Wow,
2014 blew our minds! Reflecting back on last year’s update, I never thought the
update I am writing today would be what it is.
I
have blogged a little bit about our foster care journey since our 2013 update.
I went dark in the early spring because we were in a 6 month waiting period
where I couldn’t share anything about our kids online. I encourage you to read
those blog posts if you haven’t.
Last
year’s update stopped with the placement of 6 year old little Mark. When we
were presented with him, we were told it would be an adoptive placement and that
he would be ours. As with the “foster coaster” rides we’ve experienced all
along, we found out about a week into his placement that his mother was
fighting to get him back. Long story short, because of the holidays and his
situation, he was returned to his mother after living with us for a month. The
month we had with him was fun and sweet, and we will always have good memories
of him.
When
Del went home
last fall, we decided that the back and forth of foster care was done for us.
We switched our focus to adoptive placements. We started looking for children
on the state adoption website, TARE and sifted through bulletins from our
agency. We even submitted our paperwork for 2 children we heard about when we
were in a court hearing for Del. We were looking for 1 or 2 kids; at this point
age didn’t matter as long as we could fit them in our home. On January 16th,
we received 2 bulletins: 1 was for a 15 year old boy and the other was a sibling
group of 4. We decided to submit for the 4; it was out of our comfort zone, but
there was just something about them. Things moved quickly from there. We met
them on February 8th and then they started coming for weekend visits
every weekend until they moved in on March 7th. I won’t go into all
the details, but the oldest boy was unable to stay with our family and moved
out in May. But, we adopted the other 3 on September 15th and they
are now a part of our forever family.
We
are so blessed to have Xavier, Pierce and Elizabeth in our family. Read on to
find out about them!
Here are the current
family stats:
Dad, Mark
Mark
is still working at Austin Regional Clinic, doing computer programming. This
year, he was promoted to supervisor and has 3 programmers working for his team.
This has been a challenging year for him adjusting to being a boss, but he
loves his job. We are thankful for the security his job gives us. He is the
leader of the boys group, Royal Ambassadors at church and is a handbook leader for
our AWANA club. He is a great dad, making time to build relationships with all
of our kids and has had to do lots of projects this year to make our house
ready for 6 kids.
Mark
and I got to go to a Texas Rangers game this year. We also got to go to a couple
of Round Rock Express games and a couple of stock car races at the track in
Kyle.
Mom, Shelley
I
am a stay at home mom, but I am definitely busy. I still get to be a part of
MOPS, since Kendall is still a preschooler
(this is the last year!). Also, for the last 3 years I’ve directed our church’s
Heroes Camp, which is quite a task, but I love it so much. It is what our
church does for VBS; it is a full day, camp type experience, with field trips
and swimming and Bible lessons, oh my! I also am the one that keeps up with all
the kids’ appointments, paperwork and training. This year, I got to do the huge
stack of adoption paperwork (times 3), which was busy and stressful.
This
fall, I started working part time at our local YMCA at the front desk. I love
it a lot; it’s a break from home life and a nice change of pace. This year, I
also took control of my health and lost 40 pounds. I trained and completed a
half marathon in October in a time way better than I expected.
Xavier
Xavier
is 13 and in the 7th grade. Xavier is fun loving and thoughtful. He
plays the clarinet in band and likes to play soccer and basketball. He enjoys
playing with LEGOs and playing Pokemon. Xavier gave a testimony at church in
August about his experience before and during foster care. He has seen God’s
loving hand of care in his life all along. Xavier is always willing to help
others, and he does it happily without complaining. He is hoping to go on a
missions trip to Ethiopia
in 2015 to minister to orphans and to see hippos in the wild.
Riley
Riley
is 12 and in the 7th grade this year. He has done really well in
band and made the top band at the end of 6th grade. He is in the
youth group this year, and he and Xavier really enjoy going whenever they can.
Riley
still enjoys LEGOs and building things. He also creates his own stop motion
videos. He is a great big brother. We can count on him to help and be a good
role model to all of the kids.
Pierce
Pierce
is 11 and in the 5th grade. He loves to read, especially Warriors
books and Rick Riordan books. He loves to figure out how things work and to fix
things. He also is a puzzle master; we have quite a few puzzles that I’ve glued
together this year. Pierce is also very active and played soccer this fall. He
also likes to ride his bike and play Frisbee outside. Pierce also hopes to go
to Ethiopia in 2015; he
loves to talk about Africa.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth is 9 and in 3rd grade. She
loves to be crafty, drawing and writing all of the time. She also enjoys being
creative with her LEGOs and building new things out of her pieces. She loves to
collect things like rocks and keys. She’s always got something in her pocket.
She enjoys being active outside, throwing the Frisbee or observing bugs.
Tyler
Tyler is 9 and in the 4th grade. He
loves to eat; he never ever seems full. He also loves to read and is enjoying
Geronimo Stilton and Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. His good buddy lives across
the street and they get together often to play Minecraft or Pokemon.
He
also likes building LEGOs. Tyler
is always funny and playful. He is a good friend and a good leader in class.
Kendall
Kendall is 4 (almost 5) and is in preschool 2 days
a week this year. She is a girly girl, always worrying about how she looks or
what she’s wearing. She is the only extrovert in our family and has friends
everywhere she goes. She loves princesses, ponies, Ariel and playing pretend.
She always wants to do what the big kids are doing, even playing Minecraft or
watching Pokemon. She is a joy to have in our family, and we are so thankful
for her. She is a sweet sister.
Since
the adoption in September, we have been working on adjusting to our new family
life. It has been interesting and a big change for us after having been so
fluid for the last 3 years. We don’t feel like our story is complete yet, but
we do believe that this is a season of “settling”, where we won’t take on much
new stuff for our family. We are taking this time to bond and deepen security
in our home. We also want to come alongside
our friends and family as they have needs that we can meet to support and
encourage them. We are very excited about 2015 and all that God has in store
for this family of 8!
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