Twins

Some facts about the twins:

They are fraternal.

Cherub is a boy. Thumbelina is a girl.

Cherub's hair is thick, light brown with blond highlights, long and very curly.

Thumbelina's hair is fine, straight and blond.

Cherub has big brown eyes.

Thumbelina has big blue eyes.

Cherub is a sturdily built little boy who weighs about 10 pounds more than his sister and at least 3 inches taller

Thumbelina is very petite.

And still, I have been asked if they are identical or fraternal.

So, this video that my sister-in-law, E, sent me, made me laugh out loud.

The Week in Review

1.) Cherub got moved up to the older tods class on Monday. Intellectually, he is on their level, but socially, he is a little behind. We and the teachers are hoping that being with the slightly older kids will help catch him up. So far, he loves it and is doing really well. When I take him to his classroom in the morning, he does a little squeal of excitement. It’s fun seeing him so happy about learning. He takes his shoes off all the time, but especially in the car. I think I will have him walk out to the car barefoot in the mornings because I end up putting his shoes back on him when we get to school.


2.) DQ had a good week at school, too, and is still in her same class. The director said that she is not ready to move up because she does not talk as much as Cherub. In my head, I was thinking, “Are you kidding me?!” In the car and at home, she doesn’t stop talking about something or other, even if it’s copying what I say. Now that she and her brother are in different classes, she is talking more in her classroom. When Cherub does his screech, he gets marched to his room for a short timeout. When we’re in the car, we try to ignore it, but yesterday I said what his teachers say to him, “What do you need? What?” A few minutes after I said that, DQ piped up, “What you want? What?!” And then, “No, man. No man!” When she’s whining, which is a lot, I say to her, “No, ma’am. No ma’am!” Great, I sound like a drill sergeant/Rapper.  I was laughing so hard in the car.

3.) John has been back to school for the second week, and I am missing my kitchen fairy. When he was off from classes in September, the kitchen was always clean, the dishes were done and I got lazy about it. So, now that he’s back to classes, the kitchen is not so clean. But I’m getting back in the groove of the schedule now, and things are looking up now that our dryer is repaired. Thanks for replacing the belt, John! The other night, I got home around 6:30pm, was late in getting the kids their dinner and the house was a wreck.  I had forgotten to plug in my cell phone, and missed a call from my sister-in-law asking if they could stop by to borrow some horseshoes.  If I had heard the call, I would have raced home (doing the speed limit, course),  thrown stuff in to different rooms and faked a 'clean' house.  No such luck. My sister-in-law and three of her kids arrived at the house and Jill was going nuts because she was so excited to see them.  Luckily, I have a nice family who understands that messy homes happen.  See? Good lessons  in humility for me this week.  However, I do want to have them over for dessert soon so that they can come over AND the house will be clean. :)

4.) On my lunch break, I went to the Super-Walmart to get some fruit and veggies with the kids’ WIC checks. My pride about using these is lessening as the months go by, and as I see how much they do help. Besides, it’s not about me, it’s about the littlies, and it’s for them. So, if people behind me in line are wondering why I’m using government checks, I need not care about it and not want to yell out, “I’m a foster mom and these are not my checks!” That would be the big ol’ bad ol’ pride talking, so this has been a nice lesson in humility for me.  And what would it matter if I did need them? It's meant to help people out, and right now, with my income and two kids, we can use the help.


5.) On the way to Wal-Mart, I heard this song. I really love the melody and words and the message of the video about small actions to help others. The song also reminded me that I’m happy to have John and be able to run to him and the Lord when craziness in the world and families is going on.

6.) Yesterday I had some blood drawn to figure some things out. I hope to hear the results today, but with the long weekend for some (my company works on Columbus Day), it may not be until Tuesday.

7.) The governor of Washington has made across the board cuts in staff and budgets---this includes private foster care agencies. Their budgets were also cut by 60%. We got a letter from the foster care director of our agency. Her office found out about the cuts on 10/1, and they are effective immediately. So, this will obviously affect visits and how much time can be spent on each case. I think the wonderful woman who is now supervising the visits is one of the staff to be laid off.

Here are 2 photos of DQ wearing another blouse and dress of mine circa 1977.
Also, one of Jill wearing glasses just because she is so sweet and cute.

Prayers for Sew

Prayers and congratulations are in order for my new blogging friend and future foster mom, Sew. She is pregnant! We will pray for a healthy pregnancy and protection for this child.

You can follow her journey through infertility, thyroid cancer, and more right here.

St. Gianna and St. Gerard, pray for us.

Choosing Thomas

TK and Deidrea Laux were planning for their first child's birth when they got the very difficult news that their son, Thomas, had Trisomy 13 and would not live long after birth if he survived it at all. This is a beautiful, sad and heroic love story about a little baby boy and the parents who fell in love with him before he was born. Life is so precious----why don't we love each other like it were the last day of our lives? Thomas Laux and his parents taught me that today.

Mayim Bialik

Anyone remember "Blossom," an early 90s sitcom about a teenager played by Mayim Bialik? She was a young actress and practicing Jew who is now married with children and holds a doctorate degree. What I found interesting was that her parenting methods were called 'controversial.' However, they are pretty normal among a lot of family and friends of mine. Hearing her talk about the importance of her faith and raising her kids in an atmosphere where their faith is lived was very edifying. Check it out here.

I love this!

Natural Child: Any child who is not artificial.



Real Parent: Any parent who is not imaginary.



Your Own Child: Any child who is not someone else's child.



Adopted Child: A natural child, with a real parent, who is all my own.



-Rita Laws, PhD