Fostering Group of 4!

"Beware that you don't look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father."
 Matthew 18:10

Its hard to believe that we have had these 4 new foster children for almost a month. WOW!!! As I find out more about the parents my skin crawls and I get mad!! Both parents have mental problems and drug use.  The things they have had to deal with makes me all the more thankful they are with us.

Let me do a brief introduction for you.  There is Little H (4 Years Old).  What a doll.  At first when she came in she wouldn't say a peep.  The old foster mom told me she was non verbal.  Well not only can she talk but she is a giggle monster!  She loves to laugh and to play all day long.  She is not a bed wetter however during the day she wears pull up and does not have the interest of going potty in the toilet.  So that is one of our goals for her.  she can be more aggressive than the other children at times but that could be due to her age or the relationship these little ones have had with one another. But were working on that too.  She is very remorseful when I have to pull her off of one of her siblings. J

Little P (5 Years Old)!! OH My Goodness!!! She is the most sensitive out of all of them.  She is still crying for her mommy when it comes to going to sleep.  she has the most precious smile that will melt your heart in a second.  She has a significant speech delay.  she talks as if she is 2 years old.  I do believe this is due to the neglect she has endured.  She is very outgoing and happy.  She listens very well.  She loves to cuddle. You can often find her snuggled up to one of the teenage girls as they do their computer work in homeschooling.

Mr. M (6 Years old) -- My heart skips a beat every time I see this boy.  He says "I love you Momma!" I'm in heaven.  I tell him "You are such a good boy! Did you know that?" He responds "I'm a very good boy!"  Indeed he is! When he came to me he was so scared!! He needed extensive dental work.  He had to have 5 teeth pulled!! They had to pull all four bottom teeth because his permanent teeth were growing in behind them. Plus he had an infection in the root of one of his other back teeth.  Poor thing! Don't know how long he has been dealing with that pain.

Mr. T (7 Years Old) -- This little guy is the one I am concerned about the most. I am working on getting him tested for Autism.  His responses are very slow.  He is either very happy or very low in mood.  These moods can be minutes apart from each other. This little guys teeth were the worst I had ever seen before. After they had arrived at my house and as they were getting ready for bed I had them brush their teeth.  I gave him his tooth brush and told him to put tooth paste on it and brush his teeth.  He looked at me and said "what do I do?  I never brushed my teeth before". I was taken back but didn't make it too much of a big deal.  I put tooth paste on it and helped him brush his teeth.  After 3 seconds in his mouth he wanted to spit.  I said "Okay spit."  When he did blood was flowing from his mouth.  Oh my!!! Poor little guy!  He also had an infection in one of his teeth so they had to extract it. Between a tooth pulled, root canal, a spacer put in, caps on several teeth he is good to until his 6 month check up. He says "I can't believe it!  My teeth don't hurt anymore!"

The oldest boys are in school in which they have never attended school before in their past.  They are really behind but I am praying that they will be able to catch up in time to where everyone else is in school. Usually when children are taken by the State the plan is reunification to the parents once they get stable and are able to care for their children.  In this case they are going for termination of parental rights.  This gives you an idea of what these children have had to deal with in there sweet little lives.

As I get to know them I am in awe that the Lord would bless us with these gentle children!! They all have such sweet natures.  They love to snuggle and to love me.  Thank you Jesus for these four sweet angles you have placed in our home!!!

Past Foster Children Plus Taking On 4 More!

I have been meaning to write for so long but something was holding me back.  I really need to stop that because part of this blog writing project is for me also to look back on where we have been and where we are now and what I have learned along the way.

The end of September my two fosters children ages 7 and 10 went home to be with their family.  They were with us for 6 months.  I do miss them however the recovery process for  our family needed to happen.  I didn't realize how it really affected our family until they were gone.  When I see them I get excited and I am truly glad to see them and get happy when I hear they are doing well however I am also glad they are where they need to be.

After they left we had a 7 month old and a 2 year old placement.  We only had them for 1 1/2 weeks.  We didn't know it was going to be so short but those placements do happen.  The connection with these two little ones was happening fast with everyone in the family. I look at this placement as a healing touch from the Lord.  These babies were such a refresher for our kids and for me and my husband.  These two little ones brought us all together and we all fell in love with them.  When I look back I loved the midnight feedings, the slobbery kisses, the smiles and laughs.  It was a pure joy and love that everyone in my house could feel.11 days later after the placement I get a phone call from DHS saying that the family they have been trying to approve is approved and can go to that family now.  I was really taken back because I had no idea they were even trying to approve another family.  This was not a relative.  It was a family that went to their church.  I had 1 hour to gather their things and to bring them to the family.   My two older children were gone and I knew they would be heart broken when they got home but this was something I had to bring myself to do. After gathering myself and shedding some tears and ran around the house like a chicken with my head cut off trying to fit all their things in the car. I was praying from all the way to DHS.  Selfishly I was praying I would not look like a babbling idiot as I turned over the children.  I also prayed for the safety of these kids.  Once I got there I met the family to whom these little ones would be with.  They were so nice and friendly.  I could see the joy in the 2 year olds face as he made eye contact with the lady and put up his arms really high for her to pick him up.  This put my heart at ease and made me feel so much better.  Thank you Jesus!!! I was now able to return to my family and comfort them and I told them of the new family.  I was thankful that the foster situation was only 11 days and not 1 year!! Eeek!! That kind of scares me when I think about it like that.

The returning of the babies happened on a Tuesday and on Thursday I get a phone call asking me if I would like to babysit a 10 month old baby who was just brought in to care.  Actually it was my old foster children's nephew (the 7 and 10 year old that I talked about in the second paragraph in this post). For one this was horrible that this baby was now part of the system and I knew him -- he is such a good baby however I had no desire to babysit.  This did nothing for me on the inside at all. I said "no that is not something I would like to get into."  She asked me what ages I was looking for.  I told her right now we are taking a break but then I added "in a perfect world I would be looking for 2 girls ages 4 and 5." She replied with "OH REALLY?"  Oh no……….here it comes.  She explained to me that over the weekend they got a placement of 4 children -- ages 4,5,6,7.  Two boys and two girls.  The boys are together and the girls are separated and they are looking for a place where the two girls can be together.  There were 3 foster families involved in this one case. There was no reason for all 4 children to be separated however not many people have to room for 4 children let alone able to transport them. I told her I would get back with her and talked with my husband and family about it.  I heard in the background from my certifier "If you tell Sheri there are 4 children she's gonna want all of them!" and people were laughing in the background of the phone call.  I told her she can tell my certifier that she is so wrong because were only looking into the girls.  

Later that night I was talking to my family to see where they were at and how they felt.  When they found out there were 4 children they all begged and pleaded for us to take all 4.  My husband was the most reluctant and he should be.  He is not a spontaneous guy and it takes him about two weeks to do anything spontaneous.  He keeps me grounded and level headed because I am very spontaneous which has got me in trouble over my life time.  However like God speed the next day he said that would be willing to take all 4 children.  So I called DHS and told them what we wanted.  I also added two conditions that were very important to us in order to make this happen.  One of them was to move the two boys to our local school so I am not transporting them back and forth and the other was to not make this move until Monday so we have over the weekend to plan and to take a small break. We had to get a special approval because this put us 3 over in our house making 10 kids.  Praise the Lord we have a big house with 6 bedrooms and just so happens we have 4 seatbelts open in our 12 passenger van. About 1 hour later they call me and say they are mine!  

Oh praise Jesus but I'm really gonna need his help! That is a lot of children!! Now the ages are 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 12, 15, 16, 16. So far it has been 7 days since the transition and they all are very interesting and very sweet!!! DHS says this could be a very LONG situation so just be prepared and we are.  They are now part of the Bowers home doing things our way and they seem content.  The Lord is so good!!!