Family Days

The weather is starting to warm up for a few days at a time. When the sun is out we are outside! We love taking the kids to new places and see how they interact with people and new scenery. Last weekend we took them to the waterfront for lunch at Joe's Crab Shack and then a walk to Fort Vancouver. They had a blast watching the planes fly in and out of Portland Airport. Jayden gave a little yell when a boat would go by, it was priceless! Our walk was around 3 miles and Jayden was such a trooper walking the whole way. I need to rewind a few days, I have been reading him the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. He loves pointing to the pictures and asking what everything is, which is great, then I'll ask him and he'll tell me what everything is. He kept saying "wolf bad Mommy". Well at the Fort he made me so proud. In one of the buildings they had a station set up for the kids and it was furs on display of all things. The animal pelts were foxes, bears, beavers, badgers and coyotes. Jayden walked right up to the coyote and whispered "Wolf, Bad Wolf"! I had to laugh. The guy who was there helping out the kids told him that it wasn't a wolf and proceeded to tell him it was a coyote. I step in and told Jayden, great job, yes it's the bad wolf. He looked at me and smiled. That night we came home and went to read a different story and he pointed out the wolf from the stories and said, "Mommy, that's him, the bad wolf the bad wolf! I loved sharing that moment with him, only Jayden and I knew what he meant inside that building, it was OUR moment!

Today we took Jayden and Tyran to the Farmer's Market in Vancouver. We walked around and ate lunch and looked at all the booth's. Watching them react to what was around them was incredible. Tyran waved and said "hi" to everyone who past us. Jayden impressed us by eating a whole corn dog today. We stopped to watch a performer called "The Curt Show". He was funny and Tyran would clap. Jayden would rather walk around, so after the show we took them to a store. Jason and I would walk by it and see these cool sweat shrits in the window. So today we went in to see them. We tried one on Jayden and he loved it. Well being new parents we love shopping for them. He gets so excited when he sees fun things to play with. While we were in the store the brought out a remote control helicopter. He screamed with excitement and everyone loved it. The bad thing about that store is that they try and push everything down your throat. I just wanted to be left alone to walk around and see things for myself with the kids. Tyran also came out with a very cute pair of sandals for our summer vacation. We ended our day at home, with family time. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Love,

Jason & Christina

Our home is full of Love

Really need to be better at this bolg thing. Fast forward to Oct 27th. On Oct 27th we had 2 brothers come and live in our home. Isaiah-9yrs and Acadian-3yrs. We were a little scared with having an older child in our home. You hear such crazy stories about older children in Foster Care. This home went from a family of 2, to a family of 3, then a family of 4 in a matter of 2 1/2 mo. It was very hard at first. My husband was so terrfic, he made sure Isaiah was registered for school, found him a Boy Scouts troop closer to our home. He was on the ball. He took all the kids to their appointments while I handled Tyran's appointments. We enjoyed our 1st Halloween as a family. It was a lot of fun. I wish I could attached photos of the boys, but I'm not allowed too. In the mean time we were wanting to adopt Jayden and visit him. Our life was so busy, Isaiah spends every weekend with his stepfather Jordon, who's really like a birth father to him. We call him Isaiah's father, because they way he loves and takes care of him. We are sad to say that by the end of May 2011 he'll be leaving our home to live "Forever" with his dad Jordon. We are very happy for Isaiah just sad because we'll miss him so. We make plans for Jayden to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with us. As we near Thanksgiving Jason and Isaiah go and pick him up. When Jayden gets here he's not feeling very well. My poor littl guy spent the night vomiting in his bed all night. Woke up the a high fever and we felt that maybe he wanted to be back with his grandma. So we drove him home and waited until Christmas. Christmas came and Jayden spent a week with us. Christmas in our home was wonderful. The kids had a blast, 3 days of opening gifts. What more can a child ask for. After Christmas Jayden left with his grandparents and we missed him so much. I remember sitting at the table looking at his empty chair. I went upstairs and cried. We had a plan to move him into our home in the middle of January. Jason and I were very upset the night he left. Kassy called me that night and said that they talked about it and they both thought the same thing. That night when they left our house the stopped off at Walmart and at one point Jayden ran up to a girl how kind of looked like me and asked her to pick him up. That's when Kassy knew where he wanted to be. So that Friday Dec 31st Jayden moved into his home. We were so happy and sad. Kassy and I are great friends so of course my heart ached for her and Kirk. That's when our family grew to 5. Our house was loud and a little crazy!! There were times where we just wanted to be able to bond with just Jayden and grow as a family. We knew that the Lord had brought these kids to us for a reason. So as the days went on our family had some struggles. We thought for the best interest of Acadian, we needed to find him a new home. Isaiah would be leaving soon, at that point he was to be living with his day already. It was the hardest decision we had to make. So our social worker gave us the name and phone number of a couple she thought would make a great fit for him. She asked us to talk with them and interview them to see if we thought the same thing. We did and from day one we knew there were his family. After phones calls we set up a weekend for Acadian to stay and from the moment he came home he couldn't stop talking about them. His transition into their home was smooth and perfect for Acadian. It was very hard for us. Packing his belongings was very emotional for me. I cried the whole time. We talk to them often and Acadian, he's so VERY happy, it melts my heart. I couldn't be happier for him. In the mean time we are bonding so much with Jayden, our family's love is growing with each passing day. We get all of the paper work in order for the adoption of Jayden.

March 18, 2011 is the day Jayden became our son! We were so happy to have our family there with us and my friend Lindsey. We couldn't believe how fast the hearing was for the adoption. When it was over we just looked at eachother and said ok and we walked out. That's when the tears started. To think I'm a Mommy to this wonderful handsome little boy. Thank you Lord for hearing my prayers and taking away my pain so that I could be strong enough to make it to the day I met this beautiful little boy. This little boy who I love so much, Thank you Lord for lifting us up when we were hurting the most so that we had the chance to hold him in our arms and listen to him call us Mommy & Daddy, to say I Love You to us! It took me almost 2 weeks for it to really sink in that he was our son. I remember telling my Mom before we left for court that I was so nervous, I had butterflys in my stomach like the day of my Wedding. She laughed and hugged me. That was a crazy week. Tyran was very sick with the flu hopping Jayden and Isaiah didn't catch it. The best was that we were Jayden's parents before his birthday! Watching our son at his party was the best. When we all sang Happy Birthday to him and he yelled it's my birthday, yeah! It was the best.

We are truly Thankful to the Lord for our blessings. Even on our bad days, we couldn't be happier. We love being parents and getting to talk with our friends. I'm very thankful to have a friend, Beth, who has 3 boy and a little girl. To be able to call or talk to her at church and ask her did your boys do this, how did you handle it! Plus all of my Hannah Sister's who I get to spend time with and Rejoice with!

Love,
Jason & Christina

We Did It!

It's been way too long since our last post! Here's our update:

On Aug 4th 2010 we had our final inspection of our home for our Foster License. My Mom, Sande and Taryn were here. Mark our inspector came over to check our house one more time. We were expecting him to tell us, ok now you have to wait 5-10 more days and you'll be Licensed. Instead he looked at us there in our soon to be child's room and gave us a really big smile and said, "I knew you would have everything done, so I'm very happy to say that as of this morning you are Licensed for Fostering". I was so happy I couldn't move. He kind of laughed and looked at us and said it's ok to cheer, scream or cry. We just thanked him and laughed. It wasn't until after he left that we came into our living room where my Mom was sitting and said Thank You Lord!! My Mom asked us how it went and we told her it's done, we have our license. Then we cheered and jumped up and down! We just embraced eachother and cried. After 13 1/2 years our prayers were going to be answered. We didn't know how quick it would happen!

On Aug 5th 2010, the next day, the girls and I drove about an 1hr away to go shopping. We had just went into our 1st store when Jay called me. He said I needed to get home right away. I asked if I had locked him out of the house or something. He said, "No Chris, I just got a call from Social Services and they have a 10mo old boy who needs a home for right now. He gave me the details and said we needed to go pick him up if we wanted too. I remember looking at my Mom and telling her. I felt sick to my stomach at first. I've taken care of children but they always went home after a few hours. This was going to be different. He may one day be ours. My Mom went and got Sande and Taryn. We walked to the car and Sande offered to drive home, but I needed to drive so I wouldn't panic. Then it was great because I didn't know what a 10mo baby would need. So they made a list, we were so Thankful they were here! When I got home Jason and I put in our Car seat and were on our way! We prayed on the way over and couldn't believe it had only been 1 day, well not even 24 hours since we had our License. When we got there we met our Tyran. He was so happy and full of smiles. I picked him up and didn't want to put him down. We signed all of our paperwork, not knowing what we were doing and brought him home. We had to stop off and buy a play yard. When we got home my family was here and they helped us take him a bath and feed him. After that he play with Taryn and us for a while, of course we had to take some pictures. That first night was a hard one for Tyran. It took me a while to put him to bed, but after a night or two it was too easy. On Monday I had to attend a meeting regarding Tyran and his family and also his care. I met his parents and we've had a great relationship ever since.

On Aug 9th 2010 after Tyran's meeting I came home to pick him up and take him for a visit with his parents. As I was walking out the door I received a phone call from my friend Patti. She knew of someone who needed to find a "Forever Home" for their Grandson. He was 2 1/2 at the time and would we be interested. She gave me the phone number to the Grandmother if we wanted to think about it. We talked for a few minutes and then I was off to take Tyran. I prayed about it and called Jason. We talked about it and decided to call her. So I did and after a few phone calls we got to meet Jayden. We meet at a Chuck E Cheese in Longview and had a blast.

Not only did we connect with Jayden but we also connected with his Grandma Kassy. Kassy and I would talk a few times a week and started meeting them on the weekends to start our transition with Jayden. In the mean time we are connecting with Tyran and doing everything you need to do the first 30 days they are with you. Our life was full of appointments and visits. We got to experience a lot of firsts with Tyran. His 1st Birthday, 1st swing ride, 1st steps. It was amazing. We could not stop rejoicing in the Lord. We knew that our Journey wasn't over yet. There were nights that I would stare at the toys from Tyran playing and cry because the Lord was letting me be a Mommy to this little guy. I'd look at the diapers organizer and be happy. This is where I will stop and post more later!

Love,
Jason & Christina