Thanksgiving for Christmas Surprise

For the past year, Nathan and I have been working on being licensed as foster-to-adopt parents through our county’s children’s services. We have been planning to take in a little girl under the age of two in a “legal risk” placement; meaning that children’s services will most likely get permanent custody and the child will become free for adoption. Of course, there is always the chance that the birth family works out their issues and the little one is able to go back home to them.

We spent most of September and part of October taking nearly 40 hours of classes on foster parenting. We had to be licensed in CPR and first aid. Our home was inspected by the fire marshal for fire safety and we installed extra smoke alarms and fire extinguishers on each floor of the house. We handed over copies of our pets’ vaccine records, proof of car insurance, copies of monthly bills, medical exams on all four of us, proof of drivers licenses, birth certificates, social security cards, and pay stubs. We were finger printed, background checked, and interviewed nearly out of our minds. We spent the end of November and most of December with weekly two hour long visits from the social worker as she interviewed us about nearly every aspect of our lives thus far and where we want to be years down the road. We are looking forward to our final home visit on December 30th to finish up last minute details and to complete the official “Safety Inspection” – no dangerous chemicals in reach of kids, no locked doors, crib ready to go, etc.

Then everything changed in a moment. Apparently, God has a sense of humor. For the past year and a half, we have tried off and on to have another birth baby. Things were not working out and we took that as a sign to proceed full steam ahead with the foster to adopt plan – adoption being something that we both feel very strongly about. We have our two birth kids and were looking forward to adopting. In mid-November, I went to see my doctor and filled her in on the details – issues I had been having, our plan to adopt, etc. She ordered some tests and an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. She came back with the verdict that I have poly-cystic ovaries and that it might be difficult for me to become pregnant again without medical help. She prescribed birth control to help with the symptoms temporarily and told me to come back when I was ready to try for a baby, if we wanted to.

Several weeks passed while I waited to start the pills. I was looking forward to finally having a regular schedule and emotional stability - fewer hormones driving me and my family nuts. We fully focused all of our energy on the foster-to-adopt program and really looked forward to what the future would bring. Then I began to experience some spotting. When that continued for nearly two weeks, I anxiously called the doctor about when I could start my pills. The nurse told me to go ahead and start them right away. For some reason, I asked her if I should take a pregnancy test. She said I should, just to make me feel better, and to start the pills that night. Nathan dutifully picked up two tests for me at the dollar store, since we didn’t want to waste money on an expensive negative test. I took the test that night after dinner. It turned positive before it had even reached the control line! With both Libby and Caleb, my tests were barely positive when I took them. In fact, Caleb’s was so light that I had thrown it away and then pulled it out of the trash later in the day to see an extremely faint line (not recommended by the manufacturer). I freaked out and called Nathan into the room to verify what I was seeing. I ran the second test as well with the same result.

The past several weeks since that positive test have been a roller coaster of both exciting and scary appointments. First they said my hCG levels were right on, then too low, then too high. I had an ultrasound last week and this new doctor (my regular doctor was on vacation) was unable to find anything definite. He told me to watch for signs of an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage. We spent a very nervous weekend waiting for my next appointment on Monday afternoon. This ultrasound technician was much more skilled than the young inexperienced doctor I had seen the week before. She immediately found the tiny baby and it’s clearly beating heart. She turned up the volume and my friend Karrie and I could hear it beating loud and strong! They told me that I am seven weeks along and gave an estimated due date of August 11, 2009! It turns out that I was already pregnant when I had that first ultrasound in November; it was simply too early to tell. We missed listing this new blessing at the Thanksgiving table, even though this little one enjoyed the turkey dinner, too.

So now we wait. We are still somewhat in a state of shock, as we had wholeheartedly planned on adoption happening in the very near future. We are excited about this new little one who is coming and we are sad for the little one who is not coming yet. We have decided to finish our home study and get our foster parent license after all. The process has been grueling and we are not looking forward to starting it all over again later if we let our license lapse. We plan to keep up with the required continuing education classes to keep our license current so we are ready when/if the time is right to foster or adopt later on.

On a fun note, we waited to tell Mom and Dad R the baby news on Christmas Eve. We ordered special T-shirts for the kids to wear. The fronts of the shirts said, “I have a secret. . .” and the back said "I’m going to be a big Sister/ Brother". Both kids were wearing their shirts when we arrived at Mom and Dad’s Christmas Eve. Dad read the front of Caleb’s shirt without looking at the back and then took him outside to play. Mom read the back of Libby’s shirt and naturally assumed it was referring to a foster baby coming. Later, she noticed Caleb’s shirt said the same thing. She got this funny look on her face and said, “Are we missing something obvious?” We said that maybe they were missing something, and then gave them this framed photo of Libby and Caleb holding the ultrasound picture of Number Three.
Of course, they are both very excited for a new grand-baby on the way. Now everyone has started taking votes on the sex of the new baby. Libby and I are hoping for a girl, but we are all afraid it may be a boy. Caleb is such a handful . . . I hope this one – boy or girl – is a little more calm and good natured like Daddy than the other two! :)

We are looking forward to seeing what other humorous surprises God has in store for us this upcoming year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Running Behind

I just realized that it's been exactly two months since my last blog post. Wow! Time has really escaped me! We have been so busy lately, that the blog and lots of other things have been pushed to the back burner. We didn't even send out Christmas cards this year, and we didn't set up our tree or any decorations until just last week. Phew! Nathan has been working lots of overtime for the last two months. I have also been busy working, running the website for my cat rescue group, and of course, being mommy. We have both been insanely busy getting paperwork together and interviewing for the foster-to-adopt home study process with our social worker. She has made 4 visits to our home in the past month and a half, and we are looking forward to completing the last visit and home safety inspection next week. What a relief it will be to have this all completed and on to the next step - state licensing!

Libby and Caleb are excitedly looking forward to Christmas this year. Caleb and Yaguar the Pest have teamed up to systematically remove decorations from the tree every day since it went up. Libby and Caleb got to pick out little gifts for each other at the dollar store for the first time this year. Caleb didn't quite understand the whole gifting concept, but Libby had a blast finding things for Caleb. Caleb had a blast shopping for himself. Maybe, he'll do better next year. . . Libby got to help me wrap presents for the family and is very much into "secrets" lately. She loves telling everyone what Caleb is getting for Christmas, but she says not to tell him, because it's a secret.

Both kids will be in the children's Christmas program at church tomorrow morning. They are both too young to have any speaking or solo parts yet, but they will be singing (sort of) with the other children. Mom and Dad R., along with Josh and Zack will be joining us to see the kids' performance. We are looking forward to it!

In other news, we added a new car to our family a few weeks ago. We heard about a silver Dodge Grand Caravan that was looking for a new home. It had belonged to an older couple, but the husband had recently passed away. It is a 2001, but it only has 39,000 miles on it! I've never even driven a car with so few miles on it, let alone owned one! We are so excited about our new van. Of all of us, however, I think Mandie the dog is the most excited; she is no longer squished between two crabby children on trips to Grandma's. She can walk around while we are driving and still hasn't figured out where she should sit - too many options! We are now trying to sell our Subaru wagon to help pay for the new van. We are hoping that the money from the sale of the Subaru along with out tax return should pay off the van. Of course, don't count your chickens before they are hatched :) We had discussed purchasing a van, but we were not in a position to run out and buy one just yet. Then this deal popped up that was meant to be. We are excited to see God's provision, even we weren't looking for it directly.

We are continuing to trust God for our needs this upcoming year. It is such a blessing to look back and see all of the things that He has done in the past year. We are looking forward to seeing what plans He has for us in 2009. I'm sure it holds many surprises for all of us!

We have not taken as many pictures of the kids as usual lately, since our camera has been less than cooperative. Apparently being dropped on the floor is not good for it. It's been a good camera for several years, but it's looking forward to it's retirement soon. In the mean time, we'll just keep the battery taped in until we pick out a new one. Here are some photos from Nana and Grampy's visit in October, and photos from October, November, and December. More to come!

My Baby Turns Four

Last night was Libby and Nathan's birthday party, or rather, it was Libby's birthday party and Nathan attended it. The cake was a Barbie ballerina chocolate cake that Libby picked out. She was the star of the show. I think poor Nathan ended up taking most of the pictures, too, so he's not even in any of the photos. Libby thoroughly enjoyed her party and all of her gifts. She had a princess, ballerina, bride theme for the whole party and loved every minute of it. She could hardly wait to open her presents. We made her eat some dinner and have her cake first. She had a hard time blowing out her candles, but she got them all eventually. Then she could only eat half of her cake before declaring that she was done with cake and was ready for presents. She got a Disney princess movie from Aunt Joy and Uncle Dan, a Belle costume from Uncle Zack and Uncle Josh, a Barbie wedding dress, Cinderella light-up slippers, tiny mermaid doll, and The Little Mermaid movie from Grandma and Grandpa, and a Barbie bride doll and Barbie floor activity book from Mommy and Daddy. She also got a princess dress-up gown complete with matching Barbie gown made by Nana when they were visiting a few weeks ago (still waiting to get the pictures from Nana's camera). She was ecstatic about each gift as she opened them. The rest of the pictures can be seen on my Picasa page.

And here's a picture of our gorgeous Yaguar resting on the back of the couch after the party last night. He was so cute while he was asleep that I had to take his picture.

In foster parent news, Nathan and I have completed all of our foster parent classes, CPR classes, FBI fingerprinting and background checks, and have passed our home fire inspection! Hooray. We have all had our physicals (both kids are way off the chart for height, FYI) and have filled out reams of paperwork. It's amazing what they make you go through before you can be foster parents! Honestly, I think ALL parents should have to go through this process before having kids - maybe there would be a lot fewer kids in the foster care system! Anyway, we will be starting our home study soon. After another several months of working with our social worker, we should be finished with our home study and will be applying for our license from the state. Once that goes through - we are hoping in the early spring - we will be ready for our first placement at any time! We are really excited to see what happens!

The many sayings of Libby (and grunts of Caleb)

Libby has been giving us a run for our money lately with some pretty amusing comments and questions beyond her years. I guess that's what happens when you are not quite four. Caleb isn't yet to the questioning stage (thank goodness!!!) but he also has his little funny Calebisms as he's learning to communicate in other ways than caveman grunting.

Here's a sampling of some of the funny things they have said over the past several weeks - yes, I have been keeping a list :)

"Mommy, how do the baby kittens get inside the mommy kitty's tummy when she's peggent(pregnant)?" yikes! Um, God puts them there. "But how does he put them there?" He just does. "Oh."

"Where was I before I was born?" I guess you were in heaven, Libby. "Oh. Was KK (Caleb) in heaven before he was born?"

"When is Aunty Libby going to have my little sister?" This brings up the whole cousins vs. siblings discussion, not to mention the fact that Aunty Libby might actually have a BOY. Oh my!

On a rare Sunday when I actually got to stay in bed a little later than normal. "Mommy, when are you going to get up today?" Never. "But, Mommy, you HAS to get up and eat some beckist (breakfast). If you don't eat some food, you will not grow and you will be too small for Daddy!"

While planting flowers outside: "Mommy, I saw a bee!" Bees live here outside, Libby. "Mommy, did you know that bees make honey for McDonald's?"

"How you doin', Boys?" said to Nathan, Zack, Josh and Papa while they were moving Zack's furniture.

"You and me can go hiking with shahks (sharks)!"

"Can we buy that?" Yes, we need to buy that today. Go ahead and put it in the cart, please. "Well, is it on sale?"

"Mommy, I'm full of bologna, you are full of cheese, and Caleb is full of mustard." Whenever she says something ridiculous, I tell her she is full of bologna.

While folding laundry on the living room floor: "If you don't get this laundry all folded, you know what's gonna happen?" leans forward and whispers, "I'm gonna vacuum it all up!" laughs and says, "Was that a good joke?"

"I almost fell in the potty! I almost fell to my death!"

"Yes, but. . . . " said after any directions or instructions or corrections given in the past two weeks. Ahhhh!!!!

"That makes my legs all nervous and tickle-y!" after being startled by a speeding motorcycle zooming by our car on the highway.

"Someday, I'm going to grow up to a mommy and make YOU go to bed!"


And here's Caleb's version of speaking lately.

"Mammie" Mandie
"Meap" Meat
"Pooooooooop!!!" Poop
"Ewwww!" yuck - usually said in the context of the above topic
"Pea" Please
"Ah-bee" Obey
"Dae-eee" Daddy
"Mama" or Mum" Mommy
"Ah-Pee" our neighbor Mr. Pete
"Ah-PEE!" motorcycle (Pete has a motorcycle and Caleb is infatuated)
"Me-ah" Come here
"Teeeeee" I would like to brush my teeth
"Dih-doo" Thank you
"Key-key" kitty
"Lellow" Love you
"Ni-Ni" Good night
"Tah-Tay" Caleb (KK)
"Meeeee" "My" That is private property!
"Go, cah" Let's go for a drive.
"Biiiiii" Bike
"Nannie" Nana
"Ah-tah! Ah-tah!" anything else that Caleb would like to say and doesn't know or can't pronounce.

Running Behind as Usual

Now that September is officially over, here's the update for the month :)

This month our baby turned 2! Caleb had a really cute Thomas the Tank cake that Grandma picked out for him. He started the terrible two's immediately before he blew out the candles on his cake and has been exceptionally rotten ever since :) It's a really good thing that he's cute.

Nathan and I took over 36 hours of foster and adoptive parent training while our Mom and Dad Rohrer, Uncle Zack, and Karrie and Clay babysat Caleb and Libby for several late nights and long weekends. Nathan and I still have some final classes in CPR and First aid and a few more reams of paperwork to fill out before we start the home study process.

We nursed two orphaned and malnourished kittens back to health and enjoyed playing with them, but are happy to have our living room back to being "kitten-free".

We had a lot of fun with the kids and endured further naughtiness from Caleb.

And we finished off the month by driving to the Detroit airport to pick up our newest Siberian boy kitty Yaguar straight from Moscow.

We are all looking forward to Mom and Dad's visit in a few days as well! I'm afraid we won't have all of the projects done that we had planned to do before they arrived, but we'll put them to work when they come.

Also, if you haven't read your facebook lately, Matt and Libby are expecting their first baby next spring! I've been having a hard time being quiet about it. In addition to all the regular craziness, Mom and I are working on the nursery decor for the new baby. I have been very busy and have cooked up all kinds of surprises for the new room. I can't wait until the baby shower to show Libby officially. And speaking of Libby, Libby Jr. that is, she kept asking us when Aunty Libby is going to have her sister. We had a hard time convincing her that Aunty Libby's baby is her cousin not her sister, and, horrors, it might even be a boy! She's finally caught on and now every few days, she says, "I wonder when Aunty Libby is going to have my cousin? I think it's a girl cousin." This is usually followed by, "When are you going to have a sister for me, Mommy?" Grrrrrrr. If only it was that easy :)

Click here for the rest of the photos from September.

Goodbye August, Hello September

The Walls and Border Before Paint

After the success we had in painting our bedroom, we foolishly decided to paint the stark white living room and dining room the same week. It did not come together quite so nicely as the bedroom. I started by buying the paint color too dark and having to purchase more in a lighter shade called Camel. It took us most of the week of extremely late nights, but we finally finished it (and got to watch a LOT of Olympics in the process)! It looks so much better without the hideous 70's inspired border and heavy drapes. I still need to touch up the woodwork in a few spots and install the new hardware on the windows, but the worst is over. We still need to paint the dining room as well, but it can wait! I've had enough painting this summer to last me for a while. Painting with the kids and cats wandering around and making messes behind my back (or right in front of me for that matter) is exhausting and frustrating. I think I need a live-in nanny :)

After Paint! (curtains not back up yet in photo)

FireplaceNew Fan
Wall of Family Photos

The next weekend project was to clean out the basement. We went through all of the kids old baby clothes and paraphernalia and organized them into plastic bins by sex, age, and size. What a job that was! It look me most of the week to finish sorting through my "weekend project".

The mess in the playroomLibby playing with baby clothes

I finally got the basement cleaned out just in time to set up the kittening box for our very pregnant foster kitty, Sunflower. Unfortunately, she decided that she should give birth in a litter box instead. I spent all afternoon playing midwife to the poor kitty as she was having a difficult time. Most of her babies were presenting breech, and she was exhausted. We knew she was having seven babies from the X-rays that we took several weeks ago. Number seven, however was just not coming out, even after 4 hours of labor and still no progress. Finally, at 1 AM, I called my friend Karrie and we took the poor cat and all 6 kittens to the emergency vet. After several more hours of waiting, additional X-rays, two injections of pitocin, and warnings that the cat may need a C-section, she delivered the last baby. It was stillborn after all that time. By the time I got home and into bed, it was 4:30 AM.

Sunflower in her nestSix perfect little babies!

Caleb woke up bright and early a few hours later, and we headed over to Mom and Dad Rohrer's house to celebrate Labor Day. The kids had a blast swimming around in the pool all morning. Caleb learned how to float on his back and was actually jumping right off the diving board all on his own. Libby was a little less enthusiastic about jumping in, but with Uncle Zack's encouragement, she was soon jumping off the side to him and practicing floating and putting her face in the water.

Libby Having Fun


Floating, Laughing Caleb


Loving the back float!


Olympic Diving Gold!


Libby being towed by Zack on a noodle

Flying Caleb

Caleb went down for a nap after a few hours in the pool, and Libby got to go to the park with Grandma and Papa where she fed the ducks and was nipped on the fingers by an over enthusiastic goose. When she came home, she curled up in Papa's chair and said she was cold. When we took her temperature, she had a 103.4 fever. She continued feel lousy all afternoon. We let her sleep as long as possible, but finally packed everyone up and headed home early in the evening. By the time we arrived home, both kids were running 104 and 105 degree fevers. We are assuming that they have Hand Foot and Mouth Disease since it starts with a fever and continues with lesions and blisters in the mouth on the hands and feet. Both kids have the lesions in their mouths already and have a faint rash so far on their hands and feet. The virus is supposed to last for around a week and then goes away by itself. Both kids are feeling somewhat better today, although they are both still running fevers. They are enjoying being pampered and eating the ice cream and popsicles that Nathan brought home for them tonight. Hopefully, they will be over this bug and back to themselves soon!

Big Foot in better days


Caleb playing with the squirt gun (note the marker art on his arms)

For more pictures from the last few moths, click on the links for July, August and September.

Sunday Visit

We went down to Canton to visit for the afternoon and to collect our son. He had a great time while he was staying at Grandma and Papa's house for the weekend, and he actually seemed happy to see us when we arrived. Later in the day, Nathan thought it would be fun to climb the tree in the front yard. I missed out on that action with the camera, but I did get Libby and Caleb in the tree. Here are the latest shots of Libby, Caleb, and Mandie.

Insanity Saturday

This weekend we worked on home projects. We decided a while back that we are sick of our "disgusting pink" (as Nathan calls it) bedroom and we finally got around to changing it today. I had actually purchased the paint with my birthday money back in January. Today we made the drastic change from "disgusting pink" to marina blue. Caleb went to spend the weekend with Grandma and Papa, and Libby stayed home to help us paint.

Here are the before pictures with most of the furniture moved out.

We had the primer tinted, so we started out with a nice cool blue against the pink walls. Libby had a great time experimenting with the paint.

And more blue! Libby painted all of this herself! She was the only family member to not make a major spill or slop while painting.

I painted myself, too. I wasn't paying attention to the drastically tipping container of paint that I was holding. Voila! I got a chilly surprise when I dumped paint all down the front of myself. Painted person. And, yes, since it soaked right through, the skin under my shirt matches the paint on the outside. Yikes!

Here's Millie sleeping on top of the box springs that we being stored in Caleb's room for the day.

Libby got bored of painting when we started the real painting over the primed coat. She experimented with the camera instead. She took a few bad ones of us. The one of Nathan missing his top half cracks me up! I guess that's her point of view when she's looking at Daddy.

And here's the finished product (starring Petunia) at 11 PM this evening. Thanks to Mom and Dad for keeping Caleb! If he had been home to help us, the floor would undoubtedly have been painted blue as well.