Visiting Lacy

We are still in a holding pattern in regards to Lacy's status with us, however, this weekend we will complete our training with the facility that she lives at, and upon completion we will be able to take her out for the day to the park, out for dinner, things like that. This weekend we are living at the children's facility for 48 hours and we are totally responsible for her care. It's 3:15am right now and I couldn't sleep, so I snuck out of the facility and came home to do a few things while Randy and Lacy are sleeping. (One of us has to be there at all times!) Here are a few pictures of our day yesterday. My friend, Donnelly, let me borrow a few of her daughter's princess dresses for Lacy to play with! She loved them!

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Randy and Lacy walking back into the facility

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Lacy pretending to sleep on our bed in the "family" room (more like a family closet!)

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Lacy outside playing with Randy

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Lacy in her princess tent!

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Outside again!

Just a bit much!

Our cat is under the impression that she is the queen of the universe, and I am learning to be okay with that...

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However

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When I come home after a long night's work to find her all curled up on MY SIDE of the bed... I have to put my foot down! Lately, on the nights I don't work, she gets very upset that I am sleeping on HER side of the bed! Sheesh!

I love Paul Potts!

It just makes me happy, that's all.

Father's Day BBQ

This weekend Randy spent time with his father in a BBQ competition. If you have ever encountered any Isley sponsored event, you know that Isley men take their food preparation very seriously.

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Big Randy, Uncle Jim, Matt, and Randy all prepared the food.

the entries included:

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Smoked Ribs

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Tri-tip

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Turkey

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BBQ Sauce

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Chicken

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The boys earned second place for their ribs...

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And they took first place with the BBQ sauce! Congrats!!!

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Suddenly I See...

Is it ironic that Hillary Clinton is considering using the opening song from The Devil Wears Prada as her campaign song? Just a thought.

PS did anyone watch the republican debate on cnn?

I love me some McCain... on Osama bin Laden: “We will bring him to justice, and I will follow him to the gates of hell.” Seriously, John, tell us how you really feel.

...and ya know, I kinda heart Hucakabee.

Mitt Romney creeps me out. I about fell over when he compared himself to JFK!

I give Giuliani props for his statement about abortion... but I doubt he will even make it to the primaries.

That is all.

I just had to...

I just had to post this picture because it was soooo freaking cute (and you can't see any faces). I brought her sushi for dinner and some chop sticks. She wanted to feed her new wooden dog her dinner with the chop sticks!

We have been encouraging her to come up with a name for the dog, but she wants none of that. She insists that his name is The Dog. We suggested Woody, Danny and a few other names but she dismissed them all and assured us he is simply The Dog.

Deep Sea Fishing

This weekend, Randy spent some time with his dad out on the ocean deep sea fishing. They brought home a ton of calamari, as well as fish! Everybody had a great time out on the water.

Here is some of the catch.

Kyle was feeding the birds...

Uncle Jim and Big Randy spending some time together!

Just like the show The Deadliest Catch...well, almost!

Graduation!

Randy graduated from the Respiratory Care program yesterday! I am super proud of him!

Here are his proud parents.

Now we have a matching set of Respiratory Therapists in the house!

Smarty Pants

L has a nasty cold today. She didn't want to come off her vent, so we found her curled up in bed when we arrived this afternoon. Randy and I decided to go with the flow and just sit down next to her bed and hang out with her. She crawled into my lap and asked us to read to her. After we went through about six of her favorite books, she decided it was her turn to read the books. So she took her stuffed animal, placed it in her lap and held the book out for the stuffed animal just like we do for her. I couldn't stop laughing! She was an absolute riot. She told the story much like I would, changing her voice for each character in the book. She is so darn clever! And only two and a half.

More News...

Today we went to one of eight parenting classes we are required to attend by the county. Since the location was about 45 minutes away from our house, we made sure to leave early in case we hit traffic. We ended up arriving 35 minutes before the class started. I hopped out of the truck and headed into the building to snag two seats. Now, we've found ourselves among some questionable individuals while working with San Bernardino county social services, but I have to say that this group was especially trashy. I admit that I may need to work on not being so judgemental, but these people were uber trash. Most of them were out front chain smoking, some folks were on cell phones having very loud and verbally aggressive conversations with someone on the other end, and all of the cars in the immediate parking area were pretty run down.

I casually walked through the group of people and entered the room. As I sat down I asked the woman at the front of the room, "is this the parenting class?" "yes" she confirmed, and then returned to setting up for her presentation. The instructor watched me as I set my folder down on the table and began to look for a pen. "Are you here for the adoption class? Because that is in the next building down."

I had mistakenly joined the parenting class for people who had their children taken by the court system due to abuse and neglect. oops. I quitely snuck out the back!

From high to low, and back again.

Randy and I had to attend another adoption meeting last night. I took the opportunity to ask a few more questions regarding the time line of adoption and was horrified to discover for the first time that we have a few more things to accomplish than I had anticipated.

Right now we are taking our parenting classes. In total we have to spend 24 hours learning about many different topics. In the near future we are supposed to be contacted by our home- study coordinator which involves four in-depth interviews in our home regarding EVERYTHING about our lifestyle. What they had failed to mention previously is that NOBODY involved with the San Bernadino county department of children's services is in ANY hurry to move this process along for us. When I asked about a general time line, I was told, "well it shouldn't take more than five months for it to be complete". Although I sat in my chair giving an appreciative nod and smile in response to this, I immediately started FREAKING out. "NO FREAKING WAY" I wanted to scream at her. She just shrugged at us and say, "Hey, this is county. Nothing goes quickly around here".

While Randy drove us home from our class last night, I sat in the truck quietly considering my options. Not surprisingly we are back to the same place we have found ourselves many many times before. Left only to rely on the grace of God.

How is it that after all of the blessings we have had, I STILL doubt? If someone were to take inventory of just the last 24 months, that alone would speak to the overwhelming evidence that God is working in our lives. Yet I fear (again) that this time it isn't going to work out.

We just have to pray that it all goes smoothly and quickly.

Sorry....

I felt that I should pull down all of the stuff about the kiddo. There is this little law that protects ANY information regarding people in hospitals. It's kind of a federal law. Those that enforce said law don't take kindly to people breaking it. I don't think anyone is going to find this blog... (I googled myself just to make sure) but for now it is best that I pull pictures and specific names off the blog. I will repost it all (and more) as soon as she comes home. I will still post information regarding her, but I can't say her name or put any more pictures up for the next few weeks. Just to cover my rear!

Blessings

Nine years ago I moved in with my first roommate, Sabrina. In nearly a decade we have been through it all; weddings, kids, fights, reconciliation, divorce, a move to Missouri! Most recently she has found a wonderful man named Zach and they are now a happy family with FIVE kids. Watching the two of them together, I can't help but believe that God truly did design people to fit together in an incredible way. They both compliment each other in every area of their lives.

The biggest blessing is that Zach and I get along really well. As it turns out, Sabrina and Randy have found that they have a few things in common. Lately the four of us have been meeting up for dinner and good conversation.

Tonight, we met up at CPK for dinner and then afterwards they took us to Target and LITERALLY spoiled us rotten (actually spoiled Lacy rotten) with hundreds of dollars worth of stuff.

Randy and I both stood in the middle of the children's section in complete astonishment watching Sabrina and Zach whisk the cart from isle to isle dropping in everything we could possibly need, and explaining the relevance of each item as it pertained our new life with Lacy. At first we were simply shocked with the amount of information and things we had never considered. For example, did you know that you shouldn't put soda in a sippy cup because it will explode all over you or your child? Did you know that a regular bib is totally worthless when it is being worn by a toddler? Get the big ones, they cover much more of the flying food!

As we stood at the register watching the total climb, Randy and I became overwhelmed with more than just the information. We were dumbfounded that a couple with FIVE kids were willing to give us so much.

While we are not sure what the future holds for us, we rest assured that we have a wonderful support system beside us.

Bee Sting

I was stung by a bee yesterday on my way into work. Right in the meaty part of my hand between my thumb and finger. It hurts like crazy! I ran right into the ER and found the doctor...

ME: "I'm going to die! I just got stung by a bee... it hurts like hellllllllllll!"

MD: "Are you allergic to bees?"

ME: No. But I think the stinger is still in there. Get it out!

MD: I don't see any stinger. I think you got the stinger out.

ME: No, I am sure it is still in there, get it out for me!

MD: OK, I am going to need a tray. I'll have to cut it out.

ME: You know, now that you mention it, I don't think the stinger is in there anyways!

MD: I'll get you a bag of ice.

ME: Yeah, that sounds like a much better idea!

The Family Dinner