Daily Walking

You CAN Help: Become a CASA

2012-01-24T15:23:00.001-06:00

I started a series on practical ways in which you CAN help and you CAN make a difference in the orphan crisis. I'm a firm believer that taking care of orphans is a mandate for the church, not a suggestion or a guideline. However, I believe many do not feel called to foster or adopt and are not sure what to do. In December we looked a having A Wise Christmas. Now I want to talk about being a CASA.

What is a CASA?

A CASA is a Court Appointed Special Advocate. CASA's are appointed to foster kids to be their advocate. They are there for the kids and the kids only (and will be the only person in that court room that is there for only the kids).

What does a CASA do?

A CASA will be given a court order that will allow them access to any information they want. There job is to talk to the many different people (teachers, birth parents, foster parents, doctors, counselors, etc) involved in these kids lives and figure out what is truly best for the children .

How much work is a CASA?

Being a CASA is not easy. They take one case at a time and those cases can take a year or two. Initially a CASA has meetings about once a week and as things settle and decisions are made it may only be once a month. It is a time commitment, but one I feel is well worth it!

How great is the need?

The goal of the courts is to have one CASA per case. However, there are just not enough to go around. In our county we have two supervisors with 30 CASA's per supervisor. Our judge determines which cases need a CASA most.

What do I need to become a CASA?

First you will need a heart that desperately loves these kids. You need a little bit of time and flexibility to your schedule. You'll have to do some pretty intense trainings (I believe its 40 hours worth), and on going training. You'll also need a little bit of thick skin. You are the advocate for the child and only the child, which means you may make others (birth parents and foster parents in particular) upset.

CASA's typically have a lot of say in the case (in our county the judge agreed with them 92% of the time). This is a way to make a BIG difference in the lives of children. You will be able to see things that no one else can see. I know a few CASA's and they are pretty incredible people! I know God has His hand on them as they wade through their cases. I pray that if we get a CASA they will be as incredible as those I know.

To learn more about being a CASA check out their website.

A Little Bit of Two Year Old

2012-01-17T08:35:00.000-06:00

Our little Princess is two. There are things about her that are VERY two. The other day I was trying to play a card game with her and she says, "No Mom! There mine!"

Mine. One of the most voiced words in this house. For a two year old everything belongs to them.

Her daddy decided we had enough and decided to teach her that everything was God's, not hers. God gave her the privilage and the responsiblity to take care of it, but if God wanted her to do something else with it (like give it up) she needed to do that.

My poor hubby spent the first few hours with a child try desperately to cling to what was hers. The mines where worse then ever. While he had a supportive wife, she was also a sceptical.

Source

It didn't take me long to realize why this seemed crazy to me. In my mind I still wanted to be able to use the arguement with my child, "no you can't play with that, it's Mommy's." While I wanted my two years heart to be right, I wasn't ready for my heart to be right.

I told my husband that this is something that he and I still needed to work out ourselves. We say, "everything is Gods" but we constantly put restraints and stipulations on that. We give out of our excess, not all we had (hmm...I think Jesus knows about that issue). So glad that he wants our daughter to begin learning early so it will, hopefully, be easier for her.

Is everything God's? Truly? Not yet. I'll be working on my "two year old selfishness" right along my two year old.

2012 Goals

2012-01-01T21:15:00.000-06:00

The goals I wrote for 2011 were really a great at helping me stay on track, so I wanted to do them again for 2012. However, I had a lot of trouble thinking of my goals for 2012. There are so many things I want to accomplish and change this next year. However, as I though of the lists, whats important to me, and the difference between a goal and a resolution I had to drop many of them.

1. Have Addilece finish potty trained at nap and night time: She stays dry durning the day but still wets about half the time during nap and every night. I want to be completely done with diapers by 2013.

2. Build our savings and emergency funds back to where we would like them and leave them there: When we number crunched this and the next were lofty goals. This will also be besides a down payment on a van and house repairs. It means we will have to make spending sacrifices this year. Our hope is to have our savings build up by the end of February and to build up our emergency with our tax return.

3. Put an extra $3000 toward school loans

4. Spend two weekends/overnights together as a couple: Not successful last year, but hopefully we will get it together this year! To break this down a bit more we would like to have one weekend done by the end of June.

5. Finish our wedding scrapbook and start our family album: I hope to work on our wedding scrapbook at least once a month. I'm also working on ordering pictures as I can get them free or cheap for the family album (which will consist of a page or two for Christmas and a page or two for vacation every year). I hope to have the years caught up by the end of this year.

6. Do Bible Study more regularly as a couple: This is something we have fallen in out of the habit of this last year. I hope that stops this year and we stay consistent.

7. Feel healthy: We both agree that we feel so miserable right now. We don't care about weight numbers or eating habits, what we care about is how we feel. Now that will mean weight loss, exercise, and eating changes for us both! For me I would like to loose 10 to 15 lbs, go three months straight with no pop (and drink it sparingly after that), and run a mile in 8 minutes. Tony would like to get in shape and tone up. He would also like to run a mile in 8 minutes while doing push ups in between 400's. I would love for our goal next year to be to run a 5K.

8. Have more homemade and less store boughten products in the house: This past year we tried laundry detergent and detangler...both being successful. I also bought the stuff for febreeze but never made it. I would like to make the febreeze, face wash, syrup, shower cleaner, and anything else that seems to save us money and be safer for our home. I also want to make more/different homemade bread and try a slew of items in the kitchen.

9. Have Addilece understand the gospel message: this does not mean we expect her to accept it but we would like he to be able to answer what sin is, who sins, that means we can't be a part of God's family, and how to be part of God's family.

10. Be more diligent about Addilece's Awana (first) and school (second).

We also have random other things we would like to do this year. We want to take a camping trip to the Dunes in Michigan. We would like to finish the kitchen, replace four more windows, and raplace the wood around the outside of the windows on the house. We have goals for the ministries we are involved in also. I would like to take a room a month and organize it and come up with a weekly, monthly, six month cleaning schedule that I will follow. We will finish our foster license and we hop to receive a placement soon.We also want to be more on top of balancing the checkbook, updating the budget, and having financial meetings.

So here is to a productive and fun 2012!

2011 Goal Check--up

2012-01-01T08:00:00.000-06:00

Well, the end of the year has come. It is time to review our goals and see where we are.

1. Buy and begin to fix up our first home.

House purchased and a lot of work has been completed on it. The fix it up part is on going.

2. Finish our wedding scrapbook (not even half way done, pathetic I know) and begin Addilece's "Life Story" book (we aren't doing a "baby book" with her due to the fact that none of our other children will have baby books....we are going to try and make them as similar as possible).

I did not touch our wedding scrap book this year, other then to move it. However, after choosing to go digital for Addilece's book. It is ALMOST done! It just needs a few more tweaks.

3. Spend two kid free weekends with my hubby (one possibly being a trip).

We only got one kid free weekend. However, it was an amazing weekend. We could never get our schedules and Tony's work schedule figured out to do another.

4. More date nights (that's a hard one).

We've been on a few dates out of the home. We also started doing a date night at home every other week.

5. Go camping for the first time.

We went to St. Louis for the weekend in August. We had a blast and we're already planning our trip for this next year.

6. Loose an inch or two in the waist.

I was not successful at this at all.

7. Teach Addilece her first Bible Verse.

Addilece is doing really well learning Bible verses. She know 5 different ones plus a slew of other Biblical information. It has been so fun as a parent to watch her learn spiritual truth.

8. Tony beginning Grad School.

Tony did a lot of praying and decided to wait on Grad School. It will be in the near future, however.

9. Start saving for our adoptions.

We do have a jar that we randomly drop money in for future adoptions. It's not much but its a good reminder of the future. We did start the process to get our foster licenses and that has taken a lot of our time and energy.

10. Build our emergency fund back up to one month of emergency money.

This was complete and then we had to buy windows for the house.

11. Leave our food budget where it is at but eat healthier.

We are eating healthier. This year I make sure we always have fruit in the house, I'm using healthier oils, and we completely switched to frozen veggies. We grew our own garden also. This was a huge blessing. Our food budget, however, was shot. We could not keep up with the food price increases. We are going to be looking into more homemade goods for this next year and a few other solutions to keep our budget as low as possible.

12. Completely potty train Addilece using the 3 day method.

Addilece is potty trained during the day. She has an accident every week or two.

Year at a Glance

2011-12-30T09:23:00.000-06:00

Last year I did our "Year at a Glance" and I'm so glad I did. I had fun looking back at it this year. So here is our Year at a Glance for 2011.

Janruary:

*My Birthday

February:

*Addilece had breathing problems flashing both Tony and I back to our childhood.

*Welcomed our new niece, Zoey.

March:

*Celebrating St. Patrick's Day

*Being able to meet life size versions of Mater and Fin thanks to friends at State Farm. (Sponsors of Cars2)

April:

*Lots of moving because we officially purchased and moved into our first home.

*Tony's birthday!

*Easter

May:

*Tony's brother's wedding reception

June:

*My entire family was together.

July:

*My brother gets married.

*Addilece's 2nd birthday.

*Made the decision to begin Foster Care.

August:

*Our first camping trip. We enjoyed the weekend in St. Louis.

*Addilece gets to ride in a Semi.

September:

*Our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch.

October:

*Tony's brother got married.

*Welcomed our new nephew Oliver to the family.

November:

*Thanksgiving

December:

*Christmas

*Tony's brother gets married.

Video

2011-12-25T23:37:00.002-06:00

Our Christmas video was set on private (on purpose) but I didn't think about the fact that this meant you couldn't see it. So here you go....it should be viewable now. (If not try this link)

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T07:44:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

May you tell if from the mountain because Jesus Christ IS born!

God Bless!

UNICEF and International Adoption

2011-12-20T09:44:00.002-06:00

Here is a bit more information about UNICEF and their push to close international adoptions. Unless stop they will succeed.

http://ethicsalarms.com/2010/12/08/unicefs-unethical-war-against-international-adoption

A Wiser Christmas Idea

2011-12-12T09:49:00.003-06:00

I love teens who are passionate about serving God and loving on orphans....teens who GET IT. Suzanne's daughter Grace is one of them. Check out her blogpost about her tree with a purpose and some great Christmas ornament ideas.

International Adoption and UNICEF

2011-12-06T11:34:00.001-06:00

Will International Adoption be around forever? Possibly not. Read the article to find out more.

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/red-thread-adoptive-family-forum/2011/aug/3/united-states-unicef-war-international-adoptions/#.Tt4c0BcHxgh.facebook

2011-12-02T09:44:00.001-06:00

Check the post on Patti Lacy's blog today. I'm so privliaged know this Godly woman who just became a CASA:

http://www.pattilacy.com/blog/?p=2938