The Story of Our Ohana

John and I had 3 miscarriages (Madison, Elijah and Michael) before becoming foster parents. Our home study had been approved a mere 2 minutes before we found out that our boys were being placed with us. In fact it was in the same call. They were with family so they arrived two days later. They arrived in March 2008. Sam (now 6) and Landon's (now 4) adoption took place on April 2, 2009 (Landon's Birthday).

Less than two weeks later we got the call about our first infant placement. John sped home from work and got pulled over at the end of our street. He explained what was going on and the cop let him go. We still laugh about it. Jewel-Anne (named after my mom who passed away 4 months before baby was born) She was placed with us two days after Mother's Day that year. Her adoption took place in April of this year. She is now 16 months. It brought me comfort to know that mom left when she did so she could spend some time with her granddaughter since she wouldn't have time with her here.

Little did we know what was in store for us. 11 days before Jewel-Anne's adoption we had a visit with our case worker. I was teasing her telling her that exactly 40 days after the boys adoption we got Jewel-Anne so if she could manage to do that again I would take it as a good sign.

Later that evening a got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. Even as a foster parent I don't tend to answer calls from strange numbers but I did and it was our case worker telling me she had an infant girl she wanted to place with us. I thought she was joking. I told her that I wanted to talk to John and I would call her right back. I called and he didn't answer so I called her back and said bring her on. He'll just have a nice surprise when he gets home. There weren't a lot of details on her and our case worker had her age wrong but it turns out she was only 6 weeks younger than Jewel-Anne. Minnie Mouse was so quiet and reserved. She didn't cry all weekend long. We had to guess if she was hungry. Everyone was telling us how blessed we were that she was so calm but it really just broke my heart. Babies are supposed to cry to get their needs met. It takes a lot to get a child to the point that they won't cry for anything. John took Friday off and went to work on Monday. I was in the middle of giving baths when he left and she started crying and cried until everyone's baths were finished. I am happy to report that she found her voice pretty quickly and had such a little dainty, controlling personality. She hates getting dirty/messy, but she loves to tattle on her brothers if they are misbehaving! When we went to court we found out Birth Mom was pregnant again so we temporarily put our home on hold so we wouldn't get anymore (we could only take one more infant) until the baby arrived.

On May 14th we received the call about Mickey Mouse. He was one week old when he came home with us. We were so excited. He is now 3 months old and we are waiting for the parents rights to be terminated and be able to adopt them too.

So we have 8 kids Madison (angel), Elijah (angel), Sam (6), Landon (4), Michael (angel), Jewel-Anne (15 mos), Minnie (14mos) and Mickey (3 mos). I have 3 under 16 mos! It gets crazy sometimes but I wouldn't have it any other way. We prayed for a long time that God would bless us with even one child. Apparently he likes to show off! ;)