All That Worrying

On Friday we had our quartly inspection by our licening agency.  As I had posted in a previous post, the state implemented new rules on foster parenting in February.  Yesterday’s inspection was the first since the new rules were put in place.  Also, yesterday’s inspection was the first done by our new worker.  Needless to say, we were a little antixious with the scheduled visit.

Before the worker arrived we had a few tiding up items on our to-do list.  We ran around like ants getting everything in place.  We double checked our new first-aid kit and took down the garden lights, checked our fire extinguisher and smoke detectors ahead so if there was an issue we could fix it.  We both inspected the window above the toilet and agreed it had to be ok (otherwise we are going to have to put another fence around our pool).

About five minutes before the scheduled inspection their was a ding-dong at our front door (ahead of schedule my type of person)  It was a new face, our new licening agency worker.  We exchanged greetings and went to the dining room table.  Then came her first request.  “I need you insurance and registration”.  Simple enough request except, we have have given them that already back in January.  The thought in my head was “are we going to have to duplicate everything we have all ready done because we have a new worker?”  I got up and head to the cars.  After getting the requested registrations I came back in and Cheryl is communicating my thought ( without me saying anything)

From there we talked about the kiddos.  The things happening with their cases.  The process of adoption of LR and the upcoming court date for B-Rad and Nat.  We talked about services and needs.  After about 10 minutes things were moving and it felt a lot less like we were going to need to repeat everything.

We got up to do the inspection.  First thing on the list was the master bed.  We looked at our locked bedroom window. Then we moved on to the toilet window.  She agreed the window would work. YES!!! We moved to the kitchen where we checked the water temp, looked at the cabinet Grandpa Jerry had installed a lock on for us and quickly moved along.  Into the play room-den.  She loved some of our remodeling ideas we have.  Then into the kiddos bathroom and into the kiddos rooms.  We asked if she wanted to see the first aid kit and she said that she did not need to look in it.

From there she said that she would be in contact to schedule our next inspection for the next quarter.  After she left Cheryl look at me and I said, “all that worrying”.  We had built several mountains out of the mole hills in front of us.

Thank you for taking time to read.  Coming in future weeks new YouTube videos, updates from court, and anything else that comes up.  Check out our website. http://www.oaksacorns.com  It is in its infancy but I plan on making it our central hub of for all things Covert family happenings.  Also we have started a new Facebook page http://fb.me/msg/oakacorns which, like our other social media offerings it will be another arm our baby puzzle journey.

Changing Winds

Today we had both state workers visit our home.  

The first was for LR.  We spent about an hour filling out paperwork with the worker.  She described the process to us as what to expect going forward.  The worker still has reports to finish and also she will be petitioning the courts soon.  At the end of the conversation we asked when adoption would happen and she said most likely at the beginning of June.  The process seems to take forever.  Still, I think can can see a light at the end of the puzzle.

  
The second worker came for B-Rad and Nat.  We talked about what to expect at the court case coming up in April.  She told us that the littles had a new baby brother born today.  She also told us that the case findings would most likely take two months to come out.  Like all things foster, it is slow and methodical.  No worries, Cheryl and I are not heading any where.

Thanks for reading.  

If you are interested we have a new website : http://www.oaksacorns.com

Also, if you are on Instagram follow our page @baby_puzzle

YouTube video 

Spring is Springing

Yesterday at 3:30 I officially entered my “spring break” from work.  Later this evening Spring will officially begin.  With time off of work comes the “I will do it on break list” (kinda like New Years resolutions but in March). One of the things that I have placed on this list is to be more dedicated to keeping our baby puzzle blog updated.  No big updates today, but there should be a few coming down the pike in the next as we meet with both state workers, our living agency, and a potion attorney all in the next six days.  In the mean time I have uploaded two short videos to You Tube.  Thanks for you support and thanks for reading

1. B-Rad’s video
2. Little Nat’s video
3. Bonus: LR’s video

Quick Updates

As the month of March rolls into its second full week, it it occurs to me that our baby puzzle updates have been short coming as of late.  That is simply because there has been little change to our cases.  We are still waiting for an adoption date for LR.  We should hear something soon.  B-Rad and sister’s court date is April 11.  

The kiddos are doing well.  We are learning lots of words.  Personalities are coming through.  We love seeing the little  changes that make them who they are.  We will keep everyone up to date as soon as we hear.

Below is a quick YouTube of the Littles and their 2016.  Thank you for reading.

http://youtu.be/wC_R4QQiXyM

Turkey Tuesday Thanks

As we prepare for the holiday coming this Thursday, it leads me to be introspective about the things we have experienced and are thankful for.  2015 has been another unique year.  I am thankful for many things and I am sure that if I sat listing them all it may sound like everything in my life.  Here are three things for our “Turkey Tuesday”.

Since last Thanksgiving, Cheryl and I have said goodbye to two of our three placements, hello to two new kiddos and grown closer to our three current placements.  I am very thankful for the many gifts that each child gives us.  They all have their own personalities, but in their own unique way they show us what it means to love and be loved.  They grow and discover the world around them and as they do they remind me of the simple things in our lives that are just as important as the more complicated ones.  Seeing the world through a child’s eye has a certain level of innocence and can un-complicate a complicated decision without even trying.  I am very thankful for our three little ones with us and the two littles back home with their families.

My second Turkey Tuesday Thanks is from back in April. I spent 16 days in the hospital and another two weeks on “couch rest”.  During that time a lot of the slack I left behind had to be picked up.  Some of the slack was by family, some by co-workers and a whole lot by my loving wife.  Cheryl was a rock who went to work, came home and took care of our kiddos and found time to take care of her emotionally fragile husband.  I am thankful for the family and friends who lent her a hand in taking care of the kiddos, of the house, the dogs, and her.  Cheryl went to bat for me, making sure the doctors were on track, she slept on hard chairs and she held me up.  This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for all of the slack pickers in my time of need.

The third Turkey Tuesday Thanks is for the many coming changes that Cheryl and I anticipate in the coming year.  We feel like we will have a more clear understanding what our “baby puzzle” picture will look like.  We have been working feverishly to set ourselves up for our “domestic dad” plan and we will have a more active role in forming the people our littles are becoming.  Every year there is change and I know that nothing is ever static.  Having a chance to live out our goals and our plans makes me thankful.

So, from the Covert’s house and my own blogging desk, I want to wish you a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving.  And that you may remember to remember the many blessings in your life.  Happy Thanksgiving.

One Year with LR

One year ago today LR came to live with us.

We did not know her, we did not know where she had been and who she had seen.  We did not know her personality.  Her had not experienced her laugh.  We had not experienced her active tendencies.    She came to our home and changed our year and our lives.

Today we still live in limbo.  Today she has a grasp of our heart.  Today Cheryl and I wish her a very happy one year fostering anniversary.  We are very excited to see what the next year holds.

It is in the Little Things

On facebook today I saw a post of a baby climbing on the top of a fence.  The caption read something like, “this is what happens to the baby when I am watching them and also trying to make dinner”. (I may have mis-quoted that, but it is the gist of the message).  Many week day evenings I find myself trying to balance the time with the kiddos with the ever pressing need to feed, bathe, change and all of the other little things that goes along with caring for two one-year-olds and a three year old.

Most days after work looks something like this… leave work right at 3:30 with a slew of stares from fellow co-workers wondering why I leave right at quttin’ time.  I can’t stay any later, the three young minds deserve contact time with their parenting unit.  Not an excuse, just my priority.

Onto the road down the 303 around to the 10 and into the front doors of daycare by about 3:55.  I go to pick up B-Rad (the oldest).  The “teacher” unloads a few facts about B-Rad’s day and will give me one, or two or three items to take home.  Love the keep sakes, but also get dirty clothes and a sheet about his day.  On a good day I can get B-Rad to carry his few items, on other days he is not in the mood.  Onto the two girl’s room.  We enter after the slow paced walk of B-Rad (no he does not normally walk slow, but for some reason down that hallway he moves like a snail).  LR will almost always run to me and ask to be picked up.  Our other girl walks holding B-Rad’s hand.  As we start to go their teacher will hand me two or four or six things of the girl’s to carry and unload a few facts about their day.  On the good days B-Rad will help carry and LR loves to hold her paper.  On other days I may have up to four plastic bags of things and papers in my hand.  Any way you dice it up we all walk to the van.

Getting three littles in a car is a balancing act.  B-Rad is usually good about standing and waiting while I place one of the girls into their seat.  The other girl is the trick in all of this.  Most of the time we come out to “LR’s side” and I place our other girl on the floor of the van while I buckle in LR.  If it happens to be the other side I place LR on the floor of the van and buckle in sister.  LR is not one to patiently wait and by the time all of the buckles have been buckled LR has taken out DVDs or moved the garage door opener or the remote or tried to drive the van.  Once both girls have been buckled into their seats I will turn my attention to B-Rad.  Almost always he will have gotten himself into his seat.  On really good days he will have also started buckling himself in, however more times than not, this process has not yet begun.  B-Rad throws a large fir each time he needs to be buckled in.  Life returns to a bit of normalcy once we have started the car (and more importantly the DVD).

We drive home back onto the 10, off on Sarivel and up Cotton to our home.  The process of getting out of the car seems much less cumbersome to me… probably because it is happening inside our garage and not in a parking lot where there are lots of other dangers.  Once inside, the baby gates to the kiddos room and into the kitchen go up so I can feed the dogs.  At this point LR has a mini meltdown on most days.  I have tried to let the kiddos into the dog feeding area, but it is shared with too many breakable/pull over on top of one’s self/hot/dog doors in the area.  A little meltdown is better than the alternative.

We are usually in our front room by about 4:15-4:25.  We spend the next hour or so playing, reading, dancing, or what ever comes our way.  Around 5:40 I start dinner.  I have tried this process lots of different ways, but my favorite and least dramatic is getting all of the kiddos into their high chairs.  Giving the kiddos all drinks.  While they start on that I start the oven or the stove top or both.  Once I have that going I bring around fruit to the kiddos (usually bananas).  I go with the back and forth or a little prep and a little interaction so that dinner can be ready for Cheryl when she get home around 6:10.

Once dinner has been eaten Cheryl and I tag team on bath time.  All of the kiddos in the bath, we scrub from end to end.  LR likes to stand in the bath tub which usually results LR slipping into the bath tub.  When she is sitting she often times tries to drink from the bath water.  B-Rad has an affinity for getting soap in his eyes.  No matter how we wash him or poor the water to rinse it always seems to happen.  Those fifteen or so minutes comes through the spare bathroom like a hurricane.  Water all over the floor, but we get clean kiddos.

Changed for bed and it is out to the front room.  Cheryl has commented to me that it is really hard because on many evenings she sees them for less than an hour.  Those minutes after all of the daycare, the driving, the fussing, the eating, the bathing and the changing are the minutes we get to really show the kiddos how much we care for them.

It is in the little things.  The balancing act seems like if you tried to stop and just listen it would fly right passed us.  The other evening, before Cheryl had gotten home and before I had started dinner we had one very precious moment.  Cheryl had called and LR was in my lap.  I answered and after a minute I held the phone up to LR’s ear.  Cheryl must have said something and in the clearest of voices LR said, “hi.”  It is those moments that we treasure so much.  The other things are just things that we get through during the day, but those little moments can last a life time.

Cheryl and I plan to make a few changes in the coming months so we can remove the “hour in the morning and hour in the evening” life and keep the little moments.  We are looking at rearranging the other things in our life so I can stay home to raise the kiddos until it is time for them to start kinder.  Lots of sacrifice.  Our baby puzzle has seen lots of changes to it from when we start this blog.  We are excited to continue down this journey.

Curveball

We had a typical monthly visit from our worker last Friday.  This was the first time she had come to our home since the kiddos have come into our care (46 days).  She had to meet earlier than I could make it home for the whole meeting.  By the middle of her visit, I walked into the on going conversation.  By that point the worker had expressed to Cheryl that she need to know by September 8th weather we would adopt the kiddos.  As I said, we have only known them for about six weeks.  We have done very little in the way of discerning and have been concentrating a lot more on LR’s case.  We spent a lot of time over the weekend talking about it.  We know we can’t force a feeling in that short amount of time.  Instead, we are going to respond that we are open to building a relationship with the kiddos and are willing to consider making adoption.  We thought we had more than a year to make this decision with how the courts had been talking.  Changes may be on the way for the Covert’s because if our response is not what the case worker is looking for than she may disrupt placement.  Never a  dull moment.

A Change

One month ago the court hearing was pushed back one month, today we had a hearing for LR.  A change in the case plan from reunification to severance and adoption was issued by the judge.

Cheryl reported that LR’s dad’s attorney requested to be dropped from the case which was not granted.  The judge believes that the attorney’s is still needed for the pre-trial conference.  That attorney reported that the father’s wishes are to have his rights severed.  LR’s mom’s attorney stated that mom does not share the sentiment.  The pre-trial conference was set for September 21^st @ 10am and the judge indicated that if both parents do not come that day he may sever at that time.

Cheryl and I plan to take the day off together.  Nothing is set in stone about the future of this case.  However August 24^th, 2015 is a change for LR’s life.  We ask that all of our friends, family and faithful readers pray for God’s guidance in the coming month and for whatever is in store for us.

Glow Worm

The picture I am sharing is of a glow worm given to our first placement by grandma Becky.  It was for the 3 month old in hopes he would sleep through the night.  He loved it for a time as it would glow him to sleep.  As the months went on the glow worm was slowly phased out .  Our first placement went home last September.   This morning in an attempt to keep LR from squirming off the changing table, I gave the glow worm to LR.  She played with it.  Once done getting changed, LR grasped onto to it and held it like a little baby.  I couldn’t help but think of our first placement as LR laughed all the way to the breakfast table.  Our kiddos come in and out of our lives at an unpredictable times, Cheryl and I still get to keep the memories.  Happy Sunday everyone.

Just a reminder to our friends, family and faithful readers, we have an instagram account for the kiddos.  I am going to be changing the setting to private.   If you are not following us yet just request and we will add you.  The account is @baby_puzzle

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