It's been a week...

....since JJ came home with us.

I am proud to say we have really started to get things down patt.

He was a bear all Tuesday night though. Didn't eat very well, was so clingy and started a three hour crying fit around 9 pm. I felt so bad for him because NOTHING seemed to help him. My biggest fear was that this was a "typical" behavior caused from "his past" (read between the lines okay) and so I was worried. He finally passed out with a bottle (that I had been trying to get him to eat for hours) around midnight. I sat down and did some research and I found that the Rotavirus vaccine can cause diarrhea and vomiting. He got that Tuesday morning so I think it's what made him so fussy, he did have diarrhea too.

As strange as this is, Makily LAUGHS....I mean BELLY LAUGHS when he cries.

She's a turd!

I am also REALLY trying to juggle when to pick him up and when to let him chill. He wants to be held all the time. He has been in several other homes before mine so I feel like I need to pick him up so he knows I am here for him. On the other hand I can't get anything done that way and it makes for a VERY spoiled little boy.

His social worker came over Wednesday and we chatted. She was impressed with him and how he is with me. He is very aware of where I am in the room if I am not holding him and she saw that he does not like it when I put him down. She said as long as I know him tummy is full and that his hiney is dry that I shouldn't pick him up every time. So we are working on that.

I borrowed an awesome baby sling from my friend Sarah today and HE LOVED IT. I ordered it online so when I am holding him I can at least get some other things done.

We have already totally fallen in love with this kid.



It's looking good on our end as far as keeping JJ long term. We are trying not to get our hopes up too high but what the social worker told me was VERY promising for us. All that being said things could change overnight when it comes to this sort of thing so we are VERY cautiously optimistic.

His cradle cap is pretty much gone now. YAY!

Makily had another field trip on Friday. It was to Chuckie Cheese. JJ and I went with her.

She rode several of the rides and had a BALL watching the crazy boys in her class dancing and being silly.

She is such a little peach.


It's amazing how she has become my big girl almost overnight. She honestly is my "easy" child if you can believe that one! She patts JJ when they sit together and today she was just talking and smiling at him.

They are too sweet together.

****By the way Keely, I LOOOOVED your suggestion to call JJ "Wilson" from Home Improvement. I swear I laughed OUT LOUD here in the den. That was hilarious! *****

**** Laurie....honey I have GOT to post that "Ken LEEEE" video on my blog. I know you love the name but I think we are sticking to JJ.*****
LOLOL

All over the place.

If you recall I submitted all the paperwork OVER A MONTH ago (March 17th) for Makily to get a Sleep Safe Bed. I called Apria (the home health company) two weeks ago and spoke with a lady named...well we'll call her Nicky.

She says:

"Mrs. Caldwell I submitted that THE SAME day you sent it to us.....I LOVE a challenge, I am going to stay right on top of this, the insurance company won't even talk to us about this until it's been 30 days so I am putting it on my calendar to call them when 30 days is up"

Inside I laughed, I've heard that song and dance before but whatever.

So it's been over a month now, I call BCBS, of course they say they have no idea what the heck I am talking about. I call Nicky back at Apria and she says "Who did you talk to customer service"? I say "uhm, yeah who else would I talk to?" She replies with "I need to call this other dept, they will know about it". I ask her for that dept's number and she says she will call them for me THAT MOMENT.

FINE.

I don't hear back from her the rest of the day.

I call the next morning and she says they told her the same thing, they don't have it.

So I have waited A MONTH ON NOTHING!

To top that off, it will be at least another month for them to review it and of course deny us.


Nice huh?

I asked her if she spoke with anyone when she originally sent it and she said "I usually don't, typically I just fax it over to them".

God forbid she call and MAKE SURE they got the fax and that it was being taken care of.

She said she "re-sent it" and that if I would like she would "put it on her calendar" to check on it in two days.

I laughed at her and said:

"No offense but that's what you said to me the first time I called, you never checked on it and if it weren't for the fact THAT I CALLED, I would still be sitting here waiting and they STILL wouldn't have it, so thanks, but no thanks, I will continue to take care of it myself because that's the only way I know that it's going to get done".

I didn't even give her a chance to say anything back I just hung up.

I am so tired of having to go behind people to make sure things get done for Makily. It makes it very hard for me to be nice and pleasant.

On a good note the CEO of Sleep Safe Beds contacted me via email. His wife found my blog. He said that if we have problems getting coverage to call his office. They have someone there who specializes in working with the insurance companies and getting things paid for. I was really impressed that they contacted me. It was really cool!

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We are still waiting for a placement. I talked to the Director of our agency today. She is very, very nice and I thanked her for all of her help. Once her and the director of licensing found out about the struggles we had been having in getting our license, they took over and we were licensed within two weeks. We got the hard copy of our license in the mail yesterday. I am so framing it. She (the director) went into the placement office while we were on the phone to ensure they had our names and check to see if they had any babies. None for Marion County right now so we just are playing the waiting game. I sleep with the phone, waiting for the call. Allen and I are reallllllly excited.

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Delaney developed what my sister thought was the chicken pox (chickie pops as Delaney calls them) last night. We were actually happy because that would have explained the abnormal blood work. Her big brother Micah asked my sister if Delaney got "chickie pops" because she at too much chicken.


Too cute.

She took her in to Dr. Pierre today and, it's not chicken pox. We don't know what it is. For now we are calling it a "viral rash" but she is not showing any other symptoms of anything else. Since she has the rash Dr. Pierre is waiting to repeat the blood work until Tuesday now. Gotta love the waiting game.

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Makily has a finger infection. Every now and then the tips of her fingers will get red. I assume it's from always have them in her mouth. Typically it will go away within a day or so. Well this time her middle finger got really HOT and inflamed, the skin started peeling, then I noticed her ring finger was starting to blister. I took her in to see Dr. Pierre and it's infected. (I swear between Makily and her cousins we keep her in business huh?) We soaked her hand in Epsom salt water and she thought it was bath time. She "splishy splashed" her and me the entire time. It looks much better today and she is on antibiotics for it.

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Sorry for the lack of really new pictures. I still have not gotten another flash drive and my computer has almost zero memory left. I have gotten rid of everything I don't use and so I know it's the fact that I have a BAZILLION pictures on here. Hopefully I will have it taken care of by next week though!

Tragic Story of a CRAZY LADY and a set of fireplace doors.

I will start this post off by reminding myself that in the grand scheme of things, THIS IS NOT really a big deal.

It's just INCREDIBLY frustrating.

Patience Lord...I know patience right!?

At our last home study we were told we had to have doors installed on our fireplace. I was a little miffed because we had three home studies before that one and no one had EVER mentioned this requirement. We would have had it done LONG ago had we known.

On January 9th, I went to Lowe's. I ordered and paid for a set of glass fireplace doors. The man asked me the measurements of our fireplace and then told me to pick out the ones I wanted. He didn't ask me any other questions about our fireplace and I didn't know anything else to tell as I have never done this before.


When I ordered the doors the man told me they would be in on Jan 23rd...maybe even sooner.

I got a call last weekend saying that they are on back order and OF COURSE no one can tell me how long. Mind you this was FOUR DAYS before they were supposed to arrive. I explained to them that this is the LAST thing standing in the way of our foster parent license and that I was VERY UPSET that I was not told they were on back order before then. They told me I would get a call on Monday to see what could be done (it was Saturday and the manufacturer is of COURSE closed).

Monday I received a call saying they were NOT on back order and would be here by Friday.

I was ecstatic.

Thursday I called to ensure everything was still in order for them to arrive Friday. I spoke with two people and after MUCH confusion was told that

THE DOORS WERE IN...A DAY EARLY TOO!

I decided that I did not want to wait for Allen to get home to pick them up. I had to go get them MYSELF. I couldn't be at ease until I had them in my house!

I picked them up and was incredibly pleased with myself. I called our licensing specialist and told her they would be installed this weekend. She was very pleased!

THANK THE LORD WE ARE DONE......

or so I thought.

*sigh*

This morning Allen opens the box. Starts reading the directions....sighs and then says"

HIM: We can't use these

ME: WHAT? WHY NOT!?

HIM: The instructions say "Do not use or install of prefabricated fireplaces. For use ONLY with masonry fireplaces".

ME: What is the difference and what the heck does that mean?

HIM: Masonry you have concrete that surrounds the fireplace, these attach to that concrete. We have a prefabricated fireplace and there is no concrete to attach this too.

**the top of my head flew off my body**

Allen and I then got into an ugly argument that I won't fully describe here. It was riddled with lots of colorful words. We weren't mad at each other......but hey who else were we going to scream at?

I called Lowe's, spoke with the manager and VERY FIRMLY explained our problem/s with them. He said he "thinks" they just "might" sell the pre-fab doors but for me not to quote him on it.

Gee that made me feel better.

Then he said that since it's Saturday the manufacturer is closed and so they can't find anything out for certain until Monday.

**Of course**

We have called around Ocala today to see if anyone has them, none of the places we have called has answered their phone. I googled "prefab fireplace doors" and have found a few of them but to the tune of over $500.

Lovely.

I also found THIS SITE
that says and I quote:

The Zero-Clearance Fireplace Glass Door Problem A very common problem with these fireplaces are dilapidated or missing Fireplace Glass Doors. Zero-clearance fireplaces manufacturers generally provide a glass door system with the fireplace. However, in an effort to keep the cost down the glass doors are generally not built to last... a long time. Soon the homeowner finds themselves searching for replacement fireplace glass doors, and this isn't always easy. The manufacturer of the fireplace may have gone out of business, or you aren't sure who installed the original fireplace, or you just simply don't know where to start.


I laughed uncontrollably I do think Allen believes I have lost my mind.

So we are going to be taking back the $230 doors that took two weeks to get to Lowe's and are trying to think of SOMETHING we can do to get a "door" on the fireplace. The cheapest I have found at the point are $500 and I am not even sure they are the correct size. Who knows how long it will take to get them to us.

We are kicking around other ideas, such as just buying a fireplace screen (the kind that would normally sit in front of the fireplace with the doors that open) and somehow mount that to the face of the fireplace. Don't know if this will work but we are willing to try.

I also have an email in to a guy that sells them on ebay to see if he has the size we need. Those are MUCH more reasonably priced but again, I don't know if he has what size we need.

My mom and best friend Trish keep saying "There is a reason behind this, maybe the baby you are supposed to have is not born yet or is not in the system so that is why there is the hold up, God knows what he is doing".

I agree and I pray they are right.

I have this horrible negative "evil troll" in my brain that keeps saying

"Maybe this is a sign that you aren't supposed to do this".

I keep telling the troll to shut the heck up.

Will keep you updated.