Aedan: 63 Months, Week 3
Owen: 21 Months, Week 5
Sunday, July 14th was our third Sunday in our new area, and we actually decided to go back to Parker Hill Church again because they were having a Next meeting, king of like a "get to know the church" type event. They provided lunch and childcare, and this church is in the top of our list, so we decided it would be worth it to check out and find out more information about the church. The event was very well organized, we got a lot of good information about the church, and we were able to connect with other people in the church and ask questions. In fact, I exchanged numbers with another lady who has two little girls, and she texted me that afternoon inviting us over to their house to swim and play, so that was very kind of her. We have two more churches we will try, and then make a decision from there.
Here is my sweet Samantha reading a book to Owen that afternoon once he got up from his nap.
As we are thinking about getting back into foster care, my heart feels very sure about this call on our hearts as a way our family can help out other families and children in need. Part of me feels nervous because I feel disappointed with how I handled things and myself during our last placement, but I know most of that was because there was just way too much going on in my life for me to handle at one time (just started working full time, found out I was pregnant, and then accepted our first placement). Ben and I have received more training on how to handle trauma, and we learned a lot from our mistakes of last time that will help us become better this time. But most of me feels an overwhelming burden on my heart to be a family that welcomes children, caring for the least of these, as Jesus commands in the Bible. Also, this video, NF- How Could You Leave Us, that was played during a foster parent training in Sault Ste. Marie has stuck in my mind ever since. They played it early on in our training, and tears were just streaming down my cheeks, and my heart was breaking for every kid that feels this kind of pain from family where they should feel the most safe, attached, and loved. I am already praying for the child(ren) that will come into our home, as well as for ourselves as we look to care for children that are broken and hurting in so many ways.
In an effort to entertain Owen, he got a hold of my phone during the meeting and took many, many pictures just like these. He would hold the phone up to himself and say, "Cheese!"
I love it when I get to put Owen down for his nap because he will fall asleep on your lap every day, and it has become my favorite part of most days. For such a busy toddler, he doesn't stay still for long, but I find myself lingering in the rocking chair with him in the afternoons. His sweet little soft cheeks resting against my arm or my shoulder. He has always enjoyed being held and cuddled, and I will take it while I still can. (That afternoon he also insisted on sleeping with this stuffed bunny from Miss Linda.)
When Owen got up from his nap that day, he saw some pictures that I had up on my computer. One was of our time in Upland, and Ema's left arm was in the picture. He pointed to her arm and said, "Me-ma," and something that sounded like watch. He kept repeating "Me-ma" over and over again, and it made me smile that he recognized her just by her arm. I got my phone out to take a video of him talking and saying "Me-ma" because I figured Ema would love hearing her youngest grandchild saying her name.
That afternoon Ben took the kids into Wilkes-Barre to go grocery shopping (this particular grocery store has a place where you can drop off your kids, I think ages 3-9 while you go shopping) and to look for new shoes for the kids. They both desperately needed new shoes. Aedan measured at a 12.5 and Samantha was a 4.5 which was up a size and a half from where she was before. I knew she had gotten taller lately, but I had no idea that she had gone through that big of a growth spurt for her feet to grow that much. Here are the pictures Ben sent me of the shoes they picked out.
I'm not sure why, but I think most of us felt a little "homesick" for our old home and community that Monday. As I was putting Aedan to bed that night, he was talking to me for awhile, saying that he doesn't really know anyone here, and that all his friends are too far away to come over to play. He even asked when Mr. Ken and Miss Linda were going to come for a visit. Then, I showed Samantha a video of the new family that's in our old house because the kids were running around our old back yard, and Samantha said watching it made her sad. She has also expressed several times how she was not happy when we told her we were going to move to Pennsylvania. We try to reassure them (and ourselves), that we didn't really meet a lot of our friends in Sault Ste. Marie until the last year or so that we lived there, so it takes time, but it can be a slow process at times when all you want is something or someone familiar. I know things will get better, but it's hard for all of us in the meantime. I think it's hard for me to see Samantha and Aedan feeling sad, missing friends, and not really having anyone here to play with except each other. I have tried reaching out to a few people, but people haven't responded or have just been busy. I know once we find a church, we can hopefully find a group of people that we can be friends with, and once school starts the kids will have other kids to be around every day, but I really hope we can find another family that has kids of similar ages that we could connect with. I think that would do our hearts so much good.
Tuesday morning we decided to make the trip down to the DMV so Ben and I could get our new driver's licenses. Mine expired the next day, on my birthday, anyways, plus we had to get our PA driver's licenses before we could register our cars and all that jazz. It wasn't exactly fun waiting with our three rascals in tow, and I actually ended up taking them outside for awhile because they were getting too restless inside waiting. They gave us a little bit of a hard time about the documentation we brought, even though Ben looked it up ahead of time to make sure it was valid, but it was frustrating that they were second guessing their own rules.
After getting our new licenses, Ben went off to work in his office, and I stopped at Petco with the kids so they could pick out their Betta Fish for the fish tanks that we had worked on putting together from Uncle Timmy years ago. Aedan picked out a red Delta Tail Male and named him Stephen, and Samantha picked out a purple Elephant Ear Female and named her Esther. After reading the directions of how to transfer the fish to the new tank, they put their decorative plants and new fish in the water. They were so happy and proud of their new fish. I was glad we finally busted these tanks out for the kids. Oh yeah, and we also have a frog named Peter, who the kids caught in our back yard. Now, I hope we can keep them alive for awhile!
The other good news of the day was that we finally got official confirmation that our missing stuff was shipped to us. He sent me pictures of the items and of the receipt, so I felt very relieved that all that drama was finally over, even if it was a month later.
In thinking about Samantha growing up, especially with the recent growth spurt she has had, I decided it would be good to have a discussion about the changes that will happen during puberty. I don't want something to catch her off guard, and I don't want her to hear something from someone else before she hears it from me. So after looking around a little and reading some reviews, I ordered this book called "Celebrate Your Body (and Its Changes, Too)." I decided I would read parts of this book to her at night, and we could talk about things along the way. After reading to Samantha that night, I was praying for her and scratching her back like I usually do, and as I leaned in to give her a hug and say good night, she grabbed my arm, pulled me close, and said, "I don't want you to go, please stay with me." So I chose to stay and get some extra cuddles with my 8-year-old, who normally isn't a big cuddler. However, that night she cuddled up to me, as we laid there together, I reminisced about our time together when she was a little girl: taking her to story time at the library, going to parks, teaching her some preschool lessons, having to stay in her room in order to get her to fall asleep for naps, her long curly hair, taking her on day trips and over to friend's houses, just everything about how she was our first child. The memories brought tears to my eyes. Man, do I love her, and I cherish moments like these. I know these moments are fleeting, so I will soak them up as much as I can now. She has been having a hard time lately with our move, especially at bedtime, and I know she just needs this extra connection with us, especially at night. I am glad I was able to connect with her in this way, and it meant so much to my Mommy heart.
Wednesday, July 17th was my 35th birthday, and the kids told me the night before that I had to stay in bed in the morning so they could give me breakfast in bed. I was awake when I heard everyone up, but tried to follow directions and stay in bed. They came in with my breakfast on a tray, singing "Happy Birthday" to me. I ended up having to come out and eat breakfast with everyone in the kitchen because Owen was too upset to see me and not have me come out with him, but it was really sweet, and Samantha and Aedan had my whole birthday planned out.
Ben decided to stay home from work that day so that we could spend the day together for my birthday, and what's the best way to spend my 35th birthday? With my family at the Please Touch Children's Museum in Philadelphia. It was our first time visiting, but we had heard good things about it. We actually ended up getting a membership because it was only $60 more, and we figured we would come back at least once more in the next year.
We started our visit in this water play area, and all the kids were having fun playing with the water in their own unique ways. It was fun to observe them as they played.
From there, we went across to the other side where there were many different modes of transportation the kids could pretend to ride in, from cars to buses to trains. They had a lot of fun flitting from one place to another. Samantha and Aedan mostly stayed together, while Owen largely wanted to sit in the cars and pretend to drive.
From there we went to an area with big, blue, foam blocks you could use to build, then a treehouse with an area where you could experiment with pulleys and gears to make lights turn on. Owen got bored in that area quickly, and found this huge turtle sculpture that he thought it was great fun to climb on.
Then, we went into a room with a huge train exhibit and a few train tables that Owen found very interesting, but Samantha and Aedan were ready to move on faster and had to wait until their little brother was ready. Then, we made our way to the pretend city area where there was a hospital, a grocery store, and a house they could pretend play in. They spent a LONG time here and had a blast.
They would have stayed much longer, but it was already 3:00 and Owen was super tired and ready for a nap, so we decided to have the carousel be our last thing for the day. We all had a blast that day and were excited about coming back again another day in the future. I am a quality time person, so it was a wonderful way to spend my birthday with the people I love.
The museum is a good two hours away from our house, so it was the perfect length of time for Aedan and Owen to take naps, and for Samantha to have some time to herself to read in peace.
When we got back home, we had a nice family dinner, followed by a scavenger hunt (complete with a map) to find my presents that the kids hid around the house. Here are pictures and videos Ben took of the scavenger hunt.
For my birthday presents, the kids picked out flowers and chocolate for me, and Ben listened to my idea from awhile ago of wanting coasters with all the places we have lived in our married life. So we have Cedar Park, Texas then Waco, Texas then Bloomington, Indiana then Oxford, Ohio then Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan then Harvey's Lake, Pennsylvania. That is a lot of places and a lot of different states in 13 years.
I love how Owen is just in his diaper (we often take his clothes of when he eats dinner because it's just easier that way), and he's rocking himself back and forth during the song, while Aedan also scoots himself up on the counter on his knees so he can be closer to the cake. I love my family, and even though birthdays aren't that exciting as you get older, I enjoy that they get excited for me. :) I had a wonderful birthday and felt extremely loved.
On Thursday, Ben and I decided to get everything taken care of with our cars in getting them registered and transferring the titles to Pennsylvania. We just went to a local office, so luckily, we didn't have to wait for too long, we just had to pay over $400. Then, the next step is getting them inspected since that is required in PA. Moving to a new state is always so expensive, and there are always these little things that you don't think about that you have to take care of, but we were glad to get one more thing checked off our list of things to do. Other things on our list were trying to figure out how to dispose of all our moving boxes that have just been stacked next to our driveway and setting up new bank accounts since our bank in Sault Ste. Marie was just a local bank.
I had been playing phone take with the Lake-Lehman schools regarding getting the kids registered. I had to make an appointment, but was having trouble getting a hold of the lady I needed an appointment with. However, I finally got a call from her that morning while we were at the library. I didn't want to miss out on our opportunity to get them registered, so we quickly went back home so I could gather the paperwork and then we went to the school. I brought a bag of pretzels for a snack to tide the kids over, and kept Owen in the stroller so I wouldn't have to wrangle him during the meeting, but it was hard for the kids to be patient and wait for the paperwork to be taken care of.
We got home past lunchtime, but accomplished the task of registering the kids for school, one more thing that we had to get done in our process of moving. I was anxious to get them registered so we could get Samantha tested for the gifted program which would then decide which school they were going to attend, so everything with schooling is a little up in the air until we can figure these things out.
Here is Owen looking at books that afternoon when he woke up from his nap.
He was looking at Samantha's American Girl book about Kaya, and there was a horse on the front cover. I heard him say "horse" and was trying to catch it on video. He learns so many new words every day, that sometimes it's hard to keep track of all the words he knows. I feel like he has grown up so much this summer, from how tall he has grown to the interests he has developed to the words he can say and the conversations he can understand.
And here is his big sister reading him a book that evening.
We have a large, beautiful hydrangea bush in our back yard, right next to our deck, and when we first moved in all the flowers were white. Well now the bush has been covered in bees and butterflies that have been pollinating the flowers, and they are slowly turning this beautiful pink color. Sometimes we can spot six or seven butterflies on our bush at one time.
After our meeting with the foster care worker on Monday, our list of things to do got even longer so that we can be licensed in Pennsylvania, so I called our pediatrician in Sault Ste. Marie to see if she would be willing to fill out a health appraisal for each kid, since she had recently seen them. That way we will be saved the step of having to find a doctor right now just for them to fill out a form, signing off on our kids being in good health.
In our front play room, we have just a few baskets/bins of toys that we are going to rotate out so there are always different things for the kids to play with together upstairs, and on this particular day after lunch, they were playing so well together with Barbies, that I decided to sneak around the corner and take a video of them playing together. I love these moments where they are all engaged in play together.
In our front play room, we have just a few baskets/bins of toys that we are going to rotate out so there are always different things for the kids to play with together upstairs, and on this particular day after lunch, they were playing so well together with Barbies, that I decided to sneak around the corner and take a video of them playing together. I love these moments where they are all engaged in play together.
That night there was a STEAM event at an art studio on campus in Wilkes-Barre that Ben heard about through his faculty email. We decided to go downtown and eat dinner at a local Mexican restaurant before going to the event. They had different tables set up for the kids to go around and make different art projects that all were connected to science in some way as well. There were kaleidoscopes, light shadows, and these cool light boxes that they could use to observe the art exhibits that all incorporated elements of light. Samantha and Aedan really had a blast. This kind of thing is right up their alley. Owen mostly just wandered around, and Ben and I took turns hanging out with him. Sometimes it's hard having school aged kids that want to do more involved activities, and then a toddler with a short attention span, but we had a great night out together.
Izzy spied a deer out in our back yard that evening and was looking at it very intently until it bounded away towards the back of our yard. I think deer like this are the reason a lot of our apples and blueberries close to ground have disappeared.
It was going to be super hot over the weekend. In fact, on Friday night it was 86 degrees upstairs, so it was way too hot for the kids to sleep up there. We have a window unit in the front room, so it's fine on the main level and for us to sleep in our bedroom, but the upstairs is miserable. So, we decided to have the kids sleep in the basement. We set up the futon as a bed for Samantha and Aedan, and popped up Owen's pack and play back in the corner so he couldn't see them. However, since they were all sleeping in a new place, it took awhile for them all to settle down for sleep. Ben had to go down and tell Owen to stop babbling to himself so he wasn't preventing Samantha and Aedan from falling asleep, but I was glad we had an alternate place for everyone to sleep.
On Saturday, since it was going to be a hot day, we decided to go into Wilkes-Barre to go to Barnes and Noble, let the kids play, and have them look at books for awhile. We also stopped by Joann Fabrics so we could get the material to make our own window seat cover. I had looked online and there weren't too many choices of things to order, especially since it is not an average shape for a window seat. I watched a few DIY videos so I could learn how to make one myself, we measured our space, and then we bought the fabric, batting, foam, and a staple gun. Then, I took the fabric into another store called Tuesday Morning to find throw pillows to match.
Our outing ended up taking longer than we expected that day, so we decided to stay in Wilkes-Barre for lunch and ate at Olive Garden. The kids thought it was one of the greatest places ever, and the lunch portions were the perfect size for us. It's so nice living near a city that actually has different restaurant choices now. I don't even know the last time we were able to eat at an Olive Garden.
After getting Owen and Aedan down for naps that afternoon, Ben and I worked together on our window seat, and it didn't take too long at all. We cut the plywood to the right size, which was the part that took the longest since we don't have a table saw, just a hand saw. Then, we measured and cut the fabric, batting, and foam, laid everything out on the ping pong table, and stapled the fabric around the board. The moment of truth was putting it in place, and it was a perfect fit. Ben and I were pretty proud of our crafty selves. We thought it looked really good. The pattern brings good color to the space, we saved money by doing it ourselves, and we were able to make it look exactly how we wanted. Samantha now has a lovely place to sit and read, and we are affectionately calling it, "The Book Nook."
That evening since the weather was so hot, we decided to try out the Kingston Pool. I heard good things about it, and we were hoping it would be a welcome reprieve from the heat. However, by the time we ate dinner, got ready, and drove down there, we didn't get there until around 6:30. Apparently they close the water slides down an hour before the pool closes, so Samantha didn't have a chance to go on any of the water slides. The water was a decent temperature, but the boys probably would have preferred it to be a little warmer. They still enjoyed swimming around the pool even though it was a bit crowded. There was a little splash pad type area with fountains and sprayers that the boys liked a lot, and we ended the evening by doing some races across part of the pool. Aedan told us what we had to do, and we had to follow his lead and see who would cross the imaginary line first. It was a fun evening at the pool, and it was fun to try out new things around our community.
(Blog about July 14-20, 2019)
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