Foster2Forever

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Worship and Praise Sunday – Live Out Loud

Today is Sunday: a day to worship and praise Him! I’m joining Infertile Myrtle today, who like me, deals with infertility and moving on…

Although we adopted Stinkpot a year ago next Thursday, I still deal with a sense of loss from our inability to conceive; however, with 2 little ones – I’m too busy to think about it much…

Stinkpot’s adoption has been such a blessing in my life! One of my “formerly single” friends in Houston just adopted a beautiful little Korean baby this week! Because of cost, we never really considered international adoption; however, Steven Curtis Chapman has created Show Hope to aid families with the cost of international adoption.

Here is his song, “Live Out Loud” – the first song of his that made me a fan of SCC! Enjoy!

Imagine this…I get a phone call from Regis
He says, “Do you want to be a millionaire?”
They put me on the show and I win with two lifelines to spare
Now picture this…I act like nothing ever happened
And bury all the money in a coffee can
Well, I’ve been given more than Regis ever gave away
I was a dead man who was called to come out of my grave
And I think it’s time for makin’ some noise

Wake the neighbors, get the word out
Come on…crank up the music…climb a mountain and shout
This is life we’ve been given made to be lived out
So la la la la live out loud
Live out loud, yeah

Think about this…try to keep a bird from singing
After it’s soared up in the sky
Give the sun a cloudless day and tell it not to shine
Now think about this…if we really have been given
The gift of a life that will never end
And if we have been filled with living hope we’re gonna overflow
And if God’s love is burning in our hearts we’re gonna glow
There’s just no way to keep it in

Everybody, come on
La la la…la la la la
La la la live out loud
I want to hear everybody sing
La la la…la la la la
La la la live out loud, loud, loud

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Our 3-Day Date

After completing a critical deadline at work, my hubby and I had a 3-day date. After having 4 kids this year, we needed time together to regroup and reconnect. We traveled to Houston, where I lived as a single girl for 15 years.
We stayed at the extravagant Hotel Icon and had a butler prepare our bath!

We toured downtown on foot, ate at Brennan’s, ate at Cheesecake Factory, and gained 8 pounds each!

We took in an Astros game at Minute Maid Park! (ASTROS WON!! YEAH!!!)

Unbeknown to us, we saw Lance Berkman play as an Astro for the last time! sniff sniff

The end of the Killer B era! sniff sniff

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Now back to our crazy, everyday family life!

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~penny
http://foster2forever.blogspot.com

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Are You Jesus? – A Story

Click on photo for credits

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.

ALL BUT ONE !!! He paused, took a deep breath, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did.

The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, ‘Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?’ She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, ‘I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.’

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, ‘Mister….’ He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, ‘Are you Jesus?’

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: ‘Are you Jesus?’

Do people mistake you for Jesus?

That’s our Destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.  If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would.

Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It’s actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

Have a blessed day!
http://foster2forever.blogspot.com

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I HEART WHEN TEENS MOVE OUT!

Bubba moved out the night of graduation. His mother demanded it; we think because she didn’t want to risk paying any more child support. The house has been quite a bit calmer with his departure. And then a week later our 12-year-old foster girl moved out. Now our family is down to us with 2 kids under 2 years old. You may not believe it, but our home is quiet-er!

Here’s a photo I shot of Bubba the first day I got my new camera – having no idea what settings or buttons to use. This is a straight out of camera shot that was only cropped. Not bad, huh?

I entered this photo of Bubba in this week’s I Heart Faces photography challenge “Celebrating Teens.”
Check out all the other cool pictures by clicking this:

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ONE A DAY WORKS FOR ME

works for me wednesday at we are that family

No, I’m not writing about vitamins! (although those are needed for a working mom to keep up in a hectic life)

I’m actually talking about doing one thing a day. Whether it’s an errand, a chore or a load of laundry.

Back in my days as a single working gal in Houston, I became frustrated that my Saturdays were always busy with errands. I began making a point to do one errand a day so that I didn’t have to go pick up dry cleaning, shop for groceries, or run other errands on Saturdays. This habit became a way for me to spend Saturdays relaxing at home, and not hectically running around town trying to get things done.

When I made the commitment to run one errand a day, I found myself at home with nowhere I had to go on Saturday mornings. I could enjoy my Saturday as I wanted!

One thing I’ve started doing recently and really wish I would’ve done this years ago is to complete one small chore a day. Yesterday morning I put my sheets in the washer after I woke up and put them in the dryer before leaving for work. When I got home, I pulled fresh, clean sheets out of the dryer to make the bed. I LOVE clean sheets! Especially when it’s not much of a hassle.

An errand I despise is grocery shopping! I HATE grocery shopping after work when I’m tired and hungry and the stores are packed. Recently, I’ve begun using my lunch hour once a week to shop for my non-perishable groceries. Sometimes, that can be most of my shopping list and I can keep them in the car until I get home in the evening.

Doing one thing a day helps me cope in my hectic life. What are things that you do to make your life less hectic?

Y’all have a great week and take care of yourself!
Hugs!

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HAWAIIAN VACATION!

What a busy life I have! Not just being a working mom of 4, but those “other duties as assigned”. Of course, those “other duties” are of my own making.

  • I’m proud that I was able to organize a successful fundraiser for our local cancer charity on May 22nd – collecting over $6,000!
  • My stepson graduated from high school on June 3rd!
  • Last Thursday, Brian Birdwell came to our home for a “Meet and Greet” party. [He’s running for a vacant state senate seat in our area – the election is next Tuesday]

I’m ready for a little reprieve! Now my hubby and I are planning a vacation next month to Maui!

And do we need a vacation!  We became foster parents over 2 years ago and have only spent ONE night away together. We really NEED this vacation!!!!

Y’all have a blessed week!
Hugs!
~penny

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TOP TEN DOCTOR VISITS SINCE I’VE HAD KIDS

Having kids totally changed my life!  As a foster parent, it changes with one phone call. (see my first call to foster)  We have had more than our fair share of doctor visits and even hospital stays.  The most recent – last week…

Oh Amanda is hosting a weekly Top Ten Tuesday, so I thought that this week I would list some of my most memorable visits to health care professionals in the last couple of years.

Before I list this Top Ten – let me first introduce you to the cast of characters:

  • Bubba (hey we ARE in Texas) – my teenage stepson
  • Stinkpot – our 2-yr-old that we adopted through foster care
  • Lil Bit – our 9-month-old foster baby

Without further ado – MY TOP TEN DOCTOR VISITS SINCE I’VE HAD KIDS

    1. My broken toe – Okay, not a doctor visit for the kids, but I did break my toe as my kids rode on my lap down a water slide the day of Stinkpot’s adoption.
    2. Bubba’s 3-day EEG after having a seizure at school – He was taped up like a lobotomy patient so that the wires would stay glued on his head. Quite a sight!  Lots of stares!  He showed up for his first day of work at McDonald’s like this – he was obviously sent home! This very expensive test gave no indication of the cause of his seizures. He has another one scheduled next month.  This time we will buy him a new video game to “beat” and allow him to stay up as long as he wants. [his previous seizures occurred after spending a weekend at his mom’s unstructured home life]
    3. Stinkpot’s first stay in the hospital – This 3-day visit was so frightening. First because the onset was so SUDDEN (crawling 1 minute then he couldn’t wake up). The doctors first thought it was meningitis -there had been a few cases in the area- I hated watching the spinal tap -thankfully not meningitis. Second, since the chest x-ray was clear for 2 days, the doctors were thinking something much more serious, like leukemia. On the 3rd day the chest x-ray showed pneumonia. He finally recovered and was sent home, but we were physically and emotionally exhausted!
    4. Stinkpot’s 2nd stay in the hospital for pneumonia – At a doctor visit for high fever, his oxygen level had dropped down to 82% and he was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.  He LOVED it! He enjoyed the gurney ride as much as a buggy ride and was grinning and waving at everyone with the oxygen mask on him.
    5. Stinkpot’s visit to the pediatric pulmonologist – After 2 hospital stays, the insurance company actually contacted me to discuss Stinkpot’s breathing problems.  The insurance company wanted me to take him to an allergist; however, an allergist would not see him until he was at least 4 years old. So the insurance company suggested a pediatric pulmonologist. Stinkpot’s primary care physician wouldn’t give me a referral so I had to have the insurance company contact the doctor to get this done.  The pulmonologist looked at his chest x-ray and said that his chest was so full of fluid that he would be diagnosed with pneumonia again if he was running a fever (he wasn’t). The pulmonologist put him on a regimen of Singulair, Nasonex, and Zyrtec – he hasn’t been sick since!!!!
    6. Lil Bit’s 1st stay in the hospital
    7. Lil Bit’s 1st visit to the ER
    8. Lil Bit’s 2nd stay in the hospital for bronchialitis
    9. My allergic reaction to the flu shot
Impetigo
    1. Last week’s doctor visit for Lil Bit’s impetigo – a mosquito bite on Saturday evening gradually got worse and was oozing pus by the next evening.  Impetigo is a staph infection – the worst part is that when I saw this picture I realized that the baby got it from ME!!!  I thought the rash was another reaction from the flu shot.  After seeing how quickly that mosquito bite turned bad, I can see now how it can be deadly in a hospital setting.
    2. Honorable mention goes to LICE! Even though there was no doctor visit, I had 2 kids taken out of school until we got rid of those critters.  Although it doesn’t really belong on this list…I’d rather catch vomit on me than deal with lice again. That was the absolute WORST!!!

Y’all have a great week staying HEALTHY!!!!
Hugs!

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A STRANGE DAY IN COURT FOR OUR FOSTER BABY

Today we went to court in regard to the placement of our 9-month-old foster baby, Lil Bit.  In December, he was placed with us as a legal-risk placement meaning that, at the time, there was no foreseeable family members for placement and the mother’s parental rights had been terminated with her previous 5 children.

As foster parents, we had “intervened” with the court in the placement of this baby with an aunt of the mother.  You can read more of the details of the case on this post.

I have not been optimistic. Everyone seemed to be wanting this baby to go live with his great-aunt. In fact, when the Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) had visited last week, her last remark to me was: “he’s young, he’ll assimilate easily.”

Today was NOTHING what I expected. The baby’s case was called second on the docket.

The CPS case worker was called to the stand. She was asked how the mother was doing and she stated that she was currently working services.  The baby’s ad litem attorney asked if CPS was still looking at placing the baby with his great-aunt and her reply was yes.

My attorney showed me a report from the CASA. He instructed me to look at the Recommendations on the last page. #3 stated: “The child should remain in his current placement.”

The judge then ruled that Lil Bit would remain in his current placement (WITH US)!

The next hearing is set for September.

WOW!  All I can say is…the miracle of prayer!
I want to say a HUGE THANKS to all our prayer warriors out there!!!

Y’all have a great week!
Hugs!

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UPDATE ON LIL BIT (Part 5) – HOSPITAL STAY

A few weeks ago, we had yet another health scare with Lil Bit (our 8-month-old foster baby). I had noticed that he was beginning to wheeze again. We gave him a breathing treatment of albuteral with his nebulizer, and began watching him closely.

Late that evening, after the other kids had gone to bed, he was becoming extremely fussy and crying out. His breathing was worse. Looking at his chest, I noticed that he was “retracting” (the skin was pulling in & out between the ribs with each breath). The scariest part was when I looked at his round, little face — he was turning BLUE!!!

With tears in my eyes, I sped to the hospital with him crying out the 10-minute drive. I was so scared & trying to comfort him in the back seat with tear-soaked words. I drove over 50 mph through a residential zone & ran 2 red lights. I didn’t care – I just wanted to get Lil Bit to the hospital!

I pulled up to the ER & frantically rushed inside.

Something was different — Would you believe it?

This is the moment Lil Bit stopped crying.

I immediately told the young man at intake how this baby I was holding was struggling to breathe. The young man looked at this little angel quietly lying there and calmly replied,

“Please fill out this form, and I will need a copy on your insurance card.”

“Uh, sure,” I sheepishly replied.

I self-consciously picked up Lil Bit to find a seat in the crowded waiting room as everyone was quietly watching me. (I actually believe I heard an IV drip down the hall.) It was as if everyone’s eyes were saying, “What a nutcase of a mother – wait your turn.”

Just then, before I had made my way across the room, Lil Bit began wailing again. Strong & LOUD! Not that I wanted him to cry, but it did get the attention of a nurse that rushed to us.

“Let’s check his oxygen level. Come with me!”

By this time, Lil bit was really screaming now! With his arms & legs flailing about, it took several trys to get any type of reading for his oxygen — finally 92%

“Let’s find an exam room so the doctor can see him,” the nurse told another.

We quickly got settled into the ER exam room & them we had to..
WAIT
Doctor exam
WAIT
Blood tests
WAIT
Chest x-ray
WAIT
IV (this is the worst with an infant)
Steroid injection
WAIT
Breathing treatment
WAIT

DIAGNOSIS
Bronchialitis

At 2 a.m., the doctor returns and says, “He can go home now.”

WAIT

45 minutes later, as the nurse begins to take the IV out of Lil Bit’s arm, I exclaimed, “Look at his chest!” He was retracting again.

The nurse rushed to get the doctor. From the doorway, the doctor said, “Let’s go ahead & admit him.”

WAIT

At 5 a.m., we finally arrived at our room on the Pediatric floor of the hospital. We could finally get some sleep!

WAIT

30 minutes later, the nurses had completed the admissions paperwork and lowered the lights as they left the room.

Lil Bit & I finally slept….HARD!

The treatment Lil Bit received worked wonders!
His breathing improved tremendously throughout the day.
Lil Bit was released from the hospital late that afternoon.

I’ve since requested that Lil Bit be referred to a pediatric pulmonologist (worked great for Stinkpot). No one is balking at this request; in fact, the doctor and insurance company have been very helpful with the referral.

Lil Bit is on his way to receiving specialized care to prevent these health scares in regard to his breathing.

Have a great week enjoying your family!
Hugs to y’all!
~penny
http://txpenelope.blogspot.com

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