Avonlea asked a good question on a recent posting about the girls coming and going. Here it is:

How did you manage to adopt such a young child from fostercare? If you don't mind my asking.

When I explored the option it sounded like the only way you could do it was foster-adopt and I'm just not up for the risk of losing a child who is not legal free for adoption when they come into my home and heart.

It's a great question. You can actually adopt two types of kids through foster care. (Those who are legally free and fost-adopt) Anna was fost-adopt - meaning she was becoming available... more

After several beautiful months of potty trained bliss, we are back to this stuff. Anna seems to be having on average one accident per day - usually at night or at school (camp - whatever it's called) during rest time. She always says something like "Mommy, I'll try not to make in my underwear" or "I'll try to make on the potty next time" but I'm not quite sure where to go from here. My husband was threatening her with going back to diapers, which I quickly yelled at him explained to him why that was not a good idea. What happens if she says yes - she does want to go back to diapers. Then what? So I'm telling her that she can't do ballet or gymnastics in the fall if she's having... more

Anna's recent obsession is this Winnie the Pooh DVD that a friend lent me. Now normally, I'm not big into letting my kid watch too much televison - I don't watch too much myself anyway. But with it being so hot lately, and I've been feeling a bit crummy, I've given in more than usual. So she watches Winnie the Pooh and cracks up every time he says "Oh bother!"

The other day, Anna asked me where Roo's daddy is. For those of you who don't know the characters, Roo lives with his mom, Kanga (they are kangaroos...ha ha) and the absence of his father is not explained. So I told her that some families have mommies and daddies, but some families just have a mommy or just a daddy. She pressed... more

You want to hear something ironic? I had a subscription to a magazine called "Budget Living." A little while ago, I got a note in the mail saying that the magazine had folded and the remainder of my subscription would be filled by one of their partners - a magazine called "Shop." Anyone else but me find that weird?

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So, Anna's going to "big-girl-school" this fall and I'm busy busy filling out all the paperwork that they keep sending me every other day. I wish schools would understand that if they got their act together and mailed out everything at once, they would actually be saving on postage and envelopes. Whatever. She keeps asking if it's September yet so that... more

Anna is not a baby. She is three and a half years old, potty trained, talking in pages worth of dialogue and on the cusp of reading. She sleeps in a bed, and is going to "big girl school" in the fall. And if all this doesn't matter, she remains three and a half years old. Anna is not a baby.

My in-laws seem to have difficulty on this issue. They insist on refering to her as The Baby, which I really don't understand on so many levels. (For one thing, she wasn't the baby for almost a year while we had a foster baby staying with... more

It seems to me that we have been saying "no" quite a bit lately. Last week it was the girls - we decided that they really could not stay with us on a long term basis and that we would be better as an emergency placement for them. We could not keep them long term because the older girl was older than Anna (something I doubt Anna would handle well) and the simple fact that we did not have enough beds to go around. So we did have legitimate reasons for that case.

The Department of Youth and Family Services called us yesterday with a baby boy, a few months old, and would we be interested in taking him? The legal status... more

So, I think having the girls with us for a week was a good learning experience. This is what I've learned:

1. I want lots of kids 2. I could see myself as parenting, oh, about ten or so 3. They all have to be different ages 4. I don't think I'm cut out for older child adoption 5. I'm only taking one at a time from now on 6. And they have to be under a year and a half when they come

I really do want lots of kids. I want a house full of them. But I don't think that I can go from 0 to 60 in 4.8 seconds. This was ridiculous hard. And I don't think I can do older child adoption. As much... more

As much as I would like our new girls to stay, the fact of the matter is that they can't. Anna is currently sleeping in our room to make space for the girls in her room. Anna's bedroom has a highriser bed and a crib, but since the new girls are four and almost three, they need to be in the beds. We were a good emergency placement for this situation, but it can't be long term - the girls are too close to Anna's age and one is older - not something that would work with Anna's strong personality, and I'm not so keen on messing up the "pecking order" (well, I really can't say "birth order" here, can I?)

So, I told DYFS... more

So, DYFS (Department of Youth and Family Services) called us yesterday and asked if they could place two sisters - a two year old going on three and a four year old with us. Normally we don't take any kids older than Anna - at three and a half - but with Anna basically sleeping in our bed right now, I said that we could take them for a few days while they took some time to find a more permanent home for them. Then they called back saying that someone else was going to take the older girl, could we take the younger one on a long term basis, and we said sure. Next, they called back and said that plan had fallen through, and could we please take both girls for a few days and possibly hold onto... more

So here we are! We landed at 4:45 am this morning and the best part of the flight was that Anna actually agreed to go to the bathroom on the plane. (Throughout most of our trip while in Israel, Anna was singing made up songs about the scary potty on the plane).

Anyway. The trip was great, wonderful, and I'm tired although I don't feel like we need a vacation from our vacation. I hate that. I have oodles of laundry to do and no food in the house, so I've sent Anna and my husband out to get a few edible items.

Here's our trip by the numbers:

Days spent in Israel: 16 Number of attempts to have Anna go to the bathroom on the airplane before she actually went: 10... more