miracle of foster/adoption. She's five going on twenty-five and the queen of the Kindergarten. The 3 Peas are 6, 4, and 4.....the sweetest sibling set you'd ever want to meet, and they've been in foster care with us for almost a year.

The Tech and I have been foster parents for four years, cared for and loved on 10 children so far, and are wanting to continue to build our family through adoption. This blog is going to chronicle our family, our day-to-day adventures, and our journey to the children that will complete our family.

The blog title comes from the words of Jesus about His blood being the new covenant. We are a family formed under the new covenant of grace...through the saving work of Jesus rather than through the tie of human blood.

I hope those of you who read here will enjoy following our lives and will comment often. Blessings!