I am back from the sign language sign up. Now I have to get everything ready for classes tomorrow with our homeschool group. I have been told that the best way to learn and to retain sign language is to teach it, evidently it is working because I have been able to retain it a lot better since I have been teaching it in our Coop class.

I really enjoy our homeschool group and getting to visit with like minded people each week, the kids love it also.

Until next time: Have a Blessed Day!!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Well, It has been awhile again since I have blogged on here. For some reason I have not been able to get past where I am at on the foster parenting dialogue. Maybe somebody needed to read it more than once. I will do my best to get another blog added about the foster parenting. We will be going out of town tomorrow and won't be back until after Labor Day so maybe I will have time to do some blogging while we are gone as I will have my laptop with me.

Today has been a very busy day. I had a meeting this morning to help start getting ready for the fair. If you know anything about Extension Educators, Home Extension, etc.  and any other names it used to go by back in the old days then you know that they are very involved in helping to make sure county fairs stay going by doing a lot of volunteer work at them and their own exhibit competitions in the fair. Ours currently is called OHCE for Oklahoma Home Community and Education. Our county currently has five of these clubs. I belong to the one called M.O.M.S which stands for Mothers On Mondays. (That is the day we have our meeting each month). Our county fair officially opens to the public on Sept. 4 Thursday evening but we have to get busy on Sept. 3 Wednesday morning starting to get the tables all set up, the display cases set up, etc.. All day Thursday we help the judges and then get everything displaying with the ribbons and everything before it opens that evening. It is a lot of work but to me it is a lot of fun.

Gotta go for now. Gotta go get signed up for my Advanced Sign Language class that will start soon.

Until next time:  Have a Blessed Day!! 

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

We had to fill out a ton of paperwork for the homestudy. There were a ton of questions on the paperwork. All kinds of questions on all different subjects. I didn't think I was ever going to get done filling out paperwork and answering questions. I had to answer all kinds of questions like:

Were you ever in DHS?

Were any of your family ever in the system?

Was there any abuse in your family?

What do you think your parenting style is?

How do you think you will handle the foster children that will be coming into your care?

What do you think your reactions will be in such and such situations?

Do you and your spouse agree on this?

Etc. ,Etc., Etc.

Then when we thought we were all done with the questioning a person with an agency (not the foster care agency) set up an appointment with us to come into our house and ask us more questions.

She went over all the questions that we had answered already and asked new questions or asked the same questions in different forms.  She talked with me by myself and with hubby by hisself, then with both of us together.

At the same time she was observing how we were parenting our son at the time. (I was unaware she was doing this until she told us afterwards). She was observing how we were treating him and how we were interacting with him.

Then we had to show her all through the house (every room, nook and cranny) show her a working fire extinguiser, a escape plan for the house in case of fire or other emergencies, and checked to see that all the smoke detectors were in good working order with fresh batteries in them.

We passed the homestudy easily. It sounds more intense when I put it in words that it actually seemed at the time.

Next time I will expound on question three in the previous post a little bit.

So, until next time:

Have a Blessed Day!! 

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Well, we got the time and date from Sharron of when the meetings were to start. We weren't sure what to expect since we had never foster parented before and neither had either of our parents. The only thing either one of us knew about foster parenting was when I was growing up a neighbor of ours had a foster son, that was it.

God had told us that he wanted us to do therapuetic foster parenting. He had also let us know that we were to foster parent older boys, not babies or toddlers.

The first things we had to do to get started was fill out tons of paper work but the agency was there to walk us through all that and explain anything we had a question on. I am going to list some of the things we had to do but if this is something you feel like God is putting on your heart to do then do not let this scare you off, it really is not that bad.

Here is a list of some of the things:

1. OSBI (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation) background check. I had just started a new job and had already went through this check about a month before and let me tell you the agency questioned me up and down about why I had had a background check done so recently. They even called my employer to verify what I had said. They were satisfied when they called the employer and found out that it was a government agency that I had just recently went to work part time for.

2. Income verification. They mostly wanted to know that we were not doing this just because of the money that was involved. We had to show them our last thirty days pay check stubs. We had to show this at the beginning of the training course and then again at the end of the twelve weeks when the training was over because, as they said, a lot can happen in twelve weeks.

3. We had a list of question that we had to ask our families. Questions like were you ever involved with DHS (Department of Human Services) for any reason? I can't remember any more of the questions right now because the answer to this question from my family was surprising, but that will be another post.

4. We had to fill out paperwork to have a homestudy done. I will post more details about that in another post also.

5. We had to have a tb (tuberculosis) test done on every person in the family. (myself, Handsome and our very young son).

6. All the animals had to be up to date on their shots.

It is now a requirement, at least here in the state of Oklahoma, that you get fingerprinted when you are going to be doing anything like this. At that time it was not required so we did not have to have our fingerprints taken although we would have if needed.

I guess that is all for now as this is getting pretty long and I try to keep it fairly short so you do not get tired or reading before you get to the end.

Next post: The Unexpected DHS story from my Mom.

Until next time:

                  Have a Blessed Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

It didn't take long for God to let me know that he had been working on Handsome and telling Handsome the same thing He had been telling me about foster parenting.

On the way home from church that afternoon Handsome said, "I think God is wanting us to be foster parents". I silently prayed, "Thank You Lord for telling him and then letting me know that it came from You". I said, yes, I know. I felt God telling us in SS that is what he has for us to do. But, I do not feel the time is right now." Handsome agreed. "So, we just wait on God now I guess." "Yep, said Handsome."

Two years go by and we have a son. We decided that he would be the only child we would have. Even though my pregnancy, delivery and everything went easy and great we (at that time) wanted to be done. I did not have my tubes tied at that time though.

A couple of years later Handsome, Ethan (our son) and I were on our way to church. I said, "I think it is time." Handsome knew exactly what I was talking about and agreed. We didn't have a clue as to how to go about becoming foster parents so we decided we would ask Sharron that night after church just how to get started. Remember, it is four years after God told us that we were going to be foster parenting.

Next time: Talking To Sharron

Until next time:

              Have a Blessed Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Donna

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I have decided to tell the story of how we started therapuetic foster parenting and how we will eventually adopt children. It is a rather long story so it will be in several blogs instead of just one.

As most of you know we have two children: ds age almost 13 and dd age almost 6. Well, we waited for five years before we had any children of our own.

We were setting in Sunday School class at our church one Sunday and our SS teacher was talking about how they felt God leading them to be foster parents. Her and her husband both had worked for DHS for years and she was getting ready to retire. Their adult kids were against it and let them know about it. Their kids said they were to old to be starting over again with kids. She had just had her fiftieth birthday.

Well, while she was talking I felt that God was telling me that we were going to be foster parents also in the near future. I said, Oh Lord, if that is what You want us to do then You will have to be the one to tell Handsome because as You know he doesn't even want any kids of our own. (We didn't even have our own children yet).

Now, Handsome loves kids and is great with them but from the beginning, even before we were married, he told me that he didn't want kids. I told him that I did and when I got ready to have them then I would let him know. I asked him why he didn't want kids since he was so good with them. He said that he was selfish and didn't want to share me. I could understand that  and told him so but told him that I still wanted kids eventually and would still let him know when I was ready to have children.

Well, this has already gotten kind of long to the next segment will be about God telling Handsome about us being foster parents.

Until next time:

            Have a Blessed Day!!!!!!!!!!

Donna

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I need to get back to the foster parenting journey that we went on. I am going to go back and repost the originals so those of you reading this will not have to hunt them down to find out where the journey all started.

Until Next Time: Have a Blessed Day!!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

So what did everybody do on the America's birthday? We packaged and shipped that morning. That evening we spent the it at a youth get together with our son at another families house. We had a cook out, played volleyball, watched the kids shoot off fireworks and then watched what we could see of the towns fireworks. Plus we got to visit with everybody at the same time. It was a lot of fun. It was also a lot of fun watching the kids have fun.

Until next time:

Have a Blessed Day!!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I have not updated this blog for a long time so I am dropping by to just post a quick note to say I am going to try to start blogging on this again.

Until next time Have a Blessed Day!!!!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

If you are reading my blog for the first time then you will have to go back to the Jan. 8th blog to see the series on foster parenting that I started.

Well, we got the time and date from Sharron of when the meetings were to start. We weren't sure what to expect since we had never foster parented before and neither had either of our parents. The only thing either one of us knew about foster parenting was when I was growing up a neighbor of ours had a foster son, that was it.

God had told us that he wanted us to do therapuetic foster parenting. He had also let us know that we were to foster parent older boys, not babies or toddlers.

The first things we had to do to get started was fill out tons of paper work but the agency was there to walk us through all that and explain anything we had a question on. I am going to list some of the things we had to do but if this is something you feel like God is putting on your heart to do then do not let this scare you off, it really is not that bad.

Here is a list of some of the things:

1. OSBI (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation) background check. I had just started a new job and had already went through this check about a month before and let me tell you the agency questioned me up and down about why I had had a background check done so recently. They even called my employer to verify what I had said. They were satisfied when they called the employer and found out that it was a government agency that I had just recently went to work part time for.

2. Income verification. They mostly wanted to know that we were not doing this just because of the money that was involved. We had to show them our last thirty days pay check stubs. We had to show this at the beginning of the training course and then again at the end of the twelve weeks when the training was over because, as they said, a lot can happen in twelve weeks.

3. We had a list of question that we had to ask our families. Questions like were you ever involved with DHS (Department of Human Services) for any reason? I can't remember any more of the questions right now because the answer to this question from my family was surprising, but that will be another post.

4. We had to fill out paperwork to have a homestudy done. I will post more details about that in another post also.

5. We had to have a tb (tuberculosis) test done on every person in the family. (myself, Handsome and our very young son).

6. All the animals had to be up to date on their shots.

It is now a requirement, at least here in the state of Oklahoma, that you get fingerprinted when you are going to be doing anything like this. At that time it was not required so we did not have to have our fingerprints taken although we would have if needed.

I guess that is all for now as this is getting pretty long and I try to keep it fairly short so you do not get tired or reading before you get to the end.

Next post: The Unexpected DHS story from my Mom.

Until next time:

                  Have a Blessed Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

• Comments (4) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I am sorry it has been a few days since I last blogged but life does happen to get in the way of blogging. That is okay with us though because if it wasn't for life then we would have nothing to blog about.

This is the continuation that started on Jan. 8th if you are just now reading this for the first time. I would like to say a thank you to those of you that have left a comment. I felt the Lord was leading me to tell about our experience and the comments have just been a confirmation of that.

Here goes: Talking To Sharron

Handsome and I had determined to talk to Sharron just as soon as service was over for that Wed. night. God works in mysterious ways though and he has a plan for every thing.

Just before our pastor dismissed us he said, "Sharron has an announcement to make before we leave."

Then lo and behold Sharron got up and said, "As you all know we have been foster parenting for awhile. The foster care organization we belong to is going to start a 12 week foster parent training course so they are looking for volunteers. Also, they will be holding the training course in the fellowship hall of our church. Please talk with me before you go home if you are interested."

Well, if that is not a confirmation of what God had been talking to us about and not the right timing then I don't know what is!!

We had a lot of questions for Sharron. She was so tickled when we said God had been telling us that this was something we were to do.

The training was to start in just a couple of weeks.

Isn't God awesome!!

Next installment: Starting The Training.

Until next time:

              Have a Blessed Day!!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

This story starts in the blog for Jan. 8th.

It didn't take long for God to let me know that he had been working on Handsome and telling Handsome the same thing He had been telling me about foster parenting.

On the way home from church that afternoon Handsome said, "I think God is wanting us to be foster parents". I silently prayed, "Thank You Lord for telling him and then letting me know that it came from You". I said, yes, I know. I felt God telling us in SS that is what he has for us to do. But, I do not feel the time is right now." Handsome agreed. "So, we just wait on God now I guess." "Yep, said Handsome."

Two years go by and we have a son. We decided that he would be the only child we would have. Even though my pregnancy, delivery and everything went easy and great we (at that time) wanted to be done. I did not have my tubes tied at that time though.

A couple of years later Handsome, Ethan (our son) and I were on our way to church. I said, "I think it is time." Handsome knew exactly what I was talking about and agreed. We didn't have a clue as to how to go about becoming foster parents so we decided we would ask Sharron that night after church just how to get started. Remember, it is four years after God told us that we were going to be foster parenting.

Next time: Talking To Sharron

Until next time:

              Have a Blessed Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Donna

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I have decided to tell the story of how we started therapuetic foster parenting and how we will eventually adopt children. It is a rather long story so it will be in several blogs instead of just one.

As most of you know we have two children: ds age almost 13 and dd age almost 6. Well, we waited for five years before we had any children of our own.

We were setting in Sunday School class at our church one Sunday and our SS teacher was talking about how they felt God leading them to be foster parents. Her and her husband both had worked for DHS for years and she was getting ready to retire. Their adult kids were against it and let them know about it. Their kids said they were to old to be starting over again with kids. She had just had her fiftieth birthday.

Well, while she was talking I felt that God was telling me that we were going to be foster parents also in the near future. I said, Oh Lord, if that is what You want us to do then You will have to be the one to tell Handsome because as You know he doesn't even want any kids of our own. (We didn't even have our own children yet).

Now, Handsome loves kids and is great with them but from the beginning, even before we were married, he told me that he didn't want kids. I told him that I did and when I got ready to have them then I would let him know. I asked him why he didn't want kids since he was so good with them. He said that he was selfish and didn't want to share me. I could understand that  and told him so but told him that I still wanted kids eventually and would still let him know when I was ready to have children.

Well, this has already gotten kind of long to the next segment will be about God telling Handsome about us being foster parents.

Until next time:

            Have a Blessed Day!!!!!!!!!!

Donna

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I know it is the way God set things up but it is still so sad to see the kids growing up.

We went to a birthday party today for a young lady that just turned 13. Her mom is my best friend. We have traded off babysitting since the kids were babies when we first met. Her daughter was 9 months old then and my son was 8 months old. She does think it is kind of funny that she is 13 for one whole month before he turns thirteen. She has always tormented him that month, always saying ha ha I am older than you know.

I will officially have a teenager next month. He has the attitude of one now though! Lately he has been trying to be the rooster of the house. He has been doing his best to act like everybody should do what he says. He is learning that there is only one rooster in this house though and that "it ain't him" but sometimes it his hard to watch him have to learn these lessons. Since we homeschool and have a home based business then Handsome is here to take care of it and sometimes it is not pretty.

I just hope he hurries up and gets out of this stage.

Well, time to put the kids to bed so until next time:

             HAVE A BLESSED DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

DONNA

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I decided to read a few blogs before going to bed. I am seeing the same thing come up on a few of them. It has to do with the matter of finances and the lack of them.

Handsome and I went to a Dave Ramsey seminar and it was the best thing we ever did. I think you can find out the information at www.daveramsey.com 

He is a christian financial advisor that had a lot of money, lost it all, and has plenty of money again. He has a radio program too. I think you can find it in your area by going to his website also, that is how we found him. (from the radio program) We started doing what he teaches and it has helped us tremendously. We personally do not own credit cards because anything you can do with a credit card you can do with a debit card the only difference is if the money is not there then you can not purchase it , which keeps you from making impule purchases and it helps you think about what you purchase and think about how much of a need versus how much of a want it is before making the purchase.

When you take time to think about it most of the time you decide that you don't need it, you don't need it just yet or you can do with a much less exspensive model than the one you intended to purchase.

I hope this helps any of you that read this blog. Please give it a shot.

Until next time:

            Have a Blessed Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Donna

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I have been so tired today. Yesterday Handsome got up about 4:15 because he was going on a business trip. Well, dd woke up and never went back to sleep so I had to stay up. I was up unitl after 11:30 when Handsome got home and we all got settled in for the night. Even though I turned the alarm off we were still awake by 8:00 (that is actually sleeping in for us). I am feeling my age more every day I think. lol.

Well, I guess this has just not been my day. I had a little bit more typed but then I hit a key and erased it. I couldn't do that on purpose if I tried. I am not even sure what key I hit but whichever one it was it erased two paragraphs.

Well, good night and

Until next time:

               Have a Blessed Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Donna

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Well, it is the first day of the rest of the year!! What are you going to do this year? If you read my last post then you know that we set the wheels in motion before the new year arrived for us. So far it has been going great! Hopefully it will stay that way.

I have a little bit of cleaning up to do so need to sign off soon. Go to www.flylady.net and she will help you get your house cleaned up too if you just follow her suggestions. They are pretty easy to follow and you actually see pretty good results when you do.

So, until next time:

             Have a Blessed Day!!!!!!!!!

Donna

• Comments (3) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Well, it is New Year's Eve. The last day of the year 2007. When you look back upon it just what did you accomplish?

Were they good things?

Were they bad things?

Were they indifferent?

What kind of difference did you make it somebody's life and was it a good difference?

I am sure that each of us had a little of all of these. I know I did. Now we have a new year to make another start and to see if we can do better in the upcoming year. Handsome and I do not make New Year's resolutions because we figure we probably would not keep up with them anyway. We did sit down together and draw up a list of things that we needed to change as a family though and we started implementing the list the very next day. We decided that it was important enough to go ahead and get a fresh start immediately.

Our family had been getting farther and farther away from each other and as a result we were not being very nice to each other. Now, we still spent a lot of time together and by together, I mean in the same house. But, most of the time we were in separate rooms doing separate activities. Handsome would be on one computer or watching tv while the kids were on the other computer or watching tv while I was doing the same thing. We were becoming strangers to each other here in our own house and it was not becoming a pretty sight.

We now are sticking with a schedule that Handsome and I set up. The kids have not been very happy with it so far but even after just two days we can see an improvement in their attitudes. Of course, or son, being twelve almost thirteen, has the attitude anyway but even that is getting better.

My biggest problem was submission to Handsome. Now Handsome and I have a pretty good relationship. We have been married for over 17 years and never had a fight or arguement but when the wife does not submit as the bible tells us to then problems start arrising and they were for us too.

The biggest area of submission that I am having to deal with is in regards to disciplining the kids. I am stricter than he is, so therefore feel like he is to lenient on them. I would tell the kids to do stuff or quit doing stuff, whichever the case may be, after he had already told them but I would normally add something onto it.

Well, that is not backing up your husband in the area of parenting, that is undermining his authority and it teaches the kids to be disrespectful. It is not a good thing. It was causing disrespect all the way around. The kids were gettting very disrespetful to their father and to me and why not, we were helping to teach it to them.

Yes, Handsome is taking his share of the blame to. He has realized that he does not like confrontation so it was easier to just not say anything.

But a problem only stays a problem if you do nothing to fix it. So, ending the year of 2007 and beginning the year of 2008 our family has been making changes for the better.

Oh, I almost forgot, the very first thing that should be done is a DAILY DEVOTION to God. You know what, our pastor preached on this very thing yesterday in the morning church service. For once, I was doing what he preached before he preached it. lol.

That is all for now. So, go take on the New Year. Do something out of your comfort zone and see how much you will be blessed for it.

Until next time and unitl next year:

                Have a Blessed Day.

Donna 

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link