Challenges and Blessings

I haven't updated in a long time... life has been strained a bit lately, but has calmed down since Thursday. We had a foster care placement at the beginning of February that was a challenge for us and took all my time and energy. She has gone back as a trial period with her mom and we hope all goes well for them. As of now, we have our life back to normal and there has been an instant change in the feeling at our home. It was a challenge for all of us, but especially hard for Ellorie.

I burned my hands (yes plural) on Mother's Day, a week before a Stake Women's Fair I was in charge of. It wasn't the first both hands had been unusable in my life:) My mom came to help me though and that was a life saver. It's hard to wash dishes, change diapers and do any tasks without hands! They healed quickly and I was blessed it wasn't worse than it was.
The Women's Fair was a great success! Check out all the info and recipes at... www.clearfieldstakewomensfair.blogspot.com

Our household had a lot of sickness during the month of May, too. Everyone, including my mom, was throwing up and other not so good effects of the stomach flu. Chloe and Ellorie got double ear infections and Chloe had to have steriods and breathing treatments for 10 days. She has asthma and is on them now for a while. But she is back to her happy, wonderful self:) We are blessed through her adoption to have medical coverage because of being born on meth.

We are back to normal around here and so happy about it. The girls and I are going to Minnesota for vacation while Doug has Youth Conference and Scout Camp. We are excited to see family!! Then we are home for a few days, then off to North Carolina to see my brother and his wife and then to a Forsgren reunion in Virginia! Great start to summer:) Ellie can't wait to see all her cousins! We just want the fun to start and can't wait either!

My garden is doing well, we have been eating the most delicious lettuce of my life from it this week! Its so fun to have a garden. I am especially excited for canning this year. I am out of a lot of goods, and Chloe doens't like store bought peaches:) Spoiled girl!

Check out the blog I posted... there are some amazing recipes, especiallyfor bread! We have been eating like Kings around here, we just bought half a beef and a pig and I have never had such amazing meat in my life. I can't wait for visitors and company for dinner later this summer!

Our Day in Court

Well, things didn't go quite as planned yesterday. After 6 months, the birth mother showed up in court with the supposed birth father. The case worker hadn't met her before (they looked for the mom but she made herself disappear that last half a year) and was surprised to see her there. It changed the plans, having her there. Jenny (our case worker) doesn't think it will change the eventual outcome, that we will adopt Khloie, but that it will make it a longer, more drawn out case. Awesome. The State has already set in motion their plan and recomendation to terminate the birth mom's rights and have us adopt Khloie and is still going forward with that plan. If the mom and her recently appointed public attorney want to state their case, they can do that. We have a pre-trial September 30th in the afternoon when the State will make their recommendations and if it is contested by the mom, we will set a trial date for both sides to present their case. I'm not sure what her's will be to be honest, but nonetheless, she can do it. She would have had a way better chance to have her daughter back if she would have actually showed up to visits, appointments, and her legal responsibilities in drug court. But she disappeared, so here we are. It's been a hard day... we are holding up though and praying a lot. Thanks for all your concern, love and prayers for our family. We will update after court the 30th...

Just a little longer...

Our beautiful girl is a little closer to being ours forever. We have a court date set for September 15th! The judge will terminate birth parent rights and set an adoption date at this hearing. We are looking at the end of December to finalize, if the courts agree... sometime around Christmas.We couldn't be happier!
Everyone who meets Khloie loves her:) She is a rollie pollie bug, going all over the place. She is starting the beginning phases of crawling and is trying to get up on her knees. She always has smiles and is so happy. She is wearing 12 month clothes and is growing every day. Her hair is getting lighter and she is a beautiful ray of sunshine in our lives. Ellie is a fantastic big sister and helps take good care of her baby sister. We couldn't be happier!
9 more days to go...

My Projects

I have become a big fan of sewing. I love it! I love to create treasures to use in my house, for my daughter and as gifts! I love to make aprons, decorate dish towels, make hair clips and bows, toys, scarves, bags, clothes and I am learning more all the time.

The greatest invention ever... the ruffle/gathering food. It does my ruffling in no time, looks great and is so easy (now that I have figured it out). I don't know how I lived without it! If I was to have a job and didn't have to worry about kids, I would sew and have a little shop of some kind. Until then, I will continue my work here, getting my 10-30 minutes to sew when I can.

Here's some of my work. If you know anyone who wants to order something from me, let me know! I love to sew and will give them a price quote.




Ellie's half apron, by request. She's already starting to tell me what she wants just like Jamie and I do to my mom! She cracks me up:) the ruffle is a nice deep pleat. Looks great, huh!

The Perfect Date

Doug and I had the best date for Valentines! We drove up to Logan and stayed in the Marriott Spring Hills Suite. It is such a great hotel. Doug had flowers delivered to the room before we got there and they are so beautiful! We went to dinner at Le Nonna's which is the best Italian restaurant here in Utah. The chef was born in Tuscany and is amazing! I had crab stuffed ravioli in a cream sauce. Yummy! My friend in Logan, Annette, had Ellie stay there and so everyone was happy. We went to the temple the next morning and ate a great breakfast at the hotel. It was the best date ever! Good job, Doug! He is my forever Valentine. I love you honey.

The New Year

We had a great vacation in Minnesota visiting both of our families. We always enjoy late nights with the big screen at Jamie and Ryan's and playing Wii at John and Ann's and the games we play with everyone. We received a new game from Ann's family called Split. If you like card games, this is a must have! It is so fun. We taught it to my family and they loved it too. Ellie was a trooper, as always, traveling so far. We drive straight through the night and she hardly slept, but when we got to grandpa and grandma's she was ready for a fun filled day. She really loves her family! We had a wonderful time and we are always sad to leave.

Now we are back in the swing of things, Doug had his first week back at school and starts more classes for his program at Utah State tomorrow. Agh, another crazy semester is about to begin, but next year this time we will be DONE! With EVERYTHING! Yeah! He is such a great man working so hard to get more education and training to provide for us. We never take that for granted.

We are still waiting to hear about adding someone to our family. The girl we talked about last month decided against us. We thought we'd have a foster child by now, but we haven't gotten any calls so we are just waiting on that. No calls from LDS Family Services either. We will let everyone know when we do, until then we just wait.

We are excited for a new year! Everything is pretty much the same in our lives except for our church responsibilities. I now serve with the children as the Primary President and Doug no longer serves as the Young Men's President, but now works in Cub Scouts. Ellie turns 4 March 2nd and that will be fun. We are giving her a birthday party and she is inviting some friends! We are really looking forward to summer and all the fun that comes with it!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Foster Care

Well, we have been going through the process of adoption with LDS Family Services for a year and a half (no leads there), so last May we decided to start the foster care licensing process to see about growing our family that way. There is always a lot of paper work involved and interviews, home checks, special rules, etc. We got locks on everything that could possibly hurt anyone and even some locks on things we don't think could hurt anyone, but by law still have to lock up (ever heard of anyone having problems with laundry detergent?). We met a really great case worker through a series of events that could not have been a coincidence, and got licensed a couple of months ago. We just met a great girl on Monday and she is visiting with us to see if we would be a good fit for her. When children are older, they get to be in on the process to help them have a better experience. The state wants the kids to stay in one home and avoid disruption (which means they move to a different foster home) and this is one way to do that. We feel really great about her and get to meet with her again next week. It's so great to think we might soon be having another person in our family. She's older and it might not lead to adoption, but we have so much to give a child and it seems such a waste to not share it. It is very exciting for us and we pray for the Lord's hand to guide those involved, even if they are unaware they are being guided.
We look forward to seeing what happens in the next weeks and months and will keep you updated!

For Thanksgiving we are having our great niece Katie here, Megan another great girl and BYU student and our dear friend Steph. We love having the girls here and will miss our niece Jill who is off with a girlfriend for the holiday. Ellie loves having the girls here and has been waiting all week for them to come (which is a long time for a 3 year old!) She tells me they take too long. Katie came yesterday and it's already a party! I love to entertain and have good food, games and fun with my family. Thanks for coming girls! Doug is off for 5 days and it's awesome! Life is good. We are happy and trying to find ways to make others happy too.