Broken Camera

My posts have been photo-less lately because our camera is broken. I will be purchasing a new one soon and then watch out, I'll be back to blogging again!

What I haven't written about is our Christmas trip to Portland, Oregon. We stayed with Tori's brother and family and had a great trip. All of our family members came and we all crammed in to their house and caught up. The family visiting and the chance to visit a new city (and see an old friend of mine from Peace Corps) was great. The weather was a drag and made me thankful to live in Southern California.

I wish we had photos from the day Grandma Linda treated us to tubing up in the mountains. Zadie had a great time and did belly laughs down the hill. Skip didn't laugh out loud but definitely had a big smile on his face, despite the fact that one of his eyes was almost crusted shut because of pink eye. I starting feeling like an irresponsible parent and decided to take him (and my frozen feet) into the lodge.

Zadie also got to play with her twin cousins Bailey and Rihanna. I think they're only like four months apart. She loved following them around and was totally jealous of their braids. I wish they could have spent more time together.

Baby Charlie

I haven't written much lately about Charlie and the whole foster-to-adopt situation, mostly because it's fairly complex and has been frustrating and emotional. And not for all of the obvious reasons.

Basically at this point we have a pretty good inkling that we will not get to keep Charlie because he has an older half-sister who has come forward and wants to take care of him. Birth relatives always have priority, which I understand. When we first learned about this I was kind of shocked because I had a really strong gut feeling that we were going to get to keep him. That was a very sad period -- I think this was in mid-November or so.

We've had two court dates since then, including one yesterday, at which we wondered if the judge would order Charlie to be in the sister's custody. That hasn't happened yet because her home study and background check has not yet cleared, but it seems imminent. The uncertainty of the situation is obviously challenging, not only for emotional reasons but also for logistical and financial reasons related to daycare commitments and cars (three car seats don't fit in our Honda Civic and we've been borrowing my parents' SUV) and so on.

Like I said, the emotions behind all of this are complex and I wouldn't know how -- or if I even should -- tackle them in one blog post. I'm not upset at all with the system since this is basically exactly what we signed up for as foster parents. I'm trying to focus on a sense of purpose related to providing the best and most loving home I can for Charlie, regardless of where he ends up being placed. And I think that of all the service work Tori and I have ever done, this is definitely the most important and valuable service we've ever been able to offer. But also certainly the most challenging.

Our next court date has been scheduled for February 28th, so I will give another update at that point...

Zadie's First Day at Pre-School

I wish I had a photo of Zadie's first day at pre-school today, but our camera is broken. We signed her up for Tuesdays and Thursdays and she's been really excited about the start of school, partly because we got her a new Hello Kitty lunch box that she wasn't allowed to use until today. Sidney bought her a Hello Kitty bento box and water bottle, so she was all set.

I wish I could tell you something about how the day went, but it was like pulling teeth trying to get information out of her. Kind of like talking to a teenager in terms of one-word answers. All I can really say is that she was really excited when we dropped her off and she didn't cry or seem at all distressed when we said goodbye to her this morning.

Now Skip goes to daycare M-W-F and Zadie goes to pre-school Tu-Thu, so everyday our nanny Uncle Hank has baby Charlie plus one other child.

First Movie

We took Skip and Zadie (and Charlie, too, although he didn't think much of it) to their very first movie tonight. We went to see "Tangled." Since we've never really seen them watch a full-length movie before, we weren't sure how it would go, especially since I wouldn't say Skip has a particularly long attention span. But actually they both did really well.

Zadie sat at the edge of her seat the whole time completely entranced until the last moment and Skip sat on my lap and laughed at the funny animals, danced and applauded when there was music, and generally babbled throughout the movie. Hopefully the people around us weren't too annoyed by his chatter, but I figure if you're an adult who goes to Disney movies you really can't complain about kids in the theater.

More updates about Christmas and our trip to Portland later when I have photos!