It finally happened

Well......we have been having some trying days. My sweet little girl has ....let me put this nicely....expressing her opinion alot more (especailly with her mom, doing what she wants alot more....etc.)

Whenever we go to church, the nursery workers are all excited to see Ivy and they can't wait for her to get there. I feel like they are really excited to see her.

Well...I went to pick her up after church and they said, "Can we talk to you?" Then they proceeded to tell me all of the problems they had with her. I could tell they were ready for her to get outta there! I told them that it would be addressed and be taken care of. (as she was throwing a fit while I was talking to them.)

So...we have been in what the bible says"Traing your child". I like to call it boot camp. Bootcamp has never been more painful as it is right now for my sweet, energetic little Ivy!

(As I'm writing this, she just managed to pull my Southern Living tile off the wall and broke it. Gotta run!......more Boot Camp!)

Tagged By Jenny

I got a shout out on Jenny's blog to answer some questions. I guess any chance to talk about myself...... (just kidding). Here I go....



4 jobs I've had:

clothing store (retail), Preschool teacher, summer camp councelor,
Music teacher (current job)



4 places I've lived:

Clinton, Iowa Newhall, Ca. Castaic,Ca. ( I guess I've only lived in 3 places)



4 shows I watch:

I don't really like TV all that much.......just kidding.

The Biggest Loser, The Hills, The Office, One Tree Hill ( I am 35 years old but watch TV like a teenie bopper)



4blogs I read regularly:

Ashley K., Tracy D., Wendy P., Hollie, and Kelli I.....not Stacy because she quit writing on hers!



4 favorite foods:

pizza, salads, crispy tacos (only at a restaraunt), Starbucks Carmel Light Frappacino.....that is why I am "Fat Mommy"



4 places I'd rather be right now:

Beverly Hills/West Hollywood (My favorite), Iowa seeing the family, having Sunday lunch with Kirk Cameron and his wife ( I am reading his book right now), Hawaii with Matt and Ivy.



4 friends likely to respond:

Kelli I. (come on it will give you something to write about.), Wendy (ditto), Ruth ( I think she already did it), Stacy ( if she would actually look at her blog.)



4 things I look forward to this next year:

Hopefully becoming a mom for the 2nd time, Seaworld with the Penberthy's this summer., My parents visiting, My 11th anniversary with My cute honey bunny.

Here We Go Again Part 2

Matt and I went to Thousand Oaks to the informational meeting for the Fost/ Adopt program. I will try to explain it. These kids are not given up for adoption by their parents. They were taken away from their parents by the court. Whether it is because of abuse, drugs, neglect....whatever. When a child is a newborn, the court gives parents 18 months to get "their act together". There are 2 types of kids. "High Risk" which means that the child will likely be given back to the birthparents or "low risk" meaning that we will proubly get to adopt them. Matt and I give them a list of ages which we would take and what kind of situations we would take. When we are certified they call us with the child/children and we say yes or no to the situation. Just because they call us with a child, that doesn't mean that we say yes to the child.

Before I go any further, let me explain what Matt and I think is best for our family. I know there are people out there that think this way of adopting is scary and .....I agree! I never want the risk of my child being taken away. We said that we would take a boy or girl (although we hear that boys are more common.) We are strict on what we would take on the physical/mental background. We have a couple different races that we would take. We would take a child ages0-2years. We also said that we would consider siblings. ( I know...we are crazy!)

Here is the risk. Even if they tell me that the situation looks good, you can never be sure what the judge is going to rule. There have been many times that a child has gone back to a birthparent that still looks a mess. A lot of times though, the birthparent is so messed up that they don't even try to see their child.
Matt and I are not interested in being foster parents so we will take a situation that looks like it is low risk( a child 0-3 yrs. they label them all high risk) we have been praying and talking about what we feel like we would want to have. We keep thinking and praying about what is best for Ivy and would be a great experience for her. Please keep us in your prayers. This is a huge step in trusting the Lord and it is a long process .....longer and more drawn out than with Ivy.
Matt and I believe that God has a child out there for us. I don't NOT want to do this experience because I am afraid of what jounrey the Lord is going to take us on. I am scared however. I don't want to love a child for half a year or a year and then he/she be taken away. (We know people who have done this and loved it and their child was never taken away.) I am just trusing that the Lord knows what is best for Matt ,Ivy and I.
I also think about these kids....what terrible homes they come from. They were proubly terriblelong before they were found out by the police and courts. I would love to be that child's mom!

I will write more about what hoops we have had to go through later...just pray for the Elliott's!

Santa Barbara Zoo and California Adventure

Children of the World

Matt and I had the opportunity to house 2 orphan girls, ages 10 and 11yrs. One was from the Phillipines and one was from India. It was an amazing experience. They travel with a singing group that tours the US. They were at Master's and Hollie called to ask if we would house them. How can we say no to orphans? They were the most polite girls! They called me Auntie and would thank me for everything and always hug me. They were a big blessing. Ivy and I went to hear them sing at Master's and I cried through the whole thing. They had such a pure worship of the Lord. They have lost their parents (most of the kids, through HIV )and they still talk about their love for Jesus and how thankful they are to Him for what they have. It sure puts things into perspective to listen to them. It was a wonderful experience.

Here We Go Again......

I have kind of been at a loss as to what to write since I am done with Ivy's adoption story. (By the way...I made her story into a hard bound book on Blurb.com and it came out beautiful!)
So, I decided to let you in on what we have been doing for our next adoption and let's just say that lately it has been alot!
Let me back up. When Ivy was a year old, we called Tim Blied and started another homestudy. We got all done with everything and have been waiting for a baby. Then around Christmas time, I watched a show on TV about kids who were older and being adopted out of the Foster Care system. I looked up some kids online and I found a 3 year old boy that I loved named Everett. I told Matt to come and look at him. Matt was like, "Kelli, you are not going to find a cute kid on the internet and adopt him because of his looks." I was like," I am a little smarter than that. But what if we didn't adopt a newborn? Let's just think and pray about it."
Matt is so good for me. He gets me off my horse before I jump into something so many times. I wasn't sure if this was one of those times so I just prayed about it. It turns out that Everett was a little boy that we couldn't adopt (too many things about his situation that we wouldn't bring into our family. They say that the kids on the internet are the hardest to find homes for. It is really sad.) Matt came to me a couple of days later and said that he had prayed about it and the fost to adopt program was worth checking out. We both knew people who had gone through the same agency and so we decided to do an informational meeting with them. (The whole reason for doing it this way was because you adopt your children for free and there is a bigger pool of kids.)
Matt and I decided to continue to pray about it and just take "baby steps", that way we could stop at any time we didn't feel good about something. I also prayed that Matt and I would agree on what we were doing. Just like it had been with Ivy's situation.
We couldn't go to the Santa Clarita informational meeting because Matt was going away on business so we went to the Thousand Oaks meeting. That is where we met B. Sugar. Yes, Sugar is her last name and she is a riot! She can't talk to you without listing all of her credentials and she wears ALOT of jewelry and lipstick. (She reminds me of Estelle, Joey's agent on "Friends".) I'll describe the meeting in my next post.

My New Look

After 10 years, I finally asked Matt his opinion on my hair. He said that he would like it a little shorter. Then Hollie and Wendy were like..."Oh yeah, we've been waiting for you to cut it." It was getting pretty damaged so I agreed and went in for the snip. She took 6 inches off. Here is the finished product.

Girl's Day at Disneyland

Last Friday Wendy and I took the girls to Disneyland. It was so much fun! Almost every ride we went on, I had never been on before. Ivy and Kate loved everything. Ivy wanted to go on higher rides than I wanted to go on. Wendy kept pressuring me to go. I was scared. I gave into the peer pressure of Wendy and a couple of 2 year olds. It was a fun day to be with our girls. (Wendy has much better pics. than me...look at her blog...Penberthy family at the bootom of mine.)
After one of the rides, Ivy said, "That was so fun!" I about died! She has never said a sentence like that before. I was at their house today. Kate is still talking about Disneyland. They both got Minnie Mouse Balloons and Ivy has slept with hers every night since she got it. Oh...the simple things of life!