I'm a momtog.

I've had a lot of people ask me what a "momtog" is. So, here I am, explaining.

I'm a mom of one sweet, beautiful little girl who I adore and love with more pieces of my being than I ever thought was humanly possible.  She's pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.
I could seriously write for days about how awesome I think my kid is, but I'll spare you. ;)

I am also a photographer. I own a studio in our downtown. It's a charming little building in which I share the space with a dear friend who owns a children's boutique. In the photography world the word photographer is often shortened to photog.

Do you get where I'm going with this? I'm a mom. And a photog. Making me a momtog.

I kinda really love my job.
Both of them.

So since every post is better with pictures. Here are some phone shots of me and my daughter at dinner the other night after her dance class. ;) (And if you want to check out some better pictures that I've taken head on over to my website!) :)

"We are all clear..."

I just got the call from our agency that we are all set. Our license has been approved and we are officially licensed foster parents.

Now we wait for THE call.

The one that will really start the newest chapter in our journey.

Waiting...waiting...waiting...

Yesterday was three months since our application was received by our agency.

We've waited for the application to be reviewed.
Waited for the background checks to be completed.
Waited for classes to be available.
Waited for inspections.
Waited for the agency to receive our fingerprinting.
Waited for our home study.
Waited for our home study to be turned in and then reviewed.
Waited to sign for our home verification.
And now we are waiting on the state to approve our license.

After we have our license, we will wait for our first call for placements. I'm tired of waiting.

All I can think about is the kids who will come into our home.

What have they been through? How much love are they getting right now? Do they have anyone who hugs them? What will they be like? What kinds of things will they like to do? Will they be angry, or sad, or maybe both? How old are they? Will they be the ones who stay with us forever, or will we be able to reunite them with their birth families?

We have this empty room in our house that can be filled by them. And I have an empty place in my heart waiting for them. And I'm ready for both to be filled.

God has perfect timing and he has the perfect children for us.
But I can't stop checking my phone. Praying for a call that we are licensed, and our home is open.

"I want to be a ballerina teacher when I get big..."

Year two of dance started tonight. Tap and Ballet. This kid absolutely l.o.v.e.s dance. She would wear her ballet shoes and leotard everywhere we went if I would let her. You heard me right. She prefers ballet over tap.

Which I can't say I mind one bit.

I love seeing her so excited about something. It never gets old watching her eyes light up when she realizes that "TODAY IS DANCE DAY!"

So here are some pictures of my super awesome kiddo, learning to be what she wants to be when she gets big.
Because every post is better with pictures.

Cheers to year two. May it be as awesome as year one.

Our Foster Kid's Room

I wanted so badly to see what other foster parents had set up for their kiddos. I wanted to know how they were keeping it gender neutral. So here is a post for those new foster parents getting their room ready. Here's some detailed photos of what's in our foster room. 

One thing we have decided (the reason the bed looks very bare), is that we are going to take our kiddos shopping to get their own bedding that they like, and we will move the decorations around to match their likes. :)

I kind of really, really love this room. I'm so ready for it to be filled with kiddos. 

Getting Ready for Foster Care

After we turned in our application to our agency in late June, I hit everything full force. I was filling out paperwork like a mad woman, and gathering everything we could possibly need to care for children in our age range.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the many other blogs about foster families getting their kid's rooms together, dealing with the paperwork (which seems never ending), and I especially loved to blogs about all the craziness involved with foster care. 

This post will be a photo blog about our journey so far. 

It all started with this dresser. It was mine when I was a little girl. Somewhere along the way it was painted lots of different colors. So we took it back to the way I remembered it. Plain white. :)

 This was the foster room after doing a little clean up and using some primer over the marks that somehow covered the walls!

 

I did a little online shopping to get one new outfit for each size/gender of the kiddos we could be taking in. I wanted to make sure that they had some clean clothes when they first get placed with us, before we have a chance to go shopping. And OH was I ever surprised when I came across a MEGA sale at Target online!

While on our anniversary trip this summer we did a little shopping and came home with an infant carseat and a new crib. When we were at Target the carseat was marked at $99.99. At check-out we discovered that it had been marked down to $38.98! *insert happy dance here* 

Rylie-bug helping paint the foster room! She's been such a big helper! :)

We obviously had to remove the old deck that was splintering, and was in HORRIBLE condition. We replaced with with two floating decks, and some awesome mulch. All these iPhone pictures don't do it justice. Plus, I have all kinds of cute decorations that need to be put out here! 

We've been SO blessed by donations from friends and family! I'm pretty sure we will have the best dressed kids in town!

There has been SO much more done to our house to get it ready that I haven't included here. We completely redid our playroom, had to rearrange door knobs, fire extinguishers installed, rearrange our cabinets, and pantry to get everything right where they tell you to have it! So much more that I wish I would have taken pictures of! :)

This brings us to where we are now. Waiting.

Waiting for them to finish writing our home study, and get our license ready for signing. 

I'm not good at waiting.

I.am.so.ready.to.have.placements. 

God's timing is perfect. God's timing is what we are waiting on. 

I'm just ready for that time to be here.

PS. Please excuse the poor iPhone quality pictures from this post. :)

I'm going to do a blog that is JUST about the foster kid's room. I'm pretty proud of how I was able to keep it gender and age neutral!

Why Foster Care?

On a daily basis I am asked an abundance of questions about why we are choosing to do foster care, with a good amount of questions (and remarks) that follow close behind.
I love answering these questions and while coming home from a good friends wedding last week, all the questions were playing over and over in my mind and I started wondering how many people out there really want to know the answers, but don't want to ask.
So I've decided I would compile a list of the questions and answers here.

Q: What "kind" of kids will you get?
A: Our demographic for our license is going to be age 0-5, boy or girl, willing to take a sibling group of up to three kids. Other than that we will be getting neglected and abused children who desperately need to know that they are worthy of love and a good home. They are worth it. They aren't disposable like they've grown up thinking. They will be loved. And hopefully their bio parents will learn the same lesson.

Q: Do they see their "real" mom and dad?
A: This is decided on a case-by-case basis. But most of the time, the answer is yes. If they are adopted, then we will be have the choice to allow their relationship with their bios to continue.

Q: Why foster care?
A: Here are some statistics for you. 1) In the state of Texas, a child is abused or neglected every 8 minutes. 2) There are 6,875,255 children in the state of Texas, and of those there are approximately 28,000 children in foster care at any given moment. And there are only a little more than 3,000 foster homes. Do that math. In case you don't want to take the time those stats mean that approximately 1 out of every 245 children is in care.
The statistics aren't the only reason we chose this path. God commands us to care for the widowed and the orphaned. We are opening our home to the children that need us permanently, as well as the kids who only need us for a little while.

Q: Why don't you use private adoption? It's so much easier that way.
A: There are SO many people who want to privately adopt and I think that it is absolutely wonderful that people who can't care for their babies are willing to put them up for adoption to be taken into loving homes. And it is absolutely fantastic that people want to adopt those precious little babies. But for us, that isn't the right path. I look at the statistics, and wonder to myself on a daily basis what will happen to the kids who *don't* get adopted out of foster care. And it breaks.my.heart.
So many children need love. Not just the ones coming straight from the womb.

Q: Don't you know you're going to get your heart broken?
A: Yes. I do know that we are setting ourselves up to fall in love with children just to have them taken from our home. Foster care is the business of heart break. But isn't it better to love and to have lost than never to have loved at all? And aren't these kids worthy of feeling love?

Q: What about Rylie? Does she understand?
A: She understands what we have told her. Which is that sometimes some mommies and daddies don't know how to be good mommies and daddies and they need help learning how to take care of their babies (and kids). She's so open, and keeps leaving toys in our back room "so the new kids can play with it". And she can't wait to share her mommy and daddy with the new kids.

Q: How is Rylie going to take it when the kids leave?
A: If they leave, then I'm sure she will miss them. They will be her siblings while they are with us. We will love them, and it will feel like part of our family is gone when they leave. But isn't it better to teach her compassion and love than the hold this experience back just because she might get hurt? Our jobs as parents is to teach her to be a productive member of society. It's also our job to teach her to be kind, compassionate, loving, and Godly. We feel as though this experience will only help mold her into the adult we hope she will grow to be.

And I'm sure there are a ton more that I can't think of right now.
For us, our answer is in Psalm 82:3-4.
"3. Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. 4. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."