Family Day!!!

11 March 2013.

We are finally a family, full and complete.  Today we consummated the adoption we'd been looking forward to for some time.  Christopher and I first talked about adoption when I was pregnant with Eva, six and a half years ago.  As difficult as my pregnancies were, we knew that we could not do it again, it would've killed me.  When she was 18 months old we first took the classes to become foster parents, in the hopes of eventually adopting.  On the day we finished the classes, in the summer of 2008, I found a lump in my breast.  The diagnosis knocked us cold and put a kink in all our plans for a while.  As I healed we again thought perhaps it was time our family grow.  Christopher approached me with inspiration that LDS Family Services and the adoptoin of a newborn was the path we should pursue.  And we did.  After almost one year of paperwork, homestudy and waiting, 2 days before Christmas 2010, we were chosen to parent a sweet little baby boy due in April.  After only a few short weeks, however, the birth parents changed their minds and decided to parent themselves.  We were crushed but we kept going.  We felt soon after that the purpose for which we had gone to LDS Family Services was fulfilled.  Back to the drawing board and lots of prayer.  This time we were led to ACH Child and Family Services and again to foster/adoption.  More paperwork, more homestudy, more waiting.  This time, though, we got to do respite which is essentially babysitting for foster families who need a weekend off.  We loved it.  We'd done it a few times when we were called and asked to take a sibling group of 3 for 2 nights, starting March 1st 2012.  We'd only ever had 2 kids before and the oldest had been 3 years old.  These were 6, 4 and 1.  We said yes, but before we did so we prayed.  We prayed because we felt that for some reason this one was different.  We knew before we ever met them that this would be different.



We prayed more.  They stayed with us for 2 nights and the minute they left I contacted everyone I knew at my agency and CPS to ask about the status of these kids.  Why?  Because we loved them already.  We prayed more.  About 2 weeks later they called us.   The children needed a new foster family, they had to leave their current family by the next day.  Of course we said yes and they came to live with us March 13th.  We bought a van.  We'd only planned on 2 more, but with three we were now 8 and needed a van.  I wish I could explain all that happened in the next year but I can't.  Lots of waiting, lots of prayers, lots of love and tears, lots of joy and fear.  But the coolest part was TODAY!  Almost exactly 1 year later we welcome to our family

Cruz Alexander Edwards (2005)












Anya Maricelle Edwards (2007)


 













Georgio Ceaser Edwards (2010)

Hanukkah

In keeping with our attempts at being a diverse and multi-culturally aware family, today we had our Hanukkah feast.  We wouldn't have the time to do it on Saturday the actual start of the holiday, so we did it a day early.  Being non-jewish we did the best we could at authenticity and really learning about the holiday and it's significance to the jewish faith.   I made 2 Challah, the traditional bread of Jewish holidays, with 6 strands in each loaf, totalling 12, representing the 12 tribes of Israel.  We had a roast chicken, spiced applesauce and green beans as well, all kosher and normal Hannukah fare.  Then the kids taught us the dreidel game they learned at school, although we had to make some modifications since we don't have a dreidel.  Eva won!

 

 

 

Before and after pics of my Challah.  For some reason one loaf didn't rise as well as they other. :(  But they turned out great nonetheless.

 

 

We made a feast day out of it and even had lighted candles on the table, just the two since we don't own a menorah.  We had fun learning and talking about what we have in common and what is different between Mormons and Jews.

 

Next up...Christmas Eve (Christian celebrations), Christmas Day (American celebrations) and Chinese New Year (Chinese celebrations)...

 

...hopefully I'll remember to post pics, since I forgot to on several of the other holidays this hear (Cinco de Mayo was awesome).

St. Nicklaus Day

We're trying hard this year to teach our kids about different cultures, religions, countries, etc.  So for the first time St. Nicklaus came to our house last night.  He filled our running shoes with nuts in their shells, christmas socks, 2 candies each and two christmas pencils.  We learned about dark chocolate being what most europeans eat so we were not surprised to find Ghiradelli's dark chocolate variety's in our shoes. ;-)   And to top it all off, I'm taking the kiddos to the Arlington Christkindl 2nd annual German festival tonight, I thought it would be the best day to go learn more about German holiday traditions. 

 

I have pictues of the kids enjoying Flammkuchen (German Pizza) at the Christkindl but I can't post them until after the adoption finalizes.  We also had Schmalzkuchen (scones) and wassil. Yummm!

 

We shopped, we learned, we tasted, we listened, we played, we had soo much fun being German for the day.  We even got to see St. Nicklaus himself, although he had a strangely Texan accent. Humm?!?

 

And tomorrow we'll be moving on to another cuture to study...we are having Challah at dinner in honor of Hanukkah

Spelling Story

One of Isabelle's options for spelling practice each week is to write a story using her spelling words.  This weeks story was so good I had to post it.  The spelling words are italicized.

"The mild and mighty wind looked as if it started a fight. But then a child named Emily saw it and was scared because an unfriendly wolf was behind the tree.  He was staring right at the child thinking in his mind "I will fry the child."  With delight he tightly squeezed his hands.  But the wolf was careless and stayed there for a while so Emily ran as fast as she could.  But the wolf ran as if in flight.  He caught Emily and went to the baker.  Thinking it would satisfy his diet he said "Cook this child in mild hot sauce."  But the baker said "no, I will not."  So the wolf went to buy green dye to have green eggs and ham instead.  The wolf shared with the baker, which brought brightness to his heart."

By Isabelle Edwards

I thought it was adorable and awfully creative and post-worthy.

The Holy Ghost

Christopher gave father's blessing tonight since school starts tomorrow.  Two of our new kiddos (age 4 and 7) had never had blessings before and I was a little unsure about how it would go.  It was so beautiful.  The blessings were beautiful as always, but even Christopher got choked up when after his blessing Cruz (7 year old) slowly got out of his chair and sat on the couch and then curled up in a ball and said he didn't know why but he felt like crying.  It was the first time we were really able to explain to him what the Holy Ghost feels like when it touches your heart.  I was bawling as soon as I realized that he was, partly because the blessing was beautiful, partly because the Spirit was so strong, and partly because he was feeling the Spirit for the first time.  I'd seen the light in his eyes but I'd never seen such an obvious touch by the Spirit.  I looked up at Christopher who was trying not to cry as well.  Afterwards he came and told me why he was crying (because of a specific sentance in the blessing) and I read it to him again (good thing I always type while Christopher is giving the blessings).  He asked if it would be okay if he wrote about it in his journal because it made him so happy, up until today his journal had been full of writing practice that I give him, and drawings.  This is his first real entry (with spelling corrected because it would be incomprehensible otherwise).

"Today I had my first father's blessing for school.  My dad blessed me.  I felt excited and happy.  I cried because I felt the Holy Ghost in my heart.  He said with my medicine and if I work hard I will learn to read."

And then he drew a picture of him in the chair with Christopher's hands on his head.  I think it's no coincidence that this was able to happen on day 2 of his ADHD meds.  He knows the difference, he feels it and he is so happy.  I love that he was able to feel the Spirit.  I'm so thankful for the blessing of being a Mom.  I'm thankful for the children I have been blessed with.  And sometimes, I'm especially thankful for modern medicine.

--Robin

House for Sale by Owner

902 Greenridge Drive

$125,000

902greenridgedrive.blogspot.com

Mother/Daughter Date

My little artist and I enjoyed the Kimbell Art Museum in downtown Fort Worth followed by some Sweet Sammies! Since Isabelle loves art and I love Impressionism this was the perfect date! We had so muc hfun and got to see so many beautiful works of art.

News!

So here's the semi-offical announcement. Christopher and I have been working towards becoming foster parents so that we could adopt out of the state of Texas foster-care system. We've felt strongly for sometime that our family wasn't done growing and since the main door for family growing has been closed, we thought we should open some windows! We are now offically liscensed! Yeah! But before we got fully liscensed we've been doing what is called 'respite care' where we babysit for other foster parents for 2-3 days at a time, if they need to go out of town or just need a break or something. We fell in love with 3 kiddos that we did respite care for and found out a week later that they needed to move foster homes and CPS wanted the next placement to be permenant. They picked us and we are thrilled! If everything goes as planned it will turn into an adoptive placement sometime in April after the termination hearing. We're happy to welcome these 3 precious kiddos into our family whether it's permenant or only semi-permenant. :-) I think I'm not technically allowed to post their names or pictures on a public place like this so I'll stick with the announcement itself. I'll post pics as soon as I'm allowed. Stay tuned!

Cowtown

After a derth of several months without a working camera and we're to technology-challenged to have phones that do it easily and accesibly and too cheap to pay for a data plan anyhow, we finally resumed picture taking with the purchase of a new camera. Yeah! So now it's time to update the blog. The new camera also allowed me to get some pictures off my camera that I thought were stuck forever. :-)

Here's the Cowtown 5k/10k pictures. This race was at the end of February, it's a HUGE event every year with runs over two days varying from 5k to ultra-marathon. All three kiddos did the 5k. Isabelle and Jack are old pros at this but it was Eva's first 5k! Way to go little girl. Isabelle came in at 36:58; Jack was and 33:44 minutes, not their fastest but really good times considering how cold it was and this was the first time they ran without parents! Eva came in at 58:49 with Dad. Mom and Dad did our first 10k's the same day, Dad at 54:32 and Mom at 1:05:24. Overall it was a great race and lots of fun and thanks to Clarissa Grover we sported matching Team Edwards shirts for the event!

I Am Special

I Am Special

by Isabelle Edwards

6 Oct 2011

(by assignment for her 2nd grade class)

Are you special? Everybody is special in their own way. Now I am going to tell how I am special. Well I'm special because I say please and thank you and I listen alot at school and home. I am respectful and caring and I love one another because I give cookies to neighbors who are hurt or sick. I also love to be very responsible. I keep the commandments and those are, love one another, read the scriptures, go to church, do not say bad or inappropriate words and I believe in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. That is how I am special. (I corrected the spelling but the words are hers.)

Summer Chores Experiment

So, I went into this summer with this idea that if the kids were super busy every day they wouldn't have as much time to fight with eachother or whine about bordeom. Plus, I really don't like the TV/Computer and I could just see them spending the whole summer on one or the other. So I came up with a chore list that requires up to 5 hours/day of work! That's right...5 hours, and no it's not child abuse.

Isabelle and Jack rotated by week with Kitchen, Laundry, and Bathroom duty (Christopher and I did the third). And that includes, mopping the floor on their hands and knees, scrubbing behind the toilet, folding/putting away laundry, switching loads, and starting new ones, cleaning all the dishes after every meal even if it meant they were up till 11pm. Lots of work, plus they each had four other DAILY chores, piano practice, read a chapter book, bedrooms, and lawn/garden chores. The point was to keep them busy, and it worked. However, it also kept me really busy because they are unable to accomplish all of these alone and needed adult assistance, so I had to do all the chores every day at a brutally slow rate (I could've accomplished all of it in 1 hr/day, instead I was doing 8 hours or more helping out all 3 kids). Over all however I think it has worked wonderfully. And lest you think I'm putting the kids to work as slaves, I should mention that they were being paid in Monopoly dollars.

$50 for a good week without too much complaining, $10 for a bad week. And $5 for extra chores (taking out the trash, cleaning the toy room, etc), $2 for helping with meals, $2 for exercising (basketball games, tennis practice, yoga at the Y), and many other ways to earn extra cash. There was however also a list of ways they could loose money. $5 for fighting, $5 for property damage, $2 for whining, $2 for sassiness, etc.

You may be asking yourself, what good is Monopoly money, how does that motivate hard work? There was a third list! One that allowed them to 'spend' their money. $100 bought them a $5 toy at Toys R US, $75 bought them an ice cream date with Mom or Dad, $50 bought them some candy from my secret stash (a combination of candy confiscated after parties and other events and candy that I've gotten doing couponing), $25 got them a $2 book at Half Price Books (my favorite book store). So as summer has gone on, has my system worked? Surprisingly well!

The kids love to spend their money, so the cheapest thing, is the thing I'm happiest to spend my cash on BOOKS! And the thing they want most, requires saving up. Yesterday each of the ninos had enough cash saved to buy both a toy and a book so I decided to brave the stores with all 4 of them (I have an 1 year old that I watch every day and Christopher was taking his GRE). First we hit up Toys R US, it was the best trip to that store I've ever had. Because it was 'their' money they were so careful in choosing just the right thing, they each took a turn and we walked through the aisles until they found just the thing they most wanted. They helped eachother choose by offering opinions like "well, I think you should choose the blue, because I know that's your favorite color." No one begged for anything that was beyond their $5 and everyone came out happy! We ended up with a Zooble for Isabelle, a small doll with three changes of clothes for Eva, and a set of 5 Hot Wheels muscle cars for Jack. It was lovely. On the way out the door I thanked them for being so good in the store and Eva said "That's the most wonderful store, I really love it."

Then we were off to Half Price Books. We had an equally good experience, except that Zoe was ready for a nap and needed a diaper change and therefore, royally cranky. Jack picked up a Magic Tree House for his collection, he's got about 20, Eva bought a cute book called Princesses Are Not Quitters (really cute story about working hard, love it) and Belle bought a Jewel Kingdom book, she's working on the whole collection.

In the end, the kids have been able to spend their money on things they've wanted throughout the summer, they love books, they only buy small inexpensive toys, they're learning the value of hard work, and they don't have time to fight with eachother. Best summer ever!!! What a way to beat the 100+ degree temperatures we've been enduring for the last 33 days.

Summer Piano Recital 2011

Isabelle started taking Piano in September of 2010 from one of my friends in our ward. She caught on pretty quickly and is doing very well. Jack started in June after school got out, and he, too, is doing well. Karissa decided she wanted them to have the recital experience so they, and two boys from the ward, Bradley (Jack's best friend) and Ethan Farnsworth, who are taking from their mom, had a recital together at church on June 19th.

They each played 3 songs, then Karissa handed out some medals that we'd ordered with their names on them, and we enjoyed punch and cookies. The whole thing took about 15 minutes but it was loads of fun and I really enjoyed seeing them play like this in a 'formal' setting (it was at church).

They are using the Alfred's books, Jack is in 1A, and Isabelle has moved on to 1B. He played Old McDonald from memory, Lost my Parter, and Sailor Jack (of course). She played the Indian Song (from 1A) from memory, I've Been Wishin', and Hayride.

Six Flags

Isabelle and Jack both earned free tickets to Six Flags for reading 6 hours in January and February. The both read independently, no help from Mom or Dad, and did a great job. Christopher also got a ticket because some of his students participated as well and I got to pay 'kids price' to go with them. So for a whopping $35, all 4 of us enjoyed a day at six flags. Besides the vomiting that started at 4pm and didn't end for a whole week, we had great fun. We think we actually had food poisoning, although we originally thought we'd gotten sick on the rides, that is until Eva got sick too, since she didn't go with us to Six Flags, we knew it wasn't the rides fault. Most of the time we did the rides together, but we split up a few times, there were some the kids wanted to do that adults weren't allowed, one that Jack and Dad did together and one the Belle and Mom did together. We had a great time.

Jack's Basketball

Jack has played for the Rockets for 2 seasons now. He scored his first basket during a game on June 29th and I cried. Yes, I actually cried a little bit. It was so beautiful. I couldn't understand why everyone else wasn't appreciating the moment as much as me, I mean seriously people, why weren't you all crying too! He has so much fun playing, the hardest part for Christopher and I is not getting so into the game that Jack thinks where yelling at him instead of for him. I hope he stays on the same team for a while, Coach Marcus works really hard to make sure that he is an included part of the team. We love going to his games, they can have as much energy as a Mavs game.

The 4th of July

On the 4th we decided to go to Joe Pool Lake with the kiddos, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Kadi, Uncle Dave and Aunt Dana, and Cage, oh yeah, and we brough Bella and Chief (Dave and Gabe's dogs). We brought a grill and cooked, played in the water, and stayed to enjoy the fireworks show...so did everyone else in Dallas, or so it seemed.

Christopher's Birthday, 32!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Travels in the 4 corners region

Enjoying the Indian dancing at 4 Corners. We happened upon a yearly event between the tribes of the four states, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It was great fun to watch.

Hiking to Bandera Volcano in Arizona.

Bandera Volcano, a 30 minute hike in Arizona.

Hiking to the Volcano with Grandpa.

The Ice Caves in Arizona. That's a glacier in the middle of Arizona!

Enjoying the rock formations at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado.

More of the Garden of the Gods

Holding up the rocks!

More from our hike in Arizona.

In May, Me and the kids, as well as my Dad and my Sister-in-law, Dana, traveled together to Utah for my brothers wedding. We had a great time together, and had pretty easy travels. Of course, we were way under dressed for the snow on the wedding day and all through Colorado on our way home, but other than that we had a great time. Here are some of our adventures.

Last Day of School

I know, I know...I'm 2 months late for the last day of school post. But here goes anyways...

Jack with Mrs. Richardson and Jack with Mommy, on the last day of school. He learned so much from her! I can hardly believe how fast and how well he learned to read. He could only read 5 sight words at the beginning of the year and now reads as well if not better than Isabelle and is testing at the end of 1st grade.

Isabelle with Mia Key and Isabelle with Mommy. Isabelle and Mia have been best friends since Kindergarten. They go through withdrawls if they don't see each other for a few days. Her parents tell me it was torture for her when Belle was out of town at Uncle Dane's wedding for a week. They said they couldn't wait to have Belle back so that Mia would act like herself again. 1st grade was so much fun!