Update

For those of you who have the password, you can pretty much disregard this post.

For those of you who don’t, I’m sure your wondering why a password? Monday afternoon we got a call that CPS had two little boys that needed emergency placement. They are ages 1 and 2 and the sweetest kids ever. We told CPS we would take the boys and by Monday night our lives changed dramatically. Because the boys are in foster care, I have made any posts/pictures about them private with a required password due to safety reasons and to protects the kids. I also won’t refer to them with their names unless its in a private post.

We have had the boys for about 4 days and have enjoyed having them in our home. We don’t know how long they will be with us, it could be for a month, 6 months, or it could even be permanently. There have been some meltdowns with the boys but nothing out of the ordinary from a normal toddler. I’m pretty sure they have never been told no before and always got what they wanted. They are only about a year apart and because they are so close in age, they tend to fight over toys a lot. If any of you have little boys and know of a way to keep them from fighting over the toys and then melting down because we told them no or to share, please advise! we are going to have to start using time outs for the oldest one, that’s not going to be fun but it needs to be done, something needs to be done. It does just break my heart though because, not only are these people they hardly know telling them no and putting them in time out but their whole environment has changed, they smells, the food they eat, the people that are around them, how they are responded to, etc.

They do sleep pretty well at night, the last few nights they have slept about 10 hours a night. We actually have to wake them up in the mornings, they won’t like it when we have to start waking them up 2 hours earlier than we are now for daycare. As I type this, the little one just woke up and the oldest is still sleeping. He fought it and fought it for about 30 minutes before finally crashing, he needed a nap. He has been cranky all day and clingy. I sat in the rocker with him just holding him as he fell asleep for about 45 minutes. then once I put him in his bed he woke up and wanted me to hold him again…that’s when he started crying for a a while. I went in to get the youngest when he woke up and the oldest had curled up in the chair with his blanket and fell asleep. I don’t think the oldest feels that well so that’s probably why he’s been cranky today. Like I said earlier, my heart breaks for these kids, when they cry, I have no clue what’s going through their heads…even though they are 1 and 2 yrs old.

It will be interesting when we start them in daycare, to see how they handle it. We are having issues with getting their immunizations, what they have had and what they need and so forth, and we need them to start daycare, so we’ll have to stay home a few days next week before we can put them in daycare.

I’m sure in another week or so I’ll post another update about the boys.

Someone got her hairs cut

I decided to chop all my hair off, well, not all of my hair, but about 7 inches. I also decided to get it highlighted. I had been going back and forth on whether I was going to just trim it or cut it short but decided to go short. Here is a before picture with my longer hair:

and after:
photo
front

photo
and back

To me it’s a big change but so much easier to fix in the mornings! Especially since I just bought a chi! What have I done all these years without a chi??! It’s amazing. As one of my friends says “once you go chi, you never go back!” I hear ya, Jen!

We’re licensed!!

Well, as of this past Thursday, we are officially licensed foster parents. We met our case worker, the adoption coordinator and case worker and the intake worker Thursday morning and we are ready to go. Now we just wait for a call to tell us we have a placement. It could be tomorrow or it could be in a month, I’m hoping for sooner rather than later, but I’m sure you knew that already. We will keep you updated as things happen!

Photography

Over the last several years I have grown to love photography. I love how it captures life and it can take something that happens in a split second and freeze it in time. There are moments in life you want to remember forever and through photography you can.

These are some of my favorite pictures I have taken over the last few years.

During the last 6 months or so I haven’t take many photos, I’ve been in a photography rut! My excuse is, “I just don’t have anything to take pictures of.” In 2010 I want to get back into it and start taking more pictures. A few weeks ago we went out to Jonathan’s uncle and aunts house for Christmas and I took this photo. This photo reminds me how much I love photography and why. I love the time of day when the sun sets. The colors in the sky are usually amazing and it always seems peaceful at that time of the day.

Sunset In Texas

Facelift

My parents have had this dresser in their garage for about the last 15 years. Before that it was in my room and before that it was in my mothers room growing up. So, needless to say this is a very old dresser and it has seen better days.

For the last 10 years or so I’ve asked my dad if I could refinish the dresser so I can use it, I always got the same answer, “it’s so dirty and old and I don’t want to clean it out because I don’t know where I’ll put the stuff that’s in it.” So when we started fixing up the babies room I tried one more time and to my surprise they said yes. All it took was for me to say it’s for a grandchild–geeze! So I went and picked up the dresser and brought it home. I stripped it – all 10 layers of paint, sanded it and repainted it. I stained the top of the dresser to match another dresser I refinished a few years ago that is in the room as well. Here are some pictures of the dresser before I started and then the finished product.


2009 Review

2009 has flown by and we are already into 2010. Jonathan and I did quite a bit in 2009 and through its ups and downs, we had a great year. We started off the year like every other year, a birthday bash with my family and the Medlin’s (My other family) to celebrate my dad’s and Bob’s birthdays.

Day 107 ~ 365 Days Project

In February Jonathan and I went on our first cruise to Cozumel and Progresso, Mexico with our friends Josh and Shalyn.

cozumel trip

Jonathan and I completed our first bike race, Tour Dallas, with our friend Todd. We had a great time and hope to do it again this year.

Tour Dallas 2009

A few months later, we rode in another bike ride, Mesquite Rodeo Ride. We attempted this one but about 10-12 miles in I was done, my heart couldn’t take anymore.

photo

We took a visit to the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens on Memorial Day Weekend

Our good friend Tami got married to Michael in May and Jonathan and I were the photographers.
tami & Michael

In July Jonathan and I went on another cruise to the Bahamas with my parents, his parents and his sister and brother-in-law. We had a great time with everyone!

Bahamas Trip

In August we put our house on the market so we can move closer to both our families. We are hoping to move to the Forney or Rockwall area. Hopefully our home will sell in 2010 and we can move closer to our families.

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In October we started the process to become foster parents so we can adopt through CPS. We had to do about 32 hours of classroom training, we filled out 1000 pieces of paperwork, done drug screenings, got our fingerprints done with the FBI, and have completed our homestudy so we are just playing the waiting game now. For our homestudy we had to have the babies room set up with the crib and everything so we moved our guest room into the office and set up the babies room.

baby room

Throughout the year we went to a few of my nephew, Jake’s, soccer games and spent time with my niece, Brooklyn.

Jake
Brooklyn

We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with both of our families and rang in the new year with some friends. We started 2010 the same way we started 2009, a birthday bash with my family and the medlins.

We finally got an updated picture of all the Turner-Medlin “kids” and their significant other.

So here’s to the New Year and a happy and joyous 2010. We anticipate 2010 to be a big year for us as we bring a little one into our home and hopefully adopt a child this year. I wish all of you a wonderful new year and hope your dreams and goals of 2010 come true!

Merry Christmas

We have been so busy the last few months with the foster care training and getting ready for the homestudies and bringing a little one into the house that we didn’t really have much time to do a Christmas card like last year. So we’re sending you all a Christmas card via my blog! We want to wish each and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas and hope you get to spend your time with family and loved ones this holiday season!