Bear River Bottoms

This year we have been getting out of the house a lot. With Six kids if you don't get out, you go insane! We went to this place near Logan Called Little Bear River Bottoms or something. It was so fun. The kids played on this huge pile of one ton straw bails. It was cool because they had little spots for the kids to play in and since they were one ton, they weren't mov'n. We also went in some corn mazes and a twine maze. Our favorite part was the hay ride. We weren't going to go, but the driver came over and needed some more riders. He cut us a great deal. It was so funny, it was a little haunted. The main guy asked for some volunteers.  Byron and Ethan went up. They went in this outhouse and this guy with a scary mask went up behind them. It was so funny to watch because Ethan got pretty scared. He was trying to act tough, but he was scared. It was in broad daylight and the guy geared it toward kids.
Then it was so funny because the kids were talking on the way home about what our driver on the hayride said. There was a part that he claimed we got sprayed with water that had cow poo in it. Then one of the kids said it was cow pee. Ethan spoke up all matter of factly and said, "No, cow pee is milk". Wes and I laughed and laughed about that. It's funny what kids put together in their minds.

Are you serious!?

So,
We expected to have to say goodbye to our foster children this week. We were heart broken, relieved, scared for the kids (because we didn't know if a 23 year old boy with a girl friend could handle these kids, plus we didn't know what the environment was like), etc.
Today I got an email from their case worker saying.....the uncle didn't pass the background check. That was unexpected.
We are going to continue to love these kids and help them feel safe.
We will have them for Halloween. Which will be fun. Halloween is a kids Holiday and it's so fun to see their excitement.
Life is so unexpected, seriously!
For today I am relieved and happy. :) Who would have thought I would welcome this wild life of having six kids and love these foster kids as I do.
Wes is really happy too!
We have just gotten so far with breaking through their shells and figuring out what we can do for them to help their development.
They call us "Mom" and "Dad" and just seem so happy here.
Lets see what Heavenly Father chooses to happen with these Foster kids and what path they are suppose to take.
So, keep us in your prayers. We need them coming. :)
Our prayers were definitely answered.

Oh the heart ache

Today our foster kids' case worker came to our house to see their environment and deliver us the bad news. Kinship has come forward! I can't believe that the exact same thing that happened with our last placement is happening again. I think I am in a state of shock, disbelief, and sadness. I just want to crawl in a hole and weep!
But, I know I have to go on. Just knowing these sweet kids are probably going to be out of our house within the next few weeks just kills me. It's hard because we have seen so much progress already.
They probably will be raised in day care. With an uncle and his girlfriend who both work.
Whatever. We are done.
We have given this our all, and some may call us selfish to not want to do Foster Care again. But oh well.
We had hoped to have these kids for at least 6 months, or maybe forever. But, I guess it's not up to us.
Wes says he doesn't even want to try to adopt either. So, our hopes of building our family may be over. We'll see, when things calm down a bit he may have a softening of heart.
But, for now I am going to cuddle the ones in my care and continue to wonder what Heavenly Father has planned for me.
Just had to vent. I am going to go crawl in my hole now. :)

Well that was unexpected

So, we have 3 new foster kids.
We were just about to let our foster license expire within weeks. We had just completed all the paperwork and the homestudy for a new Adoption Agency. Then one day I got this situation in an email of 3 foster children the state was looking for a placement for. They were three hispanic children ages:6,3,and 2. Boy, Boy, and girl. For some reason I was just about to delete the email and something told me to talk to Wes about it. So, that night I did. We figured we did have room and it would fit perfectly into our home to have the girls share a room and two boys to share a room upstairs and then the other boys share a room downstairs. We prayed about it, couldn't sleep over it. But, we didn't hear back. We figured they had chosen another family.
A few days later our licencor called to see if we had space for 3 more kids. I asked her if they were considering us and she said she wasn't sure. A few hours later one of the case workers from our local agency called and said they wanted to offer the children to us. She told me about them. The problems that they had didn't seem to be anything we couldn't handle.
Originally we wouldn't take any child older than our youngest and for sure no more than 2 kids. But, for some reason we felt good about this situation. The first day we went down to visit them, I was so nervous! We went to meet them at the shelter they were living at after they got removed from their mom. I didn't feel an instant bond or love for them. The middle one kept climbing and jumping off things onto me. He bit my hair, ran into me a lot, and hit his head against my jaw. The youngest one was stand offish and kept saying no and wouldn't engage. The oldest was fine, but bickered with his siblings. Then we went outside and played with them. That's when we bonded a bit with them. The older one heard we had a trampoline and wanted to come home with us that night. The middle one was responsive to my teaching and the youngest one wanted to be held by Wes. I still wasn't sure about it.
Then next day we went and picked them up. We had our kids with us and we all fill up our vehicle.
The first few days were way hard and I felt so overwhelmed I kept asking Wes, "Are we sure we can do this". By the end of each day we both crash.
The middle child has proven to be the most difficult. But, we have seen the most progress with.
Come to find out they didn't have any discipline at all and the birth mom appears to be afraid of the middle one, because she just doesn't know how to control him.
They are all gorgeous kids! They have dark brown eyes and long eye lashes. My friend at church yesterday said we look like a giant ice cream cone with chocolate and vanilla swirl. And I am the cherry on top. I thought that was cute.
Every day it gets easier and we are beginning to handle it.
I think the hardest thing about the whole foster care thing is the appointments. Dentist, Doctor, WIC, Mental Health Assessment, School Enrollment, Birth Mom visits, etc. It seems like we have at least one appointment a day. But, it will slow down. It is just really hard to continue on with life and everything we were doing before like Dance, Football, Soccer, Karate, Preschool, etc.
But, we are making do. We can't do it without Heavenly Fathers help. We know he has had a hand in this for sure.
So, we will have these little ones in our home for at least 5-6 months, Could be 12, or forever at this point. We just don't know. Our main goal is to teach, love, and try to make a positive impact on these kids.
It has been so rewarding to teach them about prayer and the gospel. Our oldest foster child said the prayer in Primary yesterday. It is so worth it to be a Foster Parent, but I wouldn't recommend it for the faint at heart. Because, it is very challenging.