Disappointment

Well...we don't know what we are to learn from this very difficult period in our lives but there must be something. We went to court today and are pretty bummed about the results. Marissa, the birth mom who told us she would like us to adopt Shane has changed her mind. She now wants Shane back after speaking to her attorney. Her attorney asked her if she could handle not having Shane, not taking him to school or waking up with him and that got her thinking. Next court date is April 8th. We are pretty sad about what happened today. We are trying to stay positive but it's extremely hard. Thanks again to those who fasted, prayed and kept us in their thoughts. I appreciate everyone's text messages this morning as well.

The big day!

Tomorrow is our big day in court. We have put in to get De Facto parent status which if granted will give us the ability to have an attorney present to represent us and give us a voice in the court room. We have had Shane in our home for exactly 14 months and our attorney doesn't see any reason why we shouldn't be granted De Facto status. We have also learned that the county social worker is not recommending reunification any longer. Shane's Mom has decided that she will relinquish her rights and allow us to adopt Shane but Shane's dad is still trying to fight to get him. So in court tomorrow they will decide to either give Shane's dad 6 more months to change or terminate reunification rights. If they are terminated then he will have a chance to appeal which can prolong the process. But we could still be moving towards adoption. Either way we have been told that the process remaining could take about a year before an adoption would be finalized. We haven't put too many details out for everyone to know but we appreciated all of those who prayed and fasted on our behalf. It is much appreciated. We have awesome family and support systems that we love and appreciate. We will keep everyone updated after court tomorrow. Keep us and little Shane in your prayers tonight!!

Foster care blues

Most of you know that Daniel and I are doing foster care right now. We have an awesome little guy who just turned one. We have had him since he was 4 months old. Since we have had him, we've seen him sit up, crawl, walk, say mama and dada and much much more. He has been a joy to have in our home. He is finally in a stable home with a mom and dad to give him the necessary love and needs he requires. So why am I writing about this?
Today is Shane's first visit with his Mom without Daniel or I there with him. Talk about stress and anxiety. Foster care is not for the weak. We (more like i've) have really had to put my controlling cap on lately. We are dealing with an 18 year old woman who wants her son back but will use manipulation to make you feel sorry for her. And when she doesn't get her way, she throws a fit, just like a child. Should I be mad...yes, but really when we take a look at this young woman's life she is really doing this because it is how she survives through life. It's the only way a girl who grew up without a father knows to act to get attention.  It's so frustrating to witness this and then on top of it to see how our social services and even our social workers cater to the birth parents like they are the victim. I thought this poor kid being exposed to drugs was the victim...
So they want me to drive Shane out to the ghetto to his birth moms house and my question is why?? Isn't this just giving the birth mom who is supposed to be proving she can take care of herself and this child another easy way out? Who cares if she has to take a bus and a train to see him. She put herself in this situation, no? And I will say that if anyone is wondering if they should do foster care I say no! This system treats foster families horrible. I say shame on you California for the reunification process. If these parents who neglect, expose to dangerous situations, and mistreat these poor kids and then you want to reunify them with their parents just because she said she did a parenting class how is that showing they are off drugs or have changed their ways? If I disclosed the things our birth parents do that are still showing they are not fit and you disregard it, what is your problem? What is wrong with our legal system? Why is it embracing reunification when the parents are absolutely
unfit? Just called me frustrated...

Our little guy

These two have become buddies. Cody can make Shane laugh harder than anyone. And Shane will look at pictures of Cody around the house and get a big smile on his face. It's absolutely heart warming to see these two interact together.

Little ones from above

I apologize for those reading, our computer died a couple of weeks ago so I can't post any pictures right now but we have become foster parents through an agency that works with the county. On Friday we were at knotts berry farm and I received a call telling us that there was a 4 month old baby named Shane who needs a home to stay at. They needed someone that night, as in a couple of hours. We gladly took the opportunity and we have sweet little Shane in our home. It's been awesome. We don't know much at all about his situation and why he was taken from his birth parents but we don't really need that info to fall in love with him. Shane loves Cody and its reciprocated. Cody can make him laugh harder than anyone else has been able to. It's been so cute to see Cody interact and do silly things to make Shane laugh. We appreciate our families and friends who have given us things and have been so open to Shane. But really, who couldn't love a baby?? We hate to wish harm or ill things towards his birth parents but we really hope he can stay with our family forever. He is an angel from above and I know as long as he is with us he is safe and loved.

Our October 2012

This past month has been a busy one. To start off Daniel passed his testing and academy training to become the fire engine's engineer. So watch out, he will be driving the engine and trucks now. He is just waiting for a position to open up or someone to retire which will be soon. It's just a waiting game at this point...as are so many things in our life right now. 

 Next, Cody has been involved in Cub Scouts for a few months now. They had their annual rain gutter regatta competition. Cody did very well. He lasted pretty far into the competition. His cousin ended up winning. 

 And of course we carved pumpkins. We ended up having a few extra pumpkins due to a camp out the boys went to where they didn't use their pumpkins there. Cody hates cleaning out the pumpkin but he did really well carving his own pumpkin this year. 

 We spent Halloween night with the neighborhood families. It's kind of a tradition of ours. These are a couple of the boys. Cody was a ninja this year but he wouldn't wear the mask/head covering. 

 The last stop was Grandma Titel's house. Since she lives so close the whole gang came along. 

 My exciting event was our annual ward craft night. Autumn and I planned the whole thing. There were 4 crafts and a lot of painting on our part but fun was had by all. We had a good turnout and everyone enjoyed the crafts and socializing with each other. 

I have the Relief Society Christmas party in 5 weeks. I've been able to get some good people on my committee so I am sure all will go well. I will be pleasantly stressed for the next month as the Relief Society Christmas party is the biggest event of the year. No pressure of course!  :) This is a busy time of year for everyone. We are debating on a trip to Utah for Thanksgiving. We still haven't decided. 

The day that still brings tears to my eyes

Remember all who lost their lives that day! 

In Loving Memory of this cute man who is my Grandpa Bell. He passed away a couple of weeks ago and he will be incredibly missed! We were able to attend his funeral in Idaho. 

One mission accomplished!

I am happy to say that Daniel passed his engineer testing. He put in soooo much time studying and practicing what he had to perform for the test. He will now be driving and pumping water on the fire engine. He will be starting the training academy August 10th. We are excited for the change and are happy for Daniel's two good friends who also passed the testing.  
As for the whole adoption thing we are just in the waiting phase. Not too much to report there.
We were able to get away last week for a couple of days. We went to Las Vegas. We stayed at a family friendly timeshare. We had a great time. They had a bunch of pools and jacuzzis and also a lazy river. It was great!!

old fashion summer

This summer began with a squirt gun fight...

 moved on to lazy mornings with the dogs...

 and then on to a water balloon fight!

 ending with Daniel dumping a bucket of water on Cody and heading over to Grandma's to swim...

our first week of Summer!!

We did it!!

We graduated second grade this week!! I say we because I feel like I learned a lot not so much academically but what a second grader goes through emotionally and academically. We forget so much as we grown up. I am so proud of my little man though. He worked pretty hard this year to get up to speed. His teacher was so proud of his accomplishments. He couldn't have done it without her patience and encouragement. She was wonderful.

 I like to make a big deal of Cody's graduation from each grade so that he knows that we are proud of him and that he should be proud of himself for doing something great. He is holding up two fingers to signify that he graduated second grade.

We are so proud of our little man!! 

Next...

We decided that our next step is to Foster/Adopt. We were very hesitant with the thought of fostering, with all of the stigmas out there. Our caseworker suggested that we look at their website and see if we are interested. We decided to go to an orientation where they explain everything in detail and have others there who have already foster/adopted to talk to you and answer questions. We were very worried about getting a child taken away but after the orientation we felt like we should try this route also. We still are hoping to get a newborn or at least no older than a 2. We've turned in a bunch of paperwork and just have to complete their specific training and then we will be on their list as well as LDSFS. We will see what happens next...

Other than that we've just been up to our normal routines.

Chiefs award

Last night Daniel and I attended a nice awards banquet that the Santa Ana Police were hosting and giving awards to people that have done commendable things in and for the city. Daniel was given a Chiefs Award along with the rest of his SWAT Medic team for their help on SWAT call outs. Due to them going Orange County and Santa Ana's financial problems, the City eliminated the SWAT Medic program. Daniel was kind of bummed but understood. Things are still kind of crazy getting ready for the transition on the 20th. For now Daniel will be staying in the city of Santa Ana working with other guys that he knows but after about 6 months or so he could get moved somewhere else. But just knowing that he still has a job is comforting in these crazy economic times. As a side note, in Forbes magazine Santa Ana is known as one of the safest cities in the U.S.- who would have thought?!!

We had a fun Easter with family this year.

Hope everyone had a great Easter too!

When I saw this on Pintrest it completely expresses the way Daniel and I have been feeling. For quite some time Daniel and I tried to have another baby. It's definitely a roller coaster of emotions and so was giving up. You see many of your friends and family members getting pregnant and having more kids which I am grateful for because I get more nieces and nephews but it kind of pulls on your heart strings. There are many times you hide tears and feel guilty for not being able to give your one and only child siblings. Meanwhile, your child wonders why he doesn't have a brother or sister when all of his cousins and friends do. You have to go into why Mommy's tummy doesn't work anymore while trying to hold back tears.

Daniel and I have thought of it long and hard, prayed and fasted, consulted with experts, friends and LDS family services and have decided to try to adopt. We know that we will be in for another roller coaster ride of emotions but hopefully this one will have a happier ending. We are ever so grateful to have Cody already and love him more than words can express. He is one of the reasons we want to have another baby/child in our family. We hope you will keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we are now officially approved and will just be waiting to be picked.

Well, it's official. If you haven't heard yet Santa Ana fire will be no more as of April 20th. All of Santa Ana's guys will be picked up and hired by Orange County Fire Authority. The city of Santa Ana was in pretty bad shape, money wise (who isn't now days!) so instead of lay-offs they agreed to let OCFA come in and take over services. Santa Ana has had it's own Fire Department for 128 years so it's kind of sad to the guys. I guess OCFA really wanted to get Santa Ana a part of their county territory. I won't complain one bit we are just glad that Daniel has a job. He will be staying in Santa Ana to work but he will be at a different station. The sad part is he may never see some of the guys he's worked with for the past 8 years. There is going to be a lot of adjustments in the city and personal. This has been a major stressor at home (mostly with me) and it's good to finally be in the loop about what's going on. So I guess I will becoming a proud OCFA wife. It's going to take a while to get use to that.

So crazy and 8!

It has taken me awhile to get pictures up of what we have been doing around our home. The major thing was that Cody turned 8 and was baptized! He was very excited. A lot of planning went into the baptism and not only by me. A good friend helped out a ton on invitations and decor. We were also able to bring our next door neighbor, Debbie. She was just baptized Catholic so it was nice to have her there supporting Cody. We thank all of you who attended as well. He received his first pair of scriptures and his first suit that he likes to wear because after all, he wants to be just like Daddy!  

 After the baptism we got home and quickly began setting up for the next event, Cody's birthday party. Yes, I am crazy enough to do both events on the same day!
He wanted an Angry Birds party. I was able to find a lot of ideas online. But one of the big jobs was taping a bunch of Angry Bird faces to balloons. Luckily I had my Mom, sister and two sister-in-laws there to help out. I really appreciated all of you who helped out. I took on more than I should have.

A few other things that have been taking place are:
 Daniel finished some cement jobs with the help of a ward friend, he put in a new gate and built a shed in our backyard. Ah, ya know, just a few small jobs...He was pretty busy but he also had the help of his Dad, brothers and some friends.

 Me on the other hand, I was busy painting Cody's room and with the help of my handy-woman sister, Autumn, we managed to put a bunk bed together. Cody absolutely loves his bunk bed. He has no problems going to sleep anymore. It's funny but he actually likes going to bed now. I am not going to complain!! All the work was worth it! Since Cody doesn't have any siblings we've discussed sleep- overs since he has the extra bed. I don't know if I am ready for that yet...

We would really like to say thanks again to all of you who came and supported Cody. It meant a lot to us. We had a lot of fun with everyone.
I am so glad that my parents and brother and sister-in-law, Emily could come from Utah. To my other sister-in-law, Krystal, I am glad that the plans worked out so that you could be in town for the festivities even tho Derek couldn't make it! I love seeing your cute family.

Ouch

Poor Cody had to have a tooth extracted this week. He did really well and laid there in the chair for over an hour while the dentist took the one tooth out and filled in another cavity. But it's not over...we have to go back in two weeks for 2 more fillings.

My new toy!

This was one of my Christmas presents and I absolutely love it! Everyone knows I am a fitness fanatic so I like to try new fitness things. If anyone is a runner I highly recommend this for keeping track of calories burned and miles ran. I have been using it when running on my treadmill and it's giving me much more accurate info than my treadmill does. Also doing P90X and enjoying that too.

LOVE IT!!