Time to Catch Y’all Up!

Hello Friends!  I’m sorry I’ve been a shitty blogger lately…3 weeks between being off restrictions and daycare/school starting meant lots of house projects happening these last few weeks.  So what’s been happening in OGD land…lots actually.  Some is going to have to be saved for a password protected post.  Let’s start back a few weeks though.

A few weeks ago, we got a call from the same county that we fostered H, L and R through.  They were wondering if we’d be interested in fostering an 8 mo old baby girl.  She is currently with a great foster family but they are older and have raised their children already and this situation is more than likely (fingers crossed) going to be an adoption situation.  The SW said that the transition process to having her with us full time would take a couple of months.  There are other details that I can’t really discuss, but after J and I talking for a whole 2 minutes, I called back and said we’d be interested.  We didn’t hear anything again for about a week but finally the SW on the case called and said she wanted us to meet with a trauma specialist (TS from now on).  We met with her a couple Thursdays ago now and it went okay.  The one thing we had a problem with is that she wants me to bring somebody else in to do daycare the first month or two baby is with us full time and that is just not happening.  Not only can we not afford to pay someone else to do my job, but I don’t even know anyone that would want to take that on.

The SW was supposed to be having a phone conference with the TS this past Wednesday and she said she’d call afterwards but I never heard from her.  Thursday, the current foster mom texted me a photo of baby and asked me to call her when I had a chance.  I could tell by the texts and then the phone call that she is very much a rule follower and takes everything the TS says to heart.  We set up a time to go and meet them for today at 3pm.  She also mentioned that L’s SW is taking over the case because the current one is going on maternity leave.  I was happy about this because we got on great while we had the girls.  Since she’s taking over the case, I put a call into her that afternoon to discuss the whole taking time off work thing.  She called me back Friday afternoon and it was great connecting with her.  I mentioned what the TS said and she said that she’d heard she’d said that and that is the optimal situation, but in their office, the deal with reality.  She was going to check with the Guardian ad litem and get back to me but didn’t before we met E and now I really hope the answer is that they are okay with me working.  Ladies, this little one is Beautiful and so happy.  There are definite trauma triggers and delays that she’s already working with birth to 3 on, but I can’t wait until we’re far enough into the transition that we get to hold her.  Unless of course they come back and say never mind because I won’t give up doing daycare.  I really hope that doesn’t happen though.  Anyways, the family she is with is super nice and have been doing foster care for 15 yrs but E is going to be their last placement.

Current FM is hoping the transition is completed by Thanksgiving so she can be with us for her first one and her 1st birthday in December and of course, Christmas.  I will keep you guys updated as we go along.  It sounds like BD is ready to TPR but BM is not voluntarily TPRing yet.

Other than that, we’ve been working on the house and went camping in our new camper for the first time last Sunday for a couple days with J’s family.  L got to come with us and we had a mostly great time.  Camping is way better with a camper than a tent, lol.  Daycare officially starts back tomorrow with 4 kiddos, all new so it should be an interesting day!

I hope you are all well!  I’m still at least a few days behind I think but hopefully, I can get a bit caught up before I head to bed tonight.  🙂

Lots of Love~Dawn

It Is Done!

I feel like I moved into a new house!  Here are the before and after pictures of the projects we did in our main rooms this summer.  Oh and I’ll show you pics of the basement too.  I don’t have any before pics of that but just imagine stuff everywhere and not being able to walk through the cement part and barely be able to walk through the finished part.  🙂  I so wish we had another month off to work on stuff now that I’m finally cleared to do things.

The Beginnings…

Of our new kitchen island!  Can’t wait to show you guys the after photos!

Our Summer in Bullet Points

Hey Ladies!  Long time, no blogging.  It’s been a summer for the history books.  Well, at least the history book of my life, lol.  So here it goes, our summer in a nutshell.  Some of this you guys already know and some I haven’t written about yet.

• June 2nd:  We get a call from our adoption agency saying a Birth Mom wants to meet with us.
• June 8th:  We got to meet BM and L’s baby Sister is born.
• June 9th:  We get a call from the SW saying that they will be discharging baby R to us.
• June 11th:  We pick up R that afternoon.
• June 13th:  There’s a hearing for R’s placement and we found out we may lose her to bio dad or maternal Grandma.
• June 16th:  J goes to court hearing to represent us and after a 3 hour hearing (they’re normally 15min and go the way the sw and guardian ad litem suggest) R is placed with maternal grandma where bio mom is living.  We also make the very hard decision to let L go with so she’s not separated from her whole family.
• June 20th:  R and L move out.
• In the meantime, we’ve heard nothing from BM and her ultimate decision but are told to proceed like we have a baby coming July 15th.
• June 23rd:  Go in for breast reductions surgery.  When I get into recovery room, J checks my email to find that our sw has sent us BM’s number and says that she wants us to contact her.
• June 24th:  Call BM in morning and she invites us to her next ultrasound/midwife appt.
• June 28th:  Go and see baby girl on ultrasound and take BM and her son out for lunch and head to her house to help her hang blinds and get to know them better throughout the afternoon.  We’re officially super excited and anxiously awaiting baby’s birth.
• July 4th:  Text BM and wish her and her son a Happy 4th of July.  She texts back that she’s been experiencing braxton hix contractions and feels like the baby’s dropped.
• July 5th:  I contact our adoption worker to find out what fees we have left to pay and when they’re due.
• July 6th:  Get a call from agency saying BM has changed her mind and wants to try to parent.  Devastation and heartbreak ensues.
• July 7th:  We got and meet 3 beautiful, sweet kids from Colorado.  We had found out about them a few months ago from a church email asking for prayers.  Their great aunt goes to our church and the kids were placed with Grandma out in Colorado but she’s unable to keep them long term due to health issues.  We had been in contact with great aunt and grandma over the last few months and she asked us to come meet them as family friends while they were here on vacation.  They are 6,5 and 10 months and just as sweet as pie.  Parents rights have not been TPR’d at this time but their visits have been cut down so this is a wait and see situation but Grandma did say that if she gets the choice, she wants us to adopt them.
• Meanwhile, recovery is going great.  I stopped pain meds after the first weekend once the drains were removed and really had no trouble with pain until I over did it cleaning on July 21st and then watched a few kids on the 22nd.  Recovery went down his from there.
• The following week I started getting a rash all over and under my breasts spreading down towards my stomach.  It’s incredibly itchy and I tried oils and anti fungal creams to no avail.  A week later, I finally went in and saw one of the plastic surgeons and he prescribed prednisone starting with 6 pills a day and each day it tapered down one pill.  The itching stopped within a day and rash started to slowly go away but once I got down to only taking the 2 a day, itchiness and rash started coming back.  Went to dermatology yesterday and they prescribed a hydrocortisone cream so hopefully that will start helping.
• Other than that, I am finally off restrictions but haven’t made it back to the gym yet.
• Other things that happened this summer:  Got our bedroom, nursery, kitchen and living room all painted.  We also finally bought new flooring and J is working on that as I type.  I can’t wait to show you guys the before and afters.
• We bought a camper!  I am not a tent camper.  I didn’t grow up in a camping family and every time J and I have gone, it’s poured rain through the night and has just generally sucked.  One of my past daycare parents was selling theirs and they took great care of it and were selling it for a good price so we bought it.
• We may be transitioning an 8 mo old baby girl into our home over the next couple of months.  We got a call from the same county that L and R were through asking if we’d be interested in this situation.  She’s been in foster care the last 5-6 months but her current foster family are an older couple who have already raised their kids and don’t want to adopt and it sounds like this situation may go that route.  We will have to do it slowly over 2 months to build the attachment because at one point, she was at failure to thrive.  We are hoping to hear very soon on what the transition plan will be and asking that you pray for us that this situation doesn’t fall through also.  For the first 6 months, only J and I are allowed to care for her so no babysitters of any kind.

So that’s pretty much everything that has happened this summer, I think, lol.  It’s been crazy busy and I’m so happy I had it off from daycare because I don’t know how I would have functioned or handled all the ups and downs that happened.  I wish I didn’t have to start back to daycare and could just continue to work on myself, my family and Young Living, but unfortunately, we’re just not in that kind of position financially.

I’m behind once again on your blogs but will try to get caught up soon.  Sending you all love and hoping the last few weeks of summer are great ones for y’all!

Lots of Love~Dawn

Order

Hey Friends,

My Young Living order is going in today, if any of you would like to try anything, let me know.  You can see the products at http://www.youngliving.com and you will get my wholesale member price and then I would just have you add $5 for shipping.  I’ll pay for the tax and shipping to me, but then I’ll need to get it shipped out to you.  The ones that people commonly want to try to start with are Thieves (great for optimal immunity), lavender (so versatile!  helps with relaxation or the occasional sleeplessness, minor burns, bruises, can help slow down bleeding), peppermint (menstrual cramps, menstrual cramps, menstrual cramps!  This is my savior with my endo.  Also can help with motion sickness, energy, and fantastic to optimize wellness in your digestive system), lemon (I love lemon for getting sticky stuff out or off of things (it even works for gum in hair and smells a heck of a lot better than PB, it can help you focus during the occasional brain fog and is good for so many other things, or Pan Away (great for the occasional muscle discomfort).  You can email me at 1lovemyoilylife@gmail.com with your order or questions and I can give you my paypal info then.  🙂  I will update you on soon on what’s been happening here and heads up that the next post will be a protected post.  My usual password so if you need that, email me at pdot95@gmail.com.  Have a great week!

Lots of Love~Dawn