27 diapers a day...on average!

Where do I begin. It has been almost two months since I have posted last. Theres a lot of updates, so parden my grammer and spelling mistakes! :) It has been a whirl wind of the first of the year! So here goes nothing. Hang on it gets a little bumpy! January 5th, we welcomed three new little ones to our home. The first day is always hectic, crazy, and very emotional but we managed (after we had to meet CPS on I-20 to pick them up because they had a flat). After introductions, paperwork, a snack, and a bath, they were ready for bed and so were we! The first few weeks have been a bit rough. The two younger ones seem to have a few different issues, neurological, developmental, GI, and some other things we are slowly trying to figure out. The oldest one definantly has some attachment issues. I have never delt with attachment issues before so this is new to us. We also have never delt with drug exposed baby and thats been a new experience for us too! Were managing day to day though! With 5 all in diapers we go through alot of diapers, alot of air sanitizer, and Germ-X. We only have one shoe to every pair, never a matching set of clothes, and someone always pulls the stopper out of the spill proof sippy. Life is hectic but we love it, I wouldn't change it for the world. Jeremy is getting ready to graduate (May 14th) and we will be moving on starting a new life. with new town, new people, new church, and many more new things. We are praying that God's hand is in every step we take and that we follow the path He has laid out for us.

Now what you have been waiting for- NOW Introducing: Serenity, shes a 2 1/2 year old bundle of emotions! :) She has her good day and her bad but for the most part shes pretty happy. She doesnt go ANYWHERE without a bow in her hair either!! (per her choice, FYI) She is the big sister.

Braelynn: He is, well, let just say a handful!! When he is happy he is VERY happy and when he is mad he is VERY mad! He is the middle child.

Bret: He is the baby brother! He is 7 months old and soooo very lovable. He is so happy. It took us awhile to figure out his preferred sleeping habbits but once we got them figured out he is all good now and so are we!

So there they are! Hope you enjoyed meeting them! Their permancy goal was recommended to be changed to Termination of Parental Rights by CPS and we go to court on Monday (tomorrow) to see what the judge says. Their parents are a little wild so it makes permancy conference, visits, court hearings very eventful.

Now on to Michael and Biscuit..We go to court for their Final/Termination Hearing on March 14th (7 days and 13 minutes, but who's counting!!) After the rights are terminated the parents and family have 30 days to appeal this decision. An appeal is not likely considering the department does not even have a way of contacting the parents to let them know their rights have been terminated. It is the parent's job to keep in contact with the department. After the 30 days the adoption process will begin, from that point it all depends on how eager the adoption case worker is to finish all the paperwork and get the adoption complete. We are hoping it is complete within the next 2-3 months. Mine and Jeremy's birthday are the same day in June and were thinking that would be one awesome birthday present!

Nesting.

Is it normal for foster parents to "nest"?! This is our first placement that we have not been placed in our home on the same day that we got the phone call for them. We have waited two weeks for these kiddos to come to our home. I am so excited for them to be here I can not sleep! I have "nested" more this time than any other because of all the time we have had to prepare for them. Well I guess I will update another time when there is more fun things to update you on! :)

Hectic Happy Holidays!

Well I am not sure how long it has been since I have updated here but here goes nothing, hang on, sit tight and try to make sense of the chaotic post! Just to give you an idea of how hectic are holiday are, we start holiday celebrations the weekend before Thanksgiving and we are done the weekend of New Years Eve! For 8 straight weeks we are on the go and out of town, January 7th is our first free weekend and I cant wait to sit in my jammies all day and relax at home.

Now an update on the kiddos:
Jonathan, our oldest foster kiddo left on December 2nd to a relative adoptive placement. It was a bittersweet thing, he was excited to go but I am not 100% convinced it was the best thing for him. Only time will tell. We have asked for updates with no response so, no I don't know how he is doing.

Then we were left with just Michael and Biscuit...the house was so quiet for 2 very long weeks!

On December 15th, we were blessed with two more precious boys! Isaac 3 months old and Fabian 2 years old. They made such an impact in my life. Isaac's little arm was broken and Fabian could not speak one word. I freshened up on my Spanish and Sign Language, thinking maybe he just couldn't understand me, but nope, he just looked at me like I was so silly! Isaac and Fabo's stay was very short, they went to their grandparents just 6 short days after arriving at our house! The reunification was so sweet, Fabo was so excited to see them and they were extremely thankful to us for protecting and loving them. These two were really hard to let go, I still cry when I think about them. Jeremy's grandma got Isaac a 'First Christmas Bear' and when I opened it I cried like a baby!

Isaac is a beautiful baby boy that could laugh until he had tears!

Fabo- he is a little sweetheart and his precious little smile got me every time!

My sister got me the most beautiful frame with all my kiddos in it with the words "Every Child Deserves...a Mother's Love"(picture is at the bottom of the post)--anyways I cried like a baby over this too!

Less than 24 hours after we returned the boys to their grandparents, our CM called with 3 more kiddos. We weren't sure if CPS and/or licensing would approve us but we said YES! Yes to THREE more kids, yikes! With our planned trip out of state we could not get court approval to take them with us so everyone agreed that waiting until we got back would be a better option, that being said-Serenity 2, Braylynn 18 mo, and Brett 4 mo, will be arriving at the Kirk house on January 5th! They all live in separate foster homes right now and they will all be together again. We still have Michael and Biscuit, so yes that makes 5 kids in the Kirk household and we couldn't be more excited, anxious, nervous and scared! We are in Colorado right now and are so anxious to get home to prepare the house and get all the beds, cribs, diapers (5 kids in diapers), clothes and girl stuff gathered up and then we sit and wait for them to come home!

We go to court on January 24th and hopefully the judge will give us the go ahead to proceed with the adoption of Michael and Biscuit! Say a prayer for them please!

Here's some pictures from when Santa came! The boys must have been really good!