They say that no news is good news, but that’s just not the case. We have had the kids unofficially living with us for almost 3 months and the proper steps to have them legally placed still haven’t happened. Every fifth night I have to take them “home” crying and pouting because they can’t be out of their “bed” for longer than 4 nights in a row. Our fingerprints have been lost, the request for background checks was submitted to the right department but they didn’t submit it to the FBI, my (not Aleks’, suspicious) FBI clearance letter said foster rather than adoptive and that caused major problems, we couldn’t get a reasonable appointment for our NEW fingerprints so I had to complain, our background checks finally came through but expired while we were waiting for other issues to get resolved, so now we are waiting for a THIRD round of background checks before they can be legally placed with us and we can start counting the 90 day wait period to get consent for adoption and then about a month to get a court date for the finalization. On Tuesday we are hopefully getting them here in a non-relative placement (for those of you who know about George and Amber, it’s that same arrangement), not quite ideal because it will not count towards our 90 day wait period, but at least they won’t have to go back to their foster home anymore. And I’ll get to sign her school papers and mover her to another school. I could go into crazy detail about how horrible her school has been about all this, but I think for my mental stability I’ll just say that they are not as supportive as you probably think they would be.

Enjoy some January pics! I took Allison’s hair down and she wore it straight for a few days before I rebraided it, which I think I am getting pretty good at. The trampoline has been a big hit, Gabriel always begs to get it wet. And sadly, there is a new queen of the dogs ;) I guess I can share!

This was taken 3 years ago, during my reign :)

The Photo Shoot

A while back we had a photo shoot for the Heart Gallery, you might remember. These are the best shots. Also, we signed some palcement paperwork that had a spot for the chilren's future names. We had to decide if we were going through with the first name changes-we did.


So, here are Allison Elizabeth Preston and Gabriel Joshua Preston!

Bitter Sweet

Adopting older children has been great for me and Aleks. Precious and JJ fit here so well, it is obvious that we are meant to be a family. There are aspects of this situation that I didn't anticipate though. Recently, I found out that JJ has CDs with baby pictures on them, tonight I got them. The emotions that I went through looking at my son as a baby were intense. I wish we could have had them here all along, I wish I could have held him while he was sleeping...




...I really appreciate the foster family that valued his development and knew that these pictures would be important to us one day.

Happy New Year!!

2009 already, can't believe it. We were low key this year, just watched the ball drop at home with some fairly cheesy, FL friendly ground sparklers. Precious was really impressed with herself for holding a sparkler, apparently she hadn't ever done that before. She was marching around proclaiming that she was a beauty queen, it was very innocent of her (for a change). JJ was in hyper mode the whole time, I don't know how we all didn't get 3rd degree burns from him. I just shook my head when he stared me down and told me that it barely hurts when the sparks touch your skin...great. We set the fireworks off at like 10 though, and JJ started getting tired soon after. Aleks had to drag him out of his room at 11:30, but he curled up next to me and fell right back to sleep. At 11:57 Aleks started waking him up and he cried, but he did keep his eyes open for the countdown. The next morning I said "Happy New Year, it's 2009 now!" and he was somber and said "I know, I saw the ball drop." Poor kid, such is life.

The children still haven't been officially placed here. According to the caseworker this weekend is the magic date-right. I've heard that before. The calming "ahhh, that wasn't so bad" that should come with finalization can't come soon enough.

Taste of Christmas

This post is going to be added to later, but I know that our family wants to see what is going on right now. Precious seemed to be pretty sure she was getting the iPod, so I left it until last and then pretended the gifts left under the tree were for extended family. It was kinda like Christmas Story when Ralphie thinks gifts are over and then he gets the gun from behind the desk. Haha, but she screamed all the more when she figured out what it was. JJ is already taking about 4-6 pedals of the bike without falling over-and Aleks wanted to leave the training wheels on?! Merry Christmas, we love you all!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Grandparents Rock!

Aleks' mom came down for the weekend to meet the kids and they loved her! On Friday we went to Paisano's for hometown pizza and got so much more. Sparky the clown works nights "twisting for tips" and we were lucky enough to run into him. Precious says she thinks he is cute, I think that there is a lot more than age standing in the way of that romance, but no need to inform her. I think I actually like her taste in men. Then Grandma took the kids on You Tube to see a bird that dances to Back Street Boys, they were impressed. On to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. The otters were playful, the rays were hungry, Aleks was scared, giraffes were big, camels were fat-footed, log flumes were wet, goats were smelly and the roller coaster was nauseating for Precious. Just like you probably expected. On Sunday DECEMBER 21st it was beach day (that's for all my TN peeps)! Our house is still sandy from that. Good times. Aleks and I are really happy that all our parents have met the kids and everything has gone well. Precious actually saw me working on the montage and said "Grandma's so cool", so props to Grandma.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Normal Days

The kids really like going outside, maybe the reading that occurs inside is part of the reason, but hey...they are pretty creative. Precious enjoys making a house out of everything in the front room. J.J. is going to the Army at regular intervals, oh wait, I just overheard that he "is going to work". Does that mean we can charge him rent now? Anyway, just letting you all in on some of the more normal activities that take up our weekends!