Archives for February 2012

Adoption: Pro-Life Follow Through

Filed Under: Children18 Comments

We attended our first foster care support group this past week. The group is part of a ministry at a church in our area. It’s intended for anyone who is a foster parent, who is an adoptive parent, those who have been adopted, or anyone who has involvement in the child welfare system. It was awesome and we left feeling so encouraged in our goals.

We got to hear Tony Dungy’s wife, Lauren, speak about their experiences with the five children that they have adopted. She was a great speaker and we really enjoyed hearing about how God has provided for them as the care for the children He chose to give them. She also answered questions about how their daily life works with such a large family. Mrs. Dungy read a verse from Ephesians, which was familiar to me since I’m studying Ephesians right now…

Ephesians 1:5
God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

My big take-away from the night was the reminder of how important adoptive families are! We hear the arguments for being pro-ife all the time… but what happens to the unwanted babies after they are born? Who will take care of the child after convincing the mother not to have the abortion? Is that child any less important now than it was in the womb?

I had never really thought it all the way through from that perspective. I’m pro-life. It was painful to hear the statistics of how many (thousands) babies were aborted in the last year, just in our county. But it does make an interesting question as to who would have cared for that many babies had they been born.

Pro life

It seems to me that if you’re pro-life, maybe there is something more you could do to be pro-adoption. Not that every family is called to adopt, but there are lots of other ways to make a difference in a unwanted kid’s life.

We’re so excited to see what’s in store as we take on one of our biggest challenges yet!

The Return of Rollerblading

Filed Under: General2 Comments

When I was younger, my rollerblades were practically glued to my feet. During the summers my sister, brother, and I would rollerblade/bike up to the lake and back almost daily. I don’t quite have the hours now that I used to spend outside, but I’m happy that we’ve managed to make time in our schedule to rollerblade again.

It was a couple of months ago now that I all-of-a-sudden had the urge to rollerblade again. I was excited to strap my rollerblades on only to find out that it had been so long since I had used them that the wheels had completely dried out and disintegrated. Literally… they were dust, all the way down to the bearings. So we went and purchased some replacements wheels.

By that time the urge had passed and the replacement wheels sat, unopened, next to my blades for a few more months. A couple of weeks ago I decided to finally put the wheels on and use them, only to find out that the fastening straps on my blades had become too brittle and had fallen apart. I guess maybe it’s been longer than I thought since I had used them. So, we decided to take the plunge and buy completely new rollerblades. I had forgotten how much fun rollerblading is!

Rollerblades

Part of Jesse’s new treatment routine includes walking each morning. His CF team has recommended this for him every time we go to clinic, and he’s finally determined to give it a try. We’re hoping that “flexing” his lungs will help improve his lung function and increase his next PFT score. He has faithfully walked each morning for the last two weeks… improving his time and distance each day. And I’ve committed to tagging along with him. Walking doesn’t really require me to push myself too hard, with my normal lung function. So instead, I rollerblade around the neighborhood while he walks on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and walk/run with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It’s been a great way to start our day and spend some time together.

Home Study Results

Filed Under: Children2 Comments

We had our long-awaited foster care home study yesterday! Our licensing person didn’t find any issues that should hold up our process and she said that we are now her priority case… which is both exciting and scary.

Home study

We did find out why it sometimes takes her a while to get back with us when we contact her. Apparently she is the ONLY person who does licensing in Hillsborough county. We were asking questions and she was explaining how the process will work from this point based on all the other families she has been working with. I almost couldn’t believe her when she said that she personally visits every prospective home in our county… crazy!

We went though the mound of paperwork she had given us to fill out. She was beyond impressed that we had everything done and that we hadn’t lost any of the packet. She said that is very rare. That was funny to hear, not sure why we would have scheduled the visit if we didn’t have things done. So, that was a big positive. We also had to find and make copies of several documents for her such as our driver’s licenses, insurance cards, marriage license, and tax returns. Good thing we have the new printer to make copies on!

She really liked our bedrooms. She started off very professional, but couldn’t help saying “awww… so cute” when we showed her our nursery. I had payed close attention to the rules for setting up the nursery (crib placement and pictures on the walls) so I was very happy that she didn’t see anything that needed to be changed.

We took pictures for our file of our house, bedrooms, and safety measures. We still need to take and send pictures of the community pool area showing that it has a gate around it and a life-saving device in the area. We also need to set up our car seat and send in a picture of that.

She spent quite a while talking with us about our family backgrounds. She wanted to know our parents’ personalities, what my siblings were doing, and how often we talk with each of our family members. All of her observations and our answers get put into a report that she will create. She will come back shortly for us to review and sign the report before she passes it along to her supervisor.

Our next step is a visit for the health inspector. She made the order for an inspection so we are waiting for a call from the health department to set up the inspection. They check for things such as our fridge being set to the correct temperature, our water temperature not being too hot, our medications and chemicals being sufficiently locked away, and general cleanliness. I’m pretty confident that we can pass that just fine, but I know from experience working at a grocery store that it just depends on how picky the inspector wants to be… they can almost surely find something if they feel like looking hard enough.

It was a good, but exhausting day.