Even the Dog is Worn Out

It's the good kind of tired. The kind when you have a really full day with lots of activity and laughter and then you crash at night.

Saturday was Dave's work's annual company picnic, and it was fun to take the kids! There were huge inflatable obstacle courses, balloon artists, and face painters not to mention tons of food and candy! Yum!

Shelly has been helping wake the kids up by jumping from one bed to the other, nosing the kid, and then jumping back. It's pretty entertaining. So glad we got our fence finished off so everyone can run around in the backyard!
I've spent a lot of time looking into schools, day cares, etc. lately. It looks like the kids are going to be in preschool, so they'll have a little more time to get some consistency before starting kindergarten. I think we found a place, and we should know by the end of the week. If so, they'll start right after Labor Day (like the smart Minnesotans do-enjoy that summer!).
Time for sleep...

Here we goooo!

Well, we went for about a month with no kids and only 2 calls: both for emergency placements. We went back to the Twin Cities for a week, and school started. I had hoped to have kids placed with us before the school year got going. I found a sibling group of 3 adorable Hispanic girls on adoptuskids.com & clicked "inquire." A local social worker got in touch with me and said they had received permission to release our home study to the other state, which is actually pretty uncommon. DHS owns the home studies, and it's in their best interest to keep their "investment" (you) in the state. Home studies done through agencies like Bethany usually run about $5000 & the state lets you have it done for free. I was set to meet with her on Thursday to learn more about the 3 girls.


Wednesday we learned about and decided to accept a placement for 5 year old twins-a boy and a girl. It was uncommon that Dave was home in the afternoon after working the night shift, so we could spend a lot of time on the phone with their social worker and make a quick decision. We met them Wednesday, and came Thursday evening. We're taking them as a foster placement, but their social worker feels strongly that this case will go to adoption since this is their second removal from the home. I would anticipate them being with us for at least a couple of months while the legalities get sorted out and we even find out if they would be available to adopt. So for now they're just "staying with us for awhile." :)

Today I dropped them off at daycare and was pleased to see a woman from our church working in their classroom. We are hoping to get them signed up for KDG next week.

I think we're blessed to have a great social worker who has been doing this for 15 years and has supervised the kids the whole time they've been in foster care. We have a team of people helping us: a child therapist, a behavior management specialist, a parent liaison/transportation specialist (I'm sure that's her official title! hehe), the kids' social worker, our social worker, and soon we'll add teachers to that list. We really are thankful that their worker has done everything she can to get services set up for them.

Please pray for
patience and the ability to stay calm while constantly redirecting them
for the kids to feel safe here and "settle in"
fun times together & to settle into a routine

Thanks!