Foster/Adoption Shower

This past Saturday our families threw us a foster/adoption shower. Think baby shower but the woman isn't pregnant, otherwise pretty much the same idea. I was amazed to see that we had over 50 people show up (spouses & kids were invited)! 

The food was what else but NACHOS! Jon's family brought all the makings for nachos including beef AND chicken! There were chips, cheese, beans, jalapenos, tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, and guacamole. Jon and I have a strange addiction to nachos, it all began when we were dating...there's a good story behind that one. Ask us about it sometime!

The theme was Dr. Seuss of course. My mom and sister did a superb job transforming the room into a Dr. Seuss wonderland. They had truffula trees hanging from the ceiling, Dr. Seuss activity pages for placemats, Dr. Seuss books for center pieces, green (deviled) eggs & ham, Cat in the Hat cake, Thing 1 & Thing 2 cake, Lorax punch and much much more!

Green (deviled) eggs & ham

One Fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish,
Will you have a goldfish?

The Truffula trees

Table settings & Karl, Kari & Stephanie

The Lorax punch

CAKES: Thing 1, Thing 2 & 2 baby things, Cat in the Hat,
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish NEW fish! 

Lorax nutter butters

Welcome New Lyon Fish banner

After some socializing and eating we played our first game. Dr. Seuss quotes with missing words. Of course Jenna Cochran, first grade teacher, won! She got all of them but 1! The second game was guessing how many goldfish and worms were in a jar. Kris Lyons won the goldfish and Ron Lobitz won the worms. I'm not much of a baby shower game person so my mom kept it short and sweet at 2 games.

Then we opened presents so the kids could go out to the pool and swim. We received so many wonderful things. Bath toys, books, car seats, stroller, mattress, diapers, stuffed animals, crib, baby photo albums, baby learning videos, toys, gift cards, etc! We are so thankful for our wonderful friends and family that are helping us on our adventure!

The gift table

Diaper tricycle made by my mom

Barn my dad fixed up

I hope our child loves to read because we received piles of books! We didn't originally plan to buy a bookshelf but now we'll need one. I love reading so I'm excited to open each of these books when I have little ones to read to!

 After we opened gifts, we socialized a bit more and then headed down to the pool for some fun! It was an amazing evening and we are so very thankful for all the hard work our families put into it and for all our friends and family that came to celebrate with us!

The only thing I regret is not taking more pictures! I'm missing pictures of people, if anyone has any please e-mail them to me!

PS MAPP 9: Teamwork & Partnership

This class had so much potential. Last week we were told we'd have a panel at the beginning of this class that would have resource (foster care) parents, community resources, and adopted kids. We were going to be able to ask questions but we should be mindful of their situation and only ask respectful questions (obviously!). 

For the first hour, the panel consisted of a woman from the Department of Health Services, a man from a foster readiness/permanency program (this program is ending soon), a kinship licensing woman,  and an HCTC (Home Care Training to the Home Care Client) parent. HCTC is for children with extreme behavior issues. The first hour was pre-approved questions that were pretty dry and irrelevant to our situation. After that a resource parent arrived. She has 7 kids in her home, 5 have been adopted. She was very helpful, honest, and realistic. I took away 2 things from her:

1. Have a family album ready to go and give it to the child when you pick them up and are taking them home for the first time. That way they can look through the album and see both of us, our house, Maggie, our siblings, our parents, our niece and nephews, activities we enjoy doing, etc. She said it is very helpful especially for younger kids because they are so scared at first. 
2. Always ask the GAL (Child's lawyer) when the court date is and attend. Apparently that is the only way you are going to get the full story.

The rest of the class we discussed the different team members systems we will be working with and the problems we might have with them. We broke into groups and each received a system to discuss what roles we have with that system, any problems we might encounter, ways to solve the problems, and who we could reach out to.

The last topic of the night was abuse. As resource parents, Jon and I are both mandated reporters. As resource parents we have a 1 in 2 chance of being accused of child abuse. That is a 50/50 chance! This part scared me quite a bit, I can't imagine being accused of child abuse or going through the investigations required when I know I didn't do anything. The goal of this part of the class was to make us aware that it occurs, why it occurs, and how to deal with it when it occurs. We are to keep our perspective, be honest, cooperate, document everything, ask questions, and get support. 

Our homework for this week sounds interesting and for the first time, a little more realistic than the previous assignments. This week we were given 6 envelopes. The first envelope has a child's name. We are to open the first envelope the day after class (That's today, Wednesday). Then we open an envelope each day after that in numerical order and complete the assignment based on the situation that has occurred. They seemed to also give us a case that was within the age range we are looking to foster/adopt. Our child's name is Steven. 

I'll do my best to give a daily update on each envelope so you can join us on our mini journey! We haven't read today's envelope yet so look for an update tomorrow!