February Save the Date

I wrote in January about our church's Save the Date challenge for this year, so I thought I'd share our February dates. 

Date #1 was a dinner at home.  David started his new job earlier this month, so on the first day of his job I told him to pick what he wanted me to make for dinner.  He chose the Sour Cream Enchiladas that I made from our recipe list and we put the kids to bed early and enjoyed an evening together.

Date #2 was our Valentine's Date.  My mom watched the kids the Saturday of Valentine's weekend and we enjoyed a night out.  We have gone to Outback for Valentine's several years because we really enjoy their special.  After dinner we had planned to see a movie, but decided we didn't want to spend our time together in a movie theater--so we spent the rest of the evening just driving around and talking.

For Date #3 we watched a marriage conference together from our couch.  Matt and Lauren Chandler hosted a marriage conference the weekend of February 19 and if you paid for the registration you can watch the sessions on demand through May--so we watched a few sessions Friday night and will watch the rest throughout the next few months. 

Date #4 was another cozy night at home.  It had been cold and rainy, so we got Black Eyed Pea to go and enjoyed dinner together after the kids were asleep.

I love every date with this guy--whether we go out or stay in--and it's been fun to focus on some specific date nights together this year.

A week of Appointments

One of the things foster parents frequently talk about is how many appointments are involved for foster children.  Having worked with foster families before, I was aware of a lot of this which is part of the reason we decided I should stay home with the kids--so that I could be available for all of the appointments.  

Since we've had the kids it seems like every other week is very busy.  They see their biological parents every other week on 2 separate days and for some reason those weeks also tend to be when everything else gets scheduled.  David and I were eating breakfast Friday morning, talking about the week and I decided to write out all of the foster care related phone calls and appointments we had last week.  Just thought I'd share a glimpse into this crazy world.

Monday
3:30 3 people from CASA visit the house to meet us and the kids.  
3:45 call from DFPS licensing to schedule a "random" home inspection for Thursday at 10:00 am.  Text our agency case manager to let her know they are coming and she asks to come out this week to review the inspection information prior to the appointment Thursday.
6:10 Agency case manager comes out to go over home inspection info with us

Wednesday
9-3 gone to take kids to see mom and siblings 36 miles from home

Thursday
10:10 DFPS shows up for licensing inspection of our house
4:31 husband receives message from Superior asking to call back for a health screening for the kids
4:57 leave a message for superior to return their call
5:35 as we are finishing dinner, putting up dishes and getting one kiddo into bath , the kids' new CPS caseworker (because there basically hasn't been one for the last month) calls to schedule a time to come out. Schedule a visit for Saturday afternoon

Friday
Gone from 7:25-4:00 To take kids to a visit with dad 70 miles from home
10:00 am phone call from Superior wondering why you didn't return their message. Answer their questions for a "health screening"

Saturday

3:00 wait for CPS caseworker to come out

3:30 Call CPS caseworker to follow up.  No answer

3:55 Call CPS caseworker to let her know we have something else to go to and are about to leave.  CPS caseworker informs us that she had an emergency that she had to attend to and someone else was supposed to come out.  She will call back next week to reschedule.

This schedule of course does not include school for both kids and all of the other things that go along with caring for a 2 and a 4 year old as well as our schedule of Community Group, seeing friends, and David's job search.  Last week was definitely not the norm, but it still felt a little crazy to look back and all of the people we had to talked to about them over the course of just a few days!  Luckily, this week we only have 1 appointment on our schedule--it definitely comes in waves!