Traveling with twins

This week we get to leave the state with the twins and go to the Navigators National Conference in Louisville, KY. It was a last minute decision to try and get permission to take the girls with us because they are just not doing well with new environments and new people. I was not liking the idea of having to put them in respite for the 5 days we were going to be gone. Respite is basically just when a foster child goes to another foster family for the time that we are out of town because it is not always possible to take foster kids with on every trip that we make. We would love to always take our kids with us, but it requires permission from the caseworker, birthparents, and attorneys, so permission is not always granted.
We are just thankful to have received permission to take the girls with us. It is going to be an adventure flying with twins! We have never traveled with children before, and our first experience will be double the trouble! If you have any traveling tips let us know :-)
Once we get to Louisville we are going to be blessed by my parents presence as they will be driving down from Chicago to come help with the girls. Shaun and I will be busy going to various conference events for much of the day so we are so thankful that my parents were willing to come and help with the twins. It should be a fun 5 days!

Foster care update

Well folks, we just found out that we are not supposed to post details about our specific foster children anywhere online. We are also not supposed to put pictures up for people to see, so I had to go ahead and remove everything from my Facebook page and this blog that says names or has pictures of our foster children. I'm a bit sad about that because some of our old blog posts would have been nice to keep to look back on, but I also understand the reasons behind why they ask us not to do it.

So, from now on, we can talk about foster care, but we just have to exclude names and specific details about the children. We want to give you an update on how things are going with our sweet girls and the most recent info we've been given about the case.

First, the girls are doing really well. They are growing and thriving and have just started eating 3 meals a day of solid food. Most of the time they love food but boy do they make a mess! They always want to put their hands in their mouths and then of course the food gets everywhere. I am working on teaching them to keep hands down, but I know that will take while since they are not even 7 months old yet.

We have recently been encouraged by some new information we've learned about the case. We are waiting to see if the girls' paternal grandmother wants to try and get custody of the girls or if she is open to letting us keep the girls as long as she gets to have a relationship with them. We are really praying that she will have a soft heart toward us and also be able to make loving decisions for her grandchildren. We would love for her to have a relationship with the twins because we realize that it is important for kids to identify with their biological families if at all possible. The fact that our caseworker is even bringing this conversation up to us and to the grandmother is a really good sign. We know that God is in control of everything that happens and we will just wait and see what happens.

The past few weeks, before hearing this encouraging news, have been really difficult for me. I have had a lot of anxiety about the girls possibly being moved to the grandmother's home. I have struggled to have peace and found myself waking up with a big knot of fear in my gut because I thought for sure that we'd be getting bad news any day. Now that we have been given some hopeful news, I feel like a weight has lifted off of me and I can once again fully enjoy each day with the girls.

We have come to love these little girls so much and can't imagine having to say goodbye. They are truly part of our family and will be for however long God sees fit to bless us with them.

Highlights of our National Park Trip

Now that we've been back from vacation for a couple of weeks, I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures and highlights of our trip. We drove all day on Friday, August 26th up to Grand Teton National Park. For those of you who have never been there, the Tetons are a stunning mountain range. We enjoyed 2 nights and one day in the Tetons before heading up to Yellowstone. Shaun had never been to the Tetons or Yellowstone so it was fun to experience everything again with him. The last time I was there was in 1998. Here are the highlights of our trip in pictures.

Grand Teton Peak

Lower Yellowstone Falls

Lower Falls from Artist
Point

Stinks like rotten eggs

Trying to capture the beautiful colors

Grand Prismatic Spring is an awesome wonder but pictures just can't do it justice!

This was about the extent of our wildlife viewing....somewhat disappointing

Steamboat Springs

After we finished viewing the National Parks we headed up to Bozeman, MT to visit the family of Shaun's youth pastor from high school, Tyd Rogers. Tyd and his wife were also the couple who did our premarital counseling and Tyd performed our wedding ceremony, so it was really great to see them. We headed home 6 days after we left and were happy to return to our little girls!