February Things

February and March have flown by, we’ve had a lot going on! Orion was placed with us early February and it always amazes and startles  me how life just marches right on. When you have a baby you have time to prepare, slow down and recover. In foster care you get none of those luxuries. Now obviously I didn’t give birth so I’m not recovering physically but it is a huge change for our family. In many ways even bigger than adding a new baby because an older child changes the dynamic so much. The first couple of days and weeks we dealt with a lot of tantrums and trauma behavior, and we still are to some extent. Maybe it’s a silly of me but I did hope for a little more acknowledgment of this hard thing our family is doing. Some of the same celebration and support you feel from others when you birth a baby. Maybe people just don’t know what to say. Or don’t understand. I am certain most people don’t understand. Don’t get me wrong some people have been so kind and supportive, and some people have been…less so. But when I’ve felt alone and unsupported I’ve always always felt the Lords support and approval. And for that I’m grateful. 

We started February with the coldest days of winter. We made it through by buying a fire pit for the backyard and roasted hotdogs with friends. 

And a cold walk to the library, it was about 20 degrees both these days. But we dressed warm and enjoyed the sunshine. 

Some rascals sailing away in a boat. That's the sole purpose of this piece of furniture if you didn't know. 

Matching overalls. If I had more dispensable income I would definitely spend it on matching clothing for my children. 

And a costco trip. Moses' first time in the cart!

I made sourdough bagels, which has spiraled into a bagel obsession. Homemade ones are divine, but I'll take store bought if I must. 

I dearly love this stage of life where we almost always have free Saturdays. We ususally watch Baby Boy and get some outside time in. 

The eyebrows of concern...

I love the winter sunbursts in some of these photos. 

The girls have been listening to The Secret Garden on Audible and it inspired Adele to try jump roping. She could often be found outside on her own in the freezing February weather, skipping her rope around and around the yard, 

Sweet Mosey boy, turned 11 months old and inched closer to his birthday. I can tell these pictures were before he started getting molars, because it has been quite a few weeks now since I have seen him so smiley!

As part of his Myofunctional Therapy that he started back in October, Julian had his tongue tie released in early February. It. was. brutal. I probably would not have done it if I had known how awful the "exercises" are that I had to do with him in order to keep it from reattaching. He was a champ during the procedure and it only took 2 minutes. I have already seen improvements in him though. The morning after the procedure he told me all the dreams he had about Spiderman. He had not been able to sleep very deeply before and now he has given up napping because he is sleeping so much better at night. Still we have a ways to go to correct his tongue poster and palate, but I am so glad to have this part of the process behind us. 

We spent some sunny days at forest school. 

Mr Squirrel 

Then that night, we got the call for Orion. We had been on the list again for placements again since December. We went months without a call this time. I don't know why, but I feel strongly that the Lord orchestrates something as big as which children end up with which families. I was expecting to get a baby, maybe hoping for a baby girl if I'm being honest. So when we got the call for a 3 year old boy, it wasn't what I was expecting. I had wrap my mind around having two 3 year old boys, (along with our 4 year old boy and 10 month old boys). It was too many boys! (as the girls protested to us). But when I picked him up, as each time I have picked up our foster children, my heart just broke wide open him, and the cracks were filled with a strong love and protectiveness for him. He had such a darling little face, he reminded me of Freddie Highmore in Finding Neverland which we had just watched. He is so sweet, and generally an easy child. It has not been easy (worthwhile things never are!) and the hard moments have me doubting everything at times, but he has been such a great addition to our family. We are truly lucky to care for him while he needs us. 

For Valentines Day we went to a party at Grandma's house. 

6 kids! We contribute significantly to the grandchild count on both sides of the family. 

There is so much I could say about this little relationship between these two boys. It is not easy for kids to adjust to a new sibling in the best of circumstances and I can feel a lot of guilt if  I let myself. But on his first Sunday with us, Israel took Orion to primary with him. He proudly introduced him to everyone and stayed in Primary without me, for the first time ever. Having a buddy with him made him brave. Orion has since helped our family in countless other ways. 

Here's what I wrote on instagram when I posted this picture:

Cuddles getting us through the hard moments. Whenever I feel in over my head (often) I try to remember to stop what I’m doing and scoop up the kid(s) that are struggling most and hold them and it honestly has helped so much in my efforts to be a calm parent.

“Hugs can do great amounts of good, especially for children”- Princess Diana

On Valentines Day we made our traditional chocolate dipped strawberries. Israel came to show me the "biggest stwabewwy eva"

I made wool pants for Julian. 

And more snowy adventures. 

Uncle Alexander (Leland's brother) came to visit us in February. We put him to work by making him help us take all the kids on the train to visit the children's museum at Thanksgiving Point. 

The boys loved this plane. 

All the kids loved the water play area too. The last time we were at this museum was when Esther was a toddler and she was sitting in these baby seats at the water table! *Sniff*

The train ride was thrilling to the kids. No carseats, no seatbelts. It even had a bathroom that they could insist on using repeatedly. 

Esther, of her own volition, decided to make this diagram of the human body. She traced Adele and then copied all the organs from our anatomy book. I was wildly impressed. I often feel feelings of guilt/failure when it comes to homeschool, especially in times of stressful changes for our family like this month was. We just don't have time to do a fraction of the things I'd like to do. The bare minimum really. But the kids do have ample amounts of free time. So when they choose to do things like this it really makes me feel like maybe I'm not messing up so much after all. 

We took a trip to the nature center and soaked up some fleeting warm weather. 

I made several sourdough loaves. (trying to get into the routine of making all our bread from scratch!)

Dinner for 8

Lots and lots of cuddles especially after hard visit days, 😢

Trying to take pictures of a mobile baby. Moses really started crawling this month. I love his fluffy diaper and all his squishy rolls. 

And we got another snow storm. 

I took Israel on a 1 on 1 date to the library. He needed the attention desperately. 

These pictures are to document the first time ever that Moses did not cry at all in the bath. Despite (or because of?) being born in water, this little guy has always despised baths, but he has finally come around now. 

A rare sighting of a clean playroom. 

That's all for February. It was a pretty overwhelming month. But I'm grateful that we could mostly just stay home, relax and all adjust to Orion coming to live with us. March was jam-packed with fun and I'm going to try to catch up on all those posts!