New Year!

2008. Hmmm...where did 2007 go? The kids managed to stay up until Midnight, including the little one. She's still awake, hence the time of posting this blog. Our oldest boy turns thirteen on the 2nd. Phew! A teenager....fantastic....

Christmas came and went with only a wee bit of fanfare. We went for more of an "educational" theme this year with the presents. Most were books, games and art supplies. The kids didn't really believe us that Christmas wasn't going to be laden with toys. It was an interesting reaction when that proved to be true. One of the things about having foster kids is that many of the charitable organizations seem to feel that these kids need a plethora of toys to somehow 'make up' for the fact they are in this situation. We've found that once in foster care, they have more toys than they can play with and the lack of teaching about how to care for things, valuing possessions, respecting others' property, etc... results in numerous broken and destroyed toys. The shift away from toys this year seemed to work well and we don't have a lot of things being mistreated and ruined. Some people we told about our plan thought we were being Scrooge-like but this is a unique situation that is difficult to understand from an outside view. If anyone ever thinks of donating to a group that supports foster children, the most helpful things we have ever recieved are clothing, car seats, and school supplies....and hand-me-downs rock! Just because it's not new from the store doesn't mean it's not 'new' to the kids. If there's a superhero or cartoon character printed on it somewhere, even better!

Our little girl is turning into an even bigger ham. Her latest tricks are stealing the boys' clean laundry while it's being sorted and folded so she can "try it on" and practicing getting undressed herself. The latter usually leads to a little dilemma for her when she gets stuck in the process and we have to undo her from whatever twisted mess in which she's wrapped herself up. She's also fallen in love with Elmo and the dreaded Barney. Despite my efforts at expanding her horizons, she generally (loudly) protests my attempts to change to the Discovery Channel or CNN....

Happy New Year to all.