Foster to Adopt

For those of you who actually read this, this is not public knowledge...yet. Granted here it is on the big ol' internet but who really reads this anyways? Not many without a FB link; so I am not worried. :)

However, it is no secret we just haven't made it public knowledge yet since we are just starting.

Starting what you ask? 

Albert and I have officially decided to get our foster license so we can become foster parents with the goal of fostering to adopt a little girl. We recently met with my step-brother Andrew, who is the founder of and attorney at The Children's Law Center of Washington and his wife, my sister-in-law, Michele who is the Director of Local Orphan Care at their church to learn about our options. As you can see they know a bit about adoption and foster care! :) We are pretty lucky to have them in our corner for support and to give us answers to any and all questions we have!

We have decided to do foster care instead of straight out adoption, for a few reasons but one because of money. It can be very expensive to adopt, very. So we will hopefully adopt through foster care. Though adopting through foster care can be very emotionally "expensive". The state does everything it can to reunite kids with their birth parents and/or relatives, for good reason. So there is a good chance we may have more than one child in our home, living with us, then being reunited with their family. We are hoping to be lucky enough to be able to adopt the first one! We also know this could be potentially hard on Antonio having a kid(s) come and go but we are hoping it won't be more than one. 

We have decided to go through the state versus an agency. There are a couple agencies in our area but from what Andrew and Michele told us, both are having their own "troubles" right now. A lot of turnover of employee's, understaffing/overworked etc and may not be any more help than the state would be. So instead of paying an agency and not getting any more help than from the state, we will go through the state. We are planning on/hoping to accept a little girl, maybe 6 months to 4 years old, younger than Antonio and preferably young enough to not have been in other homes. Fingers crossed. Antonio has been wanting a little sister for awhile now so I am sure he will be thrilled. Well, maybe only until he realizes he will have to share everything including us and our attention! :)

We have quite a bit of training to do before we can even submit our application for our license so it won't happen real fast. Unfortunately the training classes aren't held very frequently and not always at times we can attend. I am hoping we can have our license by the end of the year but we'll see, we are after all, going through the state. 

I am thinking about creating a "group" on FB and include family and a few friends who I think will want to know/care that we are doing this and post links to this blog when there are updates/news regarding it. You'll know soon enough if I do! :) In the meantime please pray that we are able to complete the appropriate training quickly so we can move forward on the process! Albert and I are both excited to do this! 

Part time

So far SOOOOOOO good!

Last week was my first week of being part time and it was so good, besides the fact Antonio came down with croup Friday night and we were plagued with it the rest of the weekend. :(  Poor guy, he is still struggling with it. Thursday we hung out at home, cleaned and did laundry which felt great because  I then had 3 more days home with him. Friday morning we went to the Children's Museum, which is probably where he got croup, and had a blast... and we still had two more days! :)  On the flip side of Antonio getting croup it didn't feel like the whole weekend was shot, we had already had two days of fun together!

This week was nice too.

Granted, he is still fighting the nastiness, we had a family day Thursday at the Zoo and it was beautiful! Albert now works Friday-Tuesday so Thursday is family day! The worst thing about this week is that I have to work tomorrow, Saturday. Boo! Unfortunately, through the Summer I will be working one Saturday each month in our Bellevue location. Double boo! Oh well!

I look forward to more short weeks and long weekends with Antonio this Summer! Spending time in the sun and going on adventures together, almost sounds to good to be true! :)

Boston

Wow. Just, wow.

How does that happen? In the sense of, why? Of course at this point there are, and maybe there never will be, no answers to that question. But hearing about the explosions/bombings hits so close to home; I mean that could have been us. In the sense that so many times have Antonio and I stood at that finish line, with hundreds of others, cheering on strangers while watching for Albert to come in to view. So many people cheer the runners on. It is part of the fun of going, seeing other people conquer such a big feat. For some, it is practically old habit, for some though, it is their first race and they are so exhausted yet so proud. The energy at the finish line is so contagiously euphoric and emotional. It really is.

Last November, Albert ran his first full marathon. Antonio and I got there way to early. We got to see the half marathons finish and the start of the full runners cross. We were not the only ones that were there early; there were plenty of people that were there as long as we were. Like a few reports I have read said, around the 4-4.5 hour mark is when the majority of the full runners start to cross and when the spectator volume starts to increase. Its generally when the not-so-serious runners cross. The ones that have more family and friends there to cheer them on. It becomes a fun and happy family event.

That is when this "bomber" set of these explosions. They knew that was when the bigger crowds, runners and spectators, would be there; they knew. That is what is so scary. It wasn't some freak "bomber" that randomly set them off; this person(s) knew the best time. Spectators are so focused on the runners and finding "their" person before they cross that they are almost unaware of all the people around them. You are most certainly not expecting a bomb to go off.

They say the running community is a tight knit community and I believe it. I am not a marathon runner but I run. I know how hard it can be to keep running even when you want to stop yet you keep going. However, I can't begin to know how hard running a half, let alone full marathon is.  In case you aren't familiar with the Boston Marathon, you have to run a certain amount of "qualifying" races in good times order to run the Boston. Just anyone can't just sign up for it. These runners have worked/trained so hard for so long to be able to run it. I see how hard Albert trains for his half's and full's and I know it is even harder to qualify for the Boston race. So these people are good runners. To run 26 miles only to have a bomb go off right at the finish, to be re-routed away from the finish line or worse, lose a limb after all that work would be so incredibly devastating. Forget the fact a bomb(s) really did go off just those other reasons alone; I can't even imagine. It just yanked at my heart strings similar to Sandy Hook yet in such a different way.

Then there are the spectators, family members and friends, even complete strangers that show up just to cheer on and support the runners that have also been seriously hurt. The 8 year old who died. Man; it is all to much to fathom. Again, that could have been us. That could happen at any race. I can't even; I don't even want to wrap my head around that. Albert and I are both a bit traumatized by this tragedy for the same and yet different reasons.  Albert already mentioned he's not sure he wants Antonio and I to be a the finish line of his next race where I am not sure I even want him running another race. However, we can not live in fear because yes, it could happen to us. But we could also be killed in a car collision but we still drive.

A side note: For some reason I am bothered by all the "Pray for Boston" stuff. Yes, pray for Boston as a city and for all the people that live there but a lot of the people there are not from Boston, let alone the US. Pray for Boston and everyone involved. Pray for all the children that were there to merely cheer on their Mom or Dad and know have witnessed a horrific event. All that blood, screaming, loud noises and God forbid, random limbs. That would haunt me for awhile imagine an innocent kid. I am so thankful again, that Antonio is to young to have to talk to him about this. If he knew or comprehended any of this, he would be so scared to have Albert run a race.

It still shakes me a bit though and I am sure it will be very much on my mind at Albert's next race. I will maybe be a bit more aware of my surroundings than normal and hold Antonio a bit closer at the finish line but we will be there. I still wouldn't miss it. On my next run (hopefully tomorrow), I will run with all those runners and spectators (hurt physically and/or emotionally) heavily on my mind and be extremely grateful that I have both my feet and legs to be able to run on.

So pray for Boston and everyone involved.

Anniversary weekend

March 27th 2004 I got married.

That was 9 years ago and trust me, there were a few times I thought for sure we wouldn't make it nine years let alone another day. But sure enough we fought for "us" and luckily we won! :) We are going on our tenth year and I would like to say we are better than we have even been!

About a month or two ago Albert asked if we had plans for our anniversary and of course at that point we didn't. So he asked if he could plan it and I anxiously agreed. He asked my parents if Antonio could stay the night with them and of course they agreed. So Albert planned an overnight in Seattle for he and I so we could "just spend time with each other" as he put it.

It was so good; one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. We stayed downtown on the waterfront, about a block or two down from Pike Place. It was perfect. We walked all around downtown and even did a bit of shopping. It was so nice to do things at our speed, on our terms. It felt so good to "reconnect" and spend solid quality time together; we needed it. We missed Antonio so much but we knew he was having a good time with my parents (and he was). It reminded me of how very happy and thankful I am that I married him. I am so blessed to have both of them in my life.

Life is good....for now. Ha.