Sincerely, Jenni

A Cure for Writer’s Block

Jenni — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:11:40 +0000

Here’s where you come in.

All 5 of you that read here regularly.

Wait, is it even 5?

Anyway, now is the time to help me out with curing my Writer’s Block.

INTERVIEW ME!

Leave me a question or two (or more) in the comments and I will start answering them next week. Nothing’s off limits!

Ready? GO!

Day 1!

Jenni — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:00:32 +0000

I am starting this (again) TODAY. If anyone would be interested in joining me, you can join the group I belong to HERE. It’s not too late to join, and I’d love to more join in !

Review: Save Me by Lisa Scottoline

Jenni — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:31:26 +0000

Save Me by Lisa Scottoline

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Let me start off by saying, I really wanted to LOVE this book.

I was intrigued by the teaser of this book. Rose McKenna is a mother to Melly (Melinda), who is in the third grade. Rose volunteers for lunchroom duty at the school because Melly has been bullied by some of the girls in her grade due to a large birthmark on her face. Every day at lunch, Melly is upset by bullying, taunting and teasing, so she retreats to the restroom to hide, or she eats lunch with her favorite teacher, Miss Canton.

One day as all the students are eating lunch, Rose notices a group of three girls making fun of Melly. As usual, Melly runs to the restroom to hide, and Rose becomes very upset. She goes over to talk to the mean girls as all of the kids are filing outside to go to recess.

Suddenly, there is a huge explosion in the kitchen and the entire cafeteria is utter chaos. As the whole place is in shambles and flames threatening to kill all of them, she must make a choice: Does she get those three girls out, knowing if she does– she won’t have time to go back in and save her daughter from the restroom? OR, does she let those mean girls fend for themselves so she can save her daughter?

What would YOU do?

I won’t give any spoilers, but I will say that this book was really good. Until about the halfway point. The second half is so unbelieveable and unrealistic that it turned the book from inspiring and thought-provoking to just plain annoying.

The last several chapters ended with such finality that I was continuously shocked to turn the page and find– ANOTHER CHAPTER! So many times the author could have ended this book and the reader would have been satisfied, but she just kept going ON and ON and ON.

Maybe others will like this book better than me, and judging from the reviews, the results are mixed. You will either love this book or hate it. Or you could be like me and simply be on the fence about it. I didn’t LOVE it, but it wasn’t a complete waste of my time or money, either.

View all my reviews

Submitted!

Jenni — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:19:47 +0000

Our official home study and relevant paperwork has been submitted via email TODAY!

After speaking with two other couples that were in our class, we could have our official approval and license by the end of this week!

I’m feeling so darn blessed today!

Deuces

Jenni — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:00:18 +0000

I had my first Weight Watchers weigh-in on Wednesday, and I was really hoping for a huge loss my first week.

I lost 2.4 pounds! I’ll take it!

A Phone Call

Jenni — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:00:14 +0000

Well, finally some progress.

Yesterday, I got an email from our caseworker and she’s finishing up our paperwork for approval. She included one final task for us to complete, and it was a doozy.

Mark and I had to sit down together and make some big choices– what behaviors and disorders we would be willing to consider when a child is placed with us.

Here goes:

For each of these, we had to check “Willing to Consider” or “Will Not Consider”:

Behaviors:
Abusive/Aggressive to Others, Accident Prone, Bed Wetting, Cheating, Cling to Adults, Cruel to Animals, Destructive to Property, Fighting, Frequently, Fire Setting, Harmful to Self, Hyperactivity, Impulsivity, Lying, Nightmares, Obscene Language, Phobias, Running Away, Sexual: Masturbation, Sexual: Provocative with Adults, Sexual: Provocative with Child, Sexual: Sexually Active, Soiling, Stealing, Temper Tantrums, Truancy, Withdrawal

Emotional/Mental:
Adjustment Disorders, Antisocial/Other Personality Disorders, Attachment Disorders, Autism, Bipolar Disorder/Manic Depression, Conduct Disorder, Delusions, Depression, Gender Identity Disorder, Panic/Anxiety Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Schizophrenia, Separation Anxiety Disorder, Sleep Disorder, Suicide Ideation Attempts

Neuro/MusuloSkeletal:
Alzheimer’s, Arthritis, Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy/Seizures, Multiple Sclerosis, Orthopedic Problems, Paralysis, Physical Handicaps, Parkinson’s Disease, Spina Bifida

AIDS/HIV/STDs:
AIDS, HIV+, Venereal Diseases

Eating/Digestive Disorders:
Anorexia, Bulimia, Digestive Disorders, Feeding Problems, Hoards/Gorges Food

Respiratory Problems:
Allergies, Asthma, Chronic Bronchitis, Cystic Fibrosis

Heart/Blood Problems:
Heart Defect, Heart disease, Hemophilia, High Blood Pressure, Sickle Cell Trait, Sickle Cell Anemia

Physical Problems:
Birthmarks, Cancer, Cleft Lip, Diabetes, Growth Disorders, Hearing Problems, Liver Problems, Paralysis, Prematurity, Problems Requiring Surgery, Vision Problems, Blindness

Learning Problems:
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Down’s Syndrome, Learning Disabilities, Mental Retardation, Slow Learner

Substance Abuse/Use:
Alcoholism, Drug Abuse (soft), Drug Abuse (hard), Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), Fetal Alcohol Effect (FAE), Prenatal Drug Exposure, Tobacco Use

Developmental Delays:
Fine Motor, Gross Motor, Social, Speech/Language, Sensory Integration Disorder

Abuse/Neglect:
Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Medical Neglect, Physical Neglect, Shaken Baby Syndrome

In addition to all of this, we also had to answer the following:

1. What types of foster placements are we willing to accept? Long-term, short-term, or urgent placements?

2. Are we willing to be respite providers?

3. How many children are we willing to accept at any one time? (Sibling groups, etc)

4. What gender are we looking for?

5. Finally, there was the race issue. Just so you everyone knows, the caseworkers are not allowed to ask you if you have a racial preference in a child. If you have any preferences, then you have to say so. They won’t ask you.

Last night, Mark and I went through the whole list of behaviors and disorders, etc. We each filled out our checklist separately, then compared answers. I was very thankful that we agreed on all but about 5 of them. We discussed those and came to a unified decision and I sent everything back in this morning.

Our caseworker hopes to have everything completed by the end of the day today.

TODAY!

Round Two

Jenni — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:37:42 +0000

I am starting this (again) on February 1st. If anyone would be interested in joining me, you can join my group HERE.

Thirty-Four

Jenni — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:46:55 +0000

Our final homestudy visit was done thirty-four days ago.

THIRTY. FOUR.

And nothing has happened since. I feel like we are stuck in this rut, a stagnant pool of just plain old WAITING. There is nothing more we can do on our end, except sit and wait on caseworkers and government employees to make this happen.

The only light at the end of this tunnel is that we know our caseworker is required to have our paperwork completed and turned in on or before February 5th. Twelve more days. Then it will take another 2-3 weeks from that date to get an approval.

I guess this whole time we just kept hoping it would get done earlier than the last possible day. But its not looking like that is going to happen.

So for the last 34 days, I have been trying to focus my attention on other things in life.

Pregnant women nest, and apparently– so do adoptive moms. I spend my time cleaning, vacumming and dusting our formerly spare bedroom, now to be named MY SON’S BEDROOM. (I can’t even tell you how much I love the sound of that!) I look through clearance aisles when we go shopping to find toys and books. I have bought a minimal amount of clothing in common sizes (just used stuff so far) so that we have something in the closet and dresser drawers.

I cross days off my calendar with quick precision, and anxiously check the mailbox each day JUST IN CASE our license should happen to show up. I go through the rest of our routine each day, making dinner and cleaning the house.

I have spent the last 34 days finding a church for our family, and we’ve gone for 3 Sundays in a row now. (Shocker!) I just get through each day, and count how many more days until February 5th. I pencil activities in on our family calendar, wondering when we will have an extra set of activities going on for another child.

I spend my time thinking how selfish I am that I struggle with the waiting. In comparison to many other people that are adopting infants, or going through an international adoption, this wait really ain’t nothin’.

But it’s still hard.

Check

Jenni — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:14:43 +0000

Another one of my criteria can be checked off the list.

5. I like being handed a church bulletin chocked full of activities– small groups, bible study, kids functions, women’s luncheons, etc

At church on Sunday, we were handed a bulletin, and THIS was stuck inside

I can’t wait to see how we grow along with this church.

How Will I Ever be Able to Do This?

Jenni — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:45:26 +0000

Up until now, I never really thought about the state calling us about accepting a foster child placement. I pretty much knew in my head what questions we would ask, the information we would want. And of course I know the specifics of the child we are looking for. But what happens when you aren’t able to stop thinking about the ones you say no to?

A good friend of ours is a social worker with the state, and handles cases in our county. She has the daunting job of removing children from their homes to be placed in foster care.

She called today, not knowing we haven’t received our license yet. She told us there was a girl in a town very close to us that was being removed from her current foster home TODAY and they needed to find a placement today, or she would end up going to a shelter.

My shoulders slumped when I heard that, and tears welled up in my eyes. I knew we couldn’t take her yet, but if we could, we probably would have. She is just in between the ages of my 16-yr old and 11-yr old daughters. She has a love for sports, and just needs a stable loving home right now.

My heart just broke when I had to say no– that we couldn’t even be considered to be her foster family yet.

How am I ever going to be able to do this when we get licensed? How will I be able to say “no” when they call about kids that are not even close to the specifics of what we are looking for? We are looking for boys, age 4-7 years old. Certainly not a pre-teen girl! How could we have said NO to this little girl, when that meant she might be spending tonight in a shelter until they found someone to say YES?