Foster parenting

There's a blog I've found with lots of neat ideas and thoughts on foster parenting and RAD. It's www.welcometomybrain.net over on my side bar. She's got topic links on the right side...I've read lots of her foster and RAD posts. She also has topics on homeschooling and other married kinds of things. We call it the "married thing" around here when the topic pops up...You know, like when one of the kids asks, "What's a___________ Mommy?" fill in blank w/ word in question like "prostitute, floozy, hooker," all those plus others...and we don't even have cable! Seems like too much of the time we're explaining something and having to tell them that once again it means someone is doing the "married thing" but not yet married...why do we have so many words dealing with that kind of thing anyway?! Alright, back to the blog recommendation...she's fun to read. She's lost a bunch of weight and has lots of posts that are highly motivational there too! Good stuff!

Have I said how much we're enjoying our little foster daughter? I have to remind myself from time to time that we are not her forever family...that's gonna be way hard. But for now, right now, we're having fun. We will love her fully while she's here like she was ours while teaching her the important things that might come in handy later on. Especially the God stuff! She's learning about decisions, spelling words, reading, God's love for her, piano, chickens, (she spotted a couple "in labor" the other day...hmmm....don't think that's the right word. When I gave her a questioning look, she explained that, "You know, the rooster was on Top Of one of the chickens...) alrighty then! back to the learning list..chores, how to talk kindly, and quietly, ...And we're learning too! Patience, sacrifice, mercy, spelling tricks, why George won't bark (Bark, George by Jules Feiffer is Stupid-Hilarious--so much fun!), time management and consistency with scheduling, how it really is nice to have a schedule, why God wants us here, doing this, right now...
Good things happening!

Not to say there are struggles too...like how to manage jealousy, anger, inflexibility, time, expectations, chores, disobedience, attitude problems, tiredness...and this list isn't just our foster-daughter's problems! We ALL have had some of this going on in the last few weeks. But I can see, tonight when everyone is in bed and it's super quiet, ;-) I can see that it's gonna be alright, as a matter of fact, it's great. We're learning. And we're growing! woo-hoo!