And Baby Makes a Party of 6

*Blogger won't let me make paragraphs? Someone help!* When we took our first two foster children into our home over a year ago the Hubs and I said, "That's enough kids, thanks." But what happens when those two kids have a sibling born? That's easy, you take that child too. Why not? I mean, our house is small to the point of busting at the seams. What we once saw as an organized, clean home has now been transformed into a 24-7 daycare center. Did I mention it's loud? All. The. Time. Did I mention there are sticky handprints on the walls? Stickers from the doctor's office are stuck on doors, walls, car seats, and who knows where else? It drives me crazy. I sat next to a nervous Mom several months ago at a parenting seminar held in our church. She was expressing her fears of adding another child to the family. I sat there thinking, she must have 4 kids already to be this nervous. Nope. This was her second child. I really wanted to lean over and say, "Lady, you have it MADE. Try taking on a 2 year old and 9 month old and 10 months later adding a brand new baby to the mix. I'd trade a day with you anytime, let me know." In all honesty, I have to say that I was a bit nervous after telling the caseworker that we would take Sister and Brother. During the phone call I was excited, scratching down notes so I could go on a shopping spree for appropriate supplies. It was when I broke the "Honey, I just said we would take on two kids" new to my husband that I realized what I had just done. I moved our family from a party of 3 with no booster seats or highchairs to a party of 5 with one booster and one highchair. Today, panic washes over the hostess stand as we bring in our 4-ring circus that is now a party of 6 with one highchair, a carrier swing/sling, and one booster seat. After almost 5 months, we almost have moving our 4-ring circus down to an art. We still get tripped up by the "I have to pee pee" moments or my favorite - "You didn't get the diaper bag?!?!" moments. At the end of the day, our party of 3 wouldn't trade our now party of 6 for the world. I'm not sure how long we are going to be a party of 6, but we are willing to be one for as long as needed, even if that means forever. Interested in Foster Care in Arkansas? Visit The CALL for more inforamtion.

Survive to Thrive

When we started this journey we knew that we would be taking in kids that were simply surviving day to day life. What we didn’t expect is how fast kids can go from surviving to thriving. The transformation that has taken place before our very eyes over the last 9 months is astonishing. Those dark eyed, blank, lifeless faces are now faces of joy, life, and growth. They also went from eating every single type of processed food imaginable to now eating corn and peas.

Everything about this journey is a process towards transformation. The court has a process, the case follows a process, our house has a process (called rules and boundaries), and most importantly, God has a transformation process. He brings us out of darkness and into the light. Transformation. He takes our life and infuses it with hope, joy, and peace.

This experience has taught me more about the relationship God has with His children. I see Him in everything – from the tantrum, to the disobedience, to the extension of grace. I do the exact same things these kids do; only I do it in a reserved, adult fashion. If there was ever a way for God to hold up a mirror to our face, He does it through children. I dare say it’s even more evident when you take a lost child into your home and give them shelter, food, clothes, and most of all, love.

10 Things I've Learned Since May

1. I know more about the treatment and killing of lice than I ever cared to know.
2. I spend more money than ever buying clothes from Children's Place.
3. My body has gone back to sleeping the same amount as I did in college.
4. Sometimes I want to smack birth parents.
5. Mother's Day Out is worth every penny.
6. Watching a baby learning to walk is amazing.
7. Temper tantrums are from the devil.
8. My house is never clean.
9. Always have sippy cups ready to go first thing in the morning.
10. This is totally what I was created to do.

Yes, I'm Still Here and Mostly Alive

Blogging, showering, getting someplace on time have all taken a back burner since May. Before I get 5,293 comments asking for pictures and specifics, I can't give you any of those. Rest assured, these kids are super cute and look like they fit into our family. They came in May and were the tiniest things you've ever seen, so much so that they didn't even make it on "the charts" at the doctor's office. Fast forward to present, they are on the charts moving upward. It's amazing what happens when kids gets get proper food, rest, and attention.

Bueller?

Bueller? Bueller? That's kinda where we are at. Opened, sitting, waiting, not knowing. Maybe our name will be called next?

On a positive note, Big Al comes home from school each day asking, "So, do we have anyone?" When I say no, he has a disappointed look on his face. I consider this to be GOOD! He's had some up and down feelings about this whole thing, but this tells me he is 100% on board.

Guess What?

We passed our final walk-thru this morning and tomorrow we officially open!(That means we are in the database and any county in Arkansas can call us.) It feels so weird to be at this point, the reality of it all looms in the distance. Perhaps when my phone starts ringing in the middle of the night reality will hit!

Meanwhile, anyone want to come over for the Royal Wedding tomorrow? Tea and scones will be served promptly at 4 a.m.

Months, Weeks, and Almost Days

Months have turned into weeks and I anticipate the weeks are going to be changing into days before we know it. We are still waiting on our last home study to be completed so we can open. A few weeks ago I discovered that we lacked yet another background check. Perhaps this week will be the one that shifts from counting weeks to days.

Meanwhile, if you are reading this and live in the NW Arkansas metro, the CALL Foster Kids Closet is in desperate need of NEW underwear for boys and girls (all sizes) and socks. More times than not, children come into care with nothing needing to be clothed and that includes underwear. Most of us wouldn't let our kids wear used undergarments, so the next time you are shopping consider picking up a few packages of undies or socks to donate to the CALL Foster Closet.

Foster Care, Part III

God is moving, He is working, He is sovereign. Amen?

Just to bring you up to speed one what is going on at our house. January was a ridiculous month full of 30 hours worth of training, a ream of paperwork, CPR certification, and new friends. February brought two home study meetings which went smoothly and remarkably quick. March brings us to waiting. Waiting on someone to go through our ream of paperwork and schedule us for a DHS home visit. I’m prepping that visit to be a check everything in your house including what’s in your underwear drawer, Mrs. Larsen type of visit. Maybe it’s not, but I’m mentally preparing myself for a complete stranger to walk through the house poking around in drawers and checking to see what I can cram underneath my bed. (Let me tell you, it’s impressive what I can pack under a bed and in a closet!)

Can I just tell you that fostering and adopting is popping up everywhere in my life? From Bible Study to ads to call-in radio shows, I’m getting confirmation left and right. The latest occurrence was last week when I was driving home from a friend’s house at midnight. An ad comes on the secular station I’m jamming to that says multiple children in the foster care system are eligible for adoption, even teenagers. Ok, I got it; you don’t have to give me blinking marquee signs every single time! How great is it that even at midnight God still has time to remind me that we’re on the right path.

Then yesterday, this story breaks locally. It will take your breath away.

Please pray for patience. It’s very hard to read stories like these and know we are stuck in a broken bureaucratic pipeline.

New Socks & Undies Needed

If anyone has a connection to someone at Hanes, Jockey, or Fruit of the Loom, give me a shout. The CALL Foster Child Clothes Closet is looking for someone to donate NEW children's socks and undies. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't ever put my own child in used undies, therefore, I would never put my foster child in used undies.

Let me know if you are able to help.

Burlap Ruffle Wreath

This week I led a group of ladies in a "Mom Project." We made the satin flowers on the wreath pictured above. As promised, I'm posting the instructions for making the ruffle wreath.

You will need:

:: wreath form: foam or straw

:: 1 1/2 yards of burlap

:: floral or straight pins

:: tapestry needle

:: embroidery floss

You can purchase all of the supplies at Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's Fabric. I used a straw wreath on this project because my sister and I found them on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $2.

Step One :: Cut burlap into long strips 4" wide.

Step Two :: Wrap strips of burlap around your form. Use floral pins or straight pins to secure on the back so they are hidden.

Step Three :: Make a loose stitch at the bottom of one of the strips of burlap. Be sure to secure the end.

Step Four :: Pull the floss to make the burlap ruffle and tie at end to secure.

Step Five :: Attach ruffle to wreath using pins. I used three ruffles on my wreath: one in the center and two on the back.

Step Six :: Satin Flowers. Click here for a tutorial.

I used pin back to secure my flowers on my wreath so that I can change the flowers according to the season.

Enjoy!

New Project - House Rules

Today, since the world is coming to an end thanks to Snowmageddon 2011, I thought I would hit all of my favorite blogs to see what the latest and greatest project is. As always, the blogs did not disappoint. The newest, hottest project is creating a house rules canvas. Fantastic idea! We are close to our house being opened to accept foster kids and I'm thinking this could is the perfect project for me to complete in the coming weeks.

Tatertos and Jello is one of my new blogs to hit, check out how she created her house rules.

Ministry Opportunity to Foster Families

As most of you know we are traveling down the road to become a foster family for children in our county. We are half-way through training and hope to have our house open by March so we can start receiving children.

There is a huge need for foster families when it comes to simple everyday things like: clothes, socks/underwear, diapers, wipes, new sippy cups/bottles, new pacifiers, cribs, pack-n-plays, swings, bed/bedding, toiletry items, toys, etc. If you have any of this stuff laying around your house and you've been thinking about giving it away, consider donating it to The CALL of Benton County to help foster families in need. If you have items to donate but don't have the time to get them to The CALL, send me message and I'll be happy to pick up your items.

Thanks for Caring!
-Lindsay

Below is a message from Dionne, a CALL family:

Did you know that Benton County averages 175 foster children and only 62 foster homes?

YOU can help these children and their foster families! The CALL in Benton County is opening a Foster Child clothes closet and is seeking YOUR help!

Requested Donations include New or gently-used:
- clothes (from newborn to teen in both genders)
-shoes
-Pajamas
-socks and underwear
-toys and "teen entertainment"
-baby equipment (bottles, diapers, exersaucers, walkers, etc)


The Foster Child Clothes Closet will be a resource for foster families to receive necessities for a new child IMMEDIATELY upon taking in the child. When that child goes home (or to a shelter, adoption, a different foster home, or other placement) they can take their goods with them. These children often have nothing and need everything.

The need is enormous! A foster family may have a newborn boy one month and a sixteen year old girl the next. The CALL Foster Child Clothes Closet is JUST starting and we have very little!! We also need storage tubs, hangers, rolling clothes racks, laundry soap, portable shelving and monetary donations.

There are about 15 families (including ours) that will be completing training in the next month and open our homes to foster children. Can you help us as we help them?

For more information on The CALL please check out this site:
http://thecallinarkansas.org/about/counties/benton-county.html


Your donations are tax-deductible as The C.A.L.L. has been granted federal 501(c)3 non-profit organization status.

Are you being CALLED to get involved in a bigger way with the orphans of Benton County? I am HAPPY to discuss the MANY different ways you can help...from donating clothes to opening your home... and much more in between!

Thank you for reading this far!! Please contact me for information on where and how to donate!
Dionne Smith
dionneam@yahoo.com
479-531-6998

*Are you a foster parent interested in learning more about the CALL Clothes Closet? Email for info!

Snow Day Projects

We woke up to this scene outside the backdoor this morning. This means two things: no school and project day.


While Alex was catching up on his Netflix movies, I decided to make these little babies.



JoAnn's has their decor fabric on 50% this week and I found several prints to make slip covers for my 2,394 throw pillows around the house. I scored some terry cloth on clearance at HobLob a few weeks ago and I figured making burp clothes is easy and also provides me opportunity to restock my baby gift stash.

What winter projects are you working on?

Did it Without My Mommy!

Some ladies like to post "I did it without my Hubby!" projects and I want to declare, "I did it without my Mommy!" This is my test pillow that I made today before I cut and destroy my $10 a yard fabric. I figured ruining 75% off Christmas fabric was a good way to test my rusty sewing skills.

Just in case you are wondering, the back is an envelope closure to make it easy to sew and also change out the covers according to season, whims, and desires.

If I can sew pillowcases, I'm pretty much ready to sew a prom dress. Okay, maybe just hem a pair of pants.

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

I can't make pies but my Hubby is getting quite good at it. In fact, he is the closest person in the world that I've found that makes pie crust like my Grammy. That is tough because she has been perfecting her craft for over 65 years.

We found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen. I do not like pecan pie, but I liked this one!

Easy & Useful Teacher Gift

Thanks to the Shanty 2 Chic sisters for this awesome gift idea. If you don't follow the Shanty gals, you should. They have great ideas and easy tutorials.

My sister was here earlier this week and we cranked out a few of these babies. This one is headed to Mrs. Farrell tomorrow since it's the last day before Christmas break.

What? Last day of school is tomorrow?!?!

Photoshoot on the Fly

Photos by: Carl Zoch Photography

The Journey to Foster Care & Adoption, Part II

The signs are everywhere. You know the signs that fall from heaven on a blinking marquee sign? Well, those were hitting us left and right. From friends and co-workers deciding to adopt to learning about a Mom looking for a home for her soon-to-come baby. They were everywhere and then one Sunday the ultimate sign came down and hit us between the eyes. It was an announcement in the bulletin that said “Interested in Fostering or Adopting? The Call is a Christian-based, non-profit that works as a third-party with DHS to unit children with a temporary or forever home….”

BAM! Got it, sign received and understood. I told Stephen later on that night if we didn’t act on what we had been thrown our way I was afraid the next sign was going to be lightening striking. And you know, lightening never strikes once.

Let me back up a little and give you some more background. After more than three years of trying to get pregnant on our own, we had turned to fertility treatments. Three doctors, multiple tests, and what seemed like pints of blood drawn, we started the first fertility treatment in September. I have to say those treatments rank right up there on the “Top 10 Things I Never Want to Experience Again” list. I’d rather have a root canal, thank you very much.

Side Note: I wonder if all of us girls where in a giant room and asked if we had problems getting pregnant, how many of us would raise our hand. [If you were one of those he-looked-at-me-and-I-got-pregnant ladies, stop right now and thank God for that blessing.] The more I talk with ladies, the more I find how common infertility is and how doctors dispense prescriptions for Clomid like Halloween candy.

I digress.

October rolls around and it’s time for another treatment. At this point, I’m started to wonder if this is really what we need to be doing. I convince myself that we are going to finish out these four treatments (they would end in December) and at the beginning of the year and then re-evaluate. We moved forward with the October treatment and soon after our marquee sign in the church bulletin arrives. We make plans to attend the informational meeting about The Call and wouldn’t you know it’s at the exact time we need to decide on starting the next treatment cycle.

Soon after I call the doctor and pull out of the treatments. A few weeks after the interest meeting at church, we make plans to attend the “official” informational meeting. That is the big meeting that you need to bring your writing hand and a comfy pen because you are about to spill your guts on paper and submit your paw prints for a federal background check. Stephen was on call that week and of course his phone had been ringing off the hook, but miraculously his phone didn’t ring one time while we were in the two-hour meeting.

As of today all of our background checks have been submitted and we completed the DHS consult yesterday afternoon. Once January gets here we will complete our 30-hours of required training. At that time we also have to complete all of our family profile and home evaluation paperwork. Oh, and complete a whole day of CPR/First Aid certifications.

Add us to your prayer list, this journey isn’t going to be easy in many ways, but I’m sure it will be rewarding.

The Journey to Foster Care & Adoption, Part I

James 1:27 “…look after the orphans and widows in their distress…”

Foster parenting has never been an option in my book, but that all changed about eight weeks ago when I met a 5th grader at the school book fair.

For some out-of-character reason I signed up to work at the book fair at Alex’s school. I tend to avoid anything school-related where more than 25 kids participate. What I didn’t know was God had a plan for my family that He was about to set into motion.

As I was working at the fair I met a beautiful 5th grader. She kept hanging around the pencils and erasers like she really wanted one but didn’t have any money. A red flag went up when she asked, “Does anybody ever steal this stuff?” We talk and bit and I told her that they are only 25-cents and the book fair was going to be open for another week so she had time to go home and talk with her mom about getting something. Her reply knocked me off my feet, “I live with my Grandma. She don’t got any money.” Then she started to tell me her story as she was looking through the book fair trinket table - Mom is gone, Grandma is very, very, sick, and she lives with her 4 siblings who range from 5th grade down to Kindergarten.

I ended my book fair shift and headed home for lunch. What just took place starts to bother me, I mean really bother me. Stephen is home for lunch and I tell him the story and he asks why I didn’t just buy her a pencil. That would have been smart, but there were 24 other kids around and I didn’t want to buy everyone a pencil.

Later that night through a series of “God” events I learn more about these kids – multiple fathers, mom is in jail on drug charges, Grandma can’t take care of the kids anymore and they are headed to foster care the next day. My heart slams to the ground. These kids are going to school tomorrow like they would on a normal Tuesday but they have no idea what is going to happen by the end of school.

I go home and tell Stephen what I had learned. We are both heartbroken for these kids. Their poor little world is about to change in a drastic way in a mere 24 hours. Stephen tells me to go to the school first thing in the morning and buy the kids whatever they want from the book fair. They are going to have a crappy day so if it takes $500 worth of books to bring some joy into their heart, so be it.

The next day I headed to the book fair to make a few kids happy, even if it’s just for a few hours. I start to explain to the librarian what I want to do and before I could get five words out I start crying. For those of you who know me well, I’m not a crier and I’m certainly not a public crier. At this point, I have everyone in the whole library crying with me.

Side Note: Can I just say that our school has the best librarian in the whole world? She had the idea to pull the kids out of their classes one by one to tell them they have won free books at the book fair. It wasn’t until later in the day the siblings all started talking and discovered they had all won books at the book fair. I was told that one of them said, “I can’t believe I won! I’ve always wanted to win something!” Thank you Ms. C for your creative brilliance!

Stephen comes home for lunch again and I tell him about my morning. I’m pretty numb at this point knowing that the kids are just hours away from a life-changing event. Our conversation was a quiet one, but it had significant impact. It sounded something like this with lots of long thoughtful pauses.

Me: I just can’t fathom how those kids are going to feel at the end of the day. Their entire world is going to change, more than likely they will be split up into multiple homes. Who would take on five extra children?

Stephen: Just pick them up and bring them all home, we’ll make it work.
(At this point I’m wondering who this person is. My husband does not say things like this. God, what is going on?!?)

Me: We can’t. I’ve already researched it. There is a mountain of paperwork, home studies, and all sorts of things you have to do in order to become a foster home. It can take up to a year.

Stephen: You know, I never understood why my aunt [who has fostered many children over the years] does what she does. I think I get it now.

Me: I always said I could never be a foster parent because it would kill me to have to send a child back into a bad situation. I wouldn’t be able to handle it, but you know…the more I think about it, that’s very selfish. I care more about me and my personal heartbreak than about offering care to a child [orphan] in need.

Innocently volunteering to work a book sale started our journey towards becoming foster/adoptive parents.

And what about those five children you ask? They are in good homes and still attending the same school. They were split into two groups, but I’m confident those caring for them will make sure they see and spend time with each other.

If you are in Arkansas and are considering foster care, I would encourage to visit www.thecallinarkansas.org to learn more.

Fall is in the Air

Every fall I remember my mom bringing out a small pot and throwing in some whole cloves and a few cinnamon sticks. She would let it simmer on the stove and it would fill the air with the smell of Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's been getting colder so I thought it was time to bring out spices and let them simmer. This morning as I was eating a grapefruit I thought that the peel would be a nice addition to my spices, so I trimmed off some of the skin and threw it in. It smells amazing!

Grab some spices and let them simmer on your stove for a bit. Just don't leave it on overnight, that would be bad!