Nerds Unite!

I felt like writing on my blog, but I didn't really have anything to talk about. So, I'm going to talk about something worldly that I love dearly. BOOKS. I'm a nerd!! An unashamed nerd. When I go to Hastings, it's not for the movies. I go to stare at the row upon endless row of hardback, beautiful, shiny books. I feel like if I touch all of the books, then somehow they have imparted their knowledge or creativity to me. I only buy books that are hardback and that still have perfect book jackets. No tears, no stains, no bent pages, no markings. Fresh, crisp, and still smelling of new quality paper. Are you a little disturbed by this? I promise that my love for them is wholesome. I have learned to appreciate the "USED" book. As long as it's still in decent shape, I'm there!! For Christmas this year, giving books made me the hero!! I was able to purchase a 1904 first edition copy of Uncle Remus Plantation Tales for my sister and an old Dick and Jane basal reader for my mother. It contained a picture that she's been trying to find for years. It came from a story she remembered as a little girl. A lot of searching went into that book. It took us 2 months to find a copy online. Anyway, as a teacher, my heart breaks when children leave my classroom and still haven't found that love of reading that I have. For all of you parents out there, read to children everyday. Make books a big deal. Teach them to cherish them, to prize them, and to love the imagination inside of them. When they're babies, buy them books they can chew on and read in the tub. Give them as gifts. Not all presents have to come with a plug. There are so many amazing characters that children today never get to know, because they don't read. How will children ever know how Caddie Woodlawn became friends with the Indians? How will they relate to Ramona and Beezus during one of their bouts of sibling rivalry? Will they ever find out if Chester the Cricket finds his way home to Connecticut? Or what actually happens to Mr. Popper's Penguins? Give your children a gift that will continue to bless them forever. Teach them to love to read! Let them see you reading something besides the bills, People magazine, or the back of the Hamburger Helper box. Children who read for pleasure are usually the smartest!! Don't be the kind of parent that lets your child watch the movie and never read the book. How sad! Proven by The Tale of Despereaux, the movie does not always follow the book. The book is always better. Olivia knows that it takes $7.50 to buy one of her favorite chapter books at Hastings. When she collects that much money, we know where she wants to go. It's truly a guilty pleasure for both of us. We each have our own book collection. Mine is arranged by author, standing neatly on a bookshelf. Hers is arranged by chaos, shoved on a bookshelf--usually backwards or upside down. I don't mind that as long as she's not destroying them. I'm just so glad she can be found in the quiet moments curled up in a big chair, under a lamp, and cradling a book.

What a Tripp!!

God has always been so good to our family! I'm not sure why I say that with such surprise. For any of those 4 people who actually read this and don't know, we are going to get to adopt Mr. Tripp!! We've known about this since January 5th, but I've had a hard time trying to sit down and write about it! Knowing we were going to lose Gabe made it hard to show my excitement about Tripp. Does that make sense? I felt guilty being happy while I was watching the other precious baby leave! It's taken a while to really comprehend that the Vineyard family will soon include a son! We are so amazed by God's faithfulness! Not amazed that He's faithful, but I'm amazed that he would be faithful to people like us. We're so undeserving. For the rest of our lives, we will be burdened in prayer for Jason and Gabe. If you ever think about them, remember to say a prayer that someday, somewhere there will be a person faithful enough to share the Gospel with them so that one day, we might know them again in Heaven!

Anyhoo, we're hoping to finalize on Trippers by the end of March, just in time for his April 11th first birthday! Wahoo! We're also getting ready to put our house on the market to look for something a little larger. We want to foster again this summer, but we definitely need more room. We're hoping to find something in River Plantation or Rivershire. It would be nice to be closer to all of our friends! We want to thank all of our precious friends and coworkers for their kind words, prayers, and encouraging voices as we've ridden the foster care emotional roller coaster this past 7 months. I know it must be hard to be around a group of yo-yo's that could dissolve into tears at any moment. Thanks for being so supportive of our family! We know that no one else has better friends!

Is Christmas Over? I'm Ready for a Break!!

I feel so out of touch since we left for the holidays. I've only left the house one time in two full weeks to go do something that wasn't either a hospital visit or a doctor's visit. It will be nice to be back in the world of adults and happy people that feel good again!! For those of you who don't know, our holiday was insane. It's just now settled down, the day before we go back to school. I'm on my way right now, Sunday evening, to check out my new "old" classroom. We've moved back upstairs after the hurricane Ike damage and I've yet to see my room. After our insane holiday, I want to give thanks to all of my amazing friends and coworkers at my school that packed my room and moved me upstairs while we were in the midst of CRAZY!! I'd like to especially thank Hayley Rasco and her wonderful husband Bryan for putting my room back together. I also want to thank Cathy for helping us watch Tripp while Gabe was being admitted the first night. We love you all so much!I can honestly say that this has been the longest Christmas break I've ever had. I'd like to sum it up for you in a nutshell if you don't mind!!

1. Friday, Dec 19--6pm--I lose the one and only key to our truck at a gas station down the street from our home and cannot find it. I'm late to my own Christmas party and must leave the truck overnight so we can pay $40 to get a new key the next day!! (I should have seen this as an omen of how the rest of the vacation would go :))

2. The following Monday Gabe gets sick and begins to run a fever.

3. Take Gabe to doctor on Tuesday and he his placed on breathing treatments and steroids. Tripp gets shots and is miserable for the rest of the day. Gabe introduces us to his alter ego, Rabid Baby, that is brought out after each fresh dose of Albuterol. He visits 10 full days.

4. We experience a wonderful Christmas day with our family. Gabe is not any better and Livvy plasters our hallway with vomit. Her stomach bug lasts two days. Two babies down, one to go!!

5. Friday morning, two kids sick--wait for it.......Tripp begins to run fever and develops a cough. Awesome!

6. I get sick with whatever the boys have. First thing Monday morning we take both boys to the doctor. Gabe is immediately admitted to the hospital for RSV. Tripp also has RSV, but not as bad. We spend 3 full days in the hospital with Gabe. Tripp is at home still sick. We hand off Liv to various relatives.

7. State Licensing does a surprise visit to our home since one of our kids is in the hospital. This story can't get any worse can it? Just keep reading!!

8. CPS informs us that Gabe will be leaving our family next week to live with a family friend. CPS is not happy with this, but has no choice. Needless to say, we are devastated.

9. Gabe gets dismissed from hospital Wednesday night and we all go home together!! Yeah.

10. Thursday evening, Olivia's bug back to haunt us. Tripp, Gabe, and I all get to experience it. You've got to be kidding!!

11. Here I am, posting this extremely depressing blog.

12. Tomorrow, we will be having a hearing for Tripp that may or may not go our direction. If you think about it, pray for us tomorrow. His hearing is at 1:30.

Through all of this, I'm learning to cling to God's promises that He loves me and trusting that He knows what's best for me and my family. We know that the Lord called us to foster care and that is why we are here. So many people ask us how we survive losing these kids after having them for so long. For us, it is definitely as difficult as you would think it would be, but it paints a perfect image of the sacrifice God made for us in giving us His only Son. I still trust that He has a plan for us.

We have been blessed with such amazing friends and family. Please know that we couldn't get through weeks like this if it weren't for you. Your prayers, thoughts, visits, calls, and even your elbow grease is so appreciated. Thank you for allowing the Lord to use you to be a blessing to us and our family. If you've done nothing more than love our babies or simply be our friend, please know that you've been used to be a blessing! We are so amazingly blessed and pray that we can someday repay the favor!!