Foster Failures

Another addition to our growing family was a Chevy Suburban, my dream ride : ) I have wanted a Suburban for a few years and always make a point of renting one on business trips. We drove "Burban," as I have named her, to Ft. Myers, Florida for Thanksgiving with our finally-healthy, and wonderful foster Dane Paisley, Sierra, Quay and Rainey. When God invented mounted DVD players for vehicles, He sure knew what He was doing. What...God didn't invent those? Well, they were divinely inspired.

The trip was wonderful. My in-laws installed a pool heater (also a God-inspired invention), so we spent 7 days trying to coax two wimpy Danes to get in and swim with us. We did dunk them once to get the sand off of them, and I thought Sierra was never going to speak to me again.
Thanksgiving dinner was prepared for us by the delightful people at a beach hotel. We loaded 9 family members into Burban and because of bathroom stops and D's "shortcut" took an hour to make the 20 minute drive to the beach. Although most of the food had been frozen before neatly displayed on the buffet line, we were all so grateful for food they could have served Fruit Loops and we would have eaten it.

The highlight of the trip, you ask? The dog beach. 2 trips got Paisley a sunburn, but the salt water healed her persistent foot infection and she was finally 100% healthy. Paisley had the time of her life on the beach and we had all fallen in love with her. I asked Duane what he wanted for Christmas a few weeks ago and his answer was simple...Paisley. I paid her adoption fee and will somehow manage to get her under the Christmas Tree Saturday.

Foster Failure signing off.

He's not as creepy as he looks

A couple of days before Halloween I treated my friends at an Assisted Living home to a Trick or Treating experience. Jessica, Erin and I took 8 costume-clad cuties between the ages of 9 months and 8 years to beg for candy. The residents couldn't go shopping for candy, of course, so I had already dropped off 19 bags of candy so that each resident had treats to pass out to our Treaters. We went to a couple of doors and the kids inspired giant toothy and toothless smiles. Then we went to the common room where a few residents were playing games. They clapped and complimented our lil' cuties. A very friendly gentleman wanted to see the Devil (Addison) up close, but she was too shy and stepped back. My Rainey stepped up to him, took his hand and loudly announced to Addison that "See, he's not as creepy as he looks." It was one of those moments for a mom when you can't decide if you want to make it known that she belongs to you by correcting her or pretend you didn't hear anything. I chose the latter option and moved on to the next room.

We visited Doris, my darling friend who sleeps in a chair because it is too painful to lie down. Ethel has a a 50 inch plus plasma tv in her room and acted slightly irritated that the kids were interrupting her show. Jessica led the kids in a song about a skinny witch and we all got to shout *BOO at the end of the song. Several people asked us to sing it again. That was a lot of fun.

We were told not to go down one hallway where Jack lived. He had already told the staff to be sure to lock the place up tight Halloween night because he was terrified of ghosts. When he heard we were there, he shut his room to keep us out. Right as we were about to leave he changed his mind. We went to his room, the kids got their candy from him and we sang our song. The smile on his face for those couple of minutes was magnificent! What a fun time we all had. I have big plans for all of the assisted living homes in Nicholasville next year. It cost us $25 to supply candy, and what we accomplished was 2-fold: super-happy people who don't usually get many joyful experiences and we showed 8 kids how easy it is to change someone's day.

Excuses

Working full-time. A cold. Rescued a dog. Rehabbing said dog. Home addition. General familiness. Child-proofing...again. Barbie play dates. Dance lessons. (Excuses for not writing in over a week.) I know. Its lame.

So we drove to Morehead to rescue Paisley last week. She is a 2 year old Harlequin Great Dane. Because she was starving her immune system broke down and allowed mange and worms to take over her body. The lack of nutrition and illness caused her eyelids to swell and cover her eyeballs. Her vision was very limited. Already she is showing lots of improvement. She has eaten 20 pounds of dog food in 8 days, started mange treatment, is heartworm free and got spayed. IOW I have taken her to 3 vet appointments and administered multiple medications. Like most pet undertakings in a family this one has also become more work for Mama. I am really enjoying it though. 

Paisley is incredibly smart. One command and she obeys. (which is more than I can say for Q and R, love their hearts) And we can see her eyes now! That alone is pretty rewarding. She stays next to us off of a leash and I single-handedly crate-trained her. I say single-handed because D can't stand the sound of a whiny dog. He actually bought ear plugs so he didn't worry about her during the training process. If only I had had earplugs all of those years I was training him! JK, honey. Muah.


Oh, the new room looks great! Almost done and I get to decorate it. It had to be put on hold for a couple of days while D's guys went to work on jobs that actually made money. They wouldn't let me pay them in Dane.


We extended our final foster care meeting so we could finish the room and meet all of their child-proofing expectations. Did you know you have to lock up your Windex? Yup. Steak knives, prescription narcotics and even Windex. It makes me feel slightly guilty that we are more concerned for the safety of a child we have never met then our own children, but then again our kids have been taught boundaries. Most children taken by the State haven't been taught that they are special, much less that there are boundaries to respect.


I wonder if Paisley, labeled a foster dog, will be close a child who has been labeled a foster child.


Started a cause yet?

The Day of Causes

Happy Bosses Day by the way. I picked up Starbucks for my boss on my way to the office only to find out that he had already gone out of town. Its the thought that counts.

I participated in my sister's cause today: politics. She serves our state as a tea-party leader with red elbows and respected opinions. I rarely join her at her tea party or campaign events, but today I made an exception. With November 2nd just around the corner, I needed to brush up on the people running for local office. We joined 100 or so women and a few men for a lunch in honor of Rand Paul who is running for Kentucky Senator. I love seeing my sister in her politically charged, conservative-tiger element. At 26 years old, not only does she know every political leader or aspiring leader in Kentucky, they know her. Her cause is conservative government spending and limited government influence. And she has a very sweet family.

Mom and Dad have dedicated their lives to full time ministry. And Mom has been actively serving the alzheimers community for many years. What will my other sisters do? Watch out world! There are 2 Fields girls who haven't yet begun to serve.

I left the lunch a few minutes early to make it home for our foster care home visit. The 1st of 2 before we are approved with the state agency. It went well. We locked up our kitchen knives, dusted off the fire extinguishers, and will be adding a room to our house starting Monday. No big deal.

We hit it off well with our foster agency contact. Her causes are kids and cats. During the day she finds safe homes for kids who need safety. At night she traps feral cats, gets them spayed and releases them again. Someone else who does something instead of nothing. Meanwhile, 2 hours away a female Great Dane is waiting to be turned over to the rescue. She is emaciated, homeless and absolutely beautiful. We will bring her in tomorrow and get her all fixed up for a new home. She is sick, but in a few weeks she should be ready. I'll post pictures of her progress.

Get your cause on!

Our Family Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

When Your Leg is Falling Asleep You Change Positions

So our attempt to do SOMETHING feels like a whole lot of NOTHING. Yes we know how to properly subdue a violent child without risking jail time or hurting him, but really who cares. Its like having a seminary degree and working at Starbucks. We have actually gotten a couple of calls about "referrals". The cases were so extreme that no social worker in her right mind would have given these kids to two peach-fuzz foster parents like D and me.

After a few months of little to no contact, we are switching agencies. We are waking the sleeping leg! We don't have to take all of our training again, PRAISE GOD! Found out from the new foster people that our agency has only been awarded 2 kids in our area in the last 2 years, which explains a lot.

Meanwhile, Kentucky auditors found 30 foster homes with registered sex offenders. Now I'm feeling really rejected. I may not be Super Mom but I know we are better than a sex offender. Seriously!
Our home visit is Friday. Note to self: wipe the dust off the 5-inch binder of foster curriculum. Shaking that sleepy leg.

I Jump Every Time the Phone Rings

I look like one of those tele-conversation addicts with their phones molding to the shape of their hands or dorky leather phone cases latched onto their belts. One thing we heard during the 50 hours of training, is that we could get a call in the middle of the night with an "emergency placing" and will need to make a quick decision if we will accept the responsibility of this abused child who has just been taken from his parents. Because we decided to get our certification for therepeutic foster care, we could be called for very extreme cases, some of which would likely be too much for our young family to handle. So we had this plan. The 4 of us talked about what our realistic and unrealstic expectations are from fostering and came up with various scenarios we could be faced with when asked to accept a child. Fot the first 3 months, I thought every phone call was THE CALL. Oh Terra, Terra, Terra. A watched phone doesn't ring.

I'm pretty sure Quay and Rain think I'm crazy now and wonder if my cell phone is actually just a fashion accessory. One of those little things I count as a blessing is getting to drive my kids to school in the morning. They beg to ride the bus, but I tell them that extra 20 minutes with them in the morning is too special to give away to a giant chunk of yellow metal on wheels. Sometimes we ride in sleepy silence, but often I get a chance to pray over them and hear their prayers for the day. We pray for our "new" family member wherever he or she is at that moment that Jesus is working in her heart preparing her for us and us for her, keeping her safe and giving her peace.

8 months later, I still get anxious about "missed calls." Latti da. Going to bed now to wake up in the morning and drive my kids to school.

All because of a giant grey dog.

D - I want a great dane. Me - No way, too big. So we got Roxy. A very big Great Dane. She was 3 years old and 145 pounds when she came to live with the Harrisons. Her owner was giving her away because she had too many dogs. Roxy was the first to go because she liked to escape and she ate the most. Roxy would lay in front of the tv like a pillow for the kids while they watched a movie. She wasn't very friendly to strangers. Would eat anything left on the counter, including whole loaves of bread in the bag and Poptarts in their silver wrapper. Nothing was safe in the kitchen. Her drool could fill a swimming pool and sometimes her eyes looked crossed. After rides in the truck, we had to wipe down the ceiling. She bit her toenails incessantly and was murderously gassy.

I never appreciated her until she got cancer. At the end of what we call "lake season" Roxy started limping. X-rays came back good but slowly a tumor grew from the size of an inflamed muscle to the size of a country ham on her shoulder. She lived with it for 6 months.

We knew our family wouldn't be complete without another giant dog in the house. We searched through 1028 Great Danes across the country on pet adoption websites. We found Sierra 5.5 hours away in the foster program of The Ohio Great Dane Rescue. They had loved her and cared for her until she found her forever home... us. She fit right into our family. At 4 years old, she was well-trained, UTD on shots and spayed. What a wonderful way to get a pet! The puppiness over and she was conditioned to be a forever family pet.

We were fascinated by the pet adoption process and drove back to Toledo a month later to adopt Sierra's litter mate Samson. I'll share more about Samson later. Our whole family participated in the choosing and adoption process of our pets. We loved them so much we couldn't imagine our precious pets being abandoned. And it became our cause. With the guidance of an experienced rescue, we are now the Kentucky rescue extension of the Ohio Great Dane Rescue. We don't have a farm or even a whole acre of land. But we can do SOMETHING. And something is always better than NOTHING. And we can do something together.

Its ON now!

Add blogging to my list of projects. I have a t-shirt for everything I like. Nassau Bahamas, Great Danes, Ann Coulter. I'll be on e-bay in a minute looking for "Blogger Extraordinaire" in size L. But anyway, to get started I guess its appropriate to give a little background so my blog can get off its toddler feet.

Our young family has had its unhealthy times to put it sweetly. But thanks to a God more powerful than my imagination and full of more grace than the Earth is full of air, we have been pulled together and I don't mind saying we are point-blank HAPPY. 

A year ago, my husband Duane (I'll call him D a lot), expressed a passion in his heart to be a foster parent and maybe adopt a child. We had casually talked about adopting for most of our relationship, but the fostering idea was new. I was unsure about it but anything big and risky piques my interest, so I agreed to go to an informational meeting with him to learn more. The night we went to the meeting we got in a monumental fight. My nerves were shot and at the end of the 2 hour meeting being a foster parent seemed really stupid. Of course, D was ready to dive in head-first. I told him, "if you want to do this, you will have to pray that God changes my heart, because I am not ready." That was in August '09.


He must have prayed, because my heart got totally turned on to bringing kids into our home and trusting God for the help to help them. Quay and Rain were on-board too. They understood that it could be fun or terrorizing. I'll share more about their thoughts later. We started classes in November. Got our certification in February. Here it is October 2010 and no foster kids. Did we miss something?