It's been awhile...

Let's see...the quick update is that things are going pretty well. We had a rough week right after we decreased their medicine, but things seem to have leveled out. Horah! Little lady has started riding therapeutic horses, and Mr. Muscles has started gymnastics. We got invited to our first birthday party, but had a flat tire on the way there and missed most of it. Still got ice cream cake. We've bunked the beds and put away the summer clothes. Shelly has taken advantage of our distracted nature and has eaten half a pan of brownies, a Little Caesar's pizza, and a half dozen cookies...to name a few of her snatches.

The official process is getting closer. There is a pre-trial next week and the actual trial in December. Visits with their parents have been reduced to bi-weekly, but we are worried about when our social worker will make the move to tell the kids. We hope they don't have to go cold turkey...for their sake and ours.

The wetting has significantly reduced to being mostly a night time issue. Little lady does periodically still have daytime incidents, but they are much less often! Yay for less laundry!

Skype has been a lovely tool to get to "meet" family. I'm kind of bummed that we can't post pictures or include them in our Christmas letter. They seem like part of our family to us! Technically they're not though, so we just have to wait.

Gum

I feel like these kids are a piece of gum being pulled in so many different directions. If I were them, I would have snapped by now. I think I have been doing a good job of buffering a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, so these kids can have a "normal" day. A lot of you probably know, but it's pretty difficult to set up appointments at a time that's convenient for you, especially if you want to get on the schedule in the next month! I've tried hard to schedule around the school day. I'm starting to feel like I have appointments coming out my ears though, so I'm happy that I set up a couple for myself. I guess it's time for me to see the eye doctor, dentist, etc too! :) Hopefully we don't have any major meltdowns while I'm being seen and kiddos aren't getting 100% of my attention. I have to mention that at their therapy visit, we walked by the guy in the entryway who reeked of alcohol and then sat in the waiting room only to find a documentary on suicide playing on the TV. I looked around the waiting room and saw countless faces glued to images of war, jail, etc. So uplifting.



On a happier note, our pastor and his wife have graciously insisted that we go out on a date while they watch our kids, and another lady from our church came to watch TV at our house for an hour or two while we stole away to Perkins. Mom has sent a couple fun filled care packages too. And we joined the gym, where there is usually childcare available. So thankful for tangible support! We are on Skype if you want to connect that way!

Wow, 3 weeks!

We have officially passed our "longest time with kids" mark and have had them in our house for 3 weeks now! It's busy but good. Sticker charts seem to be magical. The kids like their school, and the teachers have been gracious about their special needs re: constant trips to the bathroom. I've started picking up one kid about an hour earlier than the other each day so that we can have some 1:1 time. It surprises me that they are so independent from each other even though they're twins. We recently had them start hugging each other goodnight: about as awkward as junior highers, but at least it's a start.
Just found out that their previous foster home was with a Christian family, so that is a blessing. They had lived there for about a year. Also ran into a previous foster dad at the grocery store this week. I feel it's only a matter of time until we run into their parents.
Mom came up last weekend, so Dave and I could do Bike SUX & go out for his birthday. We also got to take the kids rock climbing-fun for everyone! The boy, who I will refer to as Spiderman for the time being due to his climbing ability, is becoming my personal trainer as he continues to bike faster and make me jog faster!