update....dull

Today we found out will will indeed get to meet Nevaehs' birthmom, Tara on the ninth. We will also get to go with Nevaeh and fostermom to PT, OT and speech that day to get familiar with her programming. The worker is trying to arrange it for us to meet with her teachers as well. We will be bringing her some clothes laundered at our house to help familiarize her with the scent of our detergent as well as giving her something to bring home with her....some of my children came home with only the clothing on their backs, so you just don't know.... I need to keep praying about our school situation, last night in a meeting where there could be no public discussion, the school secretary was named interim director. What???? No wonder they said that parents couldn't speak. There was no talk of her qualifications, or the reasons for choosing her, just a vote, with unanimous results. Does this SCREAM qaurum to you? Good golly, then one of the teachers started telling me that people are WATCHING HER HOUSE. While I do feel terribly for her that she beleives this, it was hard not to laugh. The hardest thing is I LIKE these people, just not their actions as of late. I NEED this school to stay afloat for my children. I am not proud of how I behaved last night. I let my emotions get the best of me. I need to pray for strength on this one. It is such an emotional issue for me. The teacher who beleives someone is watching her house also accused me of being disresptful by posting of the issues on my blog. I am trying to figure this one out as noone who reads this blog knows where my children go to school. The people who live in our community already KNOW what's going on. The newspaper will have a heyday with the most current drama. I imagine it will get worse before it gets better. Two people cannot be in charge of a school, the parents and staff need to work together, the parents thoughts and feelings need to be respected and taken into account. The teachers thoughts and feeling need to be respected (I did not do well at that last night, and still owe some apologies) It feels as thought the staffs attitude is if you don't agree with everything going on, then it is personal and you are against them. We just have to move past the proffesional/personal thing. Anyway, I have rambled enough. Blessings! -DeAnna

Update....

Haven't posted in awhile, but here it goes. Just got back from retreat with an AMAZING group of women.....wonderful to have so much time with my dear freind Sandy, as well as other like Bonnie, Yvonne, Amber and Cheryl. Great to cut loose a little and giggle like schoolgirls.

After a 5 year battle, our dear daughter Annie was finally able to get a spot at the Academy for the Blind. The Academy was not the problem, the typical school did not want to release my daughter. Most families have this problem with accesing the Academy for the Deaf or the Academy for the Blind. Most turn to attorneys as we did. Anyway, Annie will start there with summer school, but got to spend a day there with her para, I sent the camera along and got lots of wonderful pics back! I scrapped some thhis weekend, but this is the one that made me cry. My daughter is on the left. She is being led down the hall by a new freind. I loved it. It spoke to my joy of finally having an educational environment for Annie that really suits her needs, where she can thrive....so I am posting that layout.

Got the call we have been waiting for, on June 9 we get to meet our new daughter, Nevaeh. We will make a transition plan at that time and should have some idea of when we can bring her home. The kids (and us) are all antsy to get her home, but we DO know she is getting good care where she is now (not all our kids had that benefit) so that brings me some peace about the waiting.

Also made Birthmom a scrapbook this weekend. She is really hurting and scared right now. I am hoping the book eases her fears a bit. We are under no legal obligation to maintain contact, she knows nothing of our family and is understandably very frightened right now.

Also, remember, digiridooscraps has thier grand opening on June 5! They are now live now, so if you haven't checked them out do so!

Blessings to you all! -DeAnna

Photo of Nevaeh

Here is the photo of Nevaeh, I realise it's not the best, but it's all we have now.....

It's a GIRL!!

Yes, we got the call! We are blessed enought o be Nevaeh's forever family! Have not gotten to meet her yet (which is typcial) Have been keeping myself busy buying clothes, setting up a bedroom space for her, all the things you typically do to get ready for a new child, I guess I am nesting as my freind Rita put it, LOL!

Of course, there was scrapbooking involved, tommorow I will mail Nevaeh's worker a scrapbook for her. There is one page for every member of our family. The pages are done in a large format as Nevaeh is visually impaired, so I stuck with close up shots of each of us and kept the embellies simple to avoid visual overstimulation....Some of the pages are posted today. The left side is fairly empty as I will be laminating the pages and binding them into a book with my "yourstory" Machine. I should be able to post a photo of Nevaeh later today, she is gorgeous, of course!!!!

I should tell you as well that the awesome frames and chipboard words are from haynay designs, available at scrapmatters, they are actually really fun ditressed solid colors, I just needed them to match the crazy bright colors I was using due to Nevaeh's visual impairment, but I do ADORE these as it! The distressing on them is too fun! Check them out here: http://scrapmatters.com/shop/product.php?productid=1871&cat=0&page=1

and waiting and waiting and waiting......

Still waiting. I am sleeping 3-5 hours a night. i wake up between 3 and 5 AM, just too much spinning in my head for sleep, even with Ambien. Not only Nevaeh, but now my children's school seems to be imploding....Here is the most recent article from our local paper...
http://www.wasecacountynews.com/news.php?viewStory=2847
Very stressed out about this. It may not seem big until you know that the school has had 4 directers in as many years. The staff seem to be turning on each other like canibals, and we are in danger of not having a sponsor and/or building. We may be faced with having to bus the kids to Owatonna or Mankato as I do NOT see the typical public school as an option (if you think I feel strongly about that, you should talk to my husband, LOL)
Maybe everything just seems bigger when there is a lot on my mind. Maybe tommorow we will hear something about Nevaehe that willl make everthing else seem small.
A week until Birch Park!!! Four days with freinds, fun and a bottle of wine, BOY do I need that!
Blessing to you all! -DeAnna

Nevaeh

Not a lot to say today, no blogging, no scrapping this weekend. Only nerves. I cleaned all weekend. No so much because Nevaeh's workers are coming to visit today, but because that's what I do when I am nervous or stressed. The blinds are dusted, the doors are scrubbed and polished, all the sheets are changed and comforters washed. The window washer is coming this morning, all the wood floors are polished and all the area rugs have been cleaned by servicemaster, (love those folks!)
I have cleaned, scrubbed, dusted and organized anything that can be. I am sure I will be in a frenzy until they leave today. I know God has a plan for Nevaeh, and I know it may not be our family, many other families have submitted homestudies. I just need to get through this and find out. My heart is planning, my brain is waiting. So much to think about. Bless you all and please send up a prayer of thanks to God that no matter what family is right for Nevaeh, that she will have a forever family, finally.
Blessings! -DeAnna

WFD Class of 2009

Ok, didn't sleep last night and not feeling really motivated to do much today, so what did I do you ask?? I scrapped the car fire pictures from last night of course!

Tuesday....

Jeff is in the final stretch with firefighter school. Last night they were burning cars, I took the kids to watch (from inside the car accross the street) and of course, took pictures to scrapbook (watch for those later today)

I got to play with Haynay's new kit "medicine" that you can get at Scrapmatter.com, lots of fun! While there are a lot of fun components that are medical themed, the kit has a ton of papers and elements that are great for boy pages as well. My LO and QP are above.

Pretty regular day today. School, confirmation, firefighter meeting, cleaning the youth center.

Blessings to you all ! -DeAnna

Camp Courage

AMAZING!! That is really all that can be said regarding this weekend. What a blessing to be surrounded by people who not only understand your child's disability, but live it. We were at Maple Lake Camp Courage this weekend for the yearly TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) camp. All of the families there have a child with a TBI. The affected children just got to have an amazing time in an environment where everyone understands their needs. The siblings got to spend a weekend having a wonderful time in an environment where they do not have to explain their siblings behaviors or needs to anyone. Just have fun!

Having an environment that is both physically and emotionally so safe and supportive for Carlos was a priceless experience. We will defiently go back every year. We met so many wonderful and couraguous families, what a blessing to develop this support system. Most of the children received their injuries in car accidents. It was heartbreaking to hear these parents speak of their guilt and regret. In one family Mom collided with a snowplow, She had minor injuries, her son had no injuries. Her daughter (then three) had a profound head injury. Her child had been a typcially developing three year old until that point. Suddenly she has almost no use of her limbs, has lost her language abilities and is blind and tube fed. I pray that mom can move past her guilt (it has now been 6 years since the accident) but I know as a mom this could be almost impossible. Their younger child has also been profoundly affected, and actually tells people that "mom did this to my sister". It seemed that the family was suffering with a lot of blame and guilt. It broke my heart.

I should say the weekend was NOT a pity party, it was a chance to talk about our amazing children, most who were not expected to survive their injuries. In their own way, each is now thriving. It was a weekend of celebration and emotional healing. We have waited for three years to get a spot at the camp, and found it to be one of the most amazing experiences we have had as a family. The camp simply blessed us, without a doubt, we will be back every year. No scrap pages today, just some fun pics from camp :0) Included is a pic of a little boy named Mikey, I found him to be so endearing as he reminds me of my son. He becomes very fixated on things that excite him. Our golf cart excited him, especially once I explained to him that the flames make it go faster. He knew where the cart was every moment, LOL! Saturday night when schedueled events were over, we were too tired to do anything but go to bed. Mikey's family was headed up to the pool. We were thrilled to hand over the golf cart to his family, Mikey was beside himself! I have a picture in my head of Mikey waiting at the gate for us next year when we arrive, well, I guess it will be the golf cart he is waiting for :0) Blessings to all of you! Please give your kids an extra hug and kiss today, but for the grace of God you go here. None of us ever dreamed our children would become statistics. Blessings! -DeAnna

Bless

Another QP

OK, got up at 430 AM, and decided this page had to be done in a boy theme as well....the download is set up to either do an extraction (as i did) or to delete the blue clouds and put in a full pic, you can get this one from Scrappy Shannon as well. I believe the kit is going online this weekend for National Scrapbooking day. Blessings! -DeAnna (who is off to give showers and get children to school....and I just spotted a typo on the page I will need to fix as well....don't worry it will be fixed before Shannon posts it....