The Other Parents

Our daughters are in band/color guard at the high school and we took the night off tp go watch their first performance of this year’s halftime show. The band director at the high school has done a phenomenal job with the kids this year and the show is simply wonderful. It’s called Heroes Fallen, But Not Forgotten and is a tribute to all those who have given their lives in the name of freedom. It’s very moving to watch.
For me, the show is very emotional. My son, Chayce, just left home for his second deployment overseas. He came home last November from a year of service in Afghanistan and has now left for Kuwait. He will be driving a truck hauling supplies from Kuwait to Iraq. It’s so hard to watch your child leave-to know he has left the safety of your arms, your home, can be heart-wrenching. It made me consider what the birth parents of the children we foster may be going through.
I am sure many of the birth parents feel the same way. When their children are removed from their care they face the same uncertainty. They have no idea where their child(ren) are going or how they will be treated. Regardless of what the allegation is against them, these are still their children and I am certain they love them. When you look at it from that perspective it kind of changes your opinion of them. They are not horrible people, most of them anyway. They want what is best for their child, they simply lack the skills and/or resources to provide what their child(ren) need. This is where we, the foster parents, come in.
As we take these children into our homes we need to consider what they, and their parents, are giving up. Encourage their visits with each other to foster the relationship they already have. Talk with the children about their parent(s) in a positive way. Help them write notes to them (but, don’t force them) letting them know they are thinking of them. In this way, children can stay in touch. Include the parents in the child’s lifebooks.
It only takes a little effort on our part to keep the lines of communication open between the birth parent and the child, but what a difference this can make in the life of that child.

Check out Wanda's website for awesome ideas and svgs

Lent

Lent is the 47 days or 6 weeks leading up to Easter. It’s a time for us Christ-followers to devote and dedicate time to God. Many also fast from something during this time. I have never participated in a fast, but have always wanted to. Now I am feeling the need to. I have a lot of things I could chose to abstain from, but the one that really stands out to me is my carbonated beverages. I am constantly drinking a coke and I think that giving that up will really work to make me focus on God. I read somewhere that it takes a gallon of water to undo the damage that one class of coke, or whatever else, does to your kidneys. Wow. My kidneys will certainly be grateful for my choice. I think I will make this a yearly tradition. I need to get closer to my Lord and really focus on what He wants for me in my life. I hope to accomplish this to some degree in the next 6 weeks.

Blake's Scrapbook

I got to go to my church's monthly scrapbook crop this past Saturday and spent the entire time working on my grandson's pictures. I managed to get all the pictures I have of him scrapped - all the way up to Thanksgiving (he was 7 months old). I am still behind, though. He is now 10 months old, but I haven't printed pictures in a while. I need to go to Alyssa's blog and print out some more. I can do that now that I have gotten somewhat caught up. I ran into some trouble doing them because I started feeling like all my layouts were looking the same. I decided to try some new ideas, though, and finally got something different from my regular style.

Hope you enjoy them - as always comments and suggestions are welcome!!

Blake's Scrapbook

I have finally taken some time to work on getting my grandson, Blake's, scrapbook updated. I didn't realize I was that far behind until I took out the pictures to start scrapping! He is now almost 10 months old and I just finished his three month old layout. I have quite a few pictures to do before I get caught up. He's so adorable, and Alyssa takes such wonderful pictures of him that it's hard not to print out every one of them and try to scrap them all. I am trying to pick out just a few though to represent him at each month so I don't end up with 16 scrapbooks of him before he even turns 1! LOL.

These are the layouts I have finished in the past few days. With Kymberly trying to help it's sometimes hard to get them done. Sometimes I just leave a layout on my scrap table and work on it in bits and pieces over the course of a couple of days and at night after she has gone to bed (IF I can keep my eyes open and my brain in gear!)

Comments and suggestions are always welcome!!

Beautiful by Mercy Me

Kymberly's 2nd Birthday

I went to my monthly scrapbooking crop at church the weekend before last and took my HUGE box of pictures with me. I had no idea what I was going to work on. I am so far behind in my scrapping (having a two-year old at home will do that to you...lol)

Anyway, I pulled out some pictures we took of Kymberly's 2nd birthday party last August and decided to work on them. My inspiration took forever to come to me.....I was there at 10:00 and it wasn't until around 1:00 that I really got into the scrapping. I guess I had been away from it for so long that it took awhile to really get into it. And when I did get into it I didn't want to stop. I finished 5 pages by 4:00 and had to make myself quit or I would have been there all night!

I usually don't get into quite this much detail on a LO, but for some reason I just kept adding stuff to the page. I really like the way it turned out. Of course, it helps that my daughter (the awesome photographer) takes such fabulous pictures!

Wow Wow Wubbzy!

My granddaughter is turning three in a couple of weeks and I got her Wow Wow Wubbzy invitation in the mail a couple of days ago. She REALLY loves that show. I decided to try and make her a card with Wubbzy on it and found some clipart to use to make some svgs. You can get svgs of Wubbzy, Widget, Walden and the little bird here : http://www.box.net/shared/pbuq90cs5g. I haven't cut them out yet so I am not sure they will work. If you use them I would love to see what you make!

Happu Cutting!!