A Place to Write

The further we get into our foster care journey the more I realize how alone we are. I don't know of any other couple like us out there. We're a young couple, both working full time and we have two little girls of our own at home. And yet-- we're going to foster. And we're going to foster an older child. One that's probably had trouble before. I've done my research. I've found blogs and Facebook groups and more blogs with people who've fostered for years and are sharing their experiences, bringing together a community of people who foster. Still, I haven't found anyone exactly like us. I have found couples who've adopted older kids. But it's usually a kid they knew, through a youth program or mentoring or a neighbor who ended up in need and they took them in, naturally. There's nothing natural about what we are taking on. We're opening our home up to a complete stranger. One that doesn't reasonably fit into the mold of our fam...

Our foster care journey has... not yet begun. We started this process in July. Early July. It's now almost Thanksgiving. So that kind of sucks. I'm ok not having a placement yet, but not being licensed is freaking me out. Can't I just have that paper, please? So I can check that off my to-do list? I've checked off everything else. We're just waiting on the state to come out and look things over and check off our boxes. That's all. But it's taking too long. Brendon and I went the other day to get our TB test done (our agency requires it) and as we were leaving we were talking about how weird it is that we've been done with training for so long and nothing has happened. And the excitement is gone. We're still excited, we're still on board, but we're not anxious anymore, you know? The system has lost our engagement. I'm sure we'll get it back in January when we actually do become licensed and when we get to meet some kids and whe...

Kaybree: Yesterday I went to the farm with Amy and Tess and we saw baby goats! Me: Cool! Kaybree: Yeah, they were so cute. For Christmas, will you get me two baby goats? Me: Haha, no. Kaybree: Amy said you would! We love Vertuccio farms. We always get a season pass. You're not allowed to go with Amy anymore. We traded in all of your Halloween candy for some cash and went to Target and bought Shopkins. It was awesome! Apparently all the Shopkins have names so we sat around looking at all the Shopkins and looking up their names. This particular group fit a sports theme and came with a locker to keep them in. The locker has a face but it's not an actual Shopkins so it does not have a name. I told you this and you said "Why didn't Jesus give him a name?!" I laughed for a long time. Added Nov. 16: I felt bad originally posting this because I didn't have any quotes from Eisley. It's not that you're not funny too, you just usually make...

Amy has given Eisley a new nickname. Lazily. It's mean and I should probably be offended--but it's true. Little girl, you sure are stubborn. There's no arguing with Eisley. If something is not going your way, you shut down. Put on that awesome pouty face (I need to get a picture, you have a solid pouty face), fold your arms and give a "Uhn." to any question asked of you. You also give a very sure of yourself "No." when anyone says it's time to clean up anything that you are not ready to clean up. While the other kids get to work you can often be found vegging out in the same room as them, not touching any toys. It's your thing. Maybe it's a phase? Last night was Halloween. As soon as costumes hit the stores I decided this year I would give up my fantasies of awesome family costumes and allow you girls to pick out your own costumes this year. So we went to Kid to Kid and I showed you both racks and racks of costumes and said "Choose w...

Girlies, I love your Dad. I want you to know that. He is awesome. Today as I was walking into work I thought about a trip we took a few years ago to Prescott. It was the first time we had left you alone (and if I remember correctly it was just Kaybree at the time). While we were there we walked to a book store by the square, picked out a thriller, and then read it together, silently, for the whole day. It was really romantic and cute--even though the book was kind of scary. This time of year I always think back to when we were dating. Our first date we went to DI, bought each other outfits, rode a double bike to the park and then went back to his house to play sidewalk Pictionary. It was a double date. We won the game. We have photos to prove it. A few weeks later for my birthday we went to Schnept Farms in Queen Creek and your dad gave me a Suns jersey, tickets to the season opener (my first Suns game ever) and a photo he had photoshopped of the two of us in Hawaii together--bec...

This Saturday will be our final foster care training class. Then your dad and I will be considered professionals I guess. It may still be several months till we are officially licensed and I'll probably request to hold off on placement till after the holidays. I'm worried. Not necessarily about the child that will come to live with us but about everything else. I'm afraid people will judge the child that comes to live with us--and that you will too. Because people are ignorant and so are you. You don't mean to be, I just need to be better about preparing you and teaching you. We have a group home in our neighborhood and the girls from the group home often come to church. They don't go to class, they just hang out in the foyer. They eat snacks and sit and talk. They wear jeans and sweaters. Apparently people in the ward are annoyed with that. They think the girls dress inappropriately and are disrespectful. They shouldn't be wandering the halls. They encourag...

I'm not even sure how to begin this. We're about to make a huge life change. It's so big I don't even know how deeply it will effect us. It will change the course of our lives and possibly several others as well. How do you explain that? We've decided to become foster parents. To teenagers. One teenager, actually. We don't know who yet. We just know we have one extra bedroom and one slice of love left to give. My job is challenging. That's not the right word but hard isn't the right word either. My actual job duties are satisfying and sort of come natural to me. I enjoy researching and writing and educating. That's all good. What's challenging is being surrounded by stories of broken families all day and not doing anything to directly effect change. There are so many kids out there in need of a good home and all day I'm a cheer leader to everyone else saying "Get involved!" and yet I'm doing nothing. Yes, I'm busy. I w...

We've had a good summer. So it's time to include ALL the photos in one big post. We planned a big trip to Provo, Utah at the end of June. We technically went for a wedding but we took two days to get there and two days to get back and stopped everywhere in between. Of course Eisley ended up getting sick the night before we left. Made for a very miserable little girl the first day in the car but luckily once we stopped for the night the barfing was behind us and you were perfectly healthy the rest of the trip. We just didn't eat eggs. I put so much planning into this trip! I made all these games for you to play on a cookie sheet. They were magnetized so they wouldn't slide in the car. Kaybree loved the puzzles. We stopped briefly in Vegas. It was freakin hot and miserable. We sweated it out long enough to get lunch and then decided we'd never like to go back again. Vegas Temple You two held hands the w...