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Father’s Day

06/18/2012

A very brief recap of yesterday. I posted this on Instagram from church:

Father & Daughter. These two have such a special bond. Someday she’ll understand how hard he fought for her and how close she came to not having a daddy. Happy Father’s Day, Jason. We love you to the moon and back!

And then Precious look a nap on her daddy’s lap during the sermon and we got to sit through the whole service for the first time in as long as I can remember. It was awesome!

On our way home we stopped at Wendy’s to get frosties because I saw this post Friday at Adding Members. We love the work that the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption does. On Father’s Day weekend they donate $0.50 from each frosty sale to the foundation and Wendy’s Wonderful Kids. Frosties and french fries…no need to twist my arm!

We got our Wendy’s frosties! Support kids in foster care today in honor of Dave Thomas and his adoption advocacy!

After that, we went down to our property to dream about landscaping while Precious was napping. (Progress reports coming soon!) We ended up standing out in the tall weeds for a couple hours talking to our new neighbor…getting devoured by chiggers. UGH! I hate chiggers. We capped the evening off with a poolside dinner with family and friends and swimming. It was a lovely day.

4 Comments | Family, Family: Foster Parenting, Family: Jason, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: adoption, Family, father's day, foster parenting, wendys | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

New Home Update

06/14/2012

On Monday, we closed on construction loan. YAAAAAAAYYYY! I’ve never been more excited for a loan closing, probably because we’ve been waiting months and months for this. Kudos to local Wilson Bank for working things out for us and being super awesome so far. Now we can break ground. Woohoo!

Jason and I stopped by the property the other day. It’s hard to not walk around and dream about our new home. I can’t wait to start seeing progress! (SIDENOTE: Today is our NINTH wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary, Jason. I love you!)

While we were piddling around at Home Depot the other day, we spotted programmable light switches. This one made by GE is only $19.97; a better deal than I found last week. We got one for the front lights at my parents house so we’ll get to test it out and see if we’d like to have one or two at our new home.

While we were there, we also looked at some paint swatches. These are all just ideas. Most are Martha Stewart Living and a few are Behr. Sherwin Williams colors are my favorite so we’ll probably get colors from there (plus there is a store right down the street from us) but anyway… top left: kids room; top center: Jason’s studio (which is going to look like a cave…); top and bottom right: my office/laundry room; bottom left: baby’s room. Precious wouldn’t stop eating the paint chip for Behr Raspberry Lemonade (fourth from the left on the bottom) so I’m pretty sure that’s her vote.

1 Comment | Art, Art: interior design, Art: new home build, Family, Family: Jason | Tagged: anniversary, new home build | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Teeth Are Good for Corn on the Cob

06/13/2012

Our little Choongie loves to eat. Purées are getting less and less interesting and the rest of the food on the table more appealing. The other night she was intrigued with our corn on the cob so I snapped mine in half and shared with her. She was thrilled!

Seriously?! You’re gonna let me have my own cob to hold?

Her fifth tooth has been stubbornly working it’s way out and it seems like chewing food is particularly satisfying.

It gets even better, baby! There are millions of wonderful foods out there.

3 Comments | Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: children, corn on the cob, dinner, teething | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Precious Girl in Mommy’s Sun Hat

06/07/2012

These are from a few weeks ago but I don’t think I’ve shared them with you yet. This girl is a great combination of joyful, silly and photogenic. She makes some hilarious faces and loves to smile for the camera.

When she’s thirsty for a bottle, she puts her thumb in her mouth and says “goodg, goodg, goodg.” That’s all I can hear when I see these. Don’t worry, I fed her right after I took the photos.

1 Comment | Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Why Aren’t More ‘Fertile’ People Adopting?

06/06/2012

This is a difficult post to write because it’s such a touchy subject. But I need to get it out: I hate that adoption seems to be linked to infertility 90% of the time, at least in people’s minds. I don’t have any problem with infertile couples adopting. If medical intervention isn’t their thing, or they’ve tried that and had no success, many couples who are unable to conceive turn to adoption. I think birth mothers who are unable to parent their children (and willingly surrender their rights) like to know they’re helping out a couple who couldn’t become parents without adoption. That’s all fine and dandy. My problem is the assumption that adoption is (only) for people who can’t have babies biologically.

It bothers me on two levels.

First, quite a few people have made the assumption that Jason and I really wanted—or still want—to have children biologically and we turned to foster care and adoption as a Plan B. They say things like, “Maybe you’ll get pregnant after you adopt! That’s what happened to my second cousin” and “We adopted two kids and then my wife finally got pregnant after 7 years. You never know!” It’s always said with kindness and sympathetic smiles. But, in our case, we felt like we were supposed to become foster parents and open our hearts to adoption and put the idea of having biological children on hold. Perhaps, indefinitely. I don’t know if we will ever have a child biologically. Honestly, at this point, I have no desire to become pregnant. We have chosen a different route to building our family.

Second, and the main reason I have a problem with the adoption=infertile assumption, I would LOVE to see more kids adopted. My passion is for the orphans in our own country, though there are millions around the world waiting to be adopted, too. There are over 130,000 kids in the United States with their mugshots next to short biographies on photo listings, desperately waiting for parents who will adopt them. Another 300,000 kids in foster care need loving, stable, temporary (but potentially permanent) homes. I don’t have patience to wait for 130,000 infertile couples to exhaust all other possibilities and get desperate enough to consider adopting an older child. And the kids don’t have time to wait either. Every year, 24,000 of them turn 18 and get pushed into adulthood alone, unprepared and unsupported. It’s tragedy upon tragedy.

We need some of the millions of fertile couples in this country to join us on the adoption road!

If you feel compelled to do something, check out:

Adopt US Kids and follow them on Twitter

Adopt America Network and follow them on Twitter

or call your county Department of Childrens Services (Dept. of Human Services in some states, I think) and ask about becoming a foster parent.

(Look at the photo listings of waiting kids if you’re feeling brave.)

17 Comments | Family, Family: Foster Parenting | Tagged: adoption, foster care, infertility, parenthood | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

New Life for the Inflatable Baby Bath Tub

06/05/2012

Back in December, I wrote about our decision to get an inflatable baby bath tub so that it could be easily stored for a future baby. Precious has been using the full size tub for baths since she was about 7 months old so rather than deflate the The Safety 1st Kirby Inflatable Tub, I thought I’d try it out for a few other uses. One day I was sitting out on the back deck to work and I used it was a place for Precious to sit and keep her toys contained. (This was before she was crawling. If I tried this now, she’d be out of it in a minute.)

Then, once it was warm enough for pool time, I used it as a kiddie pool. It was a handy way to keep her contained for a few seconds while I got myself situated to get into the water.

Despite the warning label that says it is not a floatation device, we’ve also been using it as a baby boat in the pool. Shhh… don’t tell anyone.

Clearly, I’m a fan of the The Safety 1st Kirby Inflatable Tub. It has turned out to be well worth $17 for us.

Leave a Comment » | Family, Family: Precious/Ali, Other | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

06/01/2012

Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: Phone Photo Friday, Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: cell phone photography, Phone Photo Friday | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Hello there, Stander

05/31/2012

The post I was going to write for today is not ready because we had a monster virus attack at our house. Miraculously, Precious is the only one who escaped it. (It = norovirus, we think.) I’ll spare you the details but it was violent! When Jason got hit Saturday night, we were all convinced it was food poisoning. After dinner Monday night I started feeling “carsick” and then “bloated” from the Mexican food I had…anything but that awful sickness Jason had for 24 hours. But then I could no longer deny it. The next morning my mom got it and the following night, my dad. I pray that we didn’t spread it to anyone else. So…I’m a bit behind on everything this week. Thankfully, I had a few posts prepared in advance.

Precious is just as cheerful as any teething baby this week, making us all smile with her babbling and silly faces and her peek-a-boo games. She’s getting really good at standing and getting around the room in a combo of rolling, dragging and backwards crawling. Her fourth tooth is all the way through, the 5th is visible and the 6th is coming soon. No wonder she’s more interested in chewing on the spoon than eating purées this week.

Leave a Comment » | Family, Family: Jason, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Foster Parenting: What to do the day the kid(s) arrive

05/24/2012

Having our foster care license on hold because of our new home build is hard because Jason and I have both been growing more and more passionate about helping the kids in the system. Trying to learn what I can and stay connected while we’re unable to open our home, I’ve been listening to podcasts and reading blogs. This one, I Was a Foster Kid, is raw and difficult to read at times, but so insightful. LT has a whole list of posts that are geared towards foster parents and things we can do better. I found these Top 10 Things to Make a Foster Child’s First Day Easier to be especially helpful. It got me thinking about how I want to set up some things in the bedroom for foster kids, our kitchen and items to have on hand when we get “the call” again and accept another placement.

Things like… making sure I always have kid-friendly snacks on hand (should be easier next time around because of Precious); giving a tour of the house, especially a detailed tour of their bedroom, explain house rules like bathroom etiquette and where to eat as we walk through the house; having lots of stuffed animals, pillows, a bop bag for punching and a swing for calming overwhelmed senses. Another thing I gleaned from her blog (from this post), is to make sure the kid(s) know we want them at our house, they’re wanted and loved; not a burden to us. And they’re not in foster care because of anything they did wrong.

(Photo above: breaking the ice with Ladybug, our first placement in July 2011, the morning after she arrived.)

Leave a Comment » | Family, Family: Foster Parenting | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

New Home: Kids Room Plan

05/23/2012

At our last house, I designed a combined nursery and kids room as we were becoming foster parents. It had to be suited for 1 or 2 kids, either gender, newborn up to age 5…all within a 10×11 bedroom. In our new house, we’ll have a nursery for Precious and another bedroom that’s set up for our future foster kids. I’m not really sure what parameters we’ll set next time around so I’m planning this room for 1 or 2 kids, boys or girls, ages 2-12. The room is approximately 10×12. We already own the bed, dresser, curtain, book ledges, owl, sheets and chair. The rest would be new purchases.