Good news!

All that prayer worked!!!  Reunification with his dad is no longer an option...I am sad for him, but so happy for K.  The judge did a great job of laying it all out there, making an appeal almost impossible.  From here, we are assigned a new social worker, who is an adoption specialist and we are applying to be De Facto Parents which allows us representation and a voice in this process :o).  Dec. is the next court date for us and it will be interesting to see how this process goes.  Seemed like the judge was eager to move forward :o)!!!
Celebrating at Red Robin

First day of school!!!

Yesterday was the first day of school!  The kids weren't really excited and kind of seemed a little nervous, asking who was going to be in their classes.  Ainsley was greeted with hugs by a couple girls in her class and she was super excited to get the teacher she got, so she was off and running.  Reggie has Tyler and JD and a few others in his class, so he was also fine.  We don't know much about his teacher, but we've heard you can't go wrong with any of the 4th grade teachers!

Camp

We were so glad to see Reggie when he got home from cub scout camp at Camp Royaneh!!!  He didn't take a shower the entire time, but he survived!  He said he couldn't find his soap...hmmm.  He at least changed his clothes and remembered his retainer almost every night!  Camping is such a dirty/dusty activity and his clothes were so filthy he looked like he could have been a street kid :o(.  We threw him in the shower right when he got home, made him cut his fingernails and he looked brand new.  His favorite thing about camp was the archery and BB gun shooting.  It was interesting to hear some of the stories.  He doesn't usually chat much, except about toys, but I was hoping to hear all about it.  We were able to drag some info. out of him...like he wouldn't do it again because the boys stayed up so late talking and he didn't get a good night sleep until one of the boys went home sick the last night.  He ate all but 2 meals that looked sketchy to him and had a salad instead :o).  They had a $20 snack card, but he chose to buy a snake light and rabbit fur, so he had no money for snacks.  I asked him if he was starving and he said that he made his stomach hurt at mealtime, eating so much, so he wasn't ever really hungry-that's a Wade for you!

We've had a little adjustment back to reality though.  I think he got used to doing his own thing and when
we asked him to do anything, we got some serious attitude.  I was wondering if they sent someone else's kid home!  It also had some catching up to do on sleep.  It has gotten better, but he is still challenging us...maybe it is an age thing?  We are lucky he didn't get sick (2 of his friends had to leave early) and came home in one piece...another friend broke his 2 front teeth and they looked like fangs :o(.

Switching gears...we just got his test scores from last year in the mail and were pleasantly surprised.  Reggie struggled so much with reading and even a bit with math, but things seemed to click in the middle of second grade and he is actually doing above average :o).    Sorry about the pics...can't figure out how to rotate them.

 Looks like Algebra might come easy to him!

Pray for Tuesday

The time has finally come for the judge to make his decision about whether K will stay or go.  Ryan and I are going to court on Tuesday in hopes that we will help him make a ruling....FINALLY!  It has been 2 years and 4 months since this began and for children under 5, the timeline is 1 year, so we are clearly way past the deadline.  They have the goal of 1 year for very clear reasons...the more time that goes by, the more bonded they become and the harder transition becomes and they want permanency to guarantee these children won't be shuffled around.  We saw how being outside this timeline impacted K when he lived with his aunt and the transition back to us was so very difficult.

There's a lot that has happened in this case and we are all scratching our heads wondering why no decision has been made yet.  The lawyers, social workers and everyone involved is ready to move forward.  Please pray that K won't have the rug pulled from under his feet again.  We can still see the effects of this in his behavior from the 3 times he has already had to move.  God can make anything happen and I know that whatever happens is best....Khalif's bible verse today was, God's plan is perfect, just what I needed to hear! It just might be hard for awhile if our desires don't align with God's plan.  Please pray that we all have peace (Reggie has been really worried about this).

She's 7!

Pre-birthday activities with Aunt Liha and Maggie:

Crazy another year has passed!  Ainsley can be such a sweet girl when she wants to be and I have been reminded of that this week because Reggie has been at camp.  She and K have been like 2 peas in a pod, playing family and they have been cracking me up with their stories about their children (which many stories come from the Wimpy Kid movies).  She has like 10 babysitters for all her kids.  Many of the things I have said to her in the past came out of her mouth as “mother”.  She has a great imagination and can entertain herself for hours in her make believe world.  It is great!
She wishes she had a real baby like Marley:

Ainsley is also getting much more confident…on Monday she told me she was actually excited to compete in gymnastics.  She has so much talent, but is very tentative and it is fun to see her be a little more brave :o).  We’ve been doing handstand contests all summer and I found my balance point, so I think I got her for another year, hopefully.  Here she is doing a press handstand…a skill that takes a lot of strength.  

Ainsley is still as stubborn and determined as ever.  It is very hard to get her to do something if she doesn’t want to.  Reading has come much easier to her than Reggie, but it is still a challenge to get her to do it because she doesn’t want to.  Someday this could be a great asset, but we are working hard to refine this to make sure she understands what is appropriate for a 7 year old! 
For her birthday, grandma took her to get her ears pierced and she loves to look at herself even more now.  Ainsley is still a girly girl, but has realized the need to be practical, so we are seeing fewer dresses and skirts these days.  She is also slowly losing her toothless smile and will look completely different in a couple months.

It will be fun to see how she grows as a 7 year old :o).

Birthday party and drive home.....

We had a BBQ at the lake to celebrate Ainsley’s birthday and it was so much fun.  We had a good turnout of friends and family and it was the perfect way to end our trip!!!

 Our usual cake decorator, Aunt Sue was gone this year, so mom and I had to put something together.  I won't be going into the cake decorating business anytime soon!!!

 Being entertained by cousin Charlie:

A big thank you to mom and dad for letting us stay with them and share our chaos and noise for 5 weeks!!!
 I packed up most of our stuff that morning and then we loaded the car that night and woke up at 5:15 and were on the road at 5:50.  K threw up shortly after we left the lake…there must be something about waking up early and windy roads :o(.  We didn’t really hit any traffic and the only thing that slowed us down was the timing on gas, food and potty….they didn’t really sync.  There were 5 forest fires in Southern Oregon and it was crazy smokey.  We didn’t see any flames, but I looked up the fires on my phone and they were not contained.  Kinda scary.  

I was resting over the pass near Shasta and Ryan let the kids watch a show.  Ainsley threw up and Reggie was so close, but held it down.  This was right before dinner :o(.  Of course, they managed to eat at McDonald’s anyway. 
We made great time and pulled into our house at 8:20!  Nothing like home :o).  We quickly got the kids to bed, unpacked the car and packed Reggie for camp.  He and Ryan left the next morning at 6 a.m. and we are hoping he is enjoying camp.  It has been very strange not having him around and hard not being able to talk to him.  I miss him lots :o(.

Lummi and other stuff….

We had our annual visit up to Grandma Pam’s cabin at Lummi and it was another great trip!  The kids were exploring the beach, looking for sea glass, crabs and star fish.  This year was a new first….we saw a dead octopus!  It was pretty small, but very cool.  Seems like there’s always something new to find :o).  Aunt Pam was busy searching for clams to cook for dinner and she collected quite a few.  It is too bad more of us don’t appreciate seafood!  I learned if you add baking soda to their water, they will spit out the sand.  Ainsley and Maggie got squirted while looking at the clams and there was lots of screaming and laughing.  They sure are ugly little things, not too appetizing, but Maggie was brave and tried one and actually ate a couple more.  K ate one, but he ended up spitting it out on the deck.  I really wanted Reggie and Ainsley to give it a try, so I tried one to show them it wasn’t so bad (the texture is the problem for me!).  After a lot of coaxing, Reggie finally tried one and he ended up gagging and spitting it out on his plate.  Guess he didn’t like it!  After that, there was no way Ainsley was going to try it.  He did it because he got a bigger piece of cake (a true Wade!).  

Looking for crabs

We decided to celebrate K’s birthday up there and after dinner we opened presents.  He sure had us rolling with laughter.  We didn’t bring his presents with us from California because they were too big to fit in the car, but I felt bad not doing anything, so I got him 2 Spongebob books and a box of Lucky Charms.  You would have thought he hit the lottery!!!  Then he opened presents from the grandma’s and Rinehardt’s and was so excited.  He told me just yesterday that he loved all the presents he got for his birthday :o).

Hugging his box of Lucky Charms...

 Spongebob Mac n' cheese....he gets a little excited about food....fits right in our family!!!

 4 candles and one to grow on...

The next morning, I went for an early run around the island and saw a buck and doe :o).  After that we headed to the rock beach to search for cool rocks.  We found too many to carry and the plan was to paint them, but I think we might run out of time.  We saw a few seals playing in the water and that was really cool.  Ainsley wanted to see a dolphin and just watched the water for a really long time.  We packed up after lunch and managed to be the first cars on the ferry.  What a view of Mt. Baker….it was beautiful!

The grandma's having a little fun :o).

All in one car....notice the hand in the back.

 The 9th seat.....

The grandma's having some fun :o).

Ryan flew in the next day and we were all so excited to see him!  We celebrated his birthday (Happy 37^th  to the love of my life and best friend ever!) and have been indulging in all kids of party food since.  The kids have been playing on the beach and in the water everyday, as well as spending lots of time in their tree fort.  I’m not sure what they do up there, but they really enjoy themselves!!!

Bubble fun

 Fun with Uncle Wade

We keep trying to get the kids on the knee board, but no luck.  Ainsley seems like she wants to try it (Ryan has been pulling them on the beach).  We still have 2 days left...

We went down to stay the night at the Rinehardt’s on Monday night and headed to the zoo Tuesday morning.  I was surprised we made such good time visiting all the exhibits.  The best was feeding the birds….The bird man gave Liha 5 sticks all at once and no one was prepared, so she had birds all over her and we had no camera ready.  We finally got organized and the animal lover Ainsley wouldn’t do it.  I think watching Aunt Liha was enough for her.  K was the last one in there, hoping one more would come land on his empty stick.

 Reggie's favorite Kamodo Dragon

Yesterday was overcast and a nice, quiet day.  Grandma and Reggie made lavender sticks and Sarah and Stella came over to play on the beach.  It was also the first day we had rain and it was exciting.  Thunder/lightening/wind and pouring down rain.  It was fun!  Lightening struck this hills however and started a forest fire in the late evening.  The wind is blowing the fire away from the lake and we’ve been socked in all day, so we can’t see what is happening.  There was a helicopter that flew over, so I think it is still burning.  It was quite far away and you could see the flames….they must have been a hundred feet in the air…yikes!