Back to Normal?

I thought I'd say that we are back to normal around here, but I'm not sure that you could ever actually label us as normal.


We are, however, back to everyone sleeping in the correct bed, other than Julia. JD had to leave on travel for the week and that is always enough to throw Julia into the depths of despair at bedtime. I thought that I would help her out and let her have a turn sleeping on the inflatable bed that was set up on Alyssa's floor. She was so tired at 8:00 p.m. that I got her into bed. I tried everything! By 11:00, she had been in the inflatable bed, her bed, my bed and the couch. She had also ripped all the sheets off of several beds and was still screaming. At times like this, I know we are dealing with way more than just strong will. In spite of her passing the attachment testing in Charlottesville last year, my gut tells me that she is suffering from attachment challenges! Today I called two closer places to at least have an evaluation done; I really think we need some therapy or something. (If she doesn't qualify for it, maybe they can provide the rest of us with some advice for dealing with hours of high-pitch glass-shattering screaming, because our nerves were a bit shot my the end of the session last night!)

I'd also like to point out that JD never sees these episodes, although he has heard many of them across the phone lines. She just doesn't act like this when he is home. And from what I've heard, it's even worse if we are both gone. I'm supposed to head north to meet JD for the week-end this Friday. I really hope it improves this week because I"m not sure that I would even leave her with a sister I didn't like!

So, that's my question of the hour. Do you leave attachment challenged children that freak out anyway? Or do JD and I never go anywhere without Julia because she has a tough time? She adores my sister and my sister is the one here with her, so it's not like I'm leaving her in a strange environment or anything.

Parenting can be so tough!

I Just Love This!

Make sure you watch the end!

Quick Update

I wanted to post a quick update about the mom that is here with her children this weekend. Every thing is going far better than I hoped. For the most part, the kids are all getting along and enjoying each other's company. While we initially offered the family to stay for a few weeks, the Lord graciously opened up a home for her to move into that is a single lady who is equipped for children because her grandchild recently moved out. I am relieved since JD leaves on travel tomorrow and it would be a bit much for me to handle all week while I'm still having back issues. While things are going very smoothly this weekend, it is mainly due to the fact that JD is very hands on with the older kids; I don't assume that I would get the same respect since it's obvious that their mother does not.

You would think that my four years of foster parenting would prepare me for helping families that function is great dysfunction, but I'm totally out of my comfort zone with situations like this. I'm not sure what our role will be after tomorrow, but I'm sure that we will still have a role. It's been a remarkable witness to see the Christians at my husband's company come together are provide this family everything they need to start a new life. We are praying that she sees Jesus in it and will come to know Him through this difficult time in her life.

Being the Hands and Feet

We are getting the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus this weekend; we have an abused mom and her four children coming to our house to stay. We have been involved in the situation for a few weeks, but it all changed yesterday when the mother made the very courageous decision to take her children and flee with only the clothes on her back. This situation appears to be at a level beyond our imagination as the family has lived without even electricity for over three years.



Please pray for us!

Do It For the Kids....

Please take a moment and sign the petition to keep adoptions open in Ethiopia. It doesn't matter if you've ever adopted or if you ever plan on adopting, it's just a simple statement that says THIS many Americans care about the orphans of Ethiopia and we want you to fix any corruption without shutting the door of adoption. So many lives depend on it!

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43714.html

And to accompany that urgent request, here's a few birthday photos. We had a great time eating as a family at Chili's. For obvious reasons, Chick Fil A is the fanciest restaurant that my children are accustomed to, so it was a nice treat for everyone. After that, we headed to Aunt Deb's house for cake and ice-cream; she even had a few friends that came for the event.

We are planning on having a father/son camp-out in honor of Ben's birthday in a month when it warms up a bit. He is very excited about the idea.



Happy Birthday again Ben!

Circumstances

I've been battling discouragement lately in a few area. (I generally do less blog writing when I'm feeling like I have more negative than positive to say.) The first issue is my back; it's been really bad again and stops me from accomplishing the majority of the things I want to. I have booked an appointment with "my back doctor" on Thursday and hope to schedule another MRI. I then want to consider what I can actually do to help remedy this problem; this is my 3rd serious round in less than a year.


My second area is one of my children. Sometimes, I feel like we have made progress and other times, it really looks hopeless. I really hate how negatively it can impact the other children in the family as well.


And thirdly, the Ethiopian adoption realm isn't looking too promising right now. They are reportedly cutting adoption processing by 90%. At that rate, it looks like a new adoption could take up to three years; that is not good when we are often talking about medically fragile children that desperately need to make it "home" to be treated.


Lastly, I really dislike how I often allow my joy to be sucked out by the circumstances around me. I'm trying to not allow these situations to steal my joy...I'm trying!


As for the right now - it's Ben's 10th birthday and Chili's decided to have a today only special that allows two kids to eat free for each paying adult. Thank you Chili's and happy birthday Ben! (pictures will come.)

The Beginnings of Spring

I'm thankful that it's March; January and February rank as the lowest months in my opinion. Today was nice and warm and we ventured outside to evaluate things for spring and plan where I'm going to plant my fruit trees. I'd like to plant berry bushes as well this spring, but I'll have to see how much I can cram in!

Here are my 15 guineas wandering and eating. We are down to exactly half of what I ordered last year, thanks to Charlie the secret chicken killer. They wander and peck around all day and fly back into the coop at night on their own. I got them because they eat ticks and keep snakes away, both valuable services in my opinion.


We had a few regular chickens that needed their flight feathers clipped to stay in the fence. I armed myself with the scissors and sent Ben to catch them one by one. In this picture, Julia is blocking them for Ben.

We decided on planting four apple trees along the retaining wall in the backyard and dug the holes for them. I'm planning on planting two pear and two peach in the front yard, but I have to have the power people come mark the lines before we dig their holes.

Elijah was pretty impressed when we cut a few roots under the ground. He spent a good while longer chopping dirt with the pruning shears.

Elijah also got a bonus trip to the dump today. While he was playing in the back (as JD was jumping the truck battery due to him leaving the interior light on,) he said, "me like being a farmer, me like big trucks and little trucks, me like big tractors and little tractors." It's a good life for a boy!

Actually, I think the country life is good for girls too!

Here's Gus enjoying his first spring; he only goes out with supervision but he sure is enjoying the great outdoors. He hangs with the kids much like a dog.

Welcome spring.

Adoption Prayer

Dear Blog friends,

This is a copy of the email that we sent our to friends and family yesterday - we are requesting direct prayer on our behalf in the area of our future adoption. Granted, this is not a "are we going to adopt" - it's a "do we start now" request. If you are led, won't you prayer for us when we come to mind.


Hello family and friends,
We are asking prayer for wisdom and direction for our family. We know that God directly answered a prayer a few years back that we are supposed to adopt a special needs child from Ethiopia. On Monday, we were finally able to close on our house, making this the first realistic opportunity we have had to move forward with a new adoption. We both desire to be in the center of God’s will, not only with the subject of adoption but in everything. Compounding the challenge is the awareness that we have for the necessity to save a child (or children) and contrasting that with being good stewards of our financial resources. Without the focus of being in the center of His will, which we are still practicing, you can imagine the emotional roller coaster that we are experiencing.

We really need prayer to know if we are supposed to step out in faith and begin the process now or if we are supposed to start saving towards it in the future. There are early components in the adoption process that have to be complete before we could even claim a child that God would lead us to adopt, but if we were told that the time is not now these parts would expire and have to be redone. Unfortunately, the cost of Ethiopia has really sky-rocketed, mostly due to the requirement of making two trips per adoption. We can't imagine delaying much beyond next year and even then, the amount we could save up would only be a small fraction of the needed funds.

We are specifically petitioning God in prayer to show us if we are supposed to step out and do what we can now or take a step back and continue to prepare for a future time that he would lead us to begin the process. Thanks for praying with us in this vital area for the orphan/s that we know we are called to bring home one day.

The Foringer family

Services Offered

You know how you can hire those professionals to come and organize your house and tidy your closets? I can offer you the complete opposite service, courtesy of Elijah - free of charge! He has really proven his gift in the office closet - just the place you may need extra help with the paper piles!

If your papers are under control and it's your wardrobe that needs some sprucing up; look no farther than Ms. Julia. Although she didn't smile in this picture, because she was griping that I had the camera on her, you can tell that her flair for fashion hasn't diminished over the last few years. She is really into layering and could help you pull off an individual look you'll love.

Let us know...

Biker Gang

On Tuesday mornings, I take care of a biker gang; at least that what Elijah calls himself and his Tuesday morning friends. He derived the term "good biker gang" from an episode of the Backyardigans I'm ashamed to admit. The other members of the biker gang stay here while their mother teaches Alyssa's Zoology class.


Today I made five trips to homeschool co-op; usually it's four on Tuesday and four on Wednesday. While I'm actually quite happy with this co-op, I'm still contemplating putting the children in Classical Conversations next year. I may do the three day training in June before I actually make up my mind and hand over the big bucks.
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On a very happy note, we actually closed on our house yesterday just as planned. There were also no hidden costs at closing, like we have encountered once before. At the end of next month we should close on our re-fi on our rental home. So, that really is one huge thing off our mind.

There is little on my mind at the moment other than an adoption. I still don't feel like I have real peace with starting an adoption immediately nor do I have peace with delaying; we are going to be spending serious time praying and fasting over a few major decisions that our family needs to make.

In the meantime, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and praying for wisdom to know what we are supposed to do.