I am so frustrated right now. In fact, it is beyond words, but I'll try. Our agency has made what it feels is the best decision on how to handle its waiting children files and I support them in their decision - for the most part. They have responded to their clients wishes and over the last year have amended the WC process to be what they deem to be the most fair. I have supported this knowing how hard it is to please everyone.
But! I just visited the blog of one of the families traveling right now to pick up their daughter. I immediately recognized the little girl as one we applied for last Spring....A YEAR AGO. I was curious as to why it took them so long to get their LOA and TA (the paperwork giving them an official referral and travel approval). The family was picked to review the file and accepted the little girl last April and could not get it together to submit their dossier until October! It took them 6 months to put together their paperwork and all they can say is they are procrastinators. How many of us were logged in and ready to go then? Unbelievable is all I can say. So, this little girl has lived an additional year with a foster family that she has been bonding with and will now be ripped away from to go live with her "forever family." I'm very frustrated right now and will be calling our agency on Monday to discuss this with them. I never had a problem with them allowing non logged in families to apply for these kids...until now. I just naturally assumed that a non LID family would really hustle to get an LID so they could be united with the child that they have been waiting for. I'm just so frustrated by this. The thing is, for the most part I have understood that adoption sucks. Really. It is frustrating and their are long waits and the children end up being the ones to suffer the most in so many ways both before and after the adoption. But, really. This is just too much. All I can do now is hope and pray for this little one and hope that this situation does not continue to happen. Please keep all of the orphans in the world in mind in your hopes and prayers. They deserve so much more.
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Not much going on. We are wrapping up our CIS update. It is taking me forever. I have decided that I am decidedly unorganized now when it comes to paperwork since staying home with Noah. It is funny. I could not stand to have a paper out of place when I had my own office. I was incredibly together. Now that I am at home....calendar's, clocks, papers, they mean nothing to me. I have got to get it together!
So, all I have left is to pick up the green form today, get it to our SW tomorrow, pick up the homestudy, and overnight it to CIS with a request for a free one time extension. Then, we are still in the game. As far as kids go, we are still light years away from a traditional referral, we are continuing to watch our agency's special needs list and still considering Ethiopia. Please keep us in our thoughts as we await the gift of a new child into our home. Just letting you know, we are counting down the days to Disney World. We have less than 4 weeks to go! We are so in need of some time away from here. Living, working and schooling at home has it good points....and its bad.
Never fear, this will be another homeschool lesson. I will have maps for Noah to read on the way down as we are studying mapping this quarter. I am sure I will come up with some other creative things for him as well to do before leaving.
We are also planning a trip to the Kennedy Space Center so I am sure I can come up with a lesson for that! Happy Homeschooling These are the days that homeschool moms hate. I am in the middle of my moontime, I have a sore throat and what appears to be a viral infection. I cannot get motivated to do anything and just feel awful. Luckily the neighbors are on spring break, so Noah got to spend the day with the boy next door yesterday and I stayed in bed. I have no idea what to do about today. I think we will do some fun projects as I cannot focus enough to do actual schoolwork.
Over the past few weeks I have been reevaluating our home school curriculum. Not that we use a real curriculum, mind you, just a hodge podge of my own devices. But, what' a New Agey homeschool mom good for if she isn't passing along such wisdom to her little light? So, we went over to my friend Ramona's shop (Stonekeepers) and let the Croy Kid pick out an Amethyst.
This morning, we got out the fabulous Love Is In the Earth by Melody and began our study of crystals - beginning with Amethyst. An Amethyst is a variety of quartz that has a deposit of manganese giving it that great purple color. It is great for balancing out our whole system and connecting our Earth bound selves with our spiritual selves. I had Noah hold it while we discussed it. We used the first sentence from the book as copywork and then Noah had to draw the particular crystal he was holding. It was great. It made me even more determined to make it to Arkansas near the end of Summer for a couple of days of crystal digging. We are so there! It should be right after our trip to the American Society of Dowsers convention in Vermont! Last week as I told my tale of woe to my friend Brittney, a fellow homeschooler, she laughed at me and said, "you'll be homeschooling Noah again next year." She may be right. We are currently awaiting an answer from the Waldorf school as to whether or not they have a space for Noah in the fall. The longer I wait the more I wonder if I even want that spot.
In the meantime, we are continuing our studies and I am making plans for the Fall. I'll be attending the MTHEA fair looking at educational supplements. If you have not been, it is a great time! I'm going to go ahead and enroll Noah in one of the local co-ops. I'm a little nervous about this to be honest as they are all religious based. But, I am hoping one day a week will be okay. But, the big thing is I am planning an extended road trip for Noah and I. I have no idea how we are going to pay for it. But, I am planning it. I want he and I to do one of two things. Either we are heading up the East Coast and ending up at the American Dowsers Convention in Vermont or we headed across country and then going up the West Coast. If we do that I a have friends and family up and down the coast we can stay with. I wish my friend Kara were here. I really have been wanting to talk to her about starting our own co-op and having people pay or my helping her start a co-op so people can pay her. I've also been wanting to ask her if she would like to go part of the way with us across country. At least to the crystal mines in Arkansas. So, Kara, if you are reading this, file this away to think about when you get home! So, that's where we are now. Today is our free day/playday that we have been doing since Noah's birth. We are meeting friends for lunch and then on to the park. I'm sure a good time will be had by all. I've told Nathan I need him to take an extended weekend and take Noah to my in-laws so I can regroup. Sort of a Spring Break for Noah and I (a break from each other is more like it!) Hopefully that can happen very soon. Well, gotta go get ready before Noah is lost for the day! Peace Out. Can you believe that my baby lost his first two teeth today? Not the usual way of course. Tooth number one has been loose for a little over two months. Meantime, the new tooth has come up behind it. Then, a second tooth loosened up and lo and behold, did not loosen much and a new tooth had come up behind it. So, today we went to the dentist. I was very nervous that he was going to freak out before we went, but I told him about the Snoopy nose that the dentist would put on him that would make him giggle. That was all he needed to hear. Unfortunately, he did not giggle and that made him sad.
But, the visit went well. Both teeth were pulled, he received a prize and I took him for a Frosty as he needed something that did not require a straw to ingest. All in all it went well. Now, he is sound asleep with two teeth under his pillow dreaming sweet dreams of the glitter and magic of the Tooth Fairy. I know he won't be disappointed. As for me, I finally broke down and cried at bedtime as he got ready to read The Tooth Fairy book. I cannot believe we have a child losing his milk teeth. He is growing up so fast. It is days like this that I am so thankful that we have made the decision to keep him home with us instead of sending him to school. That's it for tonight. So, look for the kid with the missing front teeth and be sure to ask him about his Tooth Fairy visit. Peace Out. Hi all. Not much going on. We have applied to review the files of two more waiting children. I am holding out hope but the files are locked by a family from another agency. One cutie is a 3 year old red head - yes, I said red head - and the other is a little dark haired 2 year old. They are really quite cute and funny. Not your typical children from a Chinese SWI. Nathan said he didn't know if he could do the red head as he says she would have to be chained to us from 14 on as all of the boys would be chasing her. The other is possibly the pudgiest child from an orphanage I've ever seen.
Well, we'll let you know if we get to see the files. For now, we are getting our immigrations stuff updated and getting ready to have our fingerprints redone. Apparently Homeland Security thinks they might have changed in the last 18 months. Of course, we know who is at the helm, so that is not surprising. We are trying to get it all done quickly as the US is signing the Hague Treaty on International Adoption standards and makes things much more complicated for us do-gooders and would be parents. One of my main reasons for halting the Ethiopian process was not being ready to put together another dossier, but we are essentially doing that, so if we want to jump back into Ethiopia, we'll be ready. Please keep us in your thoughts as this wait continues. I am hopeful, though that we will see a new addition to our family by the end of this year. Keep on keeping on.... I copied this image from www.yahoo.com. It is an image from the AP. A kid in California took a gun to school and the school was locked down. This was at a Baccalaureate School which is sort of like a magnet school but not. The police searched all 1200 students and the school. These police state images of our school systems burn me up. This is what I am talking about. I would be furious if this happened to my kid. Think this sort of thing doesn't happen all of the time? It does. My niece was involved in a small incident a year or so ago. Let me frame it by saying it was really bad and the parents handled it. And, let me say she is at the top of her class academically and a a cheerleader and learned her lesson. With that said......she was interrogated by a policeman and the principle of her magnet school where she was a 7th grader for over two hours. She was NOT ALLOWED to call her parents. After getting a thorough tongue lashing from my sister, she was basically told that they do not have to call her and that she has not rights in this incident. Police state folks. Police state. When your child is in the public school system you basically have no rights to them. They are essentially wards of the school while they are there. You think I am crazy. I know you do. But, it is true. Okay class, all together, say "George Orwell."
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Meet DanaI’m Dana Croy and I am a modern day mama. Balancing family and work is not always easy (not to mention a little self-care). Though being Mama to two fantastic kiddos is a huge part of my life, that was not always the case. I wear many other hats and invite to sit down and find harmony with me. Archives
August 2021
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