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Originally Posted By Linda

She is adorable. And every time she likes something or gets excited she goes..."whoooohooooo"! I think of you every time!! It is so funny. Every time she gets a yes answer from me or I buy her something it is the same response. I just thought you would get a kick out of it. When I start giggling to myself she gives me the strangest look.

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Originally Posted By Sondra

Boy O Boy are you in trouble.....hehe!!

Anyway, so how old is this placement?? She sounds like a hoot!!

I got a call from my instructor yesterday. He got my homestudy from the contractor on Friday and has already gone over it. All he needed from me was a written fire escape plan. He said once I faxed him over that then he would sign off on our homestudy. Now all that has to be done is to have my instructor's boss sign off. Dennis thought that would be done by the end of this week. THEN WE WILL BE LICENCED!!

WHOO HOO!! Yesterday when I talked to him he said " You are willing to take up to three kids....right? " I said "yup!" He just laughed and told me to be to be ready....and fast!! Luckily for us, we have everything ready. Well except for the car. Right now I have a camaro and I dont think it will hold 4 kids ( 3 foster and 1 bio ). I guess I could make it work if I strapped some of the kids on top. Do you think that CPS would care? LOL!! Seriously, we are planning to get a minivan when I get paid on the 2nd of June. I dont think we will get placed before that or we will be in doo doo!!

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Originally Posted By Jerry

Well, MOM, It's a pretty special time for you (and us). You just can't replace these moments! All the "thank you Daddy's," and "I love you's" kind of make a the difficult parts bearable.

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Originally Posted By Jerry

WoooHooo! A camaro to a minivan. Now that's a big change! LOL! That's okay, we just have trucks. One is a big 2 ton monster for hauling feed and the other is "the family truck!" It seat six. Always liked sying that! LLOL. We're buying a midsize used honda for an "extra vehicle and it's not much bigger than the camaro!
As far as getting ready. They mean it!!!! We got a Foster parent agreement in the mail to sign and have notarized.....Two days later we had daughter!
So, "Let the games begin!!!" For us dfcs is holding off with anymore placements because daughter requires so much attention. Thank god for small favors.. I'd love to have a house full, but for now we have a handful!
Lot's of activities and continuity now...................and speaking of activities.......We're going to Six Flags on saturday (see you there gt?) and, of course, gotta have the respective baber kittens along too! I gotta say I really don't mind too much because their parents actually wanted to meet us and talk about rules of conduct!!!!!! I was sooooooo excited I couoldn't hardly contain myself! You know how rare that is when kids are teenagers!!! My wife got such a kick out of boy babers grandma! "I told that boy that he better not have any doubt what NO means, and there is going to be NO sex. He's too darn young (he's 17) to be foolin around with that, when he's finally ready I'll let him know and buy him the condoms!!!! " She was a jewel! At least the parents are on the same page! I told grandma that I was going to have a talk with babers about how I expect him to act around daughter and she gave me the "go for it!" More of a precautionary measure, he already gets a lot of reinforcement at home. I know this may all souund so silly, but we have met so few (teenage) kid's parent's who were genuinely concerned about the conduct of their children...and knew what was really going on out there....wow!

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Originally Posted By Linda

She is 11 & 3/4..the 3/4 being the most important part. And she is a hoot. I just adore her. Of course there are issues and she is in the honeymoon period, but I really like her allot. I wish I had a five bedroom house. I wouldn't mind keeping her at all. But...

things are moving faster with my adoptive placements and I know I won't have room for all of them. We are to fly out to meet them on June 1. I can't wait.

As for getting ready for a sibling group. When they say be ready...be ready! I didn't even have my foster license yet when they started the placement process for us. Might want to think about looking at minivans now. I love the Ford Windstar. I used to have one...until the divorce. I am thinking about getting another one around Christmas. They have a 5 star safety rating and I really loved mine. I drive a Pontiac Transport now and I like it also. They body is some kind of plastic or something. Never rusts! And it has a really good engine. It has been a good car for me. I bought it used 2 & 1/2 years ago and it has 116,000 miles on it, but it still looks and runs good. Seats 7 also.

Good luck. I know you and your children will find each other soon.

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Originally Posted By Sondra

We went and looked at minivans last Friday. I want a blue Ford Winstar, but I have to wait until June 2nd when I get paid. Right now we have a 4 bedroom house. We have a double bed in the girls' room and bunkbeds in the boys'room. We also have a playroom for the kids. Since we already have a 6 year old bio daughter, we will have to get a twin bed for the playroom if we get placed with two girls and one boy. For the most part, we are prepared. All the rooms are done and they all contain a TV and VCR so MAYBE there wont be any fights over what to watch on TV. We also have money in a savings account for things they might not come with such as clothes, bikes and toys. We have even decided that our first family outing will be at Fossil Rim which is a really cool wildlife park about 45 miles from Dallas.

I know it wont be easy, but I think we can make it! I heard today on the radio that God has given us all gifts but that we will never know what they are unless we try to use them.

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Originally Posted By Linda

Sounds like you have everything under control. You will love the Windstar. I really loved mine.

Last night I called for information on a 5 bedroom house w/attached apartment. It is out of my price range at this point, but I called my girlfriend in S.C. to put in a good word for me since it is her husband's mother's house. Hopefully they will take pity or I will get some kind of monetary windfall!!

It is so perfect for us. We want Tina to get prepared for independent living a year or so from now and the apartment is so nice. It would keep her with the family yet still responsible for herself. Until she can get out on her own. And then we could rent it. A couple of the bedrooms in the house are 20 x 22!! I could fill that house up with kids! Of course Ed knows that is the plan so he is scared....very scared. Wonder why?! :-) Anyway he won't have to worry about it unless I can get them to reduce the price. And I am not going to worry about it. If it is in God's plan we will get it. If not, I know he will show us the way.

I can't believe you have TV's and VCR's in all the bedrooms. If my daughter read that I would be the meanest mother in the world. Of course I don't let her watch much TV. And she does think I am mean for that! But she is better off that way. She uses her imagination and when she came to us at 10 she could barely read. Now she does nothing but. Wherever she goes she has a book.

Good luck. I am praying you will have a placement soon. Looking for 3, right? Hmmm...now what if it was a family of 5? Bet you'd take them. I would!! :-) Have a great day.

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Originally Posted By yrand

I'm already thinking 5 bedrooms too Linda.As his son gets into his teen years and my girls get older we'll need bigger bedrooms so as much as I love the house we're in we'll be
looking soon too.That's a good idea of yours getting a house with an in-law apartment for Tina.My sister's first apartment
when she moved from home in her 20's was right in front of
mine and I loved being close enough to watch out for her.