Catching Up-New Placement, Latest on Natalie

Wow I have a lot of catching up to do. So we excepted another foster placement. His name is Aiden. He is a handful because Natalie and Aiden are so close in age that they feed off of each other meaning they do what the other does which usually means trouble. Our biggest struggle with him is he LOVES food. We have had to really work with him on making him aware that food is not his best friend. We are still working on that and making him realize that he doesn't need to inhale. He is a work in progress. He does love to play with the Natalie and Corbin. So we are trying to use them as an example to him. We have had Aiden for about 3 weeks.

Now onto Natalie. We had a lady in our ward make Natalie's temple dress who also made Corbin's temple outfit. We went to finish up a few things on it so her granddaughter took some pictures of Natalie. Then she took a few pictures of the finished dress. Natalie is so excited she calls the dress her "pretty white dress" and every time we go to Cari's house she asks if we are going to the Temple. She is so excited to go. HOWEVER.......

We just found out that Natalie's mom has appealed AGAIN which I didn't know it was possible. She appealed but the timing was off so it didn't come to light but the Idaho Supreme Court decided to hear her case anyway. So I asked "What Now" now that we have invitations out and dates set? Health & Welfare said that we have the option to move forward or post pone. We chose the option to move forward and finalize but we still face the chance if the Supreme Court for some odd reason goes in the Mom's favor and the adoption could be over turned then our Deputy Attorney General will then appeal to the Supreme Court's decision and it could turn into a huge mess. So we are fasting and praying that things go in our favor and everything will work out. We don't even know a time line yet as to when this could all happen. So we are moving forward with adoption and Sealing and pray for the best.

This is Natalie's fitting-she looks just like a princess

This is the finished dress. I actually designed it w/the help of Cari Austin. There is the dress, pantaloons, and a white head band w/a big bow on it.

I also had Cari's daughter Kristal make a necklace and bracelet for her to wear with her dress.

Family Bike Ride

Well, we bought bikes for Daniel & I, a bike trailer for the kids, and a SUV bike rack. We went for our first bike ride last weekend. It was a crazy first experience for the kids. They had not had a nap and it was their first time wearing bicycle helmets. Once Natalie fell asleep Corbin was fine and enjoyed the ride. It was overall a fun day. We are going to try (weather permitting) tomorrow. Natalie really likes to ride in the trailer and Corbin just likes to do whatever natalie does so maybe this time, after nap time of course, we will give it a try again.

We decided that since we were so new to the whole family bike trip that we would stay close to the car.While on the trail we ran into a newer park built near downtown Coeur d'Alene.the kids had a lot of fun at the park. Corbin has a "CARS"  bike helmet and Natalie of course has "Dora".

Corbin is a little afraid of heights,
h will push a swing but doesn't like
to ride n them

Adoption Day

Well, I tried to get an earlier adoption day but to no avail so our official adoption day for Natalie is June 11, 2010 at 4:30pm and sealing date is July 10, at 12:30pm in the Idaho Falls Temple. We are excited to FINALLY be making final plans for her. We have been trying since March of 2009 and it has FINALLY come. We are so blessed to have such wonderful (depending on the day) children. Can't wait to be an eternal family.

Easter Outfits

So preparation for Natalie's adoption & sealing we got some professional pictures done of the two kids. Here are just a few of them. It was rather difficult to get Corbin to smile so we did the best we could. He mostly just sat there and looked at all of us like we were rather weird but they turned out cute anyway.

Easter Morning

Easter morning was great. Natalie & Corbin both got Easter outfits.

Corbin got his vacuum that he LOVES. Every time I go VT or to a friend who runs a day care this is the toy he goes for first, and a few years ago for Valentines Day Daniel got me a dog that sings, his mouth moves and his tail wags. Corbin LOVES this dog but the wires have a short in it so it doesn't work anymore, he still tries to get me to push the paw to make him sing but when I tell him it doesn't work and walk away he gets mad so we got him this dog (Daniel doesn't really care for) that flaps his ears when you press his paw and sings "Here Comes Peter Cottontail". He still doesn't care for it as much as the other one but he still enjoys it.

Natalie got her baby cradle. She was so excited because she uses the toddler bed we have in Corbin's room as her baby's bed and shuts the door, won't let anyone else in the room and says her baby is sleeping. So we enjoy it as much as she does and Corbin doesn't get locked in the room as much. So I guess both her and Corbin like it.

Then there was Tristin who's favorite toy was Transformers. Cindy from Health & Welfare bought him a transformer and dropped it off at our home a few days before Easter and where his Mom was doing an Easter basket for him we didn't so a whole lot so we used the transformer and gave him a little bit of candy. Tristin has since been relocated so he could continue going to his specialty schools in Coeur d'Alene.
Sunday afternoon we decorated Easter Eggs and later that evening did a hunt. The kids really enjoyed it. So overall it was a fun day and we are back down to two kids. Life is great.

Note: My apologies with the pictures. Blogger was updated and it is being very touchy.

Our First Attempt at Pig Tails

Ok, so every time we have gotten good news about Natalie we have gone out and celebrated. March of last year was the first termination hearing and the judge granted termination of parental rights. Then we got the news that her mother appealed. Then our most recent hearing in September of 2009 we testified before a judge everything I witnessed and the news came 3 days later that the judge granted termination. Then we started to celebrate again and never imagined we would be facing ANOTHER appeal. So about 3 weeks later...ANOTHER appeal. This time before the Idaho Supreme Court of Appeals. We were told we most likely wouldn't get an answer for at least 6 months. NOW...March 31, 2010 we got the best news of all time:

The Idaho Court of Appeals has upheld the termination of parental rights in this matter. You are free to proceed to adoption.

So last night we went out and celebrated knowing there was no one that could stop us now. It looks like it could be sometime this month if not early next month for an adoption day. We are however going to have her sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple because that is where we were sealed and the great thing is that Corbin now that he is sealed to us can sit in the room with us.

This is the newest member of our family. I have never put her hair in pigtails because she always pulls it out. So I tried one more time...ended up putting it back in at least 4 times. Oh she looked SOOO cute though.

We went to cold stone Creamery and bought it home. This is what she is eating.

Such a great smile. He really knows how to pose for pictures.

FINALLY...WE WILL BE A FAMILY

Our Soon to be Beautiful Family

We received an email today from our Adoption Clinician:

The Idaho Court of Appeals has upheld the termination of parental rights in this matter. You are free to proceed to adoption.

We are FINALLY going to be an official family of 4!! I really was beginning to wonder how long it would take before we received these words. We are so excited. We are through our 3 month supervisory period so we can now move forward and set an immediate adoption day. Now the bummer is we have to wait until next week when everyone is back from their spring break get away to start things in motion. So the first available court date will be NATALIE'S ADOPTION DAY!!! WAHOO!!!!!!

The next good thing is as soon as we adopt her and get the court documents showing it is official (usually w/in 1 week 2 at the very most) we can move towards immediate sealing. I was beginning to wonder if Corbin was still going to fit into his sealing/blessing outfit for family pictures but I think we are good unless he goes through a growth spurt in the next few months.

I am just so excited I can't hardly contain my excitement.

Newest Temporary Member

Wow! It has really been over a month since I last posted. Not much has happened until now. We got a new foster boy. His name is Tristin. He is really a "wild ball of fire". He came to us extremely hyper but has calmed down a little bit but still has temper tantrums especially when his Mom leaves. I am sure he is just confused as to why he can't go back with Mom whenever he sees her. He is 4 tears old and is only 32lbs. I took him to the doctor today for his 4 year check-up and ended up leaving w/a finger poke for a lead test and 5 shots. YIKES is all I have to say. The 5th was the H1N1 Flu Vaccine. Giving shots to a 4 year old is VERY challenging because they kick and scream. I commend the Nurse for doing such a great job and keeping him contained.

He currently goes to Head Start and also attends a Developmental Pre School to help with some development skills needed for pre school. The teachers do extremely well with him for him only being there since September. He really enjoys playing with Natalie. They like to hide under her and Corbin's crib. Just some things I have discovered over the last few weeks is his favorite color is green and his favorite toys are transformers. Don't like the fact that at such a young age he likes Transformers where they are so violent but we jut have to teach him about violence. I am trying to possibly get him transferred to a home on Coeur d'Alene so he can stay with the teachers he has now. If he lives with us until his Mom gets her life back in order he will have to be transferred to Rathdrum schools with new teachers and then be put on a waiting list or Rathdrum head start which wouldn't be good for him. I can only do so much so we will see.

This is his look of "what do you want"!

Update on the Family

Well Riley is gone and we are so sad. We were hoping to be able to get together with his Mom but things didn't work out so we silently say Goodbye. :(( We are going to take on another one shortly that is either the same age as Riley or older. We won't know until we get a phone call. We will keep the blog updated once we do get another placement.

We just had a review hearing for Natalie. We are still playing the waiting game. We will hopefully hear soon from the Idaho Supreme Court. We have a Post Permanency hearing set for July 28 that we are SOO hoping can be our adoption day but we can't know anything until we have an answer from our fearless leaders higher up. So as soon as we hear anything we will again keep our blog updated.

Riley-you will be surely missed!!

Well, the time has come. Riley is back with his Mom. I was told this last Wednesday that Riley would not be coming home to us Friday evening that he would now be full-time with his mom. I was ok with it at the time but now that I have had time to think about him being gone for good I got really sad.

The last few weeks Riley has been moved into longer visits with his Mom. It went from Friday's from 8am to 8pm then Thursday after school from 12pm to overnight and coming back Friday evening to Wednesday's then coming back Friday's, then just a few weeks ago it was Monday's after school and coming back to us just over the weekends. Riley really started to struggle with the change. So this really is the best for Riley

I am just VERY sad that he is gone. I didn't think that would be this sad but I miss him. I know that he (I hope at least) that he is happy and I am sure he will miss Natalie & Corbin. I know they will miss him. I sat down with Natalie the other day and explained to her that Riley now lives with his mom. She started to cry. Although I am not sure why she was crying but I got a little sad for her. We are hoping that his mom will allow us to take him for at least an hour or so this weekend to say good bye and give him all his clothes and toys.

Riley will be surely missed. We loved him so much and always will. Hopefully we will be able to be a part of his life in the future.