Frustration sets in

Well I must admit , feeling a little defeated today. Samantha continues to have episodes with racing heartbeat, disorientation, shaking, and hyperventilating. Foster care will have to be put on hold until we figure this out, as I am not sure what we're up against here. I called the Dr office yesterday to see if anyone could give me any test results for her and the secretary said , although the Dr had read all test results, the nurse was busy and they were short -staffed so it would be today before I got a call. Still waiting for that call. After a bad episode at school I called to see if the Dr could see her today, but he could not. At this point we are not sure if  the episodes are caused by heart or seizure or something else. At first they said anxiety , but I am having a hard time accepting that the level of anxiety in her life would cause something this extreme. So if anyone has any advice or is experiencing anything similar please let me know. Right now I am extremely frustrated at the lack of concern from her Dr. office, extremely concerned about Samantha, and very upset that when we are so close to opening our home for foster care and possible adoption, that has to be put on hold now too.

foster update

Time for an update on the foster care situation.  We have had so much stress come our way since the decision we made to become foster parents, that we wonder about being under spiritual attack. Between trucking laws becoming more ridiculous all the time, finances being affected because shipping rates are lower, and the mystery illnesses of Samantha these last couple of months, it's starting to get a little discouraging! However we have NOT given up on the whole process. Not yet. Perhaps we thought about it for a moment. But Lee seems to be strong when I am weak and vice versa. No question God put us together as a couple, so we are trusting God to open our home for foster care, heal our child, and make sure the trucking company does fine too. I got an email from Cristal (our teacher in foster care classes) and after asking a few more questions (I guess the half a day she spent here wasn't enough) , she finally said our assessment was done and forwarded on to the next step in the process. Now we wait to hear from Washington county DHS and schedule our final walk-thru and paperwork training. In the meantime Lee and Haley plan to get their physicals Friday and Sam, Sierra , and I got ours last Friday. We all have a TB test scheduled next week and then we will be done with medical requirements. I was a little worried Samantha would not pass , but the Dr. assured me they were just looking to make sure she was not someone who would be harmful to or contagious to a foster child, so she passed. I have also started the very fun process of shopping for clothes for a boy! Now we don't know what size he's gonna be yet, so mostly I have been buying at thrift stores and ebay. But I have a start on closet stocking with various items from size 18 months to size 12.

This will be the foster closet

and OK admittedly I have a little work to do in the socks and underwear department but those are not things I will buy used!

So that's our update for now. And I will very excitedly post when we get the call from DHS that we can finish and open! In the meantime please pray for our family, foster children, and buisness. 
Thank you !

THE BIG SCARE

Well I thought I had a challenging week before, but this week topped it by far.  Tuesday night Samantha had an episode where her heart was beating way too hard and fast, she was hyperventilating, shaking all over, having numbness in her arms and hands, and basically scaring her mom to death! My first thought was I will drive her to the ER. About halfway to 412 my next thought was I need an ambulance. She was in the seat beside me barely breathing and gasping for every single breath. So some wonderful first responders, and soon after, an ambulance met us at Kings River Store that night. Now when you are scared to death that there is something very seriously wrong with your child, seeing that first wonderful first responder is the best thing ever! Just knowing someone is there with you that probably knows more about what to do than you do is extremely helpful. After the ambulance came, and she had oxygen, and her heart rate had returned to , well not normal but much better, they said it would be safe for me to drive her to the ER myself and save a huge ambulance bill. (Nice guys, I appreciate that). So I took her on to the ER where they did testing that showed absolutely nothing except that she was anemic. So they diagnosed her with anxiety attack and said to follow up with her regular Dr. We saw Dr. Embry on Friday and he said , although anxiety attacks are likely, he wanted to do further testing. So he ordered a heart monitor for her to wear (we are still waiting on that to arrive via fed-ex), and did an asthma test and more blood work. (also still waiting on all those results). Meanwhile she is having about 1 episode a day, sometimes 2. The doctors taught her how to breath when they happen so they are only lasting about 5 -10 minutes now instead of a few hours like the first one. Prayers are appreciated , and if anyone has any helpful advice please feel free to comment! And never take your first responders, paramedics, and school nurses for granted!
 

WHADDA WEEK!!!!

Sometimes you just gotta say whadda week and go on....... and for those of you out there that would think ages 12 and 15 are too old for home haircutting...think again.

The best it got

what it usually turned into!

 

 

 

 

And this little experiment required a trip to the Kingston salon where Misty saved the day..er...the hair. Admittedly she needed a haircut anyway! 

Then we continued on with stranded trucks waiting for loads that could not be found, and a husband coming home empty from Colorado (which is not profitable at all). 
Then there was the day that someone was trying to send me a fax, except they kept sending it to the phone line. Eventually i got them to send it to the fax line ...what I did not manage to do was get them to cancel the original fax sent to the phone line. This resulted in the phone ringing every 30 seconds (literally) for about 2 1/2 hours. I was about to go insane. The teething baby I was caring for that day was the least of my problems!
Actually I now have even more sympathy than before for Mr. teething baby because I was at the dentist today. I went in at 8:30 for what was supposed to be a simple wisdom tooth extraction. Problem ..part of the root did not come out.  Bigger problem dentist tried for about 2 hours to dig it out. Biggest problem root is still there. And numbness is quickly wearing off (which is good in a way because there was a small chance he had damaged a facial nerve). Trust me nerves are all working fine!!!! PAIN!!!  Note to self--when someone says take a pain pill BEFORE the numbness wears off they are not kidding. Follow dr orders on this one!

"knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience" James 1:3

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well originally this blog was intended to write about, and share our journey to foster care and possible adoption. However, with it being the new year, and time to make changes and all, and also with things happening sooooooooo slowly on the foster care front, I have decided to make it a weekly blog of our life! Of course it will still include all foster care updates, but I won't have to wait 6 months between happenings to post stuff!
 First some highlights from 2011:
1-We are now the parents of  12, 14, and 15 year old girls. They are all growing up way too fast for my liking. We are now discussing such things as which college they want to attend and what future career path they should be on.  
Good thing I had these kids young or I would really be feeling old right now!!!
2- We adopted Otto , the best puppy ever created, and continue to love Sadie (the grouchy dog), Scooter (the snuggler), and Munchkin (the watchdog)
3-We gave a home to 3 orphan deer. One of which we lost due to internal blockages (RIP Dolar). That was probably the saddest thing that happened in 2011.
On a brighter note Reno and Janie are very healthy and thriving. (And we now know what supplements to give them to prevent blockages).
4-We continue to run Porter Trucking and I feel like we have finally found some pretty good drivers, while we are not getting rich, we are making a decent living and I get to work at home still!!!! (HUGE plus!)
5-My sister FINALLY announced she is expecting her first baby!!! (EXCITING) And it's a boy! And I cannot wait to hold him and spoil him! 
6-My husband continues to be the most amazing man I know, with whom I am happy to share this journey called life.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!!
And for the days events...Working on getting Reno to walk on a leash!

 All leashed up and ready to go. Love him.

 Little wild Janie deer. She refuses to walk on a leash. REFUSES.

 Reno is getting pretty good at his walks. I'm very proud. (We've only been at this for about 9 months!)

I don't know what this is. But Reno found it on our walk thru the yard and apparently it's YUMMY!!!!

HOME STUDY DAY

So the big homestudy day finally arrived. After a week of cleaning ...followed by children and dogs immediately re-messing.....the house looked pretty much like it always looks! Mrs. Cristal arrives safely at our house at 1:30. We begin with the walk -through where she tells me that even though my kitchen knives are locked with a child proof lock , an older child would be able to figure that out and they really need to be in the tackle box locked with a key on top of the fridge with the prescription meds. OK I am thinking we are not off to a great start. But she checked the bathrooms, bedrooms, gun safe, cleaning supplies, fire extinguisher, exit plans for fire, emergency numbers, and animals  and found no other problems. Actually we even convinced her she needed some guineas along the tour. LOL 
Then we come the part where we all sit down at the table to talk and fill out paperwork (again). The girls are dismissed to their room to watch TV while Lee and I are interviewed for about 2 hours or so. Then the girls are called down to the table to be interviewed while Lee and I are banished to their room (cause we could hear from our own room). Lee and I used this opportunity to check all text messages on Haley and Sam's phones and to change their phone background to a picture of their parents! (they really appreciated this)
After about another hour or so we are called back to the table and the girls are re-banished to their room, only this time she wants to interview Lee and I separately. 
Then somewhere around 5:30 she called it a night. Said our assessment would be a pleasure to write and ,although the final decision belongs to DCFS, she sees no reason whatsoever why we won't be opened as a foster home. Then she informed us she has 45 days to write the assessment and to expect it to be done sometime around February . All in all it went very well! 
Now I just have to get the caseworker at Washington county to return my messages so I can schedule 3 hours worth of training, schedule physicals for the entire family, and find out who and when to turn in the rest of the paperwork I have filled out.
We expect to get our first foster child around February or March. And while we are remaining open for adoption to the right child, we plan to be foster parents to however many children need us, first.

Preparing for home study

We have one more class on Dec 3rd and the Saturday classes will be finished! And our home study is scheduled for Dec 9th. We did find out our area 1 caseworker is resigning tomorrow. Hopefully this will not be a major setback for us. We have to start working with someone from DHS who we don't know at all and doesn't know us now. But before that happens we have to pass the home study and get through the final class. In preparation for the home study I now have the safest home in the world. (ridiculously so) As per DHS policy my kitchen knives are locked up, medications are locked up, my deer are getting a combination lock put on their pen, my cleaning supplies are locked up, LOL I am a bit surprised my kids don't have to be locked up! And in addition to that we now have a chore chart, house rules, fire/tornado plan, and emergency numbers posted all over the walls! Fire extinguishers and smoke detectors are good to go.... Now assuming I have time to actually clean my house again, and Lee has time to clean the garage again, I think we are as ready as we can be!