I just noticed

I updated the look of my blog and I liked the banner I found. It is a old rusty key hole from a door knob. Doors are special to me. I remember clearly the first time I saw both of my children. Bret was brought to me by the principal of the school through my classroom door. Lily was brought to us by the orphanage director through the office door.

That is why I chose that banner. But I was just looking at it and I thought it looked a little bit like a woman's "private part", dingle berries included.

Oh well, I guess for me they are the same in a way. Children come through both things.

Happy Halloween

It wasn't a trick or a treat.

Ok, its almost Christmas and I am ready to write about this night.

Bret wanted to out with his friend on Halloween and ride his bike.

I did not want him to go.

We got into a argument and I started to cry and told him that this would be his last weekend at home if he went out. Not a threat, I just knew he could not stay out of trouble. He was already on probation and any violation would send him back to detention.

He said that I can't keep him locked up in the house forever and that I was overreacting.

At 7:30 I talked to his friend on the phone and was told that my son fell off of his bike and was bleeding.

I was working at the church fall fest and sent my husband to get our son.

When my husband call he said that our son was being life-flighted to the trauma unit for a head injury.

He did have a concussion but he also had a blood alcohol level of .289.

Monday morning he turned himself in to his probation officer.

He was sent to detention for 12 months.

Our son was sent back to jail

This is my son's new home for the next few days. He took his meds to school and messed up his life trying to make a joke.

It is sick.

Here we go again

Friday my wonderful son thought that he would make his friends laugh. He took his ADHD meds to school and told his friends that they could all get high. Of course he got busted and it's back to court we go. Why did I become a parent?

Well that part is over!

Yesterday the judge in our son's case released him from the "treatment" center. There are a lot of things that went wrong with this case, but I going to focus on making it work. What ever it takes.

MOPS new theme will really help this year!

You can see their wonderment

This is the first time my children stood in front of the ocean. My son was so excited, he wanted to jump right in with Dad. My daughter was not sure what to think and held firm to Daddy.

I love this moment.

My husband said maybe it is time to pray. I told him ' I have been, if I am breathing I am praying. What have you been doing?'

I really think the picture says it all.

The Week Improved

I was cleaning the sink. The dog wanted in.

I went downstairs to let the dog in.

I forgot the water was still filling in the sink.

30ish minutes later I heard a strange dripping sound.

I went up stairs. I remembered the water was on.

I hope this is the only thing that goes wrong this week, but it is

only Sunday.

Okay, the week got better. Friday morning my daughter woke me up. I wanted to go, somewhere. Anywhere. I woke my husband up and asked where he wanted to go. The family room was about as far as he wanted to travel. I woke up my son and told him we were leaving. He was as into travel as my husband. I looked around at our sad start for the 4th of July and put my foot down. We are going to the OCEAN! I said to those still awake. We quickly put some clothes in a bag, deciding that we could buy things at the beach if we forgot anything, called a few hotels to book a room and drove 5 hours to the ocean. My children have never been in the ocean. My daughter was scared of the water. My son was over the moon with joy. It has been a hard time for all of us. We needed to have some fun as a family.

We shall see

Long story. But I pulled out the death card and we met with FAST from Legal Aid. They are now advocating for us and our son. The end of something is near.

Things I made from junk

This is a perpetual wall calendar I made using a piece of back splash, key chain rings, paper clips, the hooks from the black binder clips, paint chips and glue.

This is a 4th of July themed thingy made from a handmade place mat, a unfinished quilt piece and some polka dot red and white fabric.

This is a 4th of July door thingy made from more of the left over back splash and an old pot holder.

This is an old restaurant platter and sharpie markers.

GRRRRRRRRRAAAHHHHHRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

Several months ago we found it necessary to take our son to see a specialist in older child adoption, so that we could receive the correct family therapy. It did not work out well. So we, my husband and I, told the powers that be we can not continue to actively participate in a treatment we do not agree with. We knew that the improvement in our son's scores were superficial and would drop as soon as he felt we were not going to move him to another RTC. The powers that be did not listen to us, again, and now his scores are falling. He went from a 50% to a 99% and now he is back to 68%. The RTC didn't care why the % went up and they don't care why they go down. No one wants our son to do well in a family, only in the program. Sad.

Visits on the weekend

My son had his first GREEN level homevisit this weekend. During his last visit, he did something that he knew not to do. So, to make up for his error and to help rebuild our trust in him, he spent the day with me. I am the Assistant Coordinator of a MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group in our area, and on Saturday we held a fundraiser. We started at 7:00 am and spent the day outside in the heat. He didn't want to go, but once he got there he was very helpful and did not complain. I am so proud of him. He really came through for me and helped someone other than himself. That is a big deal for any teenager, let alone him. So cool!

The new look

The living room as of yesterday. I am slowly working my way through the house, one room at a time. With a toddler and a teenager, why do I like WHITE so much? I am asking for trouble.

craft mess

I love to make art. I always have something going on. Last year for my birthday my husband and my son made an art studio for me in the bonus room. It was beautiful. Six days after my birthday, we finalized our son's adoption. I thought I could finally begin to relax and have time to make my studio everything I wanted it to be. Sadly, three weeks later we had to have our son placed in a RTC due to his emotional instability and then two weeks after that, our house was destroyed by fire.

That was a year ago. We are slowly replacing our belongings and slowly repairing the relationship with our son.

Everything takes time.

It is always strange the first time

I started a blog. I don't know why, I guess if I write about this life I will understand it a little better.