Bad News, Prayers Needed

Lani told me when I took DBG back that her, Lani's father had been taken to the emergency room again with heart issues, apparently an aneurysm. So prayers for DBG's PaPaw. He is the glue right now holding things together. If he cannot support the family financially I don't know what will happen. Lani is of course panicked, but luckily her big sister flew in to help out so the burden is not entirely on her shoulders.

Lots of change for Dancing Baby Girl

I have been on the phone almost daily and nightly with DBG's Mom as she goes through quite a trial. I don't know how much I have posted about their situation, but she was a very young mother with no family support who got involved in drugs and had her oldest two children taken into care. We had Spidey and Dancing Baby Girl for awhile, then Spidey had to move because he was such a violent danger to DBG, and we kept DBG for almost 3 years before she was reunited.

To her credit DBG's Mom has been sober ever since they took her kids with a stable job and stable housing. The same could not be said for DBG's Dad, he continued to be in and out of jail on drugs charges, domestic violence and general threatening and aggression. He wound up going straight for about 6 months and the family was together, DBG, her baby brother who I will name Imiki (which is actually his Hawaiian name but not what he goes by), and Mom and Dad (they lost rights to Spidey along the way.

Things seemed to be going well for awhile and with two incomes their little household was making some progress. Unfortunately Dad fell off the straight and narrow and life exploded for Mom and the kids.

Mom is terrified that CPS will take the kids again (their still being an open protection case on DBG) and she is having to face the fact that Dad was actually lying to her and not paying bills, etc. So she is in financial doo doo, is having to leave her home and move back in with DBG's grandpa, Papaw. DBG will have to change daycares and Mom is in danger of losing her job as she has missed so much work and is basically an emotional basket case and not worth much when she does make it to work.

So I have been trying to lead her through the maze of getting more help and the legal issues of protecting the kids from the dad who gets abusive when he is drunk or high. It has not been a good time.

A Balloon Weekend

I have had the pleasure of spending the entire weekend out at our local small plane airfield doing a recruitment booth at the Balloon Festival. My recruitment booth is to interest folks in becoming foster or adoptive parents.

The Balloon Festival has been awesome, over 100 balloons participating in races, take-offs and arrivals and evening glows. I will try to get some pictures up but I don't know why my picture stuff on my computer is not working right now.

I do these festivals (not all balloon, mostly community) from Spring through Fall to get information out in the community about the desperate need for families for children. This one has been particularly pleasant as the weather has been delightful, not hot, not cold, no rain.

I always enjoy getting to know my exhibiting neighbors, it is such a diverse group of folks that are vendors at these festivals. This weekend one of my neighbors is a great family that does of all things temporary airbrush tattoos. Not my thing, but the kids/teens all love it.

Last night at the festival a group of kids who reside at our children's home came to the festival and they were so excited to see my booth representing their home. several of them commented on the pictures I have displayed of successful adoptions and mentioned that soon I would have their picture there, that about broke my heart since I know that most of these kids are the very hardest of the hard to place in families. But we do keep trying.

So I had been talking with my tattoo neighbors all weekend about what I do and they had been very interested. When the kids all came by they offered to do tattoos for all of them for a very reduced price and I just covered it as most of the kids had no money. You should have seen the joy on the kids faces as they got to have whatever temporary tattoo they wanted. Some of them had a hard time picking out just one, but all of them were thankful to the tattoo artists and just having a grand time. One of the boys is an elective mute but talks a lot with his eyes and he even let the tattoo guy touch his skin, which is highly unusual. Then after he got the tattoo he would catch your eye and point to his tattoo and smile with his eyes in such a wonderful way. I was a great thing to be able to help happen for the kids.

So one more little part of the festival this afternoon, then I can break things down and come on home and be exhausted. Of course all my weekend stuff hasn't gotten done, the food shopping, the wash, talking to my husband, the bill paying, you know the usual. I don't even have Monday off, but I am taking a bit of time in the middle of the week. Busy, busy time of year.

P.S. I need to write a very serious note about DBG and her family situation but I need more info before I proceed. Just please pray for DBG and her parents, especially her Dad. Things are going downhill fast and I don't know where the bottom of the slide is.

Banner project

I am about to embark on a big banner project for church. We are dedicating a new space for the children's area called Grace Place. And I am going to make the banner which will hang in the stairwell that goes down to Grace Place. It is fun to get back into some creative endeavors. I love to sew and quilt but my creative juices have just not been there lately and so I have not done much.

But today it is off to the fabric store for fabric and ribbons and braid and sequins and all sorts of stuff. I have this long weekend to get this done so it will be intense.

Dancing Baby Girl is not with us this weekend, she was with us last weekend. She and her parents are going to a luau put on by some long time friends of the family. They will camp out, meet all sorts of cousins and extended family and there will be a roast pig, etc. DBG's mom was pretty excited telling me about it and I am thrilled that they are doing this. DBG's mom is really starting to step out of her victim role and live again. She had been so depressed that just slogging through the basic daily routine was hard, but she is starting to blossom a little and is finding things to do with the kids, the library, the park, etc. She has even met some neighbors and is socializing a little. It makes me feel more optimistic about her finally being able to claim DBG and them making it as a family.

Got a cute call

(This photo is not truly relevant, just a sweet picture of a surprised baby, expressing the emotions I had when I got the cute call)

I don't think I mentioned that last week when DBG was with me she cut her hair, hacked off a huge swath and we had to go get a very short bob that only minimally disguised the damage. (wish I could show you the photo). Well today I get a call from her mom, and she says "I picked DBG up at daycare today and you wouldn't believe it" Yup she had hacked that hair again. Apparently she has a bald spot on her left side now and looks very goofy. Ahhh gotta love those natural consequences.

After I talked to mom for a bit and we chuckled about it, DBG got on the phone and told me she was going to glue her hair back on. She knew she was in trouble because she was trying to talk all sweet to me, "I love you Mama," etc. So since I am not going to see DBG for almost 3 weeks I asked mom to take some pics. It will be almost grown back in by the time I see her again, or at least I hope so. Don't know if I want to be escorting a patchy haired child to the zoo and the swim club!?!

I do love that mom is feeling comfortable enough again to call and chat over something like that. Our trust had eroded badly over an incident that got blown out of proportion by the social workers, but we seem to be getting back onto more solid ground again.

I am hoping that by making myself unavailable (truthfully so with my work ,but we could have arranged something if we had to) for the next 3 weeks that they might do a little more work at family building. I have resolved that I am not really helping them by taking her every weekend, I was selfishly serving my own needs, and convincing myself that DBG needed me. So I am going to be firm and only do every other weekend or even only once a month. It is time for this family to get it together and I really think they can. I wouldn't be risking DBG if I didn't believe that mom had it in her to succeed at this. She just needs a big push, so here I go with a push.

Dance Recital

Yesterday was the grand recital for Kendra's and DBG's studio. It was a big deal for Kendra as she was relinquishing her title as Performer of the Year (POTY) and crowning the new POTY. DBG was also very excited as she was getting a TROPHY!!! I know I just shouted but that is what she has been doing all week. DBG also got the Tiniest tot Award II, she was the tiniest tot last year and this year, that is how young she was last year when she preformed! She is a natural performer and just loves being up on the stage. Not a lick of stage fright or concern. She even knew her dance!

Her parents came and brought her cousin and baby brother. We had a good time. The only down part was that recital spanned nap time and by the time it was all over and she had her trophy clenched in her hands it was time for a big meltdown. It was not pretty, but we managed and she is now back home with her parents and we won't see her (because of our busy schedules) for 3 weeks.

I hope to get Kendra's permission to publish her speech as Performer of the Year here, she did a fabulous job.