Just another day in paradise..

More fun in the sun today!

At the beginning of the summer, the kids all took swim lessons. Daniel & David did great and are ready to move onto the next level. They can now safely swim without me worrying much about even knowing where they are :)

Our little guy, however, was a totally different story. Through the whole 2 week class, he cried every *single* day. He would bawl throughout the whole class. Even at the end of the class, he was still crying for the whole 45 min.

And our little princess took a Mom & Tot lesson with me. She would scream if we tried to get her to do anything she didn't want to (shocker). She did well wall walking and practicing kicking, but she wouldn't put her face in the water at all.

Now we're nearly a month later and it's like I have new kids!

Daddy & I took them to the pool this afternoon and I finally got the chance to get photographic proof of the huge progress they've made. However, it's really hard to get a photo of them in motion. And, they make quite the splash.. so the best photos are blurry.. Oh, well. Hope you enjoy anyhow!

Wow!!!

I should complain on here more often.

Court was today. And they severed our little guy's Mom's rights! Woohoo! This makes us another step closer to adoption. And this was *exactly* what we were hoping would happen at court.

Stalling...? What do you mean stalling?

Limbo go lower now...

That's where we are, limbo. And I feel like the system is stalling.

Actually I don't know that they're stalling. I do know, however, that with the economy being the huge issue it is & our state going broke. We'd love to save Arizona some money and go ahead and adopt our little boy, rather than have him in foster care any longer.

Yesterday was supposed to be a hearing for him. Brian showed up only to be told that the hearing was vacated. Now we wait. Sigh.

This month marks two years that he has been a foster child. The federal law requires that after 15 months the courts do some permanency plans. Ideally, children should not be in foster care longer than 18 months. Scratch that. Children shouldn't be in foster care. But, if they are, they shouldn't just stay there.

This month also marks two years since we adopted Daniel and David. It was only a week before their adoption that we got the call telling us that our little guy was in foster care.

Brian has always "known" that we'd adopt our little guy. I have always worried. We've been told that he was leaving the state as soon as possible. We've been told that they were going to start moving him home. We've been told about everything.

It's hard, but I need to change my perspective back to what it was when he came. It took us three months to have him moved to our home. And my goal was just to take as many pictures as possible and enjoy him for the short while that they were predicting. I just wanted to give Daniel and David the gift of knowing their biological brother.

Now, he's not only their brother through genes. He's their brother through vacations and illnesses, teasing and laughing, being naughty and being sweet. He is ours. No matter what the courts do or say, or however long they take to do it or say it.

With that, I'm off to cuddle that little guy before nap time.

In the car the other night..

Bean: I'm not going to spank my butt because it's beautiful.
Me: It's beautiful?
Bean: My butt is a Princess butt.


Ahhh.. isn't that modesty refreshing??

On a completely unrelated topic, I had lost my cell phone last week. I finally have a new one, but now I have no contact information. So, if you're someone who wants to hear from me, please send me your number. Thanks!

Home is an Everlast bag...

Another piece of wisdom that I've gleamed from Daniel's behavior coach.

Daniel will sometimes come home and just release all of the feelings he has had throughout the day. I will sometimes take this personally. But, Coach David pointed out that home is where Daniel is safe. He knows that whatever he pours out and no matter how hard he beats on us, we will still be there. We can take the punches.

So often, I do the same. I know that Brian will always love me so I can be upset with him. I can vent to him. He gets the worst of my feelings sometimes. Thankfully, he's my home... my Everlast bag. He will stand strong through all of the ups and downs. I hope he feels the same about me.

This just struck me as I was thinking about the beginning of school. All of the changes that our family will go through in such a short period of time. Thankfully, we all have home. We have a family that can roll with the punches.

Let Freedom Ring

Today my thoughts are with my brothers. I heard from Andrew that he will be coming home soon! He'll be back in the states in the beginning of August. I haven't heard from Ben in a long time. Hopefully, he's hanging in there, too.

We will not being doing anything special today. Just enjoying our family and our freedom :)

Here is something that Daniel made in celebration of Martin King Luther Jr. Day. I think that it applies year round. And it makes me so happy that our family lives in a place where we can be a little different.

I confess, this really is my favorite question to ask my kids....

Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Bean: Ummm... Ironman.