"My Story"

WE ARE OFFICIAL...FINALLY...AGAIN!  We are now a foster home with Buckner and I couldn't be more excited!  I spoke to our home developer for a good 30 minutes yesterday reviewing all the different types of placements we could be called for.  The first is legal risk/straight adoption.  That's what we did with H4G...we are submitted and then a family is chosen by the child's case worker.  The second is an emergency foster placement.  That's when the child has been taken from their home and needs a place to go immediately.  These children will not have a plan yet and may be reunified.  There is a possibility of an adoption plan eventually with some, but not a promise.  The third is a planned placement.  This is when a child currently in a foster home is heading toward an adoption plan.  Typically these kiddos will be in a foster home not interested in adoption...that's when we would be approached.  It would be a slightly slower process of introducing us to the child(ren), but much more of a permanent, "forever home", placement. 

I hung up with Amy and 5 minutes later she called back.  I thought she may have forgotten something to tell me.  "Lisa, it's Amy again.  I wanted to talk to you about an emergency placement we just received.  She's 3 weeks old but is a temporary foster placement"!  Yea...it was that fast!  We declined.  She's not old enough to go to day care and we aren't able to take off work for a month with every temporary foster placement. If she were a little older or if it was in the summer (my mom could have helped out), we would have said yes. It was the hardest thing for me to do.  I called Chase and we just didn't feel in our heart this was IT! 

Amy understood completely and that she had another family to call and not to worry!  I was sad to say no, but you would just have to know our situation to understand why we did.  I'm so upset that we couldn't take her home!

We did say yes to a legal risk/adoption placement, though.  We've been submitted to these types of placements before and obviously have never been chosen...but there's a first time for everything.  We probably won't know the outcome of that submission for a few weeks. 

I'm hopeful that our call will come soon.  I know we are headed in the right direction and all I can do is put the rest in God's hands!

Chase and I have also been working on our spiritual and physical health.  We are on day 6 of our "read the Bible in a year" journey!  Yippee!  Only 359 days to go! LOL!  We've also started eating better (no fast food) and working out!  Zoren being here really kept us on a routine and we truly enjoyed it!  Now that she is gone, we went back to our old ways!  Our daily devotions, excercise and cooking dinner has forced us back on a schedule and we are noticing how much more time we are spending together because of it.  We want our home to be as healthy and blessed as possible for the child we'll have someday!

"Hope Now"

So Chase and I decided to become a Facebook Free Family!  I did NOT expect the reaction from people that I got when I announced it!  I've had some people that were supportive, some upset not to see pics anymore and some actually thought it was a stupid idea and "how could you, it's how we keep in touch with friends"!  Yes, that's true...but 90% of my friends don't respond to invites I send them or ever comment or post anything to keep that connection.  What happened to keeping in touch and not just FB stalking eachother (which I am sooooo guilty of)?  Yes, I agree it's difficult to leave FB...which is even more of a reason for me to leave; it's become an addiction.  I feel like I'm always checking it or always starting sentences with "I saw this thing on Facebook..."  I sincerely hope to keep in touch with friends I've reconnected with during my time as a 5 year occupant of Facebook, it would be sad not to!  I will continue to blog, though, and I will start to add many more pictures so that family and friends far away can keep up with us! 

In other Dodson news...Zoren is back with mom.  She went home for 2 weeks over Christmas break and from an 8 year old point of view, it was greener on the other side.  We tried to talk to her about the reasons she wanted to come live with us in the first place and how happy she was with us.  There was no convincing.  She completed her first week back at school and then her mom picked her up on Saturday.  Our house is so quiet now.  I'm going to miss that little girl more than she will ever know.  I didn't realize what an emotional experience it had been until I had to withdrawl her from school.  She is too young to realize it, but our hearts are broken.  We will see her again soon and will work on having some regular visits and things will go back to the way they were.

In foster/adoption news...Buckner submitted our updated home study 2 weeks ago only to realize we were still in the system with our previous agency.  Our home developer FINALLY got a hold of someone last Thursday to take us out of the system and now we wait to be submitted again.  If it's not one thing, it's another.  I wonder if anyone else has gone through this much crap trying to get licensed.  I feel like the only one in the world and our light at the end of the tunnel keeps disappearing.  I'm not thinking to much of it, though.  When I had a completion date in mind, I was so disappointed when it came and went with no progress.  I just see it as it's just not our time yet.  Our baby isn't ready yet. 

Her last night with her cousins

Auld Lane Syne

A new year, a new start!  So many things that I need to do this year!  My resolutions are both realistic and cliche'!  Of course, I resolve to lose weight!  I HAVE to lose weight...for my sanity and for my health.  I'm at my highest weight right now and I can't stand the way it makes me feel.  I'm uncomfortable in my own skin!  YUCK!  I also resolve to drastically work on my relationship with God.  I need Him.  I've always needed Him, I just wasn't willing to give up my life for Him.  "Our life is a gift from God, what we do with it is our gift to God"!  Lastley, I resolve to build my relationship with my husband!  We have a fabulous relationship, but inviting God into our marriage can only make it stronger and happier.

Of course, I'm hopeful that 2012 will bring in a new addition...or 2, to our home.  Since we are foster to adopt, we may have several children pass through our home in 2012!  One more reason for us to strengthen our relationship with God.  We will have these children because of Him. 

I thought it would be fun to create a timeline of events that have occurred each year since Chase and I have been together...this should be interesting!

2007 - moved to Nashville, got engaged
2008 - got married...twice thanks to Hurricane Ike
2009 - diagnosed with cancer, became CANCER FREE, moved to The Woodlands
2010 - lost my pawpaw, began our foster/adoption journey
2011 - lost Chase's pawpaw, moved to Port Neches, Zoren came to live with us
2012 - ???????

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!

(our 80's theme NYE party)