I LOVE Halloween!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love Fall with the chill in the air, the leaves turning, and the spooky decorations that adorn people's houses. Prior to this year we have lived in populated neighborhoods where Steve and I would take turns taking the kids out for Trick or Treating- I love walking with the kids, and I also enjoy greeting the children at the door and having a quick chat with their waiting adults. This year we live on a sparsely populated street, and the walk down our driveway would tucker out just about any trick-or-treater (not to mention scare the heck out of them). For this reason, we ventured out to join some new friends in their subdivision. We started early as the kids were anxious to get started. Delaney had her own purple pumpkin to store her candy in and she held it tight the entire night. If I tried to "help" her hold it she shrieked "Nooooooo". Alrighty then-I left it up to her. The boys all came back with pounds of candy. They had a wonderful night, and they will be eating the rewards for days to come.

Halloween is also special because it is the anniversary of our daughter Delaney's adoption. Last year as we were closing in on an adoption date, we were shooting for National Adoption Day- which is in November. We thought it would be great to share that day with so many other adoptive families- including some of our dearest friends. We were a little disappointed when we found out that our lawyer was not available on that day, but when we heard we could finalize the adoption early...and on Halloween to boot we were excited. It has been an amazing year, and today is a day to reflect on our blessings. To commemorate this special day, we got Delaney a beautiful monogrammed charm bracelet and I put on the "Little Sister" charm that my mother sent her last year. It is really precious and Delaney seemed quite taken with it. The boys each got an action figure to play with. We carved pumpkins and enjoyed being a family. Life is good.

Football

Over the years we have tried team sports and have found that either our children weren't ready to participate due to lack of interest, immaturity, or physical readiness. Brendan and Aidan have participated in a swim team for 2 years with success. We have avoided taking the plunge back into team sports until this year. Late this summer the boys all started talking about football. They had all decided that they wanted to play football this year- and they were pretty insistent about it. Steve and I had our reservations. We weren't sure if they could take the physical and emotional "beating" that comes along with a competitive contact sport. We role-played with them what it might be like, we tried to talk them out if it, and eventually we signed them up. I about choked when I got the news that for the first month practice would be 5 nights per week for over 2 hours at a time. Talk about a huge adjustment! I wasn't worried about the boys anymore- I was worried about myself. Could I feed my family, entertain Delaney, keep my sanity while attending over 20 hours of practices per week? I had my doubts.

It didn't take long to see that I was all wrong about football. The boys thrived on their teams. There were none of the fears, tears, or tantrums that I expected. They ran, hit, pancaked and got flattened on a regular basis- and they loved it. As for me, I was pleasantly surprised about my reaction to all those hours on the field. I volunteered to be the team photographer for Aidan and Brogan's team-and I discovered that I wasn't half bad at it; I began making friends with all the parents, and I started to look forward to 5:00 every single day.

Throughout the season both teams (Brendan was on one team and Brogan and Aidan were on another) had their ups and downs as far as victories were concerned. There was also some sideline drama that was a little distracting- but all-in-all we watched our children grow and build strength that they didn't know they had in them. They were unrecognizable from the boys who stepped on that field for the first time in August. Football changed my views on many things...not just the actual sport. I am grateful for that. We were all sad for the season to end and they all are already talking about playing next year.

Go Wildcats!

I am a convert.

I am in my 5th year homeschooling my boys. As my children’s teacher I have enjoyed the independence, the flexibility, and the ability to select curricula that fits my children’s individual needs. As their mom I cherish the time with my kids, and the excitement of helping them learn new concepts and accomplish things that they didn’t think they could do. Over the years I have heard friends and other homeschoolers talk about various virtual academies that target homeschoolers and parents who are unhappy with public schools, but nervous about taking the leap into homeschooling. Most of the programs were far too restrictive in their curriculum choices, expectations, and requirements for my needs.

About a year ago I heard of one program that made my ears perk up- Columbia Virtual Academy (CVA). The thing that initially caught my attention was purely cash related…for each child enrolled in the program they offered a nice chunk of money to be used for books, art supplies, lessons, classes, field trips, and anything else related to the child’s individual learning plan. While my interest was piqued…I was still skeptical. I did NOT want to do school at home- and I wanted to be able continue to enjoy all the freedoms that I had since the beginning of this educational journey. After further investigation, I realized that CVA could be the best of both worlds. If we enrolled part-time we would be eligible for nearly $3,000.00- and really the only thing that I/we would have to do differently is check in with a teacher on a weekly basis (the kids) and update progress reports on a monthly basis (me). I still could determine classes/curriculum/goals/objectives/use of time/field trips etc. and with CVA’s support I could offer a richer education with so many more opportunities- things that I would have loved to have done all along but couldn’t justify due to expenses.

We joined the program in August, and I am thrilled with CVA. I have recommended the program to several friends, and I will continue to sing the program’s praises to homeschoolers who feel limited in what they can offer their children due to a limited budget. At this point I have not found any negatives stemming from our involvement in CVA, and if there comes a time when I do feel that the negatives out-weigh the positives, we will simply go back to homeschooling on a frugal budget without the backing of a virtual academy. For now the trade-off has been more than worth it…and I am officially a convert.

As Soon As…

I wrote this last year before the finalization of the adoption of our daughter. On October 31, 2008 our wait was over-so on the eve of the first anniversary of Delaney's adoption I thought I would publish this on my blog. I hope to use this post as a jump-start to post more often! (in the pictures you'll see the fence that we built to get our license approval...and Delaney today!)

People always tell me that I am a very patient person. Before having children I was a Special Education teacher, and that comment was directed at me on a very regular basis. For a time I believed it was true- but the adoption process taught me otherwise. Throughout the process I found myself vowing that I will be content as soon as… fill in the blank. The first example of this started with Antioch’s information meeting. I anxiously awaited the date for the meeting, and I told myself that as soon as my husband and I attended that meeting, then we could calmly and rationally contemplate our choices and we would patiently go forward with the next steps in the process. I truly felt that the process would be pretty easy for me since I was already busy raising 3 active little boys. I was naïve.

At each new step of the process I told myself over and over again as soon as, and within moments of reaching that next goal, the longing began creeping its way back into my thoughts- and remained there until the next as soon as took its’ place. As long as I had a job to do to keep me busy (that directly related to adoption of course) I felt we were one step closer to our daughter. (Did I mention we longed for a girl?) I barely took a moment to celebrate the completion of one milestone as I ached to jump into the next step. Although I heard the message over and over again from all the wonderful Antioch staff to have faith- and that our child would join us in when she was supposed to - so stop stressing and leave it to Him, part of me believed that He needed me to do the legwork- a little earthly assistance.

Not one step in the process went the way I expected. The milestone that I had been most looking forward to (other than bringing home our daughter)- and truly believed would be my last as soon as was the approval of our foster license. There had been several glitches along the way, and we were at the point that our file was on the licensor's desk just waiting for approval. On Valentine’s Day 2008 our YFC licensor Lois called to notify us of one last hurdle. We needed a fence around our empty above ground pool. I told her it would be done that weekend, and it was. (Getting the fence built is another story all together- one we’ll save for another day!) On the evening of February 18th (Presidents Day) as soon as the last nail was hammered in, I emailed photos of the completed fence to YFC. The next morning I checked my email and was thrilled to find a note from YFC letting me know that we should be hearing back from the state soon, but the fence looked great. When the phone rang a few minutes later- the caller ID read YFC. My heart started to race out of excitement to finally be there-licensed! The conversation that followed left me numb- “…we have a one day old baby girl…”the rest was pretty much a blur, but just hours later, joined by the very friend who referred me to Antioch Adoptions, I walked out of Tacoma General with our foster/adopt daughter. (My poor husband had left that morning for a business trip and was unable to join me.) Karen, the placement coordinator commented that this must feel like the shortest pregnancy ever. If she would have asked me the day before I would have said it was the longest pregnancy ever- but what a difference a day makes. We were there!

Even now- with our daughter safely at home, right where she should be- we wait. The months ahead will bring ups and downs. There are still as soon as milestones ahead, but now I do not dwell on them. I have learned that this process will run its course – have faith and try to embrace the wait.