Long Time

It has been a long while since I have even logged onto this site.  I guess I needed a break from this all.  However, I have missed having a journal type space to write down thoughts.  I even considered buying myself an actual journal to dialogue in, but it is so much quicker and easier to type than it is to write.  Given that my three little ones keep me so busy, I don't always have the greatest amount of free time for that sort of thing.  : )

Let me try to update on the boys and our family in a general manner to kind of catch us all up to speed...

**Birth dad never showed for either of the visits he scheduled to see David.  I showed up with the baby as well as my caseworker, but the birth dad never came...he didn't even bother to call the second time.  My worker called him once he was ten minutes late.

**We filed for DeFacto parent status for David and were granted it towards the end of December.  This allows us access to what takes place at court and also gives us a preferential treatment as far as adoption and everything else goes.

**The .26 hearing (termination of parental rights hearing) for David took place this month.  Parental rights were terminated.  Now we have to wait out the appeal period.  About mid-March, we should be able to sign intent to adopt paperwork and get an adoption date scheduled with the court.

**We have been to the snow twice this year as a family (well...technically once last year and once this year).  We went up Christmas Eve morning for a snowshoe trip and then on New Year's Day just to play in the snow.

**We have been on one hike as a family this year so far.  One lesson I learned is David is going to need to start being carried in a backpack carrier for hikes.  He is getting too heavy to lug around in the Bjorn.

**We have found a system that seems to work well for getting Sam to fall asleep (both at nap and bedtime).  Basically we allow him to take some books to bed with him and leave the light on, so he can read them to himself.  He usually falls asleep with a book open across his lap.  It is pretty adorable.

**David was starting to sleep through the night before he got his most recent cold.  He is not fully recovered yet, but I am getting up at least once a night with him at the moment.  Hopefully once he is back to normal, he will return to sleeping through the night.  David does, however, fall asleep on his own without having to be rocked all the way to sleep.

**James has recently started to learn how to kick and use his arms while swimming.  He really enjoys his swim lessons, and often I have to drag him out of the pool when his class time is over.

**In January we had visits with both James' and David's older adopted siblings as well as a couple visits with Sam's older adopted brother (the one we used  to have court ordered visits with).  I will try to do a separate post on those visits at a later time. 

**The adoption support group we started at our church seems to finally be gathering a core group of members who come regularly.  This may also be a separate post later.

There is plenty more that has happened, but I will leave it at this for now and will try to post more regularly to update on life and whatever things come up in the future.