Don't give up!

Okay everyone! Don't give up on me. I'm thinking this afternoon looks free for me (not for Jared, but for me it is) so I think I can really update you all on the last couple of weeks. It's been a whirlwind! Good things, good times. Just crazy, busy. LOVE YOU ALL!!

YARD SALE!!!

You all should totally come to this yard sale! I'm so excited for it. It's for a wonderful cause. To read more about the cause, click here. Only two more days!

MIA

Once again, I am so so sorry we've been MIA. I've been helping my friend with her two kiddos. Being a momma of three is no easy task. No time for like anything! lol LOVE it though. So ... here's a bit of an update on all of us and I will hopefully be able to start more interesting post soon.

Jared is doing great. He started physical therapy on his finger. He has to wear the finger brace at night, but that's it. He is a little concerned because he was hoping to have a greater bend then he does. It'll either take time, or ... who knows. We'll let the dr. and physical therapist figure it out. lol Jared has survived another year of scout camp. It was a lot better then last years he said. He'll be doing a post on it... and I didn't even have to ask. :o) Work is ... work. Keeping him busy. Unfortunately he isn't enjoying it like he use to. Hopefully that'll pass. Jared is still Mr. Incredible. He's definitely the better half.

I've been lovin' being mom. I can't imagine life any other way. With LM going home (yes he is leaving us. I will explain more in a bit) I will be able to focus more on finding a job, so I don't loose my LPN license, and make a final decision about school. As of right now, school wise it looks like my best option for school is to work for a year then go back to the community college in their advanced placement program. I'm still primary pianist and loving it. The kids are so amazing and can teach you so much, even when you aren't the one interacting with them a lot. I think that's about it for me.

Oh my LM. He's such a sweet baby. We are going to miss him dearly. So, on Thurs. Aug. 4, we had court. The judge made two rulings. One is agreement to the 4 or 5 things LM's bio. mom has to do in order to regain custody. If I'm understanding right, she'll have until end of Jan. to complete those court ordered assignments, then further action will take place if necessary. The second ruling was the judge granted a trial placement. MEANING! LM's bio. mom basically gets custody of him. She will have him, but he will still be a ward of the state. So case workers will be checking on them constantly, she has to do all the paper work that comes with him being in foster care, do her court ordered assignments... all that fun stuff. She's far from being done with the state. We will place him with her tomorrow, Aug. 9. Like I said, we will miss LM more then words can express. His bio. mom has agreed to let us have contact, so at least we'll get updates on him.

A common question we have been getting now that LM is leaving is about us getting another placement. Yes, we will as soon as we get the call. Most other foster parents we've talked to said it's generally about a month in between. We shall see what Heavenly Father has in store for us.

Thank you all so much for the love, support, and prayers. They are definitely felt. I can't express my gratitude for all of you. Please don't hesitate to ask ANY questions. We're happy to answer questions about us, adoption, foster care, or whatever we can! Love to all!!

Two of three from Jared!!!

side note from Devin: These are all the pictures Jared took, I promise. The pictures are our trek family- minus me. Still so bummed I couldn't go. Oh well. LM is so, so incredibly worth it. Anyway~ enjoy.

The Trek

A few weeks ago I, Jared, got to go on trek. I had known about this since the beginning of the year. Devin and I had been asked to lead one of the groups as a Ma and Pa. But about 10 days to trek and little man showed up in our lives and Devin had to stay home and I went without her. Devin made sure everything was together and sent me on my way.

Since Devin was unable to come with me I was assigned 2 other people to be in our group Bro.Richards and Sis. Jensen. Sis Jensen is in the Mormon tabernacle choir so she really loves music. I want to talk about the music on trek for a little while. The kids sang many songs while on trek. Most of them are the camp songs that cause me to want to take a baseball bat to the mouth of the person singing the song. For example there is a song about working in a button factory that goes on and on and on forever with only minor changes. Devin is sad that I hate her "do do doo doo" song about sharks. The kids singing the songs where behind us and my boys where yelling back at them to chill out. I just had to change the mood, so I started to sing “Stickshifts and Safetybelts” by Cake.

I will say that while singing the song I thought of how far away my Devin was. I know I do not sing well but my kids where excited to hear something not nearly as annoying. Later in the evening we had devotional with our kids and we started with a song. Sis. Jensen gave a note and I started singing at the random place I go to when I sing. She immediately stopped and said we need to start on the same note. I just looked at her and said that was well beyond my capability. We started again and I am sure I was waaaaaaaaaaay off pitch. I do want to say that no matter how poorly you sing a song if you sing it with a sincere heart your inner voice will be heard by God. Unfortunately my group had to listen to my vocal
singing.

On the first day we ran into several problems. For example we went down the wrong way multiple times. The back tracking ended up making us go an extra 2-3 miles. One time we went about a mile and came to a creek crossing the trail we where supposed to be on was only 30 feet away. But the leaders made us turn around and go back and around and cross the river at another location that was equally difficult. Several of the leaders just crossed and waited for us to come back around. By the end of the day the boys and girls where exhausted and just wanted to call it quits. We came to a river crossing around the end of the day but it was raining and the water was high and fast so we went over the bridge. Boy do I love bridges.

The second day the girls had a women’s pull. I want to state in advance that I do not like these type of activities. First of all there is normally a false story given about the Mormon battalion and taking the men away from the hand carts. This NEVER happened. The Mormon battalion happened nearly a decade earlier and no men where pulled off the hand carts for anything other than death or disease. As a matter of fact the handcart pioneers did not want to be on the handcarts they rattled your bones till you wanted to walk. We took one of our girls and she only sat on it for about 4 minutes before she gave up. I will say that our leaders did not give the Mormon battalion story and talked about how the girls can do hard things without the boys. They took the boys ahead and talked to them about stepping up and fulfilling their priesthood responsibilities. I have a problem with abandoning the women but they wanted to do the woman’s pull so I walked beside them and they did very good. They went up one of the steepest slopes of the trek and went down the 2nd hardest slope of the trek. One of the girls, not in our group got thrown 6 feet while going down.

The final day was a grind till the end many of the kids had lost their good nature with one another and it was starting to show. We had a difficult group, because Devin has medical training several kids who in our group had mental and physical disabilities. Everyone was trying to chip in and do their part but several times the kids stepped on each others toes. Bro. Richards went and helped another group who where struggling. They had a girl who was in a cart, not a handcart, that could not walk. Her mother had been pushing her for the first two days and just was struggling. Our kids pushed through and made it to the end.

Back when we where asked to go on trek. I told the people I thought trek was stupid and I made fun of people who go on trek. I had a good time on trek and I would go again if asked. I want to say that after going on trek, I now know with out a shadow of a doubt that pulling handcarts is absolutely retarded.

One of three from Jared!!!

Yes, you read that title right! I FINALLY got Jared to write three different blog post. I will be spacing them out though. hehe I love you Jared!!! Enjoy everyone!

Earlier this year I got a new toy. I had lots of money that had to be spent on Amazon (Devin side note: he got a bonus from work) and there was not anything that Devin and I really wanted. So I started to look for crazy things. After searching for a very ling time I found what I wanted and after much pleading and wining to Devin, she let me get it. I am now the proud owner of a Snow Cone machine. For those of you who do not know there are 2 main kinds of snow cone machine’s.

Type 1 shaves off a thin layer of snow from a block of ice and is controlled by a professional who can create a light and fluffy SNOW cone.

Type 2 takes ice and chops it up in to small chunks. For some reason this is called a snow cone but there is no snow about it.

I got Type 1. When I was growing up I worked in a stand and made many snow cones. Here in Utah most of the stands claim to have a Type 1 snow cone but are actually Type 2. This has caused me much grieving because I really love good snow cones. After making many flavors and using water bottles as a pouring device I also convinced Devin to let me buy bottles and pour spouts. I now have a semi professional setup for shaving cones. When I open up my garage and start shaving many of the neighbors come to get some.

I will say that Snow cones are a very social activity. People just come and stay and hang out and talk. sometimes till 11:00 at night. I have had lots of fun with the machine the scouts come over for cones after scouts and I even went to girls camp and shaved cones for the girls there. I love snow cones and it really is fun sharing them with the neighborhood.

Adoption special

Seriously LOVED this. So great in helping understand adoption, birth and adoptive couples perspective... using the right terminology. We just hope we can have the type of relationship Caitlin and Tyler do with their adoptive parents. You have got to watch it!!

http://www.mtv.com/videos/16-and-pregnant-adoption-special/1667203/playlist.jhtml#series=2211&seriesId=29240&channelId=1

Yes, we're still alive

I can't believe how much crazier life gets with a newborn around!!! LOVE it though. Like I said, wouldn't trade it for the world. This last weekend we had the opportunity to go see Jared's sister up north. SO FUN! I will post about that later. I just wanted to write a quick post, let you all know we are still alive.

ALSO! There is a bit of an update on Little Man. Due to mis-communication, not knowing all the full detail type thing... LM's bio family cannot realistically take custody of him. They work full time, things like that. SO! What does that mean exactly?? Means, his bio mom asked that he remain in our custody until she's granted custody again!! WAHOO! Looks like he'll be with us for a bit longer. :oD

Thanks for all the love, support, and prayers!!! Love to all!!!