Special needs infant adoption

If you have a moment, check out the blog link, special needs infant adoption. Some children are difficult to find homes for because they are born with special needs. Sometimes those needs are due to drug or alcohol abuse of the birthmother. Sometimes it's a genetic disease and other times it might be a physical impairment. Sometimes the child has a birthparent with a mental illness. Brent and I were looking at adopting a special needs child from China or the United States. We (I) researched the effects of drugs and alcohol on a baby, different physical needs and the requirements for the needs and also the statistics of a child developing a mental illness when a parent already suffers from that mental illness. We found that there were many special needs that we would be able to physically, emotionally, and financially be able to work with.

One thing that really helped us was to look at our own health history. I have several family members that suffer from depression. One of my cousin's (just 22 yrs. old) died last week from the effects of his mental illness. I myself have struggled, in the past, with anxiety. Another cousin was born with fingers and toes missing or developed wrong. His father took drugs that might have been a factor in this. Brent's family has all sorts of ailments, some more serious than others.

There is a great deal of research out there for every special need under the sun. You can often find yahoogroups where parents will honestly tell you what it is like to raise a child with such and such special need. Alcohol is something that will likely affect a child for life, but many drugs will leave the system and the child is okay after they are gone. Some physical needs will last a child's life time, while others can be repaired and a child goes on without any or little lasting effects. It's a matter of soul searching, research and prayer. If you are looking for a baby or child to adopt, take a minute and consider special needs adoption. I have seen so many success stories, might one of those stories be yours?

A math idea

This school year, I've decided that it's in the best interest of three of my kids to be home schooled. Home schooling for me is to meet the needs of my kids that the school doesn't tend to meet. For Jacob it's because he needs to be away from sugar. Connor (a very bright child) is failing in nearly every subject. Just to let you know that Connor is not just bright in MY eyes, he had very high (compared to other kids in the state) test scores in nearly every area tested. So why is he failing school? Sometimes kids aren't taught the way they need to be in order to succeed. The year before last he was really discouraged from thinking for himself in his best subject, math. Connor was working out multiplication problems in his own way but not being acknowledged for how very creative and bright that kind of thinking is. Don't get me wrong, I think teachers are overwhelmed in the school system. I wish that teachers could teach out of the textbooks of their choosing and that they could use their own style of teaching. Sadly, they must teach to a test with the districts choice of curriculum.
So now for the idea. I used this with my kids and another family when we did home school a few years ago. I put a math problem on one card and the answer on another. I did this with several problems, laminated the cards and made a math game. The game was memory - matching the problem with the solution. It was a fun way to learn, in this case, multiplication. I ended up teaching a small group of kids some advanced math the next year and found lots of good ideas which I will post here and there. I was going to put it in my other web site, but I think I will be tearing that one down. I can barely contribute to one!

July 4th, Fireworks

Okay, so I'm posting out of order. Oh well. I never was very organized. I LOVE the 4th of July. I love celebrating the freedoms that so many have sacrificed for and that I can enjoy. This year I was a little bummed because we had to break tradition. Kellie had to be involved with a parade in our valley but not in our town. Brent and I split up so the other kids could ride their bikes in the parade at our park. We all had a good day and ended up at grandmas for a barbecue and later to catch the fireworks. Kenna wasn't thrilled with the noise.

I decided to try my hand at taking photos of fireworks. I think I got a few good ones.

Grand Camp

Grand Camp is a tradition that was started a few years ago. It's a lot of fun for grandkids and adults alike. We went to my parents house this past Wednesday to Saturday. We were originally going to Brownie Lake in the Uintah's but heard that this was the year of the mosquito. My parents made an obstacle course that was a riot. They had large boxes to climb through, a balance beam, ladder to rope swing, bricks to walk on, trampoline, frisbee through hula hoop and they had to make a basket. This turned out to be the favorite for my kids of all the activities. Friday night, the kids were timed on this course and then three of the kids were blindfolded and led (by voice) through the course. As usual, Kellie won the course when timed (she is VERY competitive). She also did really well being led blindfolded. We also went canoeing and fishing on Causey dam (Jacob caught the only fish), hiking up the North Fork waterfall (I shouldn't have done that), the older kids went boating with grandpa while the younger ones had a riot in the water at grandma's house.

Why am I doing this?

Okay, so uploading this photo is not like me. Not only do I usually not post photos of myself, but this one... Anyway, this is most likely the last time I will be pregnant and I had to have some kind of proof.

Heart broken

Yes, my heart is breaking some for my 5 year old tonight. She was crying last night and would not tell me why but I had my suspicions. She confirmed them today. Mailaya let me know that she wished she didn't have brown skin and that she was born in America so she could have been a tiny baby when we adopted her.

Just to back track a bit. My intention was to go back to Samoa and adopt another child. I even had thoughts of a sibling group. Mailaya's siblings were available soon after we returned home from Samoa. It was quite expensive to adopt from there, mostly travel costs and we didn't feel right about adopting them. Anyhow, Samoan adoption closed and so of course, that door was closed. Since then, we have tried for several transracial adoption situations and none have worked out. We had gotten pretty involved with two of them but I became pregnant both times. The last one in particular didn't seem right to go ahead with. She was 7 years old and she was being disrupted from her adoptive family. I didn't feel that I could be fair to both a baby and this little girl. I NEVER wanted her to be the only child with beautiful brown skin. It is hard enough to fit in sometimes. She has always seemed so resilient though.

Anyway, now we are at the point of having 6 kids, a small home, and really no way to do an adoption right now. 6 kids feels pretty overwhelming already. Mailaya told me that she just wants to look like her sisters. Honestly, I wish I looked like her. She is so very beautiful. I fell in love with her deep, dark eyes the moment we met her. I know she will be okay, but my heart does hurt a little tonight!