NOT FUN THINGS...

Coming home from vacation & getting a stomach virus in the same week! A NOT fun thing to do.
There was so much I wanted to blog about. I wanted to tell you about going to sign what I call the "first step" papers for David. Meaning in our state, the child no longer gets reimbursements, daycare or medical coverage. They are yours..BUT, they still come for visits, you still have to have court permission to take them out of the state, and they have the right to say"NOT yours" any time they say. During this signing the very nice adoption SW, was giving us his "life history" and having us sign papers saying we were going to adopt him, her supervisor had to be present I use "present" very loosely here. She had her chin in her hand, elbow propped up, looking blankly at the wall the whole time. About 20 minutes into the whole thing, I guess she got bored, got up, said congratulations and walked out. The girl who came in to notarize the papers showed more warmth than she did. Just weird.
Then that life history I told you about. It came from ME! They employ a service that calls foster parents to get an idea what the child is like, personality, likes, dislikes, problems ect, to give to prospective adoptive parents. It just so happens in this case the one giving to info, happens to be the one who turns out to adopt him. The reason I have to be concerned is.....hardly any of it is correct! They did the interview over the phone when he was about 16 months old. In the history it said he was saying 3-4 word sentences. HA! and a lot of other stuff, I know they put in to make it seem like he was more on target developmentally. I know better. What I worry about now that I've seen one of these. Do people who are looking to adopt and who rely on these things to give an accurate picture of the children they are adopting, getting what they read about? Has anyone else seen this problem?
And now, for some good news. We went in to file the final adoption paper work and now all we are waiting on is.........TO BE FINGER PRINTED AGAIN.......YES, our state has a new law we didn't know about. ANY ADOPTIVE PARENTS HAVE TO BE FINGER PRINTED between the time the final adoption paperwork is filed and the final court date. Did you get that.....between the time it's filed and the time of final adoption hearing. Our state gives 45 days between the two. It was taking up to 5 months to get finger prints back when the 18 yr old had to be finger printed in October! BUT the atty said he hasn't had to refile one yet.....since January. Comforting. By the way, the court does not care if you are foster parents and have been finger printed more than a prisoner at Sing Sing, you have to do it again, in the time frame above. How much more difficult could they make things?
Am I complaining too much?
Ok, I'm done now. I'm going to try and get some pictures from vacation up this weekend.

NEVER MIND!

welllll now, don't I feel silly.
"They" call with an emergency! Help, help, please help. Only for a few hours, so and so was left at school and the foster parents went away for the weekend (respite care to pick up from school) I don't know what we're going to do. He rode the bus home, he's home alone, he lives in your neighborhood, pleasepleaseRunGetHimNowOrHeWillDie! I say OK, but you know I just got back from vacation a few hours ago, and I have 3 children here. (Iwanted to say,) what do you reckon I should do with them, leave them home alone ages 1,2 & 6, and run pick up your 15 yr old who will die in 15 minutes without supervision? I didn't ask, because I was afraid they would say,"uh, yes." But, I said,"Give me 10 minutes to get the kids loaded up, and I'll go pick him up. I'll keep him here til someone from respite care comes to pick him up." (please bear in mind he lives around the corner) By the time I get there, the respite worker has realized the mistake and picked him up.(I didn't know this at the time) I sit, I wait for 30 minutes thinking, he's not off the bus yet, not coming to the door because he doesn't know me from Adam, ect, ect. I go back home, unpack all the cranky babies from sitting in the car for 30 minutes, get them settled down. I call the worker who called me to see what has happened. Again, how silly can I be? She's gone home for the day! I'm worried what might have happened, this was a life and death emergency after all. So, silly me, I thought for sure someone would call me back to say, Don't worry, All is fixed, Thank YOU for jumping thru hoops for us. NO. No one called back AT ALL. Finally about 8:00pm, I had worked myself into a tizzy & called his foster parents to see if the mess had worked it's self out, or if he was sitting all alone in a dark house too afraid to come out. They said, "Oh, yes, the respite worker called to say they picked him up at 3:30 at the house." That was 15 minutes BEFORE the worker called to ask/demand I drop whatever I was doing and go pick him up. and 5 minutes before she walked out the door to go home. You know, sometimes a phone call to say, sorry to bother you, it's taken care of. Thanks tho. It's not like they don't have my phone number!
Why do I do this again?

WE'RE BACK!!!

I say that like it's a good thing.....well I guess it is, if I don't miss the 85 degree weather much.
I don't miss the crowds, & what I call hunting & foraging for food in that place! When you find a decent place to eat in Orlando, (outside the parks) you have to wait 2 hours, then the service is kinda ifie.
The boy held up well, considering he's only 2 and his routine was blown to smithereens. Getting in bed at 10:00 every night makes for a cranky boy...and mommy.
We ate at one of our favorite places, 'Ohana's at the Polynesian. I was so disappointed! I made reservations 2 months ago, plus it's gone up to about 30.00 per person! You expect pretty good food, and the very least decent service, being a Disney resort. We had neither. This was our 4th time eating there and it's never been like this. The waiter brought David some ice cream for dessert, this was a nice gesture on his part, since we didn't order it. I said, "thank you, I hope I can get him to eat it, he's picky." He said,"Whatever, I just thought he'd like it. He doesn't have to eat it." I thought that rather rude. This will probably be our last time there.
I thought I had picked an "unbusy" time to go to Orlando. I guess NO such time exists! How naive I am. We went to a petting farm we had seen advertised, because David loves farm animals. We thought this little out of the way place would be empty! NO! We were one of 100 park weary parents of bored toddlers, shelling out 20.00 a piece to see cows and chickens. (I'm going to rent the farm down the road and making a fortune!) We only went to Animal Kingdom, I knew David would not "get" the other parks. He fell asleep in the LION KING SHOW. How he could sleep thru that is beyond me. I swear the sound was at the level of a jet plane taking off in your living room. He woke up as the last words were being sung. He smiled at the elephants and the giraffes on the safari. We couldn't see the lions (his favorite) The only think that got his attention was a stray wild duck that flew into a pond we were walking by... and the fake elephants outside RAinForest cafe that were shooting water through their trunks at each other.
No, I don't think it was a waste of time and money. (Well a little on the money side)But we had a good time and the weather was very nice. Big difference in 55 degrees and 85 degrees. And it was just meant to be a get away to kinda re-energize. I wouldn't take a 2 yr old there thinking they would enjoy it or remember it.
oops.....foster care emergency......gotta cut it short for now. more later.

CRAZY MOUSE

I will be away for a few days. I know that will kill you, since I post so often.
We are on our way to the land of manically expensive Mouse. Plus it's 85 degrees there.
When I get back, I hope to have some cute, cute pictures to show off too!
SO...nobody do anything while I'm gone. I hate missing good posts!

I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M DOING THIS......

I don't DO meme's. but my friend Becky over at
http://pithmarrowandcoffeespoons.blogspot.com
Taged me for this:

Here are the rules:
Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.Post the rules on your blog.Post 7 random or weird facts about yourself on your blog.Tag 7 people and link to them.Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.Seven Random or Weird Facts About Me:
1- I married a Marine at the age of 16 and traveled the world
2- I lived in Okinawa, Japan for 3 years. & I love all things Japanese. food, culture, people, all of it.
3- My oldest daughter went to Japanese schools and spoke only Japanese
4- I would live on Okinawa NOW if there were any way possible
5- I have 3 daughters all born in different states, each representing a Marine Corps base!
6- I want to live in a log cabin in the woods & live a self sustaining life style
7- I am a nurse & when I look into an otoscope (ear thingie to see if there is an ear infection) when I see ear wax in the ear, it triggers a huge gag reflex (in me, not the pt) & always brings me to the brink of puking!
Now I bet Becky is sorry she did this to me!!
Now I tag everyone who reads this sad, sad post!
Let me know if you play along, I want to see your humiliation too!

and A CUTE PICTURE BECAUSE I CAN

The first picture is from our brief splat of snow a couple of weeks ago. It's a view looking down on David in his "bear hat". And of course the only things he like form McD's is their straws, which he plays with.

AND THE WINNER IS..........

Sorry it took so long to announce the winner. Things have been hectic here.
But STACEY is the winner. Drawn by our handy dandy number selectometer one million, or better known as David pulling a # out of a backyardigans bowl.
Stacey, I can't find an email address or blog for you. So if you will comment and leave your blog or email address. I will contact you for your shipping address to get your things out to you.
Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. I have already or will try everyone of them. I am desperate!
This was fun. Maybe we can play again next quarter when Rocks in my Dryer does this again!