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Outside in Kansas City~It is an absolutely beautiful autumn day!
I am thinking~That it has been a long time since I last posted and how to best catch everyone up on the many things that have been going on.
I am thankful for~The great opportunities Taylor had to learn skills this week while helping the Hallams move into their home in the Northeast. He was able to help lay laminate flooring and is now excited about replacing the flooring at our house. Nicholas and Jeremy were both blessed to be able to learn valuable skills while serving the church too.
In my kitchen~All is clean and quiet and I love my new kitchen faucet!
I am wearing~Black knit shirt and teal skirt.
Last creative endeavor~ No time!
I am going~With Brent to Sioux Falls, SD next weekend for a workshop about starting an Orphan’s Ministry at your church.
Can’t wait for~ Spending time with my husband next weekend. We have reservations at a B&B.
Family News~Luca Ethan was born Tuesday, September 16th, at 1:52 p.m. Luca weighed 8 lb. 8 oz. and measured in at 21 inches.
Current Read~Attaching in Adoption by Deborah D. Gray, Parenting the Hurt Child by Keck and Kupecky.
I am hearing~Insects in the backyard. I guess you can tell there are no kids at home right now.
I am hoping~To get the house cleaned and in order in time for another case study visit and Nicholas’ coming home on Wednesday and bringing along a friend to stay for the weekend.
Around the house~I am trying to get home repairs caught up before we receive our first foster children. I started a plumbing project last week to repair the leaky faucet and leaky sink. We ended up having to replace the faucet and the sink basket. Of course none of the old stuff wanted to come off and we did not have the best tools for the jobs…First I sent out the emergency call to my brother, Brad, who came over to help me when I still thought I could repair the faucet. He injured himself in the meantime, so sorry Brad. Later after I found that everything would have to be replaced Jeremy took pity on me and came over to help (ie do most of the job) his temperment, skills, interests, match up to this a lot better than his dad or youngest sibling. Yay! Jeremy to the rescue again.
Simple pleasure~Painted my toenails with new red polish that my mom bought me called I’m Not Really a Waitress.
Plans for the weekend~This weekend Brendan came home with grandpa and spent the night on Friday. We met with his mom and dad at the City Market Saturday morning to hang out and return him. It was a beautiful day and we came home with spices from Planters, pumpkins for the porch, and ground chuck from Pleasant Pasture Farms. Brent is replacing all the guts in one of the toilets today and treated the yard to try to get rid of our mole infestation. Next weekend is the trip to South Dakota.
If you are considering foster care or adoption, which I hope all of you are for some point in your lives, then I highly recommend the book Another Place at the Table. I had a hard time putting it down it was a really easy read and took you through foster care from the experiences of one foster mom. She shares her challenges, victories, heart break, mistakes, joy and despair while taking care of many foster and adopted children.
EDITORIAL REVIEWS
From Publishers Weekly
It’s 1988, and Harrison, a happily married mother of three, takes a job with Head Start, working with at-risk four-year-olds. Her heart goes out to the foster kids; before long, she and her husband take state training and adopt two sisters. Five children make a big family, but Harrison finds it tough to turn her back on needy children. She and her husband start accepting emergency care “hot-line” foster children, too; soon, Harrison quits her day job and becomes a full-time-overtime, really-foster parent. In addition to a stay-at-home mom’s usual duties, Harrison is caring for children with serious emotional baggage and often complex medical problems. There are lawyers, therapists and social service people to meet with, plus the scheduling of visits to birth mothers, an emotional roller coaster for all parties. Birth mothers, she finds, are often “harder to hate than you might expect,” and when an especially difficult child comes along, it’s almost impossible to accept that even foster parents have their limitations. And how do you “give enough” to each child so they get a healthy sense of family, “without loving them too much to let them go in the end?” With over half a million American children in foster care today, Harrison’s personal but vitally important account should be read by public policy makers and by anyone with a spare room in their home.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
With so much awful publicity surrounding foster parenting, Harrison’s story of opening her home to foster children, three of whom she later adopted, is tender and inspiring. It is also filled with heartbreaking truths about abused and neglected children and a social service system that is overburdened and occasionally negligent itself. For 13 years, Harrison, along with her husband, three biological sons, and three adopted daughters, has fostered abandoned infants, runaway teens, disabled preschoolers, and children discharged from psychiatric hospitals. The Harrisons also became hot-line foster parents, willing to accept children in emergency situations with little or no notice. Harrison describes the process social workers use to place children, the horrifying circumstances of the children involved, and the training required of foster parents. She brings her story home by focusing, with heart-rending details, on four troubled children, including Danny, a developmentally delayed eight-year-old; Lucy, a deeply depressed eight-year-old abandoned by her mother; seven-month-old Karen, eventually adopted by the Harrisons and later diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome; and Sara, a six-year-old who had been sexually abused. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Four copies of Small Town, Big Miracle are available from FCC let me know if you want one, they are $10 each and I will wait to see if there are any left for the bookstand after I hear from you guys. I just received a packet of information from Family Life about launching an Orphans Ministry in your church. I am really excited about it and will let you know what progress is made.
