yes, they can

A lot of people have been asking me about the new baby, and whether the parents can keep her. And the sad answer is yes, they can. If the baby is born drug-free, they can keep her.

Enough Said

Why a picture of toy dart guns and handcuffs?

Why would you give these to a 2 and 3 year old at a visitation with the social worker? Logical decision making does not run in their family. These are the toys the boys grandparents brought for them. In addition to the fact that they are guns, the box is clearly marked as a choking hazard for children under three. Smart.

And we found out why the parents took the parenting classes (we think). Oh yeah - you won't beleive this one - bio mom is 5 months pregnant. I guess they want to see if they can keep this one.

Visitation

Well, the boys had a supervised visit with their granny today. The social worker took them, so we really only know what she told us. The visit was supposed to be granny, gracie and adell (the boys 2 female cousins that they lived with, along with granny) and uncle johnie (a 21 year old who has mental retardation and loves the boys to death). We're cool with all 4 of them. Granny's a little tricky though - she called the social worker Wednesday to tell her that the bio mom's parents were coming too. And then 1/2 way through the visit another aunt and 2 more cousins showed up. The social worker was really mad and told granny that if she did that again, she would stop any visits at all. On top of that, they brought the boys presents - toy guns and handcuffs. Right on.

The boys' aunt beth, who originally got us with the boys called tonight and said that the parents had gone to the parenting classes, but that the dad quit his job this week, and they are still living with the mom's grandmother, so they aren't in compliance with court orders even though they took the classes. The next court date is April 29th. I hope the judge doesn't extend things just bc they took those classes. It scares me to death sometimes.

Finally

I got the official 'get off your arse and post' message from a friend...so here I am! I did finally get a new camera and you won't beleive how much they've grown! Taylor can sit on his own...he still gets too excited and flaps his arms really hard which make him fall over, but he's got the hang of it! James has a great memory - he remembers every somg from daycare. He is a mama's boy, that is for sure. And Nathanael is doing so well. He's going through a really cute stage, and I don't want to speak too soon, but he has not been having fits at all. While at home and on thier regular schedule, James and Nathanael go to bed easily. We recently took 2 trips - both times bedtime was an issue - but it just goes to show how important the schedule is. First, we took the boys to the beach!

James watis patiently on the deck as we get Taylor and Nathanael ready for the trek down to the sand.

nathanael was hilarious! He was determined he was going to catch a bird - he chased them, squeeling and cracking himself up the whole time.

The water was ice cold - but they didn't care!

They were so cute, very excited to see the ocean and all the sand. They swam for hours in the indoor pool. By swimming, I mean jumping in to us. Ken was able to teach James to doggy paddle with his floaties on. James was so excited to be swimming without holding on. Our next trip was to WV to visit my mom and stepdad for Easter.

Lil' Nate under mom's piano finding eggs

James shows off his eggs too.

Everyday life is still overwhelming at times. But in general, I can hardly remember life without the boys. Taylor is the the most beautiful baby. He is full of smiles and giggles all the time. His daycare worker always says I cant take him at the end of the day bc he's the only one not crying. He rolls over both ways (his prefered mode of transportation). Not crawling, and no teeth, but his gummy smiles makes me weak in the knees. I practically suck off his fat cheeks everyday and I love to cuddle with him in bed. He does sleep in his crib until about 4 or 5 am. He wakes up and I put him in bed with us. I know a bad habit, but one I'm not ready to break.

Why buy expensive toys? The boys' favorite evening activity (after I make them come inside!) is to take apart the couch and build forts and tents.

Taylor hanging out in his Bumbo...the greatest baby seat!

Taylor loves playing his bongos!

As for the adoption process.Basically, there is nothing to report. The parents go back to court sometime in April. Usually there is 30 days between court dates, but this has been a 60 day lull - I'm not sure why. We don't really get told very much. Supposedly, the TPR (termination of parental rights) process is being put into effect, but our social worker says it gets turned over to the legal department of social services at that point. I don't have alot of faith that it will be a quick process. The boys have not seen their granny in 2 1/2 months - fine with us, but she called the social worker last week wanting a visit. So that is happening this friday. It is supervised, but it will be a setback for sure.

no more sickness!

Seriously, I'm going to have to break down and buy a new camera. I don't know if the boys flushed it down the toilet or what, but Taylor is getting so big, and I haven't taken a picture of him in weeks! He is soooo cute! He has discovered his voice big time and babbling dadadadadada.... I keep telling him to say mamamamamam, but he's not listening! He now sticks his tongue out too - it's adorable. He's into 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diapers. Stop growing, boy! 18 pounds.

Last week was insane at the Moss household. Ken got the flu. Then Nathanael got the flu. Then James fell and cracked his head on the coffee table and I had to take him for stitches. He ended up just needing dermabond (they basically hot glued his head together), but still a rush to the hospital, followed finally by a call to poison control because Nathanael ate a pellet of rat poison. Oh, yes, the ambulance got to come and everything. What fun. What's more funny is that I was in the car with James and Taylor when Ken called me and frantically asked the number for poison control. I held in the laughter and replied "I don't know. Hang up and call 911!"

Saturday was relatively uneventful based on the rest of the week, but fun. The boys rode their powerwheels outside for a long time, and I took them down to the pond to go "fishing", we visited the cows in the next field over...mommy got blasted for not bringing the cow food like PapPap does...James went down our new cork-screw slide a hundred times (nathanael is too scared!). We topped the day off with a long bath using bathtub crayons to decorate. What a great day!

He rolls

Taylor is officially rolling over! At age 6 1/2 months, he can go front to back and vise versa. He's soooo cute!

Nathanael turned 2. I have managed to lose my camera, so sorry I don't have pictures. We had a joint b-day party for him and James. Thomas the Train was the theme and we were joined by friends and family. Luckily, it was a nice day outside, so the kids played in the yard for about an hour before we had hotdgos, cake, and opened presents. James keeps telling me he wants to have his birthday again!

James turns 3!!

Seriously, is this the cutest little boy you've ever seen, or what?

Daddy brings on the birthday cake!

Taylor and PawPaw get into the action!

We had a fun day. I took cupcakes to the daycare and Nathanael got to come to James' big boy class with us. Tonight, we had McDonals chicken Mcnuggets (James' choice), french fries and birthday cake for dinner. Ken's parents and our 2 neices came over. We'll have a joint b-day party for James and Nathanael next weekend.

Firsts

The boys got to enjoy their first snowfall...and we got to enjoy them enjoying it! James and Nathanael sat and watched out the window for a long time...they just kept saying they wanted to go outside. We told them they had to wait until it stuck to the ground a little more bc it was so muddy. That night, we bundled them all up, put them in their new snow boots, and went out on the back porch. We had a fun snowball fight until their fingers were so cold they could hardly move them. They kept pulling their mittens off to make a better snowball!

The next morning we actually took a long walk on our property in the 1/2 inch of snow. It was really pretty. We pulled the boys on their sled and they loved it.

Another first for us...Nathanael cut in FIVE teeth yesterday. Seriously. Five in one day.He had his front 8, plus 4 in the very back. But his 4 pointy teeth plus 1 other just punctured his gums yesterday. He was a little whiny, but not too bad. I couldn't beleive it! Poor little guy.

Grr..

At about 11:30, the Social Worker called and told me they did not sign the papers. Once at social services, they told the SW that they wouldn't sign without the agreement to see the boys. The SW reminded them that they HAD had multiple (like, over 20 at least) opportunities to see the boys, for which they did not show up. The SW also reminded them that social services is not an open adoption agency, and whether they signed the papers or not, their parental rights would be terminated based on their non-compliance. So regarless of whether we adopt the boys, or someone else, they are not going to have visitation. The parents said they were going to the car to confir with granny before deciding anything, and they just never came back.

I called the SW again about 1:30 and they had still not returned. Obviously not going to.

So, it's really not about the visits, it's about them wanting to be in control and saying "I'll show you...we won't sign anything". Whatever. It'll just be 7 months instead of 7 days. Life goes on...

I called granny and she said that the mom came to the car and said she wasn't signing without getting visits, so granny just took her home. Lord knows what alll she told granny.

Hourly Update

The parents did show up at court and told the judge they wanted to reliquish their rights to the boys. The SW called me from the car saying they were on the way to Social Services to sign the paperwork. The parents had two requests: to see the boys 3 times/year and for us to not change their last names. I said NO to both requests. The SW completley agreed with me and told the parents that those were unreasonable requests, but that she would ask me anyway. I told her I would send granny a letter twice a year with an update on how the boys were/what they were doing. Fingers crossed...!

Keep your fingers crossed

The boys visited with Granny, Gracie, Adell (cousins) and uncle Johnie (we're cool with him) on Saturday. It was supervised (by me) in a public place (Imagination Station...a play place). The visit was really fun. They played like crazy and we did Christmas presents. Granny really does love the boys and wants what is best for them, she just makes some dumb decisions. For example, she gave the boys a framed picture of their biological parents. James opened it and said "a picture". He had no clue who it was. Gracie chimed in "those are your other parents." I gently took the frame and said "let's put it away for later so we don't break it." I was a little peeved, but what can you do...?

So, I talked to the social worker this morning. Today is the court date to change the boys' plan from reunification with bio parents to adoption. The SW told me to NOT get my hopes up, but that bio mom had called her yesterday and told her they were really thinking about just signing the boys over at court today. Granny told bio parents that the boys were happy and loved and it wasn't fair to put the boys through all this mess, and to just give them up. So, IF they actually do it, we will not have to go through the termination of parental rights. That's what takes many months. So instead of adoption them in 6-8 months, it would be more like 1-2 months. Now, even if they do sign them over, they have 7 days to change their mind. I'm trying not to be excited, because honestly, if they got high last night, they may change their mind today.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Christmas

Wow! What a week it's been. I have to back up and start with the Friday before Christmas. I took Taylor to the doctor Friday morning for his shots, but I asked the doc to see if there wasn't something they could give Taylor because he had really been coughing for like 3 days. I am not kidding, once she listened to him breath, she had another doctor and 2 nurses in the room. They took him to xray to see if he had pneumonia, which he did not, then tested him for RSV, which he did have. It's a respiratoty virus. His oxygen level was at 80%. It should be 95 or above. They sent him immediately to the hospital, where he was taken straight up to a room and put on oxygen. He got breathing treatments every 4 hours, and had several fevers over the 4 days he was there. Scared us to death. But our prayers were answered in 2 ways: 1. He got better! 2. He got to come home Christmas Eve. I was so upset that our first christmas with the boys was going to be messed up, but it all worked out. Ken and his parents stayed with Taylor at the hospital Christmas Eve day until he came home in the early evening. Meanwhile, James, Nathanael and I baked cookies for santa, and had your basic hyper-active day of toddler play. They needed lots of mommy lovin' since they had stayed with their grandparents the 3 days before while Ken and I stayed with Taylor. Here's a picture of our little man.Christmas was GREAT! The boys got power wheels. Here are a few pictures of the big day:

Unfortunately, we did not get to go to Charleston for Christmas because Taylor can't travel yet. But mom and Jim came down, and my aunts and uncles were so great to send great presents. The picture above is James "surprising" us from inside his new play tent/tunnel/basketball hoop = bigger than the living room adventure center from Aunt Kathy.

TPR and Granny's downfall

We got some good news on Wednesday. The boys' social worker called and said that they had court that day. Social Services asked the judge to relieve them of their duty of trying to reunify the boys with their biological parents due to non-compliance of the parents, and the judge said yes! So on January 9th, they go to court to change the boys' "plan" from reunification, to adoption. This starts the TPR (termination of parental rights) process. The TPR process takes many months though. She said we are probably looking at the end of May. The parents have to be served with papers to notify them of the TPR, and since the parents don't have an address, it will be hard to serve them with papers. If that is the case, social services is required to post it in the legal section of the newspaper and they have a time period (I think 90 days) to respond. Once TPR happens, the Social Worker said the adoption can happen within a month, so that is good. She said the only thing that could possibly reverse the TPR is if the parents do a total turnaround, get into a grug rehab program, get a job and a place to live. Doubtful that would happen by May.

So Granny, with whom we have had a great relationship, has ticked us off. We were making arrangements for a Christmas visit. The social worker said Granny would like it if we dropped the boys off at Aunt Beth's house for 4 hours. We were fine with that, as Granny has been realy easy to work with and get along with. So I called Granny to confirm. She told me that during those 4 hours, she was going to take the boys' to their aunt Robin's to see her and exchange gifts with the other great-grandma. Oh...H--L NO! She had already told the Social Worker that the parents had been hanging around Robin's house. I told Granny I was not comfortable with that at all. She said "I promise I won't anyone take them." I told her that I did not want the boys to even see the parents - one, because it will totally mess them up, and two, the court order says NO visitation, especially not unsupervised! I called the Social Worker is a tizzy. She was so mad at granny for lying to her. She said there was no way, and that if she tries to pull anything like that, she will take away granny's unsupervised visitation. She said she was going to call granny and tell her she can NOT do that. When we get to aunt Beth's house, I am going in and looking in all the rooms, bathrooms, and closets to make sure the parents are not hiding anywhere, and then Ken and I will park our car across the end of the driveway so they cannot leave. Granny will soon learn that we are not parents that she should tick off if she still wants a relationship with the boys. The social worker has already warned her about losing her visits, and I won't be unhappy if she does. I wanted to boys to be able to keep a relationship with her, but not if it's constant drama.

5 months

I can hardly believe Taylor turned 5 months today. It hardly seems possible! He's a whopping 14 1/2 pounds. He still wears mostly 0-3 month clothes, except for his sleepers...he's too long for them. His head and neck are definately strong, and he enjoys tummy time, but he hasn't rolled over. He was evaluated by the Children's Developmental Serivces, last week, and his test scores came out that he is at 4 months, so he's on track! He giggles all the time, I mean, he just starts laughing and doesn't stop. It's hilarious!

Last night we got a phone call from the boys' aunt (the one who hooked us up with them in the first place) and told us that the social worker had called the great-grandmother (so this is 3rd hand information) and told her that Social Services was going to request that the judge dismiss Social Services from having to continue to attempt reunification, and to start the process of terminating parental rights. If all that's true, and if the judge says yes, that's great for us. It would still be AT LEAST 6 months down the road (3 months for the TPR and 3 months before we could legally adopt), but it would be nice to have some sense of security about the boys.

TGIF

Farrell Cats

The boys social worker came to the house along with 2 other workers to evaluate Nathanael and Taylor for early intervention services. Neither of them are eligible because neither of them have any developmental delay - which of course is great.

But Nathanael's behavioral problems are really an issue. The three women told me that he really needed mental health play therapy, NOT developmental play therapy like James had. James thrived from it, and doesn't even qualify for it anymore. Problem is...they don't know of any psychologists who work with kids under 3. The social worker says his anger and rebellion is probably mainly related to the structure we are setting.

She described James and Nathanael as "farrell cats that we are now trying to domesticate". That is the best way to describe it I think. I really don't know how they survived. But I'm so glad they did. Just over the past few weeks, I've really seen James mature and 'settle' in with us a little better. And even though Nathanael is still our "troubled child", he is clearly better than when he came. Taylor - well, he's just a perfect, happy little boy. We really are lucky.

The most exciting things in their lives right now are: "Santa Clause is coming to town" and their "big boy" beds.

Pictures

James and Nathanael making cookies
James' first haricut! (with us)
Ken cracks Taylor up
Nathanael - post cooking, trying to clean
Papap feeding the boys peanuts

4 Pink Eyes

Augh! All three boys + myself have pink eye and strep!! There is so much medicine to try and keep straight and times and dosages and trying to keep sippy cups separated. Thank the good Lord my mother was in town. She helped Ken and I take the whole crew to the doctor. A waiting room with three little ones is seriously rough.

Ken and I need parenting HELP!! We are consistent, we back eachother up, we punish immediately - which consists of going to the corner, or being sent to their room, or having their bike taken away. But if we are not actively engaging them in an activity at every moment, they are instantly in trouble....climbing up on the kitchen stools, climbing up on the coffee table, hitting and biting. It is endless. How do we stop the insanity?!

Ten Ways

http://www.familylife.com/hopefororphans/TenWays_inside.pdf

This is a link to a pdf file that lists 10 ways you can help a child in need of a home. God's calling is different for everyone, and He may reveal to you His calling for you through this website. I'm not saying everyone's calling is to be a foster or adoptive parent, but of course it is close to my heart, and if nothing else, you can always pray for the kids that need homes.

The boys, as wild as they are, are such a blessing to us. Nathanael, with his temper tantroms, is a blessing. He will scream and kick and wail and flail....but another adoptive mom told us how her son did this too. He has post traumatic stress disorder, and she was told to hold on to him during these rants, and rythmically repeat a phrase "it's okay", or "i love you", whatever, even as he fights it. We've done this with Nathanael a couple of times. Yesturday, I held him till my arms ached, rocking back and forth, saying 'it's okay it's okay' for about 15 minutes. His screams eventually turned to weeping, and he went from kicking and flailing to holding me arnound my neck and laying his head on my shoulder. He finally had let it all out and I rocked him in a chair for awhile, and then he got down and played by my feet for awhile. Then it was all over. Does it make me ANGRY at his biologocial parents? Of course! But do I feel BLESSED that God has given ME the opportunity to help change the course of Nathanael's life? Yes!

It's so hard because when Nate is like this, I basically cannot pay attn to Talyor and James, so if there is no other adult around, I have to just let Nate have a fit. Luckily, yesturday, we were over at Ken' s parents, and I was able to spend that time with Nathanael and I hope that he will learn that he can trust us and feel safe with us.

Testing

I tell you what, I think James is in the mode of testing us to see how far we'll let him go. Yesterday, he kicked me twice and spit in the car (which we have been over many times). I talked to another foster mom who told me their 'transition' with their foster daughter really took a good year. We're only 2 months into, so I don't feel too bad. Plus, I guess he's still adjusting to daycare and me being at work.

For the most part, I got to have a fun day with James. He had a doctor's appointment, so afterwards I let him run up and down the stairs at the building (he's in love with stairs..?), and then there were wheelchair accessible vans outside, so we stood and watched them ramps go up and down (very cool, apparently). Then we stooped at the hardware store where a foster dad works, so he let James play on a bunch of the equipment.

Later on the in the evening, MawMaw, PawPaw, Heather and Elizabeth came over to play, so Nathanael and Taylor had their fair share of fun.

Sweet Baby James

My poor baby...sportin' his bandaids! He had a rough weekend. First, Nathanael took a running leap onto the rocker, knocking it over onto James and it cracked him right on the check bone. He's got a nice shiner. A few hours later, he took a tumble off the trampoline and his head landed on the kickstand of his cousin's bike. Ouch! He's a real trooper though.

Otherwise, we had a really nice weekend. We spent Saturday morning at San-Lee park, it was beautiful outside. The boys ran and played and climbed the rocks and splashed in the frreezin' codl water.

Daycare question

Taylor chills out in his brother's Spiderman chair.

I love this picture!

I'm not 100% sure how I'm feeling about daycare. The good thing is that it tuckers them out! Also, by the end of my work day, I just can't wait to see them and play with them and love on 'em. I think working is good for me. I know they are getting socialization and all that, but my only concern is that there is a little too much free time. Any thoughts? They are at a montesorri, so I know they have a different phylosophy, but for those of you with kids in day care - how 'scheduled' is their day?

PRE-CIOUS!

Look at that smile!!
James and Nathanael closely examine their new baby brother and try decide if they want to keep him!

J and N have gotten used to the idea of the baby, and even ask what Taylor is doing (standard answers: sleeping or eating). When James sings 'patty cake', he now includes Talyor as part of the family, marking his cakes for "daddy, mommy, nate-nate, james, and taylor". A big step, I think.

I took Taylor for his daycare physcial yesturday, and he is 23 1/2 inches long and 12 pounds (at 13 weeks). He's catching up just fine!

Smile

Taylor's smile...really, is it just me, or does your baby's smile just melt your heart? He is so precious. I was reading today about babies his age and realized I should be having him 'play' with objects of multiple colors. I do hav a playmat he lays on and there are these animals that hang above him, but I just want to make sure I am stimulating his brain properly. With him being cocaine positive, I was told that orchestral music would be good to help order his brain functions. I must admit I've been delinguent in that. It's difficult. taylor is on the total opposite schedule of the other 2. James and Nathanael go to bed at 8, and Taylor is wide eyed and raring to go from 8 to about 11 at night, by which point I am so tired. The good thing is though, that when James and Nathanael are the most needy of attention (dinner, bedtime), Taylor is not a distraction from them. Hmmm.... Any suggestions?

Day 2 at daycare went well, and they are obviously keeping them on the go, because James and Nathanael both went to bed right at 8:00, no fussing or anything. They must have been really tired!

Day Care

The boys started daycare yesturday. I go back to work next week, so I wanted to get them settled at the daycare and not try to do work/daycare all in the same week. Although there were tears at the initial "mommy's leaving", they did great. Okay, I admit, I lost it when I was holding Nathanael and had to hand him over. I was pititful. The staff is in love with Taylor of course, the sweetest baby with the biggest smile ever! James brought home art for the refrigerator, so that was very fun.

Today I took James and Nathanael for thier physicals for daycare, and I've found a nurse practitioner that I really like. She's great with them, so they had fun going to the doctor and getting stickers. My plan for today is to CLEAN MY HOUSE!!

Thr first 5 weeks

Wow! What a wild ride! I think the boys have adapted better than expected, and better than Ken and I! We are exhausted! They are energetic, they crave knowledge (what's that?) and stability...even though they 'buck' the rules, they know what their schedule is, and remind us when we've gone astray!

James and Nathanael love to go for stroller walks, which has me wearing Taylor on my front and pushing them in a double stroller - quite the workout. One of our biggest trials has been bedtime, and naptime. the boys have alot of trouble unwinding. We've had to try out several sleeping arrangements. Nighttime has worked out better than nap. We have their beds pushed together, and although we put them down in separate beds, they usually end up sharing one by the time morning comes.

The boys had three scheduled visits with their bio parents. After the first one, James did not talk for over an hour, followed by screaming and kicking. He was fine by the next day. So, the next week, I tried to prepare him to let him know he was going to see his parents. They did not show up, and once again, James stopped talking for awhile. Third visit - again, the parents did not show up. Can you imagine? So the visits have been suspended until at least the court date in November. The boys have been in the 'system' for 9 months, and the state wants to determine a permanent plan within a year, so we'll see what they do. taylor is a separate case, so they may reinstate visits for him. It's a crazy system. So legally, where are we as far as possible adoption? Not really sure. The next court date may shed some light.

Taylor is such s a good baby. Really. And thank God, because nathanael is our wild child. Taylor smiles all the time, and rarely cries. Nathanael however, has alot of temper tantrums, and just plain tests us. But then he turns around with a sweet little grin and you just have to hug him!

When James came to us, he tested as having a 65% speech delay. We had him retested last week, and he tested AT age level! We are so proud of him! He has really come out of his shell and is friendly to people in stores, church, etc. This is the same boy who ran and hid when knew people came to the house. What 5 weeks can do!

We did do a visit with their great grandmother, who had kept J&N for 8 months before coming to us. she is a very sweet lady, and the boys were really happy to see her, but quite confused for a few days afterwards...asking where was granny, and whose house was she at. Poor little thing, James is the only one who I think really understands just enough to be confused.

Gosh, there are so many things that have happened, I guess I'll just leave it at that for now.

Precious children

Our first sight of baby Taylor. Born 7-14-2007, in this picture, he is 7 1/2 weeks and 7 1/2 pounds. He comes home with us this Thursday!!

James and Nathanael are each other's comfort, and "Nate-Nate" wants to do everything his big brother does!

Pictures

I forgot I had a few pictures from our church shower. The hobby horse is a HUGE hit at the house! Top picture is Nathanael with his MawMaw (Ken's mom)

A Moment

Finally! A moment to stop, smell the roses, and post to the blog!
James and Nathanael came to us on Monday, September 10th at 5:30 pm. They are wide open! They are full of fun and laughter! James is going through the 'terrible 2's" and Nathanael is just a grumpy little soul. His personality, and the facial expressions he makes just crack us up! They are so precious! James likes to be my 'helper' - push the cart at the grocery store (Amy - thanks for the "one finger touch' rule - it works!), wash dishes, mop, etc. He makes more of a mess, but I let him know how good of a helper he is! He's getting better on the potty too! I can't tell you how many times a day I say things like "good boy!", "good listening", "awesome!", blah, blah...We are slowly getting into a routine. These boys love to eat, that is for sure! They eat tomatoes and peas, cantaloupe, green beans, and most of all..."I want Chicken Nuggets!!!" James whales, with a tiny, barely audible "peeeease (please)". Ken's parents are loving them to pieces. Today they bought a swing set for the front yard. They have been a huge help! We've gone on a few outings - to Imagination Station, the playground, mommy's work, grocery store, and of course church. The first outing, it took me 2 hours to get everyone up, fed, and dressed!! I'll get better! I'll post pictures as soon as I get some downloaded. They are truly beautiful, a gift from God. They are teaching me patience by the second.

My baby James
How cute are you, blondie?! (Nathanael)
Mmmm...spaghetti-O's!!
Posin' like a rock star!
Conked out!

Just a quick glimpse of the weekend. I’ll post more details tomorrow. James and Nathanael got to spend Sunday day and night with us, and we took them back Monday morning. It was wonderful. Yes, they are rambunctious little boys, but the most precious things you’ve ever seen. Nathanael is a daddy’s boy! I think it was love at first site! They adapted so quickly. The only rough point was bedtime, but when they finally fell asleep, sucking their thumbs and holding their blankies all curled up in my arms in the rocker…it was all worth it. Ken was amazing with them. We were exhausted after we dropped them off – and it was only 24 hours!! I can’t wait for more!!