When I lost my dog earlier this week, I thought I was going to wait far longer to add another pet to our family. I could not handle the emptiness of not having her here, and today we added Caleb. At least I think that’s going to be his name. He is an eight week old Corgi and who knows what mix. He was “adopted” from the Humane Society, as most of our pets have been.

When you have a foster or adoptive child, you have to put a little bit more thought into adding a pet to your family than you do with a biological child. One of the things we don’t know is our child’s... more

First of all, thank you for indulging me in my time off. The time grieving my sweet dog was helpful, along with being emotional about Kory’s birthday yesterday and having a busy few days getting ready for the events of today, it’s been a roller coaster week.

This morning our family attended the Bat Mitzvah of two girls and the Bar Mitzvah of their brother. It was a beautiful ceremony. Since we’re... more

This is my last blog of the month, and a rather heavy one after my previous blog today. My day changed drastically this afternoon.

I noticed last night that my sweet dog, Sienna, was not acting her usual self. When she got up this morning she was very lethargic and wasn’t eating, which is highly unusual for this dog. I took her to the vet this afternoon knowing it would not be good news, but it was far worse... more

Yesterday was Holy Humor Sunday in our church. Is it any coincidence that it fell on my husband’s birthday?

A large part of the message of the sermon was taking care of ourselves through humor. This applies to our parenting as well. When faced with chaos, we need to be able to laugh to keep our sanity. Even with the blogs I write, most of them are about serious issues, and things that most parents don’t have to deal with. We need to laugh. On that note, I’m going to present you with some humor and hopefully add a little laughter and joy to your day.

Q.... more

It is my husband’s birthday today. We have had a very good day. We actually had a real, live, grown-up date last night. Can you believe it?

Today we went to church, were home for a little bit, went to take a gift to Sammy’s former foster parents, and then on to the hockey game that I blogged about earlier this week.

My husband is a great support to our family. He is our bread winner, but that’s not what I mean by support. Our family has been through some incredibly hard... more

I love to bake, and unfortunately, I love to eat what I bake. My round shape proves that.

Even more unfortunately, there are many children who go hungry every day. Many children in foster care have been deprived of food due to either abuse or neglect. When Kory came to our home it was obvious that he had been hungry quite often. He ate anything you put in front of him, and lots of it.

There is a way to help kids out and still have fun in the process. The Great... more

When a child enters your home, you are faced with a unique situation. Finding appropriate care for your child when you need to be away. There are certain things are limited or prohibited by your license, and may need to be negotiated if you need to have the rules modified for your family. It is possible to get an exception for these.

Some of the restrictions on the foster care licensing paperwork that we filled out for Hannah’s adoption are:

• You may not combine care of foster child with in-home daycare • One parent home full time • Only... more

Thursday I picked up a child to come to my home for respite for the weekend. I wasn’t given full information about this child or she never would have entered my home. She disrupted our entire home until 2:00 AM and enough so that my husband returned her to her parents at 3:30 AM.

I am used to defiant children. That’s not a big deal to me. She also set to trying to get me angry. As she threatened to break a bottle of wine on my floor and I didn’t flinch, then threatened to break my window with the bottle of wine, I still didn’t flinch. I have been through... more

One of the things you may hear discussed is “kinship care.” What does that mean? Well, it seems to be self-explanatory. Kinship care means that the child is in the care of a relative.

The relationship with the child can vary. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins can all be caregivers for a relative minor child if they interested, appropriate and capable caregivers. This is determined by a background check from social services, along with other determining criteria.

Kinship care is not at all unusual. About one third of all children in foster care... more

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a fan of country music. I love country artists Rodney Atkins. His songs are about real people and real life and things I can relate to. His song “If You’re Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Knows You’re There) resonated with me because when it came out I was going through a horrible time with Sammy and the song talks about how you should keep on going through the bad times and come out the other side of them. One of the lines in the song is one that so many of us can relate to

“….things go from bad... more