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You Know You're An Adoptive Family When...

  • your child's new therapist scares the snot out of her... and you love him for it, and know you've finally found the right guy.
  • you daydream about how to add rooms or re-partition space in your small home to make room for more children.
  • for that matter, you wonder if there's someone who could retro-fit your van with another bench seat instead of the 2 seperate ones in the middle row, to make room for just one more child...
  • you have to remind yourself to let out of town friends and family members know how many kids you currently have, in case they missed a coming or a going.
  • you have to explain why the birthparents they love aren't on their "Safe-Side Adults" list.
  • you overhear your newest children talking in the bathroom, debating about whether they like this home better, or a previous one.
  • you tell your son he's your favorite black-haired 8 year old (since you also have a blonde 8-year old), and he replies with "And you're ONE OF my favorite moms."
  • your children see an advertisement with a baby in it and ask if we can "get that one."
  • your children ask to "keep" the babysitter.

Foster & Adoptive Placements

  • **K (3 days old)
    Picked up from the hospital 10/1/10, not sure how long she'll be here, but we're enjoying her!
  • **Gideon (7) and Malaika (5)
    Placed July 13, 2009 for adoption. A relative came forward and they were removed from our home Sept 26, 2009. Returned April 18, 2010. Adoption Finalized September 20, 2010!
  • L (11 days old)
    September 15-16, 2010 (2 days)
  • S (3 1/2)
    January 2010 (2 days)
  • C (6 months)
    December 2nd-23rd, 2009. (3 weeks)
  • C (8) & J (5)
    March 20th-22nd, 2009. (3 days.)
  • T (2) and A (13 months)
    February 2009 (3 days) Update: adopted by a family in Eastern Washington
  • R (1-2)
    February 4, 2009 - February 17, 2010. (1 year). Native child - tribe wouldn't allow adoption. Moved to a long-term foster home.
  • S (age 10)
    New Year's Eve 2008 (6 days) Update: being adopted by a co-worker of Brian's!
  • J (6) & S (2.5)
    December 2008 (6 days)
  • **Hallie (3 weeks)
    Placed August 2003 - Adoption Finalized December 2004
  • **Sam (13 months)
    Placed August 2002 - Finalized Adoption May 2003
  • J (7) & F (18 mo)
    Father's Day Weekend 2002 (4 days)

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11/02/2010

Graphing

Brian and I discussed the figures last night...

Our children go to bed at 7:30, can read, listen to ipods, etc until 9, and get up at 7:30 each morning.  That means they have essentially 12 hours of "awake" time each day.

If they really focused, their chores would take an hour.

If they stuck with it (and we weren't doing any big projects or field trips), their school work would take about an hour.

That leaves 10 hours a day for play, hobbies, and creative endeavors. 

Oh, wait... I forgot to take into account the 11 hours a day they spend on whining, stalling and goofing off! 

So in an effort to make this concept a little more visual for them, so they can see the vast amount of wasted time each day (play is not wasted time, but goofing off, stalling and whining are!), I'm graphing.

I've assigned a color to each type of activity... school, chores, eating, whining, etc.  For each half hour I'm having them report to me what they spent the majority of their time over the last 30 minutes doing.  At the end of the day, they'll be making a bar graph of our findings, which they can compare to the "ideal"...

Should be interesting (Daddy will certainly enjoy seeing how things panned out over the day, I'm sure), and possibly... motivating?  I sure hope so. 

Or it could just be a waste of time.  But it's worth a shot.

Posted at 11:10 AM in Children |

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Renee Bergeron

Sounds like an exercise in frustration...when you can visually SEE what you're doing w/ your children in that 12 period. But have fun :0

Posted by: Renee Bergeron | 11/02/2010 at 11:14 AM

Carrie

Sounds like a brilliant idea. Very visual for them which I think is a good thing.

Posted by: Carrie | 11/02/2010 at 11:33 AM

Chelsea

That is genius! Filing that one away for when my kids are a little older!!

Posted by: Chelsea | 11/02/2010 at 01:14 PM

Carolynn Slocum

I am quite sure that is will not be a waste of time, but an eye opener. I just might have to copy...

Posted by: Carolynn Slocum | 11/02/2010 at 08:03 PM

Jes

I went in search of the "facebook" like button. I find this brilliant. When I was younger I spent about a month graphing what I spent my day doing. This allowed me to make sure I was spending time on focusing on God each day. It worked wonders. I found that the further into the month I got, the more time I spent with God.

Posted by: Jes | 11/04/2010 at 08:51 PM

Bridget Adams

I love it!
You'll have to update the post and let us know what it looks like!!!

Posted by: Bridget Adams | 11/05/2010 at 09:21 PM

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