Thursday, July 28, 2011

I Think I Have Made It

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Well, today is my last day alone on Cape Cod. Tomorrow, DW and Shy, along with my mother will be arriving ehre and we will officially start our life on Cape Cod.

Although we are still homeless, things are looking very good to pass papers on our new home and to have the movers arrive on Tuesday am. Life should start to get back to normal. I have really missed DW and Shy over these last few days especially and I can't tell you how much I look forward to their arrival.

I do have to tell you one story that A told me about today. Apparently last night DW took A and K and Shy and L to the Ice Cream Stand for Ice Cream. A was sad to see Shy leaving and Shy told her not to worry that she could come visit us anytime she wanted. Then she added that if she couldn't visit, she could just send her a present!

I just want to hear her giggle right now. she has the most addicting laugh/giggle and I have missed that so much that I am going to be sure to pick her up and tickle her as soon as she gets here just so I can hear it!

I know it won't be easy for her. It hasn't been so far, and now starting in a new home in a new place with a new school should be hard for her, but I know we will all get through it together. I already have the school informaiton and she is set up fr a tour fof the school. I have informaiton coming from the dance school in the town we will be living in, and she lvoes the beach, of which there are plenty here.

I am sure we will all get through, but so far it has been very overwhelming and stressful. Hopefully their arrival tomorrow will help relieve some of that stress.

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Saturday, July 16, 2011

Homeless......

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Well, yesterday papers were passed on our beautiful home in Maine. It was a great place and apparently in the overall scheme of things it served its purpose.

What was its purpose?

Well I think it was probably to bring us Shyanne. I don't think we ever would have been involved in foster care if we hadn't moved into that house. Had we not been involved in foster care, there would be no Shyanne. We would probably still be living in the old house we lived in for 23 years, and contemplating retirement this year or next.

While thoughts of retirement are still with us on a regular basis and we make a lot of decisions with one eye towards retirement, the other eye is always on Shyanne with everything we do. Yes, as we leave our dream home, we leave with new dreams for a little girl who was considered a "failure to thrive" baby. We will make sure she isn't a failure to thrive child. We give her all that we can and we hope that all her dreams can come true.

So our dream home in Maine is gone, but it is our intent to make a home of dreams for us and Shyanne on Cape Cod.

We may be homeless for a few weeks, but on the bright side, DW and I have each other, we both have Shyanne, and Shyanne has the both of us. and ....................................



We are also mortgageless!!!!

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Monday, July 11, 2011

The Last Goodbye

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Today I said goodbye to our house in Maine for the last time. DW is still there and will be finishing up all the packing so that everything is ready to go when the movers show up on Thursday. She will then be the one who is there to pass papers on Friday.

I will be on the Cape, so when I left today it was the last time I would see that house as mine. What made it a little bittersweet was that Shyanne was in the window waving good-bye to me as I pulled out of the driveway and made my way down the street. My mom was with me in the car, and it was nice to have her with me.

Shyanne didn't want me to go, but she never does. She really enojys the time we spend together as a family. It is so good. She never wants us to be apart. She is not happy when DW leaves or when I leave. She is a happy little girl, and is happiest when we are all together.

In its own way, that is really quite nice, and makes me quite happy, and I really look forward to the time when we are all together on the Cape, settled into our new home and living our life there. When will that happen? Well, as I said, we are scheduled to pass papers on our house in Maine on Friday. We are scheduled to pass papers on the new house on the Cape on Monday August 1. We are hopeful the movers can deliver our goods on August 2, but that is questionable and it may have to wait until August 3rd.

Having said that, the most important date for me right now is July 29th. That is the date that Shy and DW will come down to the Cape and we will be living together as a family in the new location. We won't be in our home, but that is ok.

We will be together as a family and that makes Shyanne happy........I can assure you, it also makes DW and I very happy.

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Thursday, July 7, 2011

The House, The Home

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Tomorrow I get to go home for a few days. It will be my last time in that house. I will certainly miss that house. It is a beautiful house in a beautiful neighborhood. More importantly,l it is the house that helped to bring us Shyanne.

I have to put that on the house. After all, had we stayed in our other house, it would not have passed all the requirements of DHHS without a lot of work. We probably would not have thought about doing Foster Care to begin with, and I would probably be retired now, or very soon.

But we have Shyanne. What could be better than that. I wouldn't trade that for anything. After all, the house is just a house. A building. An object constructed of wood and metal and other various objects. Nothing more, nothing less.

There are all kinds of quotes about what the difference is between a house and a home. But the one that Ilike the most is:

"A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams"

I don't know who said that, but I like it, and DW, Shy and I will be building our love and dreams at a new wonderful location on Cape Cod. Just a few more weeks and we will all be together in the new house. I can't believe how quick this is all happening. We don't even have time to think, it is just go go go.

It is our hope that we will have plenty of time with A, J, T, H, B, K, A2 and L in our new home and that they will also help us to build this new home.

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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Cape Cod

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I am staying in military housing until I get totally settled, and I haven't had access to the internet except when at work and I have been way to busy to get on here when at work. I finally have some access so I figured I would pass along some of the trials and tribulations.

We have found a house that we want to buy and have begun the process. We supposedly have an agreement, but until I see the document signed by the seller, I will not be comfortable. I have called the real estate agent twice tonight and he hasn't called me back. In the meantime, DW and Shy were down here over the long weekend. They arrived Friday at about 11:00am and stayed until this morning.

This is really hard on Shy. She just doesn't understand it. She kept saying she missed home when she was down here, but then she didn't want to leave, and when they left this morning, she kept saying she wanted to go back because she missed me.

She was a real trooper this weekend too. She was well behaved throughout our 6 1/2 hour ordeal looking at houses on Saturday and she really enjoyed spending some time with the people I am working with now when she arrived on Friday. We did reward her with a doll because of her excellent behavior and while I know she appreciated it, she really doesn't understand the whole thing.

I know she will be fine when all is said and done, but it is very painful watching her kind of struggle with this whole concept of moving. I can't wait until it is all over and done with. She did have a great time at a water park on Sunday and at the beach on Monday, so hopefully when she finds out that will be the norm for us in the summer she will really enjoy it. I know she will like the fact that the summers will last longer hear then they do up in Maine, but I also know she will miss her 2 big sisters who live in Maine....and for the record, they will miss her too.

As far as the job goes.....I am working with some really wonderful people here. One of them is a former foster parent who fostered 26 different children and adopted one. The one that was adopted just returned from serving his country in Afghanistan. If there is one thing I have found, it is that people in general all have interesting stories if you are just willing to listen, and the people I am working with now are not only interesting, but very nice.

I already like it here. I know DW will like it here once we are setlled. I just hope it doesn't take too long for Shy to like it here.

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