Learned on Friday that we are officially licensed as foster parents!  So now our phone could ring at any moment asking us to take a child in.

It will be a girl, newborn to eight years old.  The only other real restrictions we put in the forms we filled out was that it couldn't be a child with significant health issues.  As we do have four other children to take care of, so we can't have one that requires so much individual time. 

Being in the foster care system we can't know if the first, second, third, etc... child we get will become that adopted child we desire.  At one level I want the first to be the last.  On another level having multiple children come through would be kind of cool to know that we were able to minister to children in this way.

All of our paperwork is done, we are just waiting for a final approval before we become foster parents.  The lady that does that has been out sick and due to that has delayed our application.  One of the families in our adoption class group got a placement on Friday.  They expect that to be a temporary placement, but we expected Collin to be temporary...

So in the grand scheme of things, not much to update. 

As a side note my oldest son had to write a paper for school and he wrote his paper on our first adoption.  He was around 8 when we got Collin and around 10 when we adopted him.  So to see how he remembers things was interesting.  He got some facts wrong, but one thing that stuck out to me was how little he remembered in relation to the time frame.  But then you can see some of the details that he did remember correctly.  The moment we came out of the court room was a bit of chaos.  Everybody thought it fell through by my wife's reaction, but they were tears of great joy. 

I take a momentary break from my silence for tradition.  I can't let a birthday go without being acknowledged here.  Comments still turned off.

Today marks our son's 4th birthday.  Since he is adopted he doesn't get to see his sisters all the time.  Frequently, but not all the time.  So yesterday we had all of his sisters over to celebrate his birthday.  Sitting back and watching these children is really humbling.  We've had him since he was 5 months old.  His sisters were pretty young (as two of them are still pretty young, and I wouldn't call the other old).  They had no idea what was happening here.  They just knew that their little brother was with a strange family.  Today, they know he's safe here.  He is at home.  So instead of swarming around him when they come, they just take a few minutes to have some special time with him and then move on to playing with our daughter.  I feel so bad for the situation they've found themselves in due to no actions on their own part, but I know they know he is safe and secure with us. 

I remember the first birthday we had with him.  I made a pretty fun video of it and at the end I so debated putting "See You Next Year".  However I didn't because at that point that wasn't a given and I knew his biological mom and possibly dad would see this DVD.  I didn't want to put something inflammatory in it that would cause them to react.  However the rest is history and I close this with a very simple statement.

See you next year!

I'm going to mimic much of this post from one year ago today.

2 Years
24 Months
104 Weeks
731 Days (Leap Year)
17544 Hours
10526040 Minutes
63158400 Seconds

Today marks two years since our adoption of Collin has been finalized.

Just as I was last year, I am still amazed at the work of God that this process ended up being. 

Collin is still that bundle of joy when I walk in the door.  Always sure to give me the biggest hug possible when I walk in.  Though his growing older is starting to have other effects.

1. My wife's continuous desire to have a baby in the house is coming back.
2. When babies are around he gets jealous!
3. He wants to go to school so bad with his older brothers and sisters.

It still amazes me how much he adds to our family.  We had no idea what our family was lacking until it wasn't lacking anymore. 

I'll end this post with a comment I've made several times on this blog, and even in the post on this topic one year ago... I would recommend that any able bodied Christian adopt a child. 

This is a long post, but its been a long week. The bottom part of this post is pretty interesting.

This week started out BAD.  Hurricane Ike decided to visit the city of Cincinnati and take all of our electricity with it.

90+% of the homes in the city were without power starting Sunday at 2PM.  We were one of them.  Took the opportunity to get some pretty cool pictures though.  Here they are on PhotoBucket, though I may not keep them there long.

The wind was unbelievable for a midwest city.  Tree's fell everywhere, siding on houses took a little journey.  It was a down right mess.  We finally got power back after 26 hours, to have power in for 24 to only lose it again for another 4.  Though things seem stable now.

So that was my Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  Though on Tuesday our adoption stuff took another step forward as several of us had our physicals.  Wednesday was a down day.  I was wore out. 

Thursday I ended up doing some yard work when I got home.  Borrowed a chain saw and cleaned up some wood we had piled up from tree trimming in June.  While I was doing this, my wife was taking her final class for the adoption.  Now all we have left is some home visits and our CPR/First Aid stuff. 

Then came Friday night.  Let me say this.  I am starting to love our small group.  We started late due to the city of Bethel being closed down due to home coming.  But after much frustration we finally made it.  We had a prepared lesson given to us by my church, and I was prepared to give it a shot.... God had other plans.

As I mentioned last week I plan on starting each week of with some 'ice breaker' questions from a bowl.  Our two questions were:

1. If money was no object and you knew you wouldn't fail, what would you do?

Women were way more spiritual than the guys on this overall.  One guy said he'd walk on the moon :-).

I said that I'd plant a church. 

What about you?

2. What are your thoughts on God and religion.  Read that question and I knew the night was over.  This was where we were going to camp out for the rest of our night, and we did.  Was some very good discussion.  Then near the end of this discussion I asked a question on the fly to follow up with it.

3. Give an example of when you felt God in your life.

Again, more great discussion. 

But this small group has more of a 'bonding' feeling to it than any small group I've been in for many years.

Then came Saturday, woke up and did our men's breakfast.  The conversation wasn't as good as last week, but it was still pretty good.  I do love the book, What God Does When Men Lead. 

Now another thing I had started doing earlier in the week was working out a plan to sell our dog.  We are just not a big dog family.  The dog was just way to big for the amount of time we could devote to him.  So I scheduled a meeting with a lady at 1PM on Saturday.  At 1:25PM I went home... with the dog.  She no showed.  So I started doing some quick actions and found out that the place we bought our dog was in the area at a pet show.  We called them up and asked if they'd swap dogs with us... the big dog just wasn't working out.  They said yes, so now we have a little dog.  So far so good.

Then about 8:30PM got a call about some furniture that needed moved from Bethel to Batavia, and they asked if I knew anybody who had a truck.  I didn't, but I then thought about how our van was empty due to the dog stuff and offered to come get it right then and there... so I did.  Fit very well in my van.

Finally made it home in time to keep my promise to my children.  Started a fire in our fire pit and had some smores. Yummy!

Now another thing happened on Saturday which lead to a very interesting Sunday for me.  I happened to look at the web site for my first church and saw that they were appointing Elders.  Now there is a man in this church that I deeply respect and was pretty sure he was going to be one of them.  So I made a few calls and confirmed.  So Sunday morning my oldest son and I took a trip to the Cincinnati Church of Christ.  First time we'd been there in four years. 

Was a bit worried going there, was unsure of the reaction I'd get.  But I am pleased to report that it was very welcoming. Saw a bunch of old friends.  We left the CCoC on OK terms.  It was just the right decision to make at the time

After 10 or so minutes of hanging out and talking to people it was time for service to start.  Very familiar songs from our time there.  One thing I enjoyed from our time there was some of the singers they have.  Was always a talented group of people there. Then after a few more church things, they got onto the appointment of the Elders.  They were actually appointing three of them in a bit of an odd situation.  In churches the 'evangelist' seems to appoint the first Elders.  So the 'evangelist' appointed Tom Meade and Joe Dilts as Elders, then they turned around and appointed him as one.  I have no interaction with the third one, as he was hired well after we left.  The first two however are very deserving.  I know Joe much better than I do Tom, though my family still had interaction with with the Meade's.  They have learned through the fire of life on how to lead a family.  One thing I liked about Tom's 'acceptance speech' was how he admitted that he will screw up and he will probably hurt some of the people in attendance.  He, after all, is human.

Then comes Joe.  The Dilt's family hold's a special place in my heart.  If my family can be half the family of his, I will feel like a success.  When my wife and I were 19 and 20 years old in the Cincinnati Church of Christ they treated us like the adults we were, where as others had a hard time seeing us past one of their children's friends. 

There is a lot of debate in the Christian faith about what is required to be an Elder.  Some say the list of qualifications are just suggestions, other see them as a list of requirements.  Joe Dilt's is an Elder regardless.  I've said for a long time, in life I've only met a few people that are the prototypical Elder.  Joe is one of them. 

I remember when my family first came to the CCoC.  Joe, Tom and a third fellow were Elders in training.  Basically the ICOC's way of controlling elders.  But then things went south and that was put out of mind.  Now Tom and Joe still were great leaders in the church, but not official elders. So they got training by fire over the last 11 years, and the fact that they are still leaders in that church are a testament to their qualifications to be in that role.

Was a historic moment in the history of the Cincinnati Church of Christ. 

Well this class was on the policies of the county we live in.  Many of the in's and out's of the county.

Learned many of the financial's about this process.  Going through the county, the adoption is basically free.  And at some level they pay you some money during the process.  Nothing you will get rich on, but enough to cover a lot of the basic cost associated with a child. 

Also learned that we get paid for all of these classes we've been taking, once you get a placement.

Looks like we will be 'certified' by mid October.  Which likely leads to a placement no later then January. 

Now I want to take a moment to publicly thank all the families that helped us during this process.  Literally eight different families helped us by watching our children.  Really, really, appreciative of this.  Couldn't have done this without them.

Now its all about paper work, and our CPR/First Aid class.

Welp this was our final class (sort of).  This was it when it comes to the training classes for me.  My wife still has two to make up and then we both have a CPR/First Aid class to take... then we also have a class this Tuesday to meet with workers in the county.

Class 12 was on Permanency Issues for Families.  Basically how does this affect MY family.  Again, we've been through this.  We have a pretty good idea how its going to affect us.  I'm ready for the challenge.

Now at the end of the class Gail, the trainer, took 10 minutes to give her personal feeling on things.  She has been doing this for decades and has been a fundamental part of changing the lives of thousands of children (if not tens of thousands).  And even now I felt truly valued by her for being willing to help the next child. 

I don't know her religious background, but if she's right with Jesus... she's going to have a special seat in heaven for doing what she does. 

James 1:27 - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

There are very few things I'm willing to challenge God about, but taking care of orphans is one of those things.  I could list many reasons why doing this is just crazy for my family.  But all I have to do is list the one reason why it makes sense.  IT PLEASES GOD!  I know that once the five children we will have grow a bit and start moving out, this will become a way my wife and I can serve God in our 'empty nest' years.  I could see us having foster children for many decades to come.  Giving these children a moment of peace in what is a hellish life style, while the system tries to find out if their family is ready to take them back or until a 'forever family' is found.

OK, now the no kids part... I am typing this near midnight on Saturday.  We have NO KIDS!  Actually letting my wife get a good nights sleep and recharge some batteries.  After discussing this together it been well over 3 years since we've had this luxury.  And even since we got our first adopted child we haven't been kid free since then but one time.  Pretty amazing that much time can pass and you not even notice it.

Just one more class left for me.  Wife had to make up two classes and we are well on our way to be certified.

Class one for Saturday was on Permanency Issues for Children

Basically what should we expect the effects of adoption to be on the children.  Was a good talk and really having been through this once before we understand a lot of it. Though being so early in the process (our first adopted son isn't even four  yet), we know we have a long road ahead of us.  At some point in life he will have to emotionally deal with the loss of his birth mom and dad, and his reaction to that has very little to do with my wife and I.  Really it will be on his temperment.  He will either take it in stride or have an emotional out burst. 

He's so loving that I really do feel that when it hits him he'll actually lose part of that in him. Not all of the loving aspect of him, but part of it.  So sad really.  I just hope my wife and I are prepared to help him when it finally hits him.

Two classes left.

Well had a major shift to our adoption plans over the last two days.  We weren't supposed to take this class.  My wife and I had full plans of adopting through a neighboring, and more diverse county.  However on Wednesday we are told that they don't really want people from other counties!  So we're young and flexible and moved to our home county.  Problem... our home county requires 2 other classes.  Tonight's class on education advocacy and a CPR/First aid class.

So my church came to the rescue again and provided some child care on short notice. 

As mentioned tonight's class was on education advocacy.  A lively class.  We have several home schooler's in our class and there was a long drawn out conversation about the merits of that.  Then we went onto how you deal with the children you get and their learning difficulties.  We were a good resource for this as our middle son has had to use some of the resources in a school system due to some speech issues. 

Overall, probably the second best class so far.

Now another update as well.  Got a letter in the mail today warning us that we may not be approved, so proceed with caution.  Reason for potentially not being approved?  "Previous contact with the child protection agency."  Now they make it clear that this is not a solid warning, but something that will have to be answered.  Wife and I aren't worried about this.  10 years ago, yes 10 years ago, somebody called CPS on my wife and I.  Said we performed surgery on him at home... yeah, performed surgery on him... I won't go into the details, but it was as absurd as it sounds.  We actually, somehow..., were wise enough to keep the letter from CPS clearing us of any wrong doing.  Plus its in their file (we dealt with this during our first adoption). 

So its been a fun two days.

3 classes left.

Class 9 was on the taboo topic of sexual abuse.  Was very surfacy in discussion. 

A few of the things we discussed were how a male or female child would behave or feel if they were abused.  I was in the group that had to list girls.  It was two guys, six girls... kind of worried I was giving a substantial amount of the answers...

Then the third group had to list how a care giving family should react if sexual abuse was 'confessed' to them from the child.  Because, unfortunately, its not always know that sexual abuse took place when the child is originally removed.

We watched another Oprah video where a man molested his two daughters for 14 years... and served one year in prison for it!  Uhg.  Sick.  At the end of the segment they were trying to reconcile the dad with the daughter... hate to be a nay sayer, but I don't see it being at all possible.

Well class 9 down, 2 left.