The Latest Conversation with Barbara

I called Barbara yesterday to check in and see if there were any new bulletins. There were new ones, so I went today to look at them. Barbara asked if we were interested in doing respite care for 5 foster kids one day next month. I'm on the fence. 5 unknown kids all day seems like a lot and it's on a Thursday, which is game day. However, doing respite care will look good for us (demonstrating an ability to work with "special needs") and I'd genuinely like to do it. So, I'm still pondering.

There is still no committee date for Thorn. Sigh.

I picked one sibling group and four individual children for Anthony and I to ponder putting in for. One is a 12 year old named Haley who seems like a very good match. She likes being active and hopes for a younger sibling.

I really, really want Thorn's committee date, though! I don't want to keep putting my heart out there to be trampled on.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

It often seems that all we do is wait. Barbara was out of the office for training on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, meaning that I'm sure our homestudy write up is still not done. I'm guessing it won't be this week, either. I think the two hardest parts of the wait are in between knowing that you're going to committee and getting the date and then the week or so before committee. They are both hard because of the not knowing. First not knowing even when you'll find out and then not knowing if you'll be selected.

My best friend is in town visiting for 5 days, so that is a definite distraction. Yay! She just got in yesterday morning and we're having a great time, as always. Today should be even better than yesterday, as she's not bone tired anymore. Yesterday she was running on fumes, having gotten up at 4:30 east coast time and then spending a whole day here. However, she has to work some while here, so I'm catching up on email and such while she works.

Anthony surprised me with taking today and Friday off, so Chris and I are off for the day (we're on line at the library now) for lunch and a bit of used record/book shopping.

Feeling Discouraged Again

Barbara and I only communicated through messages last week. And the upshot of those messages were that it was a busy week for her and she has no new news for me. That tells me that she didn't get our refreshed homestudy write up done.

To further bum me out, Thorn is back up on the page of waiting children in Oregon. What the heck does that mean?

So, I'm feeling bummed and disappointed. No committee date and Barbara seems to be dragging her feet. Maybe things will turn around this week, but I'm not feeling that hopeful.

Monday is Here Again

I don't have much new to share in adoption news. Thorn is no longer listed on the Oregon Waiting Children's web site, although the link from the blog still works. He's on his way to committee. Yay! We still don't have a date. Barbara was out of the office on Friday and Monday is her usual day off, so tomorrow is the earliest we'd hear anything. I suspect with her being out of the office so much, she hasn't gotten our homestudy update written yet. I'm anxious for a date, so I hope that happens soon.

We had a nice weekend at home punctuated by events such as dinner with my parents, a birthday party and working on painting the loft bed in Sam's room. We keep slipping and saying Thorn's room. That's dangerous when it's not 100% yet!

Kids on the Web

Just after I posted that message, I clicked over the the Oregon Waiting Children page and discovered that Tanner has popped up there. I hope no one gets their heart set on him.

Various Updates

I spoke with Barbara both yesterday and today. Yesterday was mostly just sharing what I discussed with Thorn's foster mom. Today I called to see if there were any new bulletins. As hopeful as I am about Thorn, I need to keep going with other possibilities just in case. Otherwise, I think I'd feel even worse if it didn't work out.

There was one boy who was, sort of, added to the list today. A 7 year old named Austin. Funny story about Austin. Back when we first started looking at kids, we put in for a little boy, but committee families had already been selected for him. His case worker, though, after looking at our homestudy, said that she thought we'd be good matches for a boy named Austin about whom she was going to release a bulletin. So, she sent the pre-bulletin (no picture) to Barbara for us to look at. We were quite interested. He seemed like a good match. Over the course of months and months, Barbara tried to get more information, but to almost no avail. She did have one phone conversation with his case worker, which was relayed to us, but that was it. We finally gave up. Then, today, all of a sudden, there he is with a real live bulletin (which is a little different from the first one we were sent). So, we're putting in for him again (sort of).

Barbara also told me that Tanner, the boy who's foster mom we spoke with a couple of weeks ago, is not moving toward committee at this time, after all. There was just a trial for him/his mom and it turns out that Mom is making progress in her treatment. It had been previously expected that she would relinquish rights voluntarily, but now it looks like he'll probably be returned to her at some point. I hope that works out for him. If bio parents can get their act together, I do think it's best for the child. It's a big if, though.

I'm not feeling too disheartened about that, though, because I'm still feeling really hopeful about Thorn. I asked Barbara today when we might expect to have committee for Thorn. She said that his committee will be held here in the Portland area, which means it might be scheduled quickly. She said that the scheduler is waiting for two paperwork items, which are our updated homestudy (get on it, Barbara!) and Thorn's updated adoption child summary (which is done, so I don't know why the scheduler doesn't have it). Barbara speculated that his committee might be as soon as a few weeks.

Another Foster Mom Phone Call

We got the green light to call Thorn's foster mom on Friday. We left that afternoon to camp up at Mt St Helen's for the weekend with my parents and, so, weren't able to call her until this afternoon when we got back.

We had a long, very informative and postive conversation. I've been left reeling from it this afternoon, in fact. It was one comment in particular that has me in a spin. She said that Thorn's case worker told her, "The Gresham family is ready to go so now we can set committee." The Gresham family is us, folks. Thorn's case worker has been waiting for us to set committee, even though it seems that there were enough families before. Apparently, the other families are out of state. Thorn is local to us and I know they'd like to keep him near his current foster family (with whom he is very attached).

What's really annoying about this is that we said we wanted to proceed with Thorn months ago, but Barbara wanted us to wait for his most current evaluation at CDRC.

What's great about it, though, is that Thorn's case worker is so excited about us as a match that she didn't schedule committee until we were ready (or, more accurately, Barbara was ready).

I'm trying hard not to get set on the idea, as it's so crushing to be dissapointed at committee, but I'm a hopeful person today! It seems like this might really be the one.

Interesting 24 Hours or So

Yesterday morning, as Davan and I are leaving to go for a walk around our nearby park, Davan decided to go back in to get a scarf for warmth. While I was waiting, I decided to finally harvest the 5 delicious looking apples in our dwarf apple tree. There were a total of 10 apples - 5 nice looking ones and 5 not so nice looking ones. The 5 nice looking ones were on a limb which hangs down very close to our fence. Well, guess what? Some passerby decided to help themselves to our 5 nice apples! They had still been there just the day before. I was quite annoyed, as I'd shopped for fruit this week with a plan of using those apples. Grr.

After our walk, I came home to a message from Barbara saying that there was a 2 year old boy with committee scheduled for Thursday who had a family back out. She asked if I'd be interested in coming in and taking a look. I was really excited about this, but the fact that he's 2 did give me pause. Davan and I went in to look at his bulletin. He's a very cute little boy with what sounds like a great personality. Unfortunately, though, he has global delays probably due to his mother's phycotropic drugs. We got all the information we could on this little cutie and I ended up feeling conflicted about him. Anthony really felt like we should say no, though, so that was that. I called Barbara this morning to let her know. She was thinking it wasn't a good placement herself (but she almost always does), so the news was taken well. In fact, I think she wasn't looking forward to the work that a yes would mean - preparing for committee tomorrow.

We also found out yesterday that Judea, who is a little boy we were scheduled to go to committee for back in March or so, is having committee set again now. We were all scheduled to go, but then committee was canceled so that a biological placement could be explored. Well, that didn't pan out (although they spent long enough deciding that!) and now his case worker wants to know if we're still interested. We are! So, we should be getting updated information on him soon.

Barbara and I also had a long discussion about Tanner, whom she still seems to be against. She's come up with more questions for his case worker. She's been right in the past, but I don't think she is this time. I'm hoping to move forward with him.

Meanwhile, Davan and I have been to the Children's Museum twice in the last two days, as we have the pass out from the library and she hasn't gotten one stretch that's long enough for her. In theory, we could go tomorrow morning, too, but I'm feeling like I don't really want to do the drive again.

Also, Barbara told me that this month is the month to do an updated homestudy for us. I'm less than thrilled about this, as I'd hoped to have a placement before updating needed to be done. Sigh. We're working on scheduling a time for that.

Start Up the Roller Coaster

We're getting back on ye 'ol horse, to mix my metaphors. Yesterday, Anthony and I called Tanner's foster mom and had a good talk. Tanner is a 6 year old boy whom I believe I've mentioned before. We started getting information on him around the same time as Chance. However, the information on Tanner sort of petered out. Last week, I reminded Barbara that we still wanted to speak with Tanner's foster mom and, on Friday, she gave us her number.

It was a good, informative talk and I we are interested in progressing with Tanner at this point. So, here we go again.

Meanwhile, we also got a new set of information on Thorn from a recent new evaluation that was done on him. Sadly, although it was overall good news for Thorn and his progress, there was one thing that gave me pause. He only sleeps 6 hours a night! I need a lot more sleep than that! So, I have to say I'm feeling iffy this evening about if he's a good match. It was suggested (by one of his evaluators) that he have sleep therapy, so, perhaps with that he'll learn to sleep longer. Maybe it's too harsh to say no based on that. However, it certainly gives me pause.

And, life goes on in other arenas. My parents are in town this weekend. Technically, they live here, but they travel a lot. My mom particularly travels a lot, as she travels for work. We got together with them yesterday to see their new Sprinter RV, share a meal and see pictures of the trip my step dad took in the van, getting it home.

Not Chosen

We were not chosen for Chance. I'm very sad. We'd both thought that this was going to be the one, as Barbara had spent so much time preparing with us and we'd had such a favorable conversation with his foster mom.

Of course, there are other children we're somewhere along the process with, but I'm not feeling optimistic tonight.

Waiting Mode Again

It's less than a week until we have committee for Chance. We're waiting and trying not to get too involved in the thoughts of him being our son.

We're still pursuing other children, as well. We'd put in for Joe, but, unfortunatly, had to withdraw when we got more information. We've also inquired about Steven, but haven't heard anything there. Perhaps it's the homeschool prejudice in that situation, as kids who are on the web are usually the ones having a harder time being placed. Today we also decided to put in for another 11 year old, Tyler. And, we're still in the game for Thorn.

So, if it doesn't happen with Chance, we're in the thick of other options. It'll be hard, though, to not be chosen again. Although, I'm pretty steeled for it.

Another Week Has Gone By

I've been trying to not spend so much time on the computer, and, thus, have not been posting very often. We've been busy with life, but first, there is adoption news.

We are scheduled to go to committee for Chance on the 27th - just over a week away. I'm doing my usual balancing act of trying not to put too much emotionally into this event, while also preparing mentally somewhat. It's a hard tightrope to walk.

We didn't go out of town this weekend, but had a busy one anyway. Davan, Anthony and I hiked to Ramona Falls with my mom. It's a bit over 6 miles round trip and a lovely hike. Pretty moderate with lots of nice scenery. The falls are really pretty.

We came home to soup I had going in the crockpot and the taped season premier of Survivor to watch together. After dinner and the show, Davan and my mom took off for a sleepover at my mom's. Anthony and I had a dessert date and then watched a movie.

Before Davan returned in the morning, Anthony and I hiked up to Angel's Rest in the Columbia Gorge, which was really nice. It's 2.6 miles each way and a pretty steep climb. My legs are a little sore today.

Then it was time to tidy up the house and welcome Davan home before our session of Dungeons and Dragons.

Meanwhile, we've been getting back into the swing of Girl Scouts, book group and various things that start up with the beginning of the school year, while also continuing with the regular Thursday game days, play dates, orthodontia, camping, in-laws over for dinner and such.

We're debating another camping trip this weekend, but we haven't decided for sure yet. Davan and I are definitely going next week, though, with friends to Beverly Beach.

All of this should help us pass the time until the evening of the 27th....(committee is in the evening this time).

Standing in the Mud - Adoption Wise

I spoke with Barbara today for the first time in two weeks. Last week we were so busy that I didn't call her and, of course, she didn't call me, either. Today she told me that she's been very busy working on an emergency situation.

Anyway, there's still no set date for Chance's committee. I guess that means it won't be next week. This is the standing in the mud part. It seems like we're always stuggling through mud with this process. Sometimes we make progress and move forward. Other times we can't even pick up our feet. Then there are the times we slip, fall and slide back a bit. Right now I feel like we're just standing in the mud.

Barbara did have some new news on Thorn. I'm excited about this, as it means we might go to committee for him soon. He's had his newest evaluation and, while Barbara didn't finish relaying all of the information to us, nothing sounds off-putting. She's supposed to call back later today to finish telling me his lastest. Of course, now that he sounds more "normal" he might have more interest. We'll see.

Meanwhile, we had a quick turn around from our Labor Day weekend backpacking trip to going camping again this last weekend. Anthony had Friday off, so we left town Thursday evening and drove to Beverly Beach. It's a very different experience, car camping at a large state park. We had a very good time, but it was odd being around so many people. Loud, for one.

This trip was developed from two seeds - one was Davan's desire to cook over the fire and the other was all of our desires to go to the beach at least once this summer. We did a lot of both. We got in late-ish on Thursday, set up the tent, and walked down to look at the beach in the growing dusk.

On Friday, we spent a good 4.5 hours playing on the beach - playing with the sand, playing in the waves (for me on my body board) and such. The weather was very nice, if a tad cool, but it's the Oregon coast, so that's to be expected.

Both Friday and Saturday night saw us for hours around the campfire, cooking, eating and chatting. Meals lasted a long time, as everything was cooked with the fire. We had corn on the cob, roasted beats, roasted carrots, biscuits on a stick, Johnsonville Brats for Anthony, "chicken" strips for Davan and I and s'mores. We discovered that none of us are big fans of marshmallows anymore, so we played with them in the fire the second night to finish off the bag. That was fun, too.

We were back on the beach for the majority of Saturday, after taking a morning's trip to see the Devil's Punchbowl and to just a wee little bit of tidepooling (not great pools and the tide was coming it). It was cloudy and foggy most of Saturday on the beach, but no cooler than it had been on Friday, really. When the clouds finally burned off in the late afternoon, the wind picked up and it felt quite nippy. We flew kites in the afternoon and Davan decided she wanted to buy a cool kite for herself.

Sunday morning was our last hurrah for cooking over the campfire. We toasted our bagels. Then we were off to nearby Yaquina Head for some quite nice tidepooling (except for the flies - there were a ton of them!) and a tour of the lighthouse, which was pretty neat.

After going back to the camp site to pack up, we headed up to Lincoln City for lunch at Mo's and kite shopping. Davan found a parrot kite and we did some more kite flying before heading home at 4pm.

We all really enjoyed ourselves. While we're taking the weekend off from camping this weekend (we have Dungeons and Dragons on Sunday and are planning a day hike with my mom), we're thinking of camping again the weekend after. Davan and I are also joining in on a homeschool camping trip which is happening the last week of September for a couple of days. It's back to Beverly Beach for that trip, which is a good thing. Davan said to me, as we were packing up, "I'd sure like to visit an aquarium sometime." So, going to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport will be a must do on that trip.

Another Great Weekend

We went backpacking this weekend. It was a three day trip. We left Saturday and came home Monday. Our anniversary (12 years) was on Sunday. We've made it a tradition (more or less, we've missed some years) to do some sort of trip on our anniversary. We were trying to remember all of them that we've done, but came up more than a few years short. I guess those years weren't very memorable.

Some of the ones we did remember, though, were a 5 day backpacking trip around Mt Hood, which we did with friends and didn't even share a tent with each other! We also had a weekend away at Skimania Lodge. There were two other years that we did 3 day backpacking trips. The year I was pregnant with Davan, we took a road trip to Colorado and back, with lots of sight seeing both ways. For our 10 year anniversary, we took a cruise. One year we went to the beach for the weekend (just Anthony and I - the only anniversary after Davan was born that we were alone). The only other year we remember is our first one with Davan. She was 7 months old and we just went to a park for a picnic dinner. She was in a bad mood and the whole affair was pretty miserable. Ah well, most of them have been good - at least that we can remember!

We went on a new (to us) trip this weekend. We'd been planning on going to Elk Meadows on Mt Hood, which is an old favorite. We've done several times. When we do it, we camp the first night at Elk Meadows and the second near a river alone the Mt Hood loop trail, then back to the car.

However, this year Elk Meadows has been closed to the public due to fire fighting operations being staged there for the fire that was burning on the east side of Mt Hood. So, we regrouped and picked a new location. We decided to do a loop that involves Pansy Lake. Now, the Pansy Lake hike is only a wee bit over a mile and not a lot of elevation gain. Not that there isn't any, but there is only one switch back between the trail head and the lake. Of course, we couldn't just do that! No, we needed a challenge.

We figured out a loop that was about 5 miles the first day, 4 or so the second and only the mile out of Pansy Lake the third. Now, that first day, our 5 miles took us past the lookout tower for the area. You may be clever and have already figured out that lookout towers are generally in the highest accessible spot around by definition. Yup - we hiked a difficult 3 miles up to the lookout tower and then dropped down, down, down some serious switchbacks (causing us worry about the next day) to Big Slide Lake, where we camped the first night.

Big Slide Lake was really pretty and would be a nice lake to swim in, but we didn't get there until the sun was already below the ridge and were concerned about getting back up all of those serious switchbacks the next day before it got too hot, so we never did swim. I'd like to go back and get there earlier or just stay there for a day sometime.

The second day was up the switchback day. It turned out to be doable, but definitely hard work! Davan did great with it, even though we'd loaded up her pack much more this year. I was usually a switchback behind her and Anthony. I, obviously, need to do more hills when I walk!

However, Davan didn't do so great on the down part of the day. Once we made the ridge, we dropped back down into the next valley, where Pansy Lake is located. Davan had a heck of a time with the downhill and was very worried about her footing and staying upright in general. It was amazing because she'd gone down all of those switchbacks the day before like a little mountain goat. Ah well, I guess we all have our off days.

Pansy Lake was okay, but not a good lake to swim in, as I don't think it ever got deeper than about 2 feet and was very mucky on the bottom.

When we got into Pansy Lake, we passed an occupied camp ground (mind you, this is only 1 mile from the trail head) with people who had a roaring fire (illegal in the back country right now) and a cooler full of beer. After another family showed up to camp, this group packed up and left. Had they planned on leaving anyway? We don't know.

What sucked, though, was that they left about 10 cleaned fish to rot in the outlet stream that went by their camp site and tons of trash in the form of food cans, beer cans and the like. We policed up their camp site. At least, we mostly did. There were more cans than fit in our trash bags, even when we crushed the cans.

We had a leisurely morning on Monday and then hiked the mile out. We got to the car at 11:30. Overall, it was a very nice trip.

There's no new big news on the adoption front. We do know that committee for Chance is supposed to happen the third week of September, but still don't have a set date. We're still collecting information on Tanner. Last week we did pick four new bulletins (3 single children and 1 set of siblings) to inquire about.

The kids are all boys in this new group. There are two five year olds, an 11 year old and the brothers are 5 and 7.

Interesting Information from a New Contact

I was given contact information for a woman who used to work with the Special Adoption coalition here in Oregon as a resource for information about adoption from foster care and to address my concerns over feeling like we've been waiting a long time. She called me on Monday and we had an interesting conversation.

She answered several of my questions with honesty. I asked her if homeschooling was a strike against us. She said that, yes, about half of the case workers out there will turn us aside just because we homeschool. We'd suspected that was true, but hadn't had it confirmed.

She told me that 2 years from when the homestudy is complete is the average wait to be matched with a child unless you're willing to take on the more serious issues of the children who are harder to place.

She said that it was just criminal that we told that we can't adopt from out of state. This is sad to me, as there was a boy who was available in Washington when we first completed our homestudy who seemed like a great match for us. He waited for quite a while.

She told me that we should watch the Northwest Adoption Exchange website, as those kids are really being recruited for. I told her that we do and have put in for many kids from the site, but haven't been selected for them. That's actually when I brought up the homeschooling issue.

After finding out what parameters of children we were interested in, she told us about this great 12 year old who'd just become available. I said, "It sounds like Savanna who had an overwhelming response and we weren't chosen for her." It was. She was surprised about the response.

She suggested that we call up the Boys and Girls Aid Society, as they have a really good feel for which children are having a hard time being placed and will share who's really in need of a home with us. So, that was a good tip.

She also told me that Barbara is an excellent case worker. Thus letting me know that we should stick with who we have, even though thoughts of asking for another case worker has occurred to us from time to time.

It was sort of both encouraging and discouraging. It was good to have the honest response.

I also spoke briefly with Barbara today. It's good that I called her, as she seemed to have missed the questions we had about Tanner that I left on her voice mail on Friday. She said she'd look into if she'd passed on our questions or not and call me back, but when she hadn't called back in over an hour, I got online for a while and then left home and haven't heard back. No new information from her.

By the way, one of the children we put in for and were told that we weren't a good match for, is Shyloe. We were bummed because we'd felt particularly drawn to him. I just looked at his picture and felt a connection. Plus, his issues seemed like ones we could deal with.

Excellent Weekend

We had a week with not a ton of progress, adoption wise, last week. Apparently, we're on for going to committee with Chance, but we don't have a date yet.

We found out that 2 kids we put in for are "not good matches" with us according to their case workers. Now that I know, from Chance's foster mom, what some of the other prospective adopters "look" like, I wonder what prejudices the case workers have that make us "not a good match". I felt like we were good matches for both of them, but perhaps there are things about them that I don't know which make the difference.

One child, one of the aforementioned babies, has already been adopted and his bulletin just hasn't been pulled yet.

We're an alternate for two sisters who have a scheduled committee, but with one family slated for another committee before it happens.

We got an adoption child summary on Tanner, who is 6. We felt his summary was a little shy on details, so we asked some questions and we'll see.

We had a great three day weekend this weekend. Anthony is supposed to get every other Friday off, but hasn't in a little over a month. He got his Friday (after going in to work on Sunday and working late on Wednesday this week), so we finally got in our three day bike camping trip.

We went up Mt Hood a ways to camp at Lost Creek Campground. It was 40 miles away. Actually, we camped there the first night and then back-country (free) camped the second night. Both nights were nice, but the second was much quieter and more scenic.

We only got in about 4 miles on Saturday during the camp switch plus a very short ride. We did some mild hiking on Saturday, but were limited by our shoes - bike shoes and sandals - neither great for hiking.

We rode 41 miles home today, with three pit stops - one for lunch, one for water and bathroom usage and one to say hi to Anthony's mom, sister and sister's family, who's house was on the way home. We rode home over a section of what used to be the Oregon Trail called The Devil's Backbone. Lots of hills! It was a fun ride, though. I was pleased with my performance up the hills (slow, but I got up every one without fuss) and loved the down hills.

Davan says we should do some sort of camping every weekend.

Friday's Conversation with Barbara

I called Barbara Friday to let her know that we'd spoken with Chance's foster mother and to relay the conversation to her, as she'd asked me to. She let me know that Chance's case worker was out of the office this week. I was really glad to hear this, as I'd been bummed by how much time everything was taking and worried about being passed over because of it. So, we should hear from Chance's case worker this coming week and find out about committee, maybe.

We had a busy day today, all planned by Davan. She's been planning this day for over a month and had allowance from much longer than that saved up. She had me take her out yesterday to buy some berries and organic chocolate bars. We also picked blackberries to have.

This morning, we got up to find the living room set up with a bunch of different games for us to play. We played several, packed up the chocolate, berries and a few pb&js then went out to breakfast (this is the one thing that Anthony and I paid for - Davan had originally planned breakfast at home).

After breakfast, we drove to Safari Sam's, which is an indoor jungle gym and mini golf place about an hour from our house. Davan paid for her admission (adults are free with a child) and mini golf for all three of us. We played there for about 4 hours with one break for some berries, a chocolate bar and water. We ended up not eating the pb&js because we had breakfast so late.

Then we drove back to our part of town where Davan treated us out to dinner at a local semi-fast food Chinese restaurant. After dinner, we came home to play another game, then take turns getting massages from Davan while the other person read out of our family book. When our massages were done, we strolled over to TCBY and Davan treated us each to a small dish. Then home and to bed.

It was a lovely day and it felt like a mini-vacation, as it so different from our usual day. Once a week is about the most frequent that we eat out (often not even that much), so twice in one day and out for TCBY, as well was something. Today was also only Davan's second ever Safari Sam's trip, as they are not close to us. We all enjoyed playing there, though, and got a good work out.

Conversation with Chance's Foster Mom

Anthony and I spoke with Chance's foster mom this evening. She seemed like a very nice lady. She had a lot of information for us about Chance. Most of it was not new, but it was good to hear it from her rather than through Barbara, who, while she had the gist of things, was off in some detail.

I think the conversation went well. She seemed fairly pleased by the sorts of things we said. She related that she'd had several strange calls regarding Chance. One couple was in their 50's and she couldn't believe they were being considered for Chance, as he's only 3. The husband in this couple travels for days at a time for work, as well. She felt this was a bad match for Chance, as he's really attached to his foster father (and she believes will attach to his adoptive father strongly, as well).

The other strange phone call was from a lady who wanted to know if Chance could be a lawyer when he grew up as her husband is a lawyer. Are you kidding me?!?!?! What kind of bizarre person would as that. I think it was this same lady who asked if Chance could be trained. His foster mother said, "He's not a dog."

Weird. If this is the sort of thing that's out there, why aren't we the cream of the crop adoptively speaking? Of course, people might think we're bizarre for homeschooling, even though I think that's a positive thing.

Chance sounds like a funny and interesting child. He sounds like he has his ups and downs like all kids and I'm excited about the possibility of committee.

Chance's Update

Barbara called this morning and I, obligingly, moved appointments so that I could speak with her when she called. Then she tells me that she did actually talk to Chance's foster mom on Tuesday and just hadn't gotten around to calling me back. Grr!!!! That just really ticks me off.

Anyway, the good part is that, after hearing what Chance's foster mother said, I feel like Chance would be a good match here. I don't feel overwhelmed with his issues. So, we told Barbara we wanted to move forward with committee. Hopefully, we'll hear back soon that that is what's happening and have a date.

Barbara did also give us Chance's foster mother's phone number, so I'll call her and speak with her about Chance. I don't feel like I have a lot of questions for her because I already passed my questions on, but it's helpful to talk to people who live with the child to get a more first hand feel for them. Plus, if you have the opportunity to call and don't, that can count against you with committee.

My Racing Mind

So, I'm lying in bed last night, unable to sleep. My mind is racing. What's the pressing issue? How we'll transition Chance. For crying out loud. We don't even know if we're going to committee for sure yet, but I just couldn't stop thinking about it.

He's about 3 and a half hours away from us with his foster family. He's pretty attached, so there should be a decent transition. I'm thinking, will we have to go there two weekends in a row? What if that's not enough? How would we be able to work out going there for a week? Maybe if we take along another person who can be with Davan when we need to see Chance one on one. Who can come with us for a week? Around and around and around.