“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘They are for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’” Jeremiah 29:11
I went on craigslist to see if I could find some baby boy bedding for the new nursery. Imagine my surprise when the first add I looked at was for the boy bedding mentioned in this post. How could I not look into it?
By the way, I need some painters. I need to finish clearing out the old office (something I’ll have to do on my own), but then I need someone to help me paint and stuff. Any takers?
Nov 5th 2007Cindy14 & 21 & 24 & 27
My initial excitement/worry/fear/hope of the baby news has subsided and I am able to think much more clearly now. Taking a step back and looking at the situation is always helpful for me, even when it is entirely out of my control!
First off, we are assuming that there is, in fact, a pregnancy. I’m not sure when or if that can even be confirmed until biomom starts showing. So going forward with that assumption, here are the possible scenarios:
A - biomom and/or baby test positive for drugs at birth, CPS is called and custody is immediately taken
B - no drugs in system but someone alerts CPS to the fact that a baby has been born to a biomom who has had rights terminated on two other children, CPS immediately takes custody because of the risk factor
Now, assuming A or B occurs, then:
1 - us or our agency is called since we are linked to this biofamily in the CPS records because we adopted the siblings
2 - CPS overlooks the files and places baby with another family
Obviously, if A or B happens then we are praying 1 will also happen. And it should. Once custody of this child is taken away, I do know that the process that follows will be different than it was before. No services will be offered which means bio parents will have no plan to work to try and regain custody. They would be assigned a court appointed lawyer and could work with that lawyer to fight the court for custody but they’d have little or no chance of that happening.
Keep in mind that nothing has changed for the birthparents. Their situation and their circumstances are much the same as they were when the rights were originally terminated. Should they be able to prove otherwise, then they would have a chance to regain custody of the new baby. But it won’t happen. And it shouldn’t happen.
I feel for them - I really, really do. I can’t imagine the heart ache of losing a child all over again, but it’s not them I’m thinking about. I can’t think about them because they are capable of thinking of themselves. It’s the children I’m concerned for. It’s the baby growing inside her that matters now. That child is more than likely already being abused. I pray for God’s protection on that baby.
It’s an awkward and uncomfortable situation for everyone, I’m sure. But I keep thinking about the baby. That baby deserves to have someone eager for his/her arrival and already willing to prepare a place for him/her. Maybe we’ll never even meet that baby, but that’s okay. I’ll be alright with that. But if we do have another child out there that is meant to be ours, I don’t want to miss one day of loving him/her…one day of anticipating him/her.
Does that make any sense at all?
I mean, it’s crazy, really. We aren’t even absolutely positive that there is a baby at all. And even if there is, biomom could leave biodad and we’d never know what happens unless baby is born positive for drugs. And I won’t wish for that.
There is no way of knowing what the future holds; but I do know Who holds our future and that is enough for me.
YAY! After a very emotional afternoon, I went to pick the kids up from school and almost cried at Speedy’s door. Speedy’s teacher told me that “he had his best day ever!” yesterday. He listened, followed directions and did what he was supposed to do. Woo Hoo! I was so fired up! Yay, Speedy!
About this whole baby thing. Wow. ANYTHING could happen. I have no idea how far along she is or if she is even for sure pregnant. Only time will tell. I guess we may know more in a couple of weeks with GrannyJ comes back to town and sees them again. It’s a strange place to be in - knowing the possibilities and even the likelihood that this baby will enter foster care and be placed with us. If there even is a baby.
You know what I want you to do….let’s go ahead and start now, claiming Jeremiah 29:11 on behalf of this child. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘They are for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’”
It’s an odd place to be. We could have another baby. Or not. And I’m fine either way. We’ll be thrilled to welcome a new child in our home and we’ll also be thrilled with our family of four.
Oct 30th 2007Cindy21 & 23 & 24 & 27 & 7
Shock.
Excitement.
Fear.
Longing.
Uncertainty.
Hopeful.
Sick.
Thrilled.
These are just some of the things you feel when you find out that the birthmother of your children is pregnant again. Knowing that in Texas, CPS will automatically take custody of a child born to parents who have already had their parental rights terminated by the court. Knowing that the first place CPS will look to place this child is with the adoptive parents of the siblings.
Please pray for the health and safety of this unborn child.
Too tired to blog. Here are the latest pictures!
On the right, we have a chalkboard wall. On the left, we have a wall that hold magnets - it has flakes of iron in it. I’ll put a molding around each on that is painted blue and the magnetic wall will be painted over with green.
And here is another view, showing the chalkboard next to the orange. Below it is another view of the doorway, I haven’t finished the curlie q’s yet, most of them still need another coat of paint!
So now I need to hear from you. What about the window? I’ve got wooden white blinds that will be put back but I need some kind of curtain or valance or something. What do you think? Any suggestions? Click on comments at the very end of this post to leave your advice. If you need instructions, Karen G., you can click HERE for directions! THanks!
I’ve told you already how precious my husband is. One of the many things I love about him is that I know he is going to be an amazing dad. When we talk about how close we are to bringing our child(ren) home, you should see the twinkle he gets in his eyes. His face lights up a little bit and I know he’s very excited.
He has worked so hard to refinish the bed that will go in the nursery. It was the bed he slept in as a child and it means a great deal to him to have his own son or daughter use it. We’ve put the bedspread on it that I had on my bed when I was little (Holly Hobby) and we were going to use is just until we got one that matches better, but I think we’ll leave it just the way it is. There is something very endearing about having our children use things we had when we were small.
I want to pass these things on to my children. I want to have lots of traditions that our kids will always remember. More importantly than the traditions and “things” of life, I want to teach our children to honor God and to trust Him in all things. That is what I treasure most from my mom - she gave me a foundation of faith to build my life on.
Daddy-O has such a deep love for family and tradition, I know he will be great at passing these things along. He will also be a wonderful example to our children of a Godly man. He’ll be there for the soccer games and recitals and anything else that comes along. I know he won’t let life get in the way of living. He’ll be there for the important things and for the day to day things.
I think I’ve totally screwed up what I’m trying to say here. Daddy-O is going to be a great dad. That’s really all I wanted to say! 
Here are the latest pictures of the playroom. I’m getting VERY frusturated because the orange paint is not covering the blue paint and we’re going to have to do several more coats around the doorways. Killing me!
And here is the latest of the nursery:
First, this is what it is supposed to look like - it was not an accident! ha! It still needs a few coats but at least you have a better idea of what we’re doing now.
I just can’t help but post pictures along the way. It’s so much fun to see the bright colors in our playroom, i can’t wait until it is finished. We’re going to try to finish the playroom today, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to or not. Anyway, here’s the latest.
So here’s the next step - we added a very bright orange (it probably looks red in the picture) to the other walls. Again, it’s just the first coat and we haven’t framed in the corners or anything, we just couldn’t wait to see what it would look like. It’s bright.
It won’t be for everyone, but I know the kids will LOVE it! In fact, my neighbor from across the street came over to look at it with her 4 year old and the first thing he said when he walked in was, “Your room looks pretty, Cindy.” He said a few times, “I like the green walls!”
We’ve been working pretty much all day on this room and also on finishing the nursery. We had to wait until the sun went down to do more staining and that project is coming to a nice close. We should be able to complete tomorrow night, if we have the energy to work on it!
