Katie, Make A Silly Face!

A Week Out

We've had a week to process the events and emotions that came from our Foster Care Review Board.

We have a court date scheduled on August 25th where a judge will decide whether to terminate the parental rights of Little Man's parents or whether to send he and his siblings home. Although those things are on opposite ends of the spectrum, that is the decision before the Family Court of Greenville County. It's a hard thing, as it should be, to terminate parental rights. As our caseworker described to us, "In our world, it is equivalent to the death penalty." Because of this and many other reasons, we believe that on the 25th our Little Man will be sent back to his biological mother.

Our current struggle is with trust. It's hard for me to imagine that on the 25th I'll be able to look at God and say, "You're right. He's better off there." In my head I know God is good. I know He sees a bigger picture. I know He's pursuing Little Man's heart just as aggressively as He's pursuing mine. I know that Little Man's best interest are at the forefront of His mind. I know that, as we taught our children yesterday, He cares for the flowers and the birds--He cares for us and for our girls and for our Little Man. Even as I type all that out (it's good, to see it written out, by the way), tears are flowing, so I know that my heart hasn't quite caught up to what my head knows to be true.

My kids all sleep with "taggies," so I made Little Man one this afternoon while everyone napped. Unlike my kids, I appliqued his first initial on the front. As I stepped back to "admire my work," tears came to my eyes. Hopefully that "J" will set it apart as his in whatever Children's Home or Foster Home he ends up in throughout his life. Pretty pessimistic, huh? Sadly, in my mind, it's not a question of "if but when" he'll end up back "in the system." Our system is not perfect, but it's what we have to work with, so, again, we must trust.

So many of you have been on this journey with us as we've adjusted to this new normal. It's been a rocky road full of ups and lots of downs...probably, in all honesty, more downs than ups. We've learned much about ourselves as we've gone, and hopefully we look a little more like Christ than we did before we started. It sounds like I think it's already over, but one of our main goals over the next few weeks is not to "check out" before it's time...he deserves better than that.

Pray for us and for our girls and our Little Man as we all learn to trust in ways we never have been asked to before.

Worry--According to Annabelle

A little background. We've lost all three of our Beta fish in the past two weeks. They started swimming funny and died a few hours later. After the first one died, I tried to prepare the girls a little when I saw the others following the same path. In our conversation, I said something like, "I'm a little worried about Scarlett/Glow/Nemo; he's swimming kind of funny, and I think he might die."

Eric read the kids part of the Sermon on the Mount from one of our favorite Bible story books tonight. As we finished, we were talking about the flowers and the birds...how God loves us much more than these things and how we shouldn't worry about Him taking care of us. Annabelle's response:

"Well, except it's okay to worry just a little bit about our fish when they're looking a little silly?!?"

Eric was speechless in response.

Make-It Monday--Links!

This is my last Make-It Monday post! Remember, I said it was a summer-long experiment? Eric starts back to school later this week, thus ending our blissful summer! I thought I'd share some of my favorite places to get ideas:

Educational Printables:

First School
Kidzone
Starfall

Educational Sites:

Starfall
PBS Kids
Fisher Price

Crafty Sites:

DLTK
Family Fun
Flipflops & Applesauce
Crafty Crow
Make & Takes
Let's Explore

Enjoy looking around and share any favorites of yours with the rest of us via "comments"!

Foster Care Review Board

Today Eric and I were a part of a proceeding called "Foster Care Review Board." It takes place every six months for each child who is in Foster Care. The room consisted of the board, a representative from the State Department, Little Man's caseworker, his parents, and Eric and I.

There aren't many details that are appropriate to share in this forum. It was an emotional experience for me...I was, in fact, really surprised at the emotions I felt.

This is, however, an appropriate place to thank God for showing up in real, tangible, obvious ways for me today. I know You were there, because, well, because, You're God...but You were there in person for me. The past few months have been a crazy ride--one in which I've questioned You daily. You have hung with me, though, and made it clear throughout that we are doing the right thing. The next few weeks promise more craziness--be near, Lord Jesus!

Make-It Monday: Magazine Art

Old magazines are great practice for cutting! Here are a few things we like to do with them:

Of course, there's this!

We also like this:

Yes, it's a basic collage, but much neater because we eliminated the need for glue and used the sticky side of contact paper...just taped the paper sticky side out to the easel, the kids cut and stuck away for hours! Of course, had we clear contact paper, we'd have covered our collages and used them for placemats...but we didn't.

This is great for when your child is learning alphabet recognition:

It's also fun to pick a theme like body parts, shapes, etc. This one is great for the grocery ads:
And, since we're on the subject of cutting: here is one of our favorite books on the topic!

Happy snipping!

Sunset Beach

Snacktime (l-r): Ella Grace, Katie, Annabelle, Little Man


Sweet Ella Grace


Miss Hollywood-Annabelle


Our Katie Girl