A Winter Boat Ride

Our poor little injured patient

Mr. Cone Head

Rob-ert the sailor man -toot toot!


A little chilly at Friday Harbor

Me stuffing a doughnut in my face and trying to look innocent.

Two weekends ago we took a quick trip up to the San Juans to spend a few nights on the boat with Robert's parents. Robert is going to be taking sailing classes this Spring, and is getting really excited about it, so he's been anxious to be on the water. We had a really fun time and nice weather, but we did have one rather significant mishap the first morning...

Robert woke up around 7 and since I wanted to keep sleeping he decided to take Kai for a nice long walk around the point (we were still docked at the harbor and hadn't left Anacortes yet). I had drifted back to sleep but was violently awakened some time later by Robert flinging the cabin door open and yelling "We've got to go; Kai's been hurt". Now I'm not usually one to jump out of bed, but hearing those words made me panic so I flew out of bed, threw on my shoes, and went running down the docks after Robert in my pajamas. Unfortunately for me (not a runner), our boat was moored at the farthest end possible, so I had to run farther than I've ran in years and man were my lungs burning (time to get in shape maybe?!) Robert had put Kai in the back of my car and the only reason he had run back to the boat was to get his cell phone so he could call and try to find an animal hospital (how come we never have our cell phones when in an actual emergency?)

We drove to the first clinic and when we got there I saw poor Kai's wound for the first time. He had been so excited on his walk that he was jumping around and got tangled in a bush with pointy branches and somehow completely ripped a huge portion of skin from his leg. The skin had flapped open to reveal a nearly perfect 6 inch by 4 inch square of his thigh. It was like peering into a window of muscle and veins. The lady who greeted us was not very friendly and seemed rather unmoved by Kai's injury. She said the doctor would probably see all of his other patients first and then get to Kai. As if we would let our poor little bloody doggie sit in a kennel all day waiting to see the doctor! I thanked her rather curtly and we headed to the Animal Emergency Clinic. When we arrived there, they put us in a room right away and said they would have to knock Kai out and sew him up. We left him there trembling and whining and headed back to the boat to wait for their call.

At about 1:00 that afternoon they said his surgery had gone well and that we could come get our big guy. He got quite a few stitches and they had to stick a big drain in his leg. The worst part, however, was the huge plastic cone he had to wear around his head for 2 weeks. You would think he would have eventually figured out to allow for more space when moving around, but he kept crashing into things and ramming through things for the entire 14 days. He wasn't supposed to move around very much either, so getting him down the very long dock and onto the boat was quite a chore. We decided to stick him in one of the luggage carts and wheel him back to the boat, and although normally he probably wouldn't have stayed put, he was so sore and drugged that he just layed their and enjoyed the ride.

He has since got his stitches out and is doing much better, but it will probably take awhile for all of his fur to grow back! And aside from that little (costly) episode... the rest of the trip was a blast:)

Life as Foster Parent

Baby E had trouble sleeping last night, so Holly stayed up to try and comfort her while I tried to sleep. When I awoke this morning, I found Holly and E. lying fast asleep on the floor in the baby room. E. was wrapped in her blanket and Holly was wrapped in her sleeping bag. I tried to get the camera before they woke up, but our meowing cats spoiled the moment before I could snap the shot.

When we signed up to be Foster Parents we knew it was going to be emotional, but you never really know anything until you have experienced it first hand. Well, we got our first dose of Foster Parenting today at 2:00 when DHS (Department of Human Services) called and said that the judge ordered DHS to return E. to her family. We had a doctors appointment scheduled for her at 2:30, so E's case worker met us at the clinic to pick her up. We fed her a bottle, gave her kisses, prayed for her and said our good byes. It is amazing how much love you can feel for a baby only after 24 hours.

Baby E.

God brought Baby E. into our lives today. She is a very sweet and beautiful baby and we feel very blessed to have her in our home. Because our blog is public, we will have to keep things pretty generic, but we look forward to sharing our foster parenting journey with you.

Finally Foster Parents

Yesterday we officially became certified as foster parents. We were made aware of this in two very real ways: we received a certificate in the mail, and we received a phone call from our caseworker asking us if we would be willing to take two little brothers (ages 1 and 7) who had been taken from their home that day due to extremely unsanitary living conditions. Robert received the call and left me a message while I was teaching. We waited for the next few hours to hear if we would really be bringing these two little boys into our home. At about 5:00 Robert received another phone call letting him know that a grandma had been found in a nearby county and had been approved to take the boys. So the call yesterday was a bit of a false alarm, but it was also a very real indicator that we may be welcoming children into our home at any moment. Please pray for the little boys who were removed from their home yesterday. And also, that God would help us prepare ourselves for the first child / children that we welcome into our home.

Fall is Here!

After a long, warm summer, Friday evening brought stormy gray skies and the wonderful smell of damp earth and rain. I absolutely love the fall, so the abrubt change was a delightful surprise. September, October, and November are my favorite months of the year; I love the coziness of the weather, the pumpkins, the way the world becomes a palette of hues of golds and reds, and how homes and stores begin to smell of cinnamon, apples, and spice. I love wearing skirts and tights, finally having a justifiable need for coffee or tea throughout the day, and a good reason to bake seasonal breads... and eat them. Oh, there is so much to love about fall!

Classes begin today. I have several first-year Spanish classes this term, and although I enjoy teaching the advanced grammar and linguistics of second-year Spanish, there are benefits to having trainable, malleable students who are new to foreign-language learning.

In addition to new classes, Robert and I are preparing our home and hearts for a very new life this year! Our caseworker has completed two of our three required homestudies, and we hope to have the final walk-through this week. Then, she has to write a report, have her supervisor authorize it, and we will be officially certified as foster parents. It could all happen as early as the end of September, so we could very likely have a child (or two) in our home by October. We now have two bedrooms prepared for little ones; a nursery for babies, and a bunk-room for older kids. We have decided to be open to taking children 8 and younger, although surprisingly, our caseworker told us they are having a difficult time finding homes for babies and young children right now (most likely due to families being unable to afford child care if both parents are working). So while we may end up with a couple of school-aged kids, it's also very likely we'll end up with a newborn or two. Please pray that we will make the transition into instant parenthood as gracefully as possible, and that whatever children are placed with us will adjust to our home, our schedules, and most importantly to living with a new family.