blogroll

i have been added to the Stirrup Queen's Completely Anal List of Blogs That Proves That She Really Missed Her Calling as a personal organizer.
http://www.stirrup-queens.com/a-whole-lot-of-blogging-brought-to-you-sorted-and-filed/
this is a great resource for those hurting from baby loss, infertility, those fostering or adopting etc. please go check it out.

a sweet sweet little girl needs a home

baby Maeve has lost her family. you can read about our family and her here
she is back to waiting for a mama and a papa to claim her my heart is broken and i can't stop crying. please pray hard for her parents to find her!
go here if you think you might be her family!

they have a very short time to raise a lot of money!

this lovely family (who i have become quite attached to reading about) is nearing the end of their adoption journey of two sweet baby girls with Down's syndrome from Eastern Europe. they are inches away from holding those little girls in their arms, and keeping them from a life in a mental institution...however they are still 10,000$ away from the amount they need to complete their adoption. At this point, if God doesn't step in and do something big they will loose those little girls, and those little girls will lose them.

i don't know what , if anything you can offer to help- but if there ever was a moment when money could fix a lot of hurt, this is it.
please go here
the Parkers

faces like these

take a look at these beautiful babies- in their home countries they will be shipped to mental institutions at the tender age of 4. All of these sweet babies have down syndrome and are available for adoption. consider opening your heart!
go here to learn more about these little ones, or explore Reece's Rainbow to learn about so many other cuties!!

for those interested in adopting

i just read this about the adoption tax credit!


> For 2010, the maximum credit is increased to $13,170 per eligible child.
This applies to all adoptions, special needs or not. In addition, the credit is
now refundable, meaning that families can actually receive the full tax credit
in the form of a refund, even if they owe zero taxes. The adoption tax credit
increase was scheduled to terminate at the end of 2010, but is now extended to
the end of 2011.

who ho!

Please Hear Me Someone.,....

i have posted about this before..but never get much response, which saddens me. this is something near and dear to my heart.
Children with special needs born in countries such as Russia, Seria, and Ukraine... These children are born into a society with NO support services (ECI, medical care, therapy)There parents are encouraged to put them into orphanages at birth. They spend the next 3-5 years there- which if you know anything about international adoption from these countries, you would know is nothing short of a sad sad childhood. After 3- they age out of these "baby houses" and are moved to mental institutions where the spend the rest of their lives.. If they survive, there lives are nothing but neglect. please watch this video, but keep kleenex handy..


It is that bad people.

so maybe you are reading this thinking that " that is sad and all, but we can't/don't want to adopt for XYZ reason...."
fine i get that..adoption is not for everyone. adopting a child with special needs is not for everyone. But if you call yourself a Christian you are called to provide for and protect widows and orphans in their distress
these orphans are in distress, no doubt. and there are people trying to adopt them, give them new lives in FAMILIES who LOVE them! PLEASE PLEASE go here
to sponsor a committed family
or here
to sponsor a specific child

Reece's Rainbow is an adoption ministry (not an agency) that help these children get into homes... 100% of your donation is tax deductible and goes entirely to the child's adoption costs.

and please respond to this post- i want to know if anyone cares that i am posting this....

here is the family i am sponsoring right now, and i have sponsored several children in the last two years. i put my money where my mouth is..do you?

that time of year again !

it's getting close to Christmas again, time for giving ! If you are looking for somewhere worthwhile to give your money- PLEASE PLEASE consider sponsoring a child through Reese's Rainbow-
this ministry is one that speaks to my heart so profoundly. The money you give to sponser a child goes strait into their adoptive parents' adoption funds. 100 % is going towards bringing these young children with Down's syndrome home to their waiting families.
Did you know that these children are really on borrowed time?If not adopted by age 4 they are sent into mental institutions for the rest of their lives. If their family can't bring them home in time, they will never have a home...
watch this video to see some of the faces of these waiting children and follow the link on the right side of my blog to go the site and pick a child (or children) to sponsor this season!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

adoption party

we had an adoption party on Sat, which rocked! my house was packed and there were cars all the way down the street.It was wonderful to feel all that love and support! It is slowly sinking in that Ruby is ours FOREVER...
It is a great feeling to know we don't have to deal with CPS ever again if we don't want to. However we have batted back and forth the idea of continuing to foster (babies only) for this pregnancy. we will see!

i am considering making my blog public again. i find i have way less motivation to post knowing that a large percentage of my readership can't read my blog. i haven't had a visitor from my blog-stalker in a few weeks and i have no teens in my house to be concerned about....what do you guys think???

Ruby Claire Paparella !

jan 08

easter






ADOPTION DAY!!

ADOPTIVE PLACEMENT

we are doing adoptive placement of Ruby on WEDNESDAY!!! Then we just have to get our lawyer to do the rest!!!! i am browsing adoption announcements online and crying, i am so thrilled!!!!

2nd times a charm

i posted this whole post earlier, but it didn't work!

i got a call at 3pm today telling us that a great aunt and uncle of Ruby (sweetpea) have decided to hire a lawyer and intervene in the case to get custody. MY JAW HIT THE FLOOR. there is 9 days left in the mandatory 3 month waiting period following termination. 9 days from now we would have been home free... Ruby's GAL dosn't think they have grounds to intervene (seeing as they have never even MET her)..but we will see. bad part is they are foster parents .. in our city... apparently they are saying they didn't intervene before because they had kids in the home already (dont now?) and they thought she was going to paternal grama. But i don't know how that excuses never trying to meet her. i think they are selfish. i would never rip a baby away from its home at 15 months old. that is disgustingly selfish.
and of course the bomb gets dropped on friday, after our attorney's office closes. i can;t DO anything ..well that's not true, because i am lifting this up to the Lord, and he is mighty to save!!!


i life my eyes unto the hills, but where does my help come from? my help comes from the Lorn, maker of heaven and earth.

Phone call!

r

Both parent's parental rights are terminated!!
PRAISE THE LORD!

read this post

it's a dad's perspective on special needs adoption- i found it very engaging :
here

news

no news on if the judge has terminated, BUT CPS has stopped all visits with grama and dad! WHOHO!

and on other news we will be meeting a young lady (16) and her 2 week old daughter tomorrow (hopefully) to see if they might be a match for our home....

peace and other emotions

now, I am going to try to encapsulate the emotions and thoughts that have been going through me over the last few days, so bear with me if this post rambles a bit...
I want sweetpea, no doubt..want her with a dry ache. But with this constant want inside, my prayers are rarely that. I have always prayed for God's will, and thrown in a few "but if you wouldn't mind..." 's for good measure-
Over the last few days i have been thinking so much about Abraham and Isaac and about Job. i have been thinking about sacrifices God calls us to make. I have never felt a for-sureness about sweetpea's potential for permanency in our family. I don't know if God wants her here for keeps, I don't know if God wants to take her away, for other better plans. What's hard is the longer this goes on the more my own wants cloud out what God may want or call me to do...and i think how Abraham waited for 100 years for Isaac, only to be called to give him back to the Lord. And then , after Abraham obeyed without complaint, God provided a substitute for his sacrifice. and then i keep thinking of this verse
luke 12:48
Much will be required from everyone to whom much has been given. But even more will be demanded from the one to whom much has been entrusted.
and also of something someone told me about months ago, which i later found here-
woman who lost her baby right after birth writes this:
"Job said it best in the wake of losing all he valued on earth: “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” That conveys our feelings better than anything we could say. The Lord gave us Priya, and He has chosen by His gracious will to take her away. Blessed be his Name. Her life was an undeserved gift to us. We wouldn’t trade one moment of the seven months we had with her. And we praise God for it from beginning to end. We don’t know the reason why she was taken, but we know the God who made the decision. And he is enough for us. He is our glory and strength. We want to praise Him right now as the God of all grace and comfort. He has been our truest and most constant companion in the midst of all this."



I have been thinking that is Sweetpea stays, it will be a miracle, worth rejoicing and praising- a testament of God's goodness...But, if she leaves won't it still be a testament to God's goodness? He is still holy. no matter what the circumstances. and i do KNOW that Sweetpea will know the Lord. she has been marked by God from countless people's prayers over her for her whole life now-
I remember i wanted to foster because it broke my heart that there were children floating around among us who no one cared about, no one prayed for. Just drifting... ANd here i have this baby lathered in prayer, and i know that God is good, and God cares for Sweetpea. And, even if she goes i will be praising God for letting me do his will...

the wheels of justice...

move slow in Williamson County. sigh...so i was at court for almost 8 hours today- and the worst part was i had to sit in the HALLWAY for almost the whole thing- all witnesses had to be out of the court room and i was supposed to be a witness, then at almost the end they decided they did not need me-
so everything i know came second hand- the dad and grama "dug themselves holes" according to my caseworker, my friend, and sweetpea's attorney. according to the attorney CPS will no longer be considering Grama as a potential placement. the judge did not rule- he felt he did not have enough to terminate on mom, so he was going to review some case law and then reach his decision. he will then mail a letter to all the attorneys who will then (hopefully in a timely manner) inform me!
Part of me is very sad about not having a final decision today- part of me is worried about the nightmare that will ensue if mom's rights are NOT terminated- and part of me is excited that it looks like us adopting is the most likely scenario.

first stitches

in a family of our size (especially with 3 boys!) one would expect i have seen a few sets of stitches, maybe a few broken bones, but i have not- not once!
last night after bath Lucca was running, chasing the puppies -totally breaking rule #1 by running in the house and she slipped on a mat on the entryway tile and caught her fall with her poor little chin! :(
two hours and four stitches later she was back home and in bed. and guess what day i have to go back to get her stitches out? well, Monday of course! (same day as court)
and speaking of court- the GAL called yesterday and said that the only thing judge should be deciding in termination of parental placement- she said they would need to set another court day to determine placement (because CPS wants her with Grama and GAL wants her with me). so more waiting of a-yet-to-be-determined timeframe...sigh

mediation

i talked to sweetpea's GAL at about 11 am yesterday- she told me CPS wanted parents to volunteeraly give up rights to Grama to adopt- the GAL said heck NO , she did NOT approve of moving her (there or anywhere). she told me they were still deliberating and she would call me back- i waited ALL DAY LONg, no call. so i called her this morning and got her secretary who said they had not reached any agreement and it would have to be deided by the judge on monday. SO the wait continues... and we have NO IDEA what Monday will bring- so i could certainly use some massive prayer before and during court (9am)- thank you :)

homestudy turned in

sweetpea's worker received Grama's homestudy back, and was kind enough to forward it to me- they are still waiting on talking to her other grown children, but the homestudy is pretty good. defiantly CPS good at least. my heart is breaking because i can see Grama as a woman who wants her granddaughter.
whenever I can slip into seeing things more black white it is easier, so naturally the opposite (muddied greys) are much harder...

doing the happy dance

i talked with sweetpea's attorney today and she said she is NOT going to be recommending that sweetpea move to gramas- she does not feel grama has made enough effort or has the ability to keep sweetpea safe from dad.
so, we still have to wait to see what happens in court, but the attorney is FOR her staying with us!!!!
:)