What me & my new sewing Machine have been up to...

Torina wanted me to share what I've been up to with my new sewing machine.This is:

Red cow Barn Quilt. click on the picture for more detail. It's very colorful and he loves it.

Red Cow Barn Quilt (with David) This is my first major work. I've made a few pillow cases & aprons. But David luuuvvvs Red Cow BArns, why I have no idea. Oh, and I made him a red cow barn pillow case to kinda match his quilt.

The Boy had his surgery today and I tell you God has truly blessed us as far as his comfort and pain level. He's done so well today. Almost as though nothing happened. Tomorrow may be a different day. But the good Dr. gave us some nice pain meds.

Do you know Who YOUR mama is?...

I am not an in your face , oh look at me, I have adopted children. We are pretty low key people. We've known people for years who didn't know one of our daughters was adopted.
And I realize,like my friend Min it is obvious you have adopted children, it is a reality in your day to day life. I'm not talking about that.
I know people whose whole identity is wrapped up in. To me, my children are only adopted until the court date. Then you're all mine, baby. Birth Certificate says so. Then we just live our lives like any other family you might know. My kid, lock, stock and barrel. So we don't talk adoption day in and day out. It will and does have it's place and time. (This ain't my first go round)
So I say that to say my 2 1/2 yr. old does not know a thing about adoption. He only knows what any other 2 1/2 yr old knows....He knows who his mama & daddy is. PERIOD. Me-Mama, He-Daddy. Boy named David has a mama & daddy who loves him & spoils him stinking rotten.
I ran into a friend from work, who knows The Boy is adopted. We were talking foster care because she is interested in foster to adopt because of infertility issues, ect. She had a friend with her I did not know, but who picked up on the fact that The Boy was adopted. Now my son is small for his age, but he is very smart, (if I do say so myself) He understand what is being said around him. In a lull in the conversation, she said, "Poor thing, does he know who his mama is?".......chirp....chirp...chirp. The boy looked at her and said, "Her, my Mama!" Pointing to me.
Trust me people, what he had to say was a WHOLE LOT more Christ Like, than what crossed my mind for the next 2 hours. What I did say was, "Evidently, he knows his mama".
What I wanted so desperately to say was: "Listen lady, spitting out a kid you don't want or will not take care of, does not a mama make." It especially does not make you a mama if you abandon 2 babies in 2 years and never look back.
Who says that in front of a 2 1/2 yr old?
Sometimes I just shake my head at how many stupid people there are in the world. This person had a master's degree in Social Work....shake your head some more now.

This & That & Boring Stuff

Boy, is this what life before foster care was like?
It's kind of boring around here! I never thought I'd say that in a million years.
My phones (cell & home) have been silent. No one calls me anymore. At least when I have kids I know someone will call me, EVERYDAY.
David's surgery has been rescheduled for the 29th. Nothing like getting all ready for surgery, just to have them call the night before to cancel. Something stupid, like the Dr. having an emergency surgery. Like my baby's circumcision isn't an emergency. (read sarcasm here) I know what it's like to have to call the patient, so I was nice to her. But I was hoping to be REALLY into potty training by the 29th. We were putting off the serious stuff until after the surgery, for obvious reasons :)
The Girl is doing very well in her new placement. She is adjusting well, which were happy to hear. They thanked us for loving her & treating her as though she was our own. (mark that up as a first)
If I'm away for days on end...please note my new etsy shop. My dear husband overheard me saying I'd love a new sewing machine, so I could take up sewing and quilting again. My 20 year old 99.00 machine had seen better days. So he goes out and buys one that I would have NEVER ever bought for myself. A Husqvarna Viking. So I feel I must put it to good use. So I will be off sewing my little heart out! Anyone up for a quilting bee?? Come on over, I've got thread!

BYE-BYE...

This is the long way around the world to tell you one funny sentence. Read on....
My stove has been on the blink for 6 or 8 or 10 months. A long time. But I kept thinking maybe it would heal itself. YOU know you've thought that too! It's a gas stove. When I turned it on I would smell gas (yes, I know, bad) but eventually it would light. But then a few months ago, it started taking forever to heat up and never to the temp it should. So it took like 3 hours to cook a pan of lasagna! After starting to complain about it my husband called the repair people. A man came out to diagnose my stove (70.00 just for coming out)
When the man came in, all The Boy heard was the alarm on the front door. That usually signals "DADDY'S HOME, DADDY'S HOME". So he looks up from his cartoons and asks is Daddy home? I said "No, daddy's not home, someone is here to fix our stove. It's not your Daddy" so he goes back to his cartoon watching.
In the flat 15 minutes it took him to diagnose, tell me the total, pick me up off the floor, fix it, & clean up after himself. He was going out the door. The Boy followed us to the door. The nice man said,"bye-bye" and the Boy said,"Bye-bye, somebody else daddy!"
OK, now the cute parts over.
It costs ( & I know it is not proper or southern to talk money) I was completely blown away by the total. We looked into buying a new one, because this one is a simple builders grade Whirlpool* stove. A new one would be between 500. & $600.00. So we decided to fix it.
It was almost 350.00!! And do you think they would "forgo" the coming out fee? Alot of companies do, if you have them fix whatever they came out to look at. NOOOO! That was still part of the bill.
Single women, DO NOT look to marry a Dr. This guy makes more than ANY Dr. I know of and 90% of lawyers! I'm thinking that guy makes about $600.00 an hour! And yes, he evidently is busy all day, every day. It took a week to get this appt. I can get in with my Dr the same day! But of course he never fixes me within 15 minutes.
What was wrong with the stove that costs that much? The ignition switch.. ~sigh~

It's So Quiet here.....

For the first time in five years, there are no foster children here. Just the 2 of us & David.
The Girl was never too much problem to begin with. She was pretty easy going, except for the occasional fit. But it's different knowing she gone. Not here. She's not upstairs asleep in her crib.
But I know somewhere across town, a family is starting their new life with a little girl they love very much. That little girl is on the way to a life she would have never had otherwise.
Goodbye, little girl. Mommy loves you. I'll see you real soon.

The Girl is determined to kill me...

As a parting blow.
She is leaving tomorrow night. So much has or is happening this week, I've not really had time to process it all.
First we were given our 2 weeks of transition time, for which we are grateful. So she was to move this Friday. But David is scheduled for surgery early Thursday morning,so the placement asked if they could help by picking her up Wed. night to ease the load. So the SW agreed to that.
But in the mean time TheGirl decided to be a mountain goat yesterday at daycare and climb on top of a picnic table and fall face first to the ground! The inside of her top gum is BLACK & blue, mostly black. I've never seen a bruise quite like it. And to make things good and crazy one of the top front teeth is loose. So of course, as foster parents your first thought, OH, PLEASE GOD, PLEASE LET HER BE OK. So I was up most of the night worried that some how this would turn out to be my fault or I didn't do something right or fast enough.
But we're just back from the dentist and no fractures. Alot of bruising and a loose tooth that may or may not tighten up by itself. The SW showed up for the visit, so maybe it will be OK.
I'm not going to go with my husband to take her to the relative placement, because that night we also have what I like to call "the quarterly, is your house clean & safe for human habitation" visit.
On top of that, we have to prepare ourselves for The Boy's surgery the next day.
Whoooa, that's enough for me this week, I can't stand anymore fun.
So how's your week been?

Do You Love Precious Moments? You're about to be very happy!

I have been given the special honor of introducing a new product by the company who makes the Precious Moments figurines. I love Precious Moments. All three of my girls have the Sweet 16 figurines & the 19 yr old has their Adoption figurine and she loves it.
How many times have those of you with young girls wished there was something a little more wholesome than b*r*a*t*z dolls and other such dolls? I loath them. Why do people want their daughters to grow up with that image of what a young lady should model themselves after?
Now, on the scene as of September 2nd we now have a wholesome, faith centered series for our girls. They have wonderful books & dolls. But most wonderful is a website that is safe and fun for them to have membership in.
Precious Moments®, is launching a new product line and an interactive virtual world website for girls 4-8 years old. This new concept is called the Precious Girls Club and is a virtual world that inspires, enriches and encourages that all too brief moment in a girl's life journey: being a precious little girl.
The Precious Girls Club will feature wholesome age-appropriate characters. The website, http://www.preciousgirlsclub.com/, will launch on September 1st. The virtual world website will offer games, quests, and virtual charms that reward good behavior in the virtual world, as well as in the external world. Parents will be able to go online and reward their girls with an online helpful charm, for example, when they have helped with household chores. These charms will unlock extra points online, thus providing a fun reward to reinforce positive offline behavior. The site will also provide tools to help girls form their own Precious Girls Clubs in the offline world. To visit the Precious Girls Club site, go to http://www.preciousgirlsclub.com/

**Precious Moments have been so kind as to give my readers a chance to win the very first book, "A LITTLE BIT OF FAITH". Also a web access code to start the fun of being in their virtual world.
To Win: click around on http://www.preciousgirlsclub.com/ , come back and tell what excites you about this new Precious Girl's Club. (2) random readers will receive a brand spankin' new book & the web access code cards.
This will end on Sept. 7th at midnight.
So all you lurkers with little girls....DELURK. It will be well worth your wile. I've read the book and love it for the age group it's made for. I can't wait to hear what you think!

My Beloved Tn....in pictures

We decided to go away for the weekend since the Girl would be doing a weekend visit. And there is nothing I love more than to go to my beloved Tellico Plains, Tn. It is beautiful, peaceful and uncorrupted by (most) civilization. Don't go there looking for excitment or anything to "do".

'cause it ain't happening.

My family traces it's roots to this wonderful place in these beautiful Smokey Mountains for more than 5 generations, the next 5 are scattered between Ind,Tn & Ga. All wanting more than anything to make it back to those hills, our ancestors fought so hard to get out of.

The tomb stone you will be is that of my maternal great grandfather & great grandmother, born in those hills in 1888. There are the graves of my great-great grandparents in the same area, my g-g-great grand parents and in a place called Cades Cove lies the graves of my GGGG-grandparents. Cades Cove was destroyed in 1937 to make way for the Great Smokey mountain National park. Destroying a community that existed since 1818. So my GGGG grandparents are buried in the national park & I must submit proof of kinship every time I want to visit their grave site. Very Sad.

But on to happier things: The pictures... I just noticed I didn't get any inside views. Trust me it was to die for. All the beds were hand hewn logs. As was the log swing I spent most of my time on. Sunday afternoon we had a rain shower that was wonderful. Nothing like sitting on the porch listening to rain on a tin roof.

Most of the photos are self explanatory. I must add the duck pictures were taken in Sweetwater at an aptly named park: The Duck Park. So original. But accurate! :)

See my foot? That was as close as it was getting to that cold water coming down off the mountain!

A BRIEF REPRIEVE

It looks like we have been given a brief reprieve.
There was a court hearing on Friday (surprise!) That we didn't know about. (surprise!)
I was not in the court room. But the relative placement was.
It seems the judge wanted to know why there was no permanency plan for the Girl.
And they were able to stand up and say (because of the love they have for the children)
that,"because of the length of time she was in this placement and the attachment created, it was in the best interest of the child for there to be a transition period to be determined by all 3 parties."
I didn't know whether to laugh or throw up when I heard that. Well, I guess I at least was able to give them something to say to the judge during court that sounded good anyway.
The relative placement thought we knew there was a court hearing on Friday. Of course, we didn't. But now I know why they were so hot to get her placed on Friday. Nothing like being able to stand before the judge and say you did your job. Correctly.
The SW called Friday night and very nonchalantly said," We'll do a transition, but it may go very quickly. Like she'll do another weekend visit and then go there permanently." She didn't know we knew what was said in court.
All I can do is shake my head & wonder, when & if anything in this "system" will change.
From the very smallest of problems(like getting diapers paid for) to the very largest (sitting in care for years, while a family wants to adopt you) will it ever be "fixed"?
I don't think in my life time I will see any change. Of course, 6 months is a life time in foster care. I'm sure they will wear me out way before there will be any reform.
In other wonderful news............I'm pregnant!
NO, just kidding! Good grief, I'd kill over.
We rented a cabin for the weekend in my beloved Tellico Plains,Tn. after we found out the Girl would be gone for the weekend. I'll post some pictures after my wonderful husband loads
'em up!
Really, just kidding about the pregnant thing....