Maggie's last day at MDO was on Thursday. I was so sad for her to go. Mrs. Vicki and Mrs. Tasha were so sad to see her go, too. As we were leaving, they wished us well, said their goodbyes to Maggie and then presented me with a scrapbook that they put together of Maggie's time in their class.
I was blown away! They just found out on Tuesday afternoon that Thursday would be her last day. This meant that they went home and put this book together for her in a day. And it wasn't just a little scrapbook...it was 20 pages of pictures and stories from her time there. It was so neat to see her in the classroom, playing with her friends, sharing her letters, helping to clean up, playing outside, doing art projects, singing and dancing, eating lunch and even sleeping peacefully. All the things that we heard about but weren't able to witness. The neatest thing is that she truly seemed happy there. She loves her book and wants to look through it all the time.
I'm so grateful that her first school experience was so positive and rewarding. We will always be thankful to her sweet teachers for all that they did to make Maggie feel special and loved. We will miss them dearly.
Now, it's off to big school on Monday. Praying for an easy transition from Tues/Thurs 9a-2p to M/W/F 6:30a-5pm. That's a big difference but hopefully she'll be ok. Check back in on Monday to see how it went!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Bye bye MDO, hello Preschool
BIrthday Party @ Chuck E Cheese
We celebrated Maggie's 3rd birthday at Chuck E Cheese. I know, I know....I must love her sooo much to have her party there, right?! Well, the kids had a great time and that's what mattered. Maggie had so much fun and exerted so much energy that day! She loved having her cousins and her little friends there to help her celebrate.
Maggie is one blessed little girl - to be loved so much by her family and friends. We are so thankful for all of you!
Here are alot of pictures :)(in no particular order). A great time was had by all.
The Children's Museum
Nana (my mom) and I took Maggie to the Children's Museum on Friday. What a fun day it was. We had never been there before. Talk about sensory overload! There was so much to do, see, touch and experience...and I believe that Maggie did it all!
Maggie & Momma in the Science Station
Nana helping Maggie up on the pulley
Smilin' at Nana
My first voting experience
Helping in the ambulance
I was so excited when I found out that I was going to be able to paint!
Lots of fun in the Tot Playroom
Lifesize Light Bright
Baking a pizza in the deli
Serving Nana her lunch
Cooking in the kitchen
Taking a order in the deli
I'm getting so big....I'm almost 3 feet tall!
Buying groceries at the HEB market
Checking out at the HEB market Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Decision Made
As I wrote last night, I had one more visit to make before making a decision on where to place Maggie for daycare. As I dropped Maggie off this morning to her MDO, I was really saddened to know that she only has 1 more day there. She loves her school. She loves her friends. She loves her teachers...and they all love her. Oh how I wish they had extended care. But I digress....
Maggie will be going to Northland Christian School 3 days a week - Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. She will be there all day, from 6:30am until around 4:30pm, or as soon as I can get there. I'm having to devise a new driving route to work, and it will entail more traffic but in the end, it's worth it for her. After researching so many places, we feel really good about her being at NCS. 1. It is a Christian, Bible teaching school, and she will continue to get the Christian-based education she was getting from MDO. 2) There are only 7 other kiddos in her class, which will help with the transition. 3) It was actually the cheapest tuition, out of everything we looked at. Not a huge issue, but a nice plus!
So, I have a huge application to complete (good grief for a a 3 year old?!) and get back to them tomorrow....and then she starts on Monday.
Please pray for an easy transition for Maggie - it's a new place, new faces, new teachers but more importantly, it's a much longer day away than she's ever experienced before. Right now, she's just gone for 5 hours...she'll be doubling that.
Change is good, right?!
Happy 3rd Birthday, Maggie Joy!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Changes
When we found out that Maggie was coming home, alot of changes were about to take place. One of those changes was in my work situation. I had a wonderful job with excellent benefits (my company pays 100% of all insurance coverages for entire family!) and because of this, I needed to continue to work. As much as I would've loved to be a stay-at-home mom, it just wasn't going to happen at that time.
My company provides 8 weeks PAID maternity leave (seriously!) so of course, I took it :) It was the greatest blessing....to be 100% focused on Maggie and our bonding and attaching to her. After the 8 weeks was up, I had to return to work. I was fortunate enough to work for my boss, who had a deep appreciation for what we were going through with Maggie and understanding our desire to spend as much time with her as possible. So, he made an exception. He allowed me to work from home 2 days a week. This was not something that anyone else had and it's basically against company policy to work from home. With that being said, I knew that this was an answer to prayer. My boss said that he'd let me do it for 3 - 6 months and we'd address the sitaution again after that timeframe. Great. Wonderful. Thank you!
At the end of 2008, during my review, my boss said something along the lines of "hey, you're doing a great job. Enjoy your first Christmas & NY with Maggie and we'll discuss your work hours after the holidays". Ok. Great. And that was the end of that. It was never brought up again.
Move forward another year. Review time again. Scheduling/working from home topic came up again. I wasn't surprised. I was pretty much waiting for it. My boss said that he had absolutely no problem with me working from home, it wasn't a performance issue. It came down to the fact that this was supposed to be temporary and it was against company policy and he had to turn down others' requests, etc. So, I have to return to the office full time.
Honestly, I couldn't get upset about it, because I had already had a whole extra year of being able to stay at home with Maggie and not have to put her in any type of daycare. We had put her in MDO this past Sept, but that was for her benefit, not out of necessity of care. So, I began to research our options. Thankfully, I have an understanding boss who said that there was no rush - I didn't need to return to full time tomorrow. He knew that we would have to make some decisions and changes, and to just keep him informed. I don't want to take advantage of the situation, so I have been working diligently to try and find an alternative.
Maggie's MDO program is only from 9:30 - 2:30, so that option wasn't going to work. I was so disappointed though. She has done so well there, and they absolutely adore her. It's going to be very hard to walk away. They have set the standards high!
So, I went to my first choice...a church that I knew well that has an extended care daycare. I pretty much told myself that this was where she was going to go...until I stopped by for a visit. WOW. Absolutely NOT. No WAY. It was dirty. Depressing. The 2 teachers didn't even make eye contact with me or put on a happy face when I visited the classroom. The kids all looked sad. I immediately knew that this was not the place for Maggie.
Ok. Kick it into high gear. Great. Ok, now what. I called every place I could find. Started with churches first. Really wanted Maggie to stay in Christian environment but very few of them have anything more than MDO. A few did, but they were either 1) too expensive, 2) required that she was potty trained or 3) had no openings. Ok...next option. Day care. No offense to anyone who is reading this that has their kids in daycare, but we really didn't want Maggie in a typical daycare facility. But it was coming down to the wire, so we started to visit a few of those. One place came recommended. It's a big "chain". It was nice. It was expensive. They had openings but they also had 21 kids in Maggie's class. I walked in and it was just total chaos. I'm not quite sure how you can have 21 two & three years old and get anything done. But, I put it on the possibilities, due to the issues mentioned before.
Next day, visited another smaller, privately owned daycare facility close to our house. Owner was very nice. Less expensive. Better hours but it wasn't as nice as I would've liked. It was, though, now our #1 pick. But something just kept pushing me to keep looking.
Tomorrow, I am off to visit the last possibility - another Christian preschool. It's been very discouraging to see the lack of quality and quantity in care for our kiddos. I'm exhausted just from calling, emailing, researching and visiting.
Please pray that we will have the wisdom to choose the best place for Maggie. One where she will feel safe & appreciated; where she can learn and grow; where we feel comfortable in placing our precious one in their hands.
Tune in tomorrow to find out what happens!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Ugh...are you kidding?
Maggie went back to MDO for just 2 days last week and is already sick...are you kidding me?! Confirmation that we made the right decision to keep her out of MDO while I was home on medical leave. Poor baby is all congested, can't breathe, really raspy in the chest, and has basically no voice. She does sound pretty funny when she talks though! :)
She didn't fall asleep until 2am this morning (whew - Momma is T-I-R-E-D!) but she's sleeping good so far tonight. Here's hoping she feels better in the morning.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Adoption Update
It's now mid-January and we're no closer to an adoption date than we were in November. It's a bit frustrating to say the least, but we are finally making some headway.
We have our CPR class and 2 other state-mandated classes scheduled to be completed by the end of the month. This should take care of everything that our agency was waiting on before signing the adoption placement papers.
We are also trying to get Maggie's doctor to write yet another letter regarding her sleep apnea, so that we can get subsidy approved to cover her medical issues going forward. The state is very specific on what is said in the letter, and despite me telling the doctor exactly what had to be said, it wasn't done. Both our CPS caseworker and myself have called without any response. We have a follow up appointment in mid February, so if nothing else works, we will just get him to handwrite something at the visit. Surprisingly, the state will accept that. ugh.
Once we have the medical letter, we can submit our subsidy paperwork. Hopefully we will get that back quickly, adoption placement papers can be signed and our attorney can get us on the docket. My hope is to have everything finalized by the end of March. One can ONLY hope!
We finally received the CPS redacted legal file yesterday. The request was made on June 19th. It was mailed to Montgomery Co. CPS office on October 10th. However, it was addressed to our old caseworker, who hasn't worked there since August. Our caseworker JUST found the file on Monday, January 11th. Absolutely ridiculous!
This file is 6 inches thick. It has anything and everything related to Maggie's case from beginning to when parental rights were terminated. If it hadn't been for our CASA worker providing us with so much information, the file would have been enlightening. Instead, out of all those 100s of pages, there was only one piece of information that we learned ~ the hospital Maggie was born at, her birth weight and that she was delivered by C-section. Seriously - that was it. You cannot proceed with an adoption until you have reviewed this file. I can honestly say, had this been the only thing that was holding up our adoption, I would not have been happy with the time frame. However, I am thankful to have the information and grateful that we weren't shocked or surprised by anything in there.
So, as we wait, we just keep plugging along. I've returned to work fulltime, after being out for 2 months. Maggie has returned to MDO twice a week and loved being back there this week with her friends. Michael has accepted a new job and starts on February 1st, for which we are so thankful. We are reminded daily of God's provision for our little family and his protection over us throughout this journey. We are blessed.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
I Can Only Imagine....
My very first friend was Patrick. We met while we were still in our mothers' womb. Our moms were best friends so it was destined for us to be the same. He was born 6 weeks before me, so of course, he always said I had to respect him as my elder. We grew up together, and we were instant friends but more like brother and sister. Patrick had one brother. He never had a sister, so I guess I took that honor.
When we were 10, tragedy struck his life. Their house was sprayed for termites and their house had to be condemned due to the levels of Chlordane poisoning. They walked out one night thinking they all had food poisoning and they never returned. Not too much later we were given the horrible news....Patrick has cancer.
Patrick's cancer was very rare and there was little that could be done. They told his parents not to expect him to live to see 12, if they were lucky. 12th birthday came...16th birthday came...21st birthday came. 30th birthday came. 33th birthday came.
At the age of 33, Patrick conquered his 23 year footrace with cancer, through his faith in Christ. He packed a full life into 33 years. He was a father, brother, son, husband. He was an athlete, entrepreneur, an artist, a sculptor, a teacher, a camp counselor, an inspirational speaker and of course, a friend. But of all of these, Patrick was, by the grace of God, a follower of Christ. Patrick had cancer for 23 years, but he did not let that define or limit him. He played with pain. Few have run the track Patrick ran, and fewer still ran it with his persistence. As he ran, Patrick's goal was that his pain and struggles would help someone else with their pain and struggles.
Throughout his race, he never quit, and he never blamed God for his path. His constant message was "Hold on, hope in the Lord and make a difference for God."
Patrick went home to be with Jesus 3 1/2 years ago. It was one of the saddest and yet most joyous days I've ever experience. I have never grieved or rejoiced so deeply before or since. Oh how I longed to see my friend but oh how happy I was to know that he was running freely and without pain into the loving arms of Jesus.
So today, on what would have been his 37th birthday, he's celebrating with Jesus in heaven. What a party that must be...Oh I can only imagine.......I can only imagine.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Goodbye 2009...Hello 2010
Happy New Year Everybody! I can't believe it's 2010...a new decade. We have so much to reflect on, so much to be thankful for.
2009 was full of great memories, sweet blessings, hard times but the one thing that remained constant was the Lord's faithfulness over our family.
Some highlights of 2009:
*January ~ Maggie turned 2 years old. Our first birthday together as a family.
*February ~ Maggie moved into her big girl bed.
*March ~ Our 1st Annual Bluebonnet outing. Maggie wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as her momma was.
*April ~Parental rights were terminated on Maggie's biological parents. She is now legally free to be adopted! YEAH! Also, our first Easter. Lots of colored eggs and candy to go around!
*May ~ My 1st Mother's Day. What a wonderful day that was for me!
*June ~ Daddy celebrated his 1st Father's Day. He sure does love his little girl!
*July ~ celebrated Maggie's 1 year Gotcha Day.
*August ~ Maggie's 2nd sleep study. She failed & we found out that she'll be on a CPAP machine (most likely for many years to come)
*September ~ Maggie started Mothers' Day Out and did GREAT!
*October ~ Maggie got her CPAP machine for her sleep apnea. She has adjusted to it well and enjoys helping Momma put the mask on each night!
*November ~ Momma was diagnosed with double staph pneumonia and hospitalized for 14 days. Momma came home and was put on medical leave through the end of the year. Michael & I also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary - apart, while I was in the hospital. We will always remember this one for sure!
*December ~ Momma still recovering from illness but thankful to be at home with M&M. Celebrated another wonderful Christmas with our family.
We're excited to see what the Lord has planned for us in 2010...especially the finalization of Maggie's adoption!
