Its Official I'm a mom to TWO!

I picked up alex from the foster care ppl today and somehow came home with an extra baby!

She's 9 months old and adorable. her mother was a girl who went to my SMIL's church. The first time we met i struck up a conversation about her 3 pnt snugride (expired) and how it was FFing and we've been friends ever since. I asked SIL to loan her DN's old snugride b/c she couldnt afford a new seat and SIL wasnt using it. I took it to her 2 weeks ago and helped her install it and taught her how to use it. Apparently last Tuesday she got in a terrible car accident (rolled her vw jetta 3 and half times). She wasnt wearing a belt and unfortunately was killed in the crash. Her baby made it thru with just a few bumps and a bruise on each shoulder. Jessica's family refuses to take the baby and has signed paperwork that cuts all ties with it. (Just b/c her mother was 17 when she was born) The foster care homes in the area are all full (many beyond the legal limit) and there is no one with space that can legally take on ryan.

When i picked up alex, the lady at the child services place practically begged me to take her home. I'm alex's foster parent until the end of march, so i've had all the inspections and passed all the tests for children between infancy and preschool. I couldnt believe my eyes when i saw her asleep in a makeshift nursery in the office. I couldnt believe it when i saw ryan in the pnp, i thought they had taken her from her mom. I didnt even bother to tell DF i was bring home an extra kid! Since we're both registered and passed all the tests it only required one of us to sign for a 'temp' foster child. I dont know how temp she'll be. They say they can place her within the next 6 months but it seems so awful for her to loss her mom then to get comfortable her and then to leave again. I really would like to keep her as long as possible.

So there you have it. I now i have 2 kids i'm fostering and 2 i'm gestating. Now, someone please find a cure for these pregnancy hormones before i start adopting your kids! She's tiny only 19 pounds and 28 inches! She's nearly 100% breastfed so formula feeding is going to be a challenge. I just hope i can take car of a 4 and half year old, a 15 month old and twin infants all at once! I know loads of mother have done it but the twins will be my first infants!

I think ryan will be getting a roundabout (and i'm getting a minivan!) for now she'll use SIL's marathon for DF's car RFing but i'd like to get her her own seat. That way if foster care ever decided to remove her she could take it with her and i'd know she had a good seat (90% of them here use cosco OHS seats b/c they are cheap and easy)

Alex is doing well with her situation, the baby is a big distraction right now. She hasnt even noticed there isnt a TV in the family room! She might get worse as time goes on and she realizes this is not a big sleep over and shes not going home sunday. I'm taking the next week and a half off school to help her adjust before going to daycare fulltime (we're doing a few hours a day to start) I just hope i can get a spot for ryan at her daycare!

Congratulations! I hope everything goes well with Alex and Ryan. But I'm thinking that giving Ryan up will be harder than having four kids. I'm so sorry about her mother.

Julie D.

(I'm thinking the minivan is a good idea!)

Ill take her! I can come over a BF her for you lol!(seriously if I lived in driving distance I would honestly come over and feed her for you).

Man that is so bad, I hate that her mom was killed and her family just abandoned her like that. I was 17 when I had DS and thankfully my family was supportive and there for us.

Do you think she will be with you that long or do you think her family will stop being retarded and take some responsibility?

Im wishing I lived nearby, I love babies and love to help lol!(and am having extremely bad baby-itis right now so Im just being selfish)

Am I the only one sitting here crying?! That's so sad, but that's so great, that you are more than likely the reason that little girl lived! That's why this is so important to me (us, we all have the same passion here)! You are a wonderful person, but I must say, if someone said here, take this baby girl, I wouldn't ask DH either, I'd take her and run.

Dreaming, congratulations on your new babies. It's very sad that Ryan had to lose her mommy, but you did good and saved her life.

ALl I can say is "awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" *sniff*
And I agree with everyone else. What a great person you are, you'll be an excellent momma

This post made me sooooo happy! CONGRATULATIONS!!! *hugs*

Funny, thing, though ... when I was pregnant with Leila I become the emergency foster mom for 2 older kids, LOL - quit being like me

Her family is awful and signed paperwork that removes all responsibility from them and takes away all rights to her. Its terrible. I cant imagine banning a baby from the family. They think she might be 'retarded' and they dont want that tied with the family name! i dont see why they think that, she's slightly behind developmentally but she's certainly not retarded!

He fell in love immediately with her. I swear her fell faster for than he did for me! I realized i hadnt asked him when i was buckling her into one of the twins seats (good thing i decided to install them and just leave them there!) I called and told him and he was not quite happy but he knew i wasnt taking her back and he didnt ask me too. By the time we went to bed he was asking if we could keep her! I thought that after the first night of dirty diapers, crying babies, and a crying preschooler he'd want to send us all away but he actually beat me to her a few of the times she was crying!

They're both currently down for a nap. Our total of sleep as a family was maybe 5 hours, so i decided they needed a nap! Once they wake up we need to go shopping. I dont have a crib or anyone to barrow a crib from (the foster care person took me to the apartment she lived in to pick up her stuff but it was awful. i left 90% of i there for her family to deal with. Little reminder of the life they forced their daughter to live!). We need to get her her own seat (number one on the list!) and buy a ton of clothes and bottles and some toys!

I did get lucky and found 5 bottles of BM. The foster care lady wanted to throw it away since we didnt know what it was 100%. While she was in the bathroom i grabbed them and thrw them in my purse then put a few empty bottles i found in the garbage (to make her think i pitched the BM. Like i could do that!) I'm hoping to mix it with the formula and maybe she will take it a little better. Five bottle wont last until my milk comes in unfortunately (i'm thinking of nursing her along side the twins if i have enough milk for the twins. Its 4 months away though. )

SIL still hasnt noticed theres no TV in the play room! We have one in our bedroom (she sleep on a twin bed in there for now) that i let her watch for a half hour then we had breakfast and she hasnt noticed yet. (i think i bought a lot of toys she hadnt ever seen.) My lack of barbies has been noticed.

Wow, what a full plate you have. Your heart must be so full

Now lets see pictures of these two new beauties!

Congratulations! Wow you have a big family quickly, you must show us some pictures of your beautiful children they sound adorable! Yes you will certainly have your hands full!

~Jodi Cpst mom to 4 soon to be 5!

I'll posy some pics of alex later today or tomorrow. The baby may not be able to have her picture posted. She's considered the states baby and there is a huge list of things you can and cannot do with foster kids (i know they cant be in newspapers or on tv, so i think the internet is out. ) I'll check with the foster care board and try to post some.

Its so wild to be out in public! I ran into two of my friends at walmart today and it was amazing having them both with me! I swear i've wanted this my whole life and now i'm living my dream! Its funny to see ppl i graduated with since that was mid 05 and here it is almost mid 06 and i have a 4 year old, an infant, and i'm pregnant (and i look pretty big b/c of the twins so i look like i'm 6 or 7 months!) No one believes its me!

DF is getting off work early so we can go check out the 8 passenger sienna. Theres a red one at a 'local' dealership (an hour away) that they have someone interested in buying. I want a red one so i have to jump in quick to get it! Apparently it the only red one available in the southeast and they dont know when they'll get a 2nd one. It doesnt have side airbags which i know alot of ppl want but i've never had a car with them and i dont particularly care for airbags i'm ok with getting a car without them. It has the stability control i want but not AWD (which i really wanted. i considered the 7 passenger sienna with it but i'd rather have the 8 passenger)

Dreaming_of_Speed said:

I want a red one so i have to jump in quick to get it! Apparently it the only red one available in the southeast and they dont know when they'll get a 2nd one.

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Toyota dealers in the Southeast have an independent distributor and don't buy directly from Toyota corp. The bonus here is that dealers in the Southeast usually use a search engine that is hooked into the entire region and it lets you find every car matching your specs. Just go to www.BuyaToyota.com and enter your zip code and you should be able to see everything in the area. For example, I punched in a Florida zip code and found that there were 11 Salsa Red LE8s and 17 Salsa Red CE8s across the Southeast region. Any dealer in the Southeast region should be able to easily trade for any one of these on your behalf at no extra cost. Having a dealer tell you it's the only one and someone else is looking at it too is a classic way to set you up for overpaying...

Ditto on what CPSDarren said, salespeople always like to pressure you by saying there's another interested customer when it comes to car buying (and house buying for that matter). Also, FYI, you can't get AWD on 8 passenger Siennas, it's only available on 7 passenger models. Good luck with your van shopping.

I used the link when i found the red one i went to look at. I want the vehicle stability control and it was one of 2 that had it. It definitely looked as though it had other buyers looking at it and the odometer was way higher than any other new car i've driven!

I'm going to try out an Odyssey next. The sienna was alright but if i could get better i would. Can any one tell me how many tether hooks (just the top tethers i dont use latch) the Odd. has? I'll need 4+ seats in my van and i would like as many tethers as possible to be able to arrange and rearrange them.

The '05 Odyssey had two tethers in the second row and one in the third row and you cannot have more tethers added in the third row. I believe Honda changed this for '06 and now includes or allows you to have additional third row tethers installed. Another perk of the Odyssey to consider is that stability control and curtain airbags are standard on all Odysseys from '05 and newer. Was the Sienna you looked at an '05 model instead of an '06? Just curious, because you said it didn't have curtain airbags, and those are now standard on all '06 Siennas but were optional for '04-'05. Plus if the Sienna had a number of miles on it in addition to not having the curtain airbags, it sounds like it was a leftover '05 model and you definitely want to bargain on a lower price if that's the case. Good luck as your family expands and your van quest continues.