Sweet

The past few weeks have been such a sweet time in my life. There’s no major news. Nothing big has happened. I’m just content.

Our three kitties are a constant source of running, playing, jumping, wrestling amusement for D and I, devout “dog people”. We got them a huge cage (think Great Dane sized) and they live on our front porch for the time being, and are let out every few hours to explore and play, and are brought inside at night. Eventually, when they’re older and can take care of themselves, we’ll turn them loose with our other three to be farm cats. Just thinking about that gives me anxiety, but they’ll be fine and have happy lives.

No word from D**H**R though we’ve been getting calls about once a week, including yesterday. No one ever leaves a message, though. I thought about calling to find out what was up, but I figure if it’s important they’ll get back in touch.

There is something I could share - a possibility we have for adopting not one but two babies under a year of age. There are many many “ifs” in the situation, as those babies are out of state and TPR has not yet happened. But we want them. A lot. And so that old frienemy “hope” is creeping back in. That’s all I really want to say about it right now, though. I am afraid of jinxing it. But I’ll definitely share more when/if things start happening.

All for now. The kitties need some play time.

Fly on the Wall

If you were a fly on the wall at my house this week, these are two gems you would have heard:

"Don't jump on your sister's head while she's going potty. You'll give her a complex."

"You'll never be president if you sleep in your poop."

Aaaah, the joys of caring for 5-week-old kittens.

Missed a call from D**H**R yesterday. They didn't leave a message so I guess it wasn't too urgent, but I wonder what they wanted.

Yawn

As you can see, there has been a new addition to our home. Well, THREE new additions.

Last Thursday, I ran by the pharmacy to get a prescription refilled and as I pulled in, I noticed a small kitten under one of the cars in the parking lot. As I parked nearby, I saw another one writhing around in the weeds. Sigh.

I called our county animal control where I had the following discussion:

me: "Hi, I'm at the **** pharmacy and someone has dumped some very young kittens in the parking lot. I was wondering if y'all had time to come pick them up."

animal control lady: "We don't pick up cats."

me: "Excuse me?"

acl: "We don't pick up cats."

me: "So basically your policy is that these kittens can just wander until they die of hunger because you don't pick up cats."

acl: "I guess so because we don't pick up cats."

me: "Aaaah, my tax dollars at work." Click!

I happened to know that the store/pharmacy sold travel kennels so I went in and bought one, along with a towel, and started gathering kitties. Once I had the two safely in the carrier, I heard yet another one screaming in the tall weeds/woods nearby. Now, I'm a girl with allergies and mild asthma and tromping into the weeds looking for a kitten didn't sound too exciting, particularly in sandals, but I hiked up my skirt and off I went. I finally found the little one trapped under some heavy brush.

Poor kitties - they were so sick. Their eyes were completely matted shut and they had bad respiratory infections. I took them to our vet and the rest is history. They cleaned them up and gave them medicine and we've been taking care of them ever since.

During the day, they live in a big wire care on our front porch, sleeping happily on a heating pad. At night they come into the laundry room. That makes the 2 a.m. feedings easier.

Since one of the things I'm allergic to is CATS, you can often find me with a mask on, feeding them, rocking them, or playing with them in the front yard. I look ridiculous but I haven't had a hint of a sniffle (knock on wood) so it's worth it.

They are feeling so much better now. Their eyes are clear, their respiratory infections are almost gone, and they are eating like little piggies.

I don't know what we're going to do with them. We will either look for inside homes for them, or keep them and let them live outside here at the farm. They can join our other three. And if we can teach them to catch the moles that are tearing up D's front yard, he will build a shrine to them and feed them tuna every day.

The most ironic thing about this situation is that not a week prior to stumbling across these little ones, I was thinking about what it would be like to have a baby in the house and wondered how I'd do with having my sleep interrupted as I took care of their nighttime needs. I'm a girl who needs her sleep - at least 8 hours. Now I know. I'll do fine. I will occasionally have a crying meltdown, but I'll do fine.

Moral of the story - not only do you need to be careful of what you ask for, you apparently also need to be careful of what you WONDER ABOUT!

Must run - yowling kitties demand food.

I do

Do you find it interesting that reporters and doctors are going on and on about banned substances that ball players are taking, and the very harmful longterm effects that these substances could have on the atheletes . . .

yet . . .

some of them are the medications given to women to treat infertility (clo***mid, and human chor**ionic gonad**otropingon**adotropin to name two)


and no one says a word about that?

Prayers

I don't often do this, but I am requesting your prayers for Emerson White, a beautiful little girl who received her second multiple-organ transplant 18 days ago. She's not doing well and doctors are working hard to find out why.

You can read more about her on her mom's website: http://www.cotaforemersonw.com/

Click on the "journal" tab at the top to see the blog for updates on her condition.

She has a strong loving family, but as you can imagine they scared and are in need of all our good thoughts and prayers for her healing.

Eye on the Ball

I was talking to one of my girlfriends over the weekend about the situation we were presented with on Friday (re: the child about to be taken into state cust*ody). I explained that even with our strong commitment to waiting for the “right” situation to come along, it was surprisingly challenging for both of us to say no.

I hadn’t expected that.

I also hadn’t expected how little information they give you before asking you to make a decision. I wasn’t expecting a dossier, for heaven’s sake, but the call pretty much went like this:

SW – Hi! This is (name) from (county) D*H*R. We have a child we are looking to place. The child’s name is ____________, (s)he is _______ years old, is (race) and is about to be taken into custody. Well, what do you think?

I couldn’t help it. I threw my head back and laughed.

I had the presence of mind to ask a few questions which she was gracious enough to answer, and then I got on the phone to D. He was nearby and came right home so we could sit on the sofa together and talk about it.

I am so thankful for D and for his level-headedness when it comes to these situations. My emotions tend to take over. It’s not so much about just having a child in the house, which we’ve been working towards for a long time. For me, it has more to do with wanting to help a child who is hurting. That tends to cloud the logical part of my brain. I don’t want to give the impression that D doesn’t have a huge heart and all the sympathy in the world for a child being removed from his/her home. He really does. He’s just better able to keep his eye “on the ball” and remember what our ultimate goal is.

As I said in a recent post, we are willing to wait for a child who is a good fit for us and vice versa.

Now if I can just remember that the next time the phone rings. Eye on the ball.

This is Hard

Just got a call for a placement of a child who is about to be taken into custody. The child has extended family out of state and there is a very slight possibility that they will be able to get here in time to take the child to live with them. Otherwise the child will be in care for at least six months, until Mom can get herself together or until the out-of-state family can complete home studies. It doesn't sound like any possibility for adoption. (Of course, I know that extended family could be inappropriate and Mom could continue to screw up. But there IS family that wants this child - enough to try to figure out how to cross several states in the next few hours to get to the child.)

I called D, and he's speaking to the social worker now to clarify, but I think we're going to have to say "no".

Sounds like a darling child who I'm sure is scared. The "mom" in me wants to take the child in and be as much comfort as I can - to give the child a home for as long as they need it. BUT my head reminds me that we are in this to adopt. We have one room, for one child or two siblings. If we take in this child, we are effectively "off the market" for the possibility of a "forever child" until this story plays itself out.

Ugh - I hate this. I don't want to say no, but I realize that it's the best thing for us, longterm.

I think.

Shit!