Ruminations Too

what can you say?

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:04:00 +0000

My second adopted daughter has been struggling for sometime now. Her involvement with significant drugs has led to an addictive lifestyle which has led to her being estranged from us, refusing all treatment and becoming homeless. She had been drifting about the city, keeping a little contact with us (mostly to ask for money or new clothes) we were never sure where she was but she seemed to be capable of making "friends" who let her crash with them for a little bit.

We had done everything we could, pulled every string we could, called in every favor created over twenty years to try to get her a placement that would work for her, but she wasn't interested in changing her life. We were still trying to assist her in accessing SSI and mental health services, both systems difficult to navigate if you really need them.

Anyway we got a phone call on Wednesday from pre-trial services asking if we would be willing to post a $20,000 bond for her. (the answer was , of course "NO!") After some checking we discovered that she was in jail facing serious charges. When my DH went to the arraignment he found a compassionate judge who is ordering a competency hearing. As much as a lot of our friends seem to think this is a horrible thing, we are sort of saying "at least we know where she is, she is relatively safe and they may even be able to get her back on her meds." I am hoping that the competency hearing gets her out of jail and into a lock-down psychiatric facility. At least there would be some hope for her.

So that's what we have been dealing with. It's always another surprise around here.

DBG and the harvest

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:12:00 +0000

Well here is DBG with the harvest she helped me to gather. I have a nice garden this year and we have had plenty of rain. DBG is still coming by about twice a month for weekend visits. She is also going to dance class (driven by me) once a week and her little group will dance at the State Fair at the end of August. Much excitement about the dance class, as we had scheduling problems during the school year and she didn't get to dance then. DBG is pretty busy learning to read and write. We are the proud recipients of lots of cards on which she has written important messages about how much she loves us. She will be going to pre-kindergarten in the Fall, her birthday is well beyond the cut-off but I am sure she is well beyond the pre-kindergarten curriculum. What are you going to do?

KD is teaching dance class this Summer, her first solo teaching assignment. She has her permit but not her license. Still the search for the vehicle is on (she will be buying her own), she wants to get an old, old pickup truck and by old we are talking early to mid 1950s. We will see how realistic that is.

DJ had an opportunity earlier this summer to work on an island off the coast of Maine! And now he is working maintenance for the Children's Home that I work for. It seems to be a good fit. I am trying to either get him back in school to finish or work harder at preparing for the GED. He is not terribly motivated.

Son JM graduated from University of California Santa Cruz this June and has a retail job while he is considering his next move. He is very happy and settled out in Cali, I don't think we will see him home except for short visits from now on. :-(

So there's a little update on the kids.
I am working full time and more. DHubby's business is consulting for Foundations, and he hasn't had much work as all the Foundations portfolios suffered a 30% loss or so and their income was similarly effected. As you can imagine no one is beating down the doors to get help with technology upgrades right this minute. So the financial struggle continues for the family.

it's been awhile

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:27:00 +0000

It's been awhile. Life got complicated and busy, mostly I wanted to run from seriousness and responsibility. But hopefully things are on a more even keel now and we can move forward.
I am working full time now at the children's home, doing foster care recruitment and general PR work. Still training new foster and adoptive parents. At home I am gardening to can and freeze, baking sourdough bread and attmepting to live very frugally.
I will update further when I can access my home computer.

An answer

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:15:00 +0000

I have finally figured out why I have not posted in so long, I hate my computer and its keyboard. Now this may sound like a hokey explanation to you, but it is actually the truth. My new computing situation is awkward and uncomfortable and it gives me a backache. It is one thing to pop in and check Faceb**k for a minute, it is another to sit for a while and try to type anything lengthy.
Ever since my old computer crashed I have not enjoyed using my loaner replacement computer so I have not found the time to blog. There is nothing I can do about the computer, replacing it is so far down our list of things to spend money on. I should simply be grateful that I still have something akin to a computer and Internet access.
So hopefully I will be back soon. Being stubborn, once I figured out what was impeding me I have resolved to overcome it. I will make the computer work for me. Speaking of work I had better get back to it, having snuck a quick break.

Ice Storm aftermath

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 15:42:00 +0000

It's a beautiful day today, they say it might hit 61*. We are still digging out from the ice storm, there are still folks without electricity more than 10 days after the storm hit. We lost power twice for a day or so but were some of the lucky ones. We have chain saw massacred the fallen limbs and made big piles of such for the city to pick up. We still have 2-3 inches of hard, slippery ice to navigate anywhere you want to walk. The roads are clear but the sidewalks, parking lots, driveways, etc all have very treacherous spots.

My office was closed for almost a full work week, although I went in several days to kind of be around if needed and make some calls canceling trainings, groups, etc. The schools were closed for a week and went back with some schools still operating on generators. These kids have so many snow/disaster days to make up that they will be in school until mid June!

We had Dancing Baby Girl and Imiki for a weekend as Lani and Pawpaw lost power in their trailer and they had to evacuate to a friend's house. They had no power either but had a fireplace, but the situation made Imiki ill with asthma and bronchitis so we took the two kids. Lani and Pawpaw spent that weekend thawing pipes and cleaning up after one pipe rupture. Still everyone fared pretty well.

I know some of you northern folks might scoff at how we can't even handle a little snow and ice, but let me tell you when the ice is thick enough and heavy enough to crumple the tall steel transformer towers that carry the trunk lines, that is a problem. It wasn't just random branches falling on lines, it was entire transformer towers crumpling right over and taking the lines with them. There are still over 100,000 customers in the more rural areas that do not have power more than 10 days after the storm.

Since this is the second power disaster in less than 5 months for our area (the first was the windstorms with Hurricane Ike) many folks are questioning why the power lines are not underground or otherwise better protected. I have joined a Facebook group called "bury the damn power lines already" that is engaged in an awesome civic discussion of the pros and cons of such a venture. Good grassroots debate.

Although I am a winter person I will be glad to see the last of the ice. Snow is good, I like to sled, cross country ski, make snowfolk and snow angels, but this ice is nasty.

Beautiful but costly

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:42:00 +0000

We have been having a winter storm, (I guess most of the mid-west and now the east coast as well) and besides about 9 inches of snow we got several layers of ice. The last application covered the trees and power lines with about an inch of ice. So down came the tree limbs, sometimes whole trees and out went the power for many. The temperature is dropping again and over 100,000 homes are without electricity, not to mention some of the hospitals, fire houses, police stations and the usual Red Cross Shelter.

We have been very lucky, although a number of trees shed limbs our power has remained on. We had a few flickers very early this AM but since then we have had heat and light. We had to move the cars from beneath a menacing tree and our backyard is littered with branches which crashed down. First there is a slight grinding noise, then an audible pop and then watch out as the limb rockets to earth shedding daggers of ice as it goes. It hits with a crunch as it punches through the layers of ice and snow and finally shatters and scatters across the icy yard.

So we have been having snow days for two days now and the school system is closed until further notice since 54 of the schools do not have power and the electric company is saying it may be 7-10 days until power is restored. We have been playing board games, a little Wii and facebooking (flair can eat up a lot of time). I am trying to get started on a fabric project but may just have to finish some other stalled ones as I do not have a crucial piece of what I need and given we are in a state of emergency and no one is allowed to be on the roads I can't go shopping at the fabric store.

I went to work yesterday, the only one in my whole department but I got a ton done. No driving today, snow was fine, 3 inches of glaze ice is quite another matter. I am hoping we can get out tomorrow. I have terrible cabin fever, I need to go talk to other people and work on other projects.

Aside from my whining we are really doing great, we have enough staples and even milk, we just refilled meds on Monday and as I said we have power and water. More snow tonight and through tomorrow but only in slight snow showers.

I am having trouble remembering to be truly thankful. Wish I had a book.

Dear Annie

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:17:00 +0000

dear Annie,

I wish you could understand how much we love you and worry about you. Are you warm? Are you safe?

I know you think you don't have many choices so you run to what looks like freedom. But if you have nothing, not even hope, you are not really free. We want to see you gain the skills to be able to take care of yourself, you are not going to learn job skills and financial management and good mental health out on the street.

You are so much danger, without your meds you will have seizures and no one will take you for medical care. Without your meds you will begin to experience increasing periods of psychosis and your tentative grip on reality will become even more stretched. The folks around you will not have the patience, expertise, or even empathy to help you. Also, the choices of mixing drugs and alcohol with your medical issues is so scary.

I wish you would let us help you. Since you won't, know that I am praying for you and think of you often. You can always come back.

With so much love, Mom

AWOL and maybe really gone this time

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:55:00 +0000

Well Annie is AWOL again and this time the rehabilitation center will not take her back if she comes back. She took no meds (has a seizure disorder not to mention major mental health issues) and has basically ditched the long term waiver we worked so hard to get for her. She didn't finish her SSI application and she has no health insurance. The 36 year old man she left with, apparently she has had a 2 year relationship with him, is indigent and also brain damaged. But because she is still her own guardian the police will do nothing.

We worry, we wait to hear and we struggle with feelings of rage, inadequacy, and helplessness. Although she is 19 she only functions at about an 8 year old age in terms of her understanding of reality, her ability to handle money or make important decisions. We were in the process of trying to get emergency guardianship but this has also thrown that all out of whack.

I don't know what to say. I can't even cry or scream. I am numb.

Texting with Douglas

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:09:00 +0000

Douglas went to Texas to work on a ranch and it turns out he is in the Four corners area. It is very peaceful he says. He seems to be enjoying himself quite a bit. He says he is learning how to drive, something he strongly resisted. The buildings on the ranch are all smaller than 20 feet to a side to avoid taxes so it is an interesting little compound, one building for the kitchen and dining, one building for the living room, various buildings for bedrooms. Sounds quaint and rustic.

I am still not really clear on what he is doing down there. He was blathering on about hoping to see wolves. I think he is helping to clear brush etc. He claims he is very chilled out and he really likes how quiet and calm it is. I do think he is a nature kind of guy, this city living we have is pretty stressful for him. Maybe he is finding a career path!

More Catch Up

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:08:00 +0000

Dancing Baby Girl is at that wonderful age where she can begin to do real projects with multiple steps. Above she is working on one of our gingerbread creations. She stayed engaged all the way through and was able to wait for icing to dry and whatnot. She was so thrilled with her creation she didn't even want to eat it right away!

We are getting the pre-reading questions, "what does that sign say?" and "how do you spell....?" In addition she is displaying quite the humor. She got fascinated by the new T*co B*ll commercial about Black tacos and was cracking joke after joke about it. We would be out driving and she would start in on saying the commercial but since she didn't know it verbatim she would throw in other things, like black road, black hair, black sky (it was at night). She is a screech.

We are still getting some worrisome behaviors from her, they seem to be very balanced out by her wonderful caring side, but boy I get nervous when she starts her manipulative, selfish, self-centered, mean stuff. Our new behavior policy of not tolerating the nasty talk backs and sending her to her room has seemed to help. I just need to stop feeding into it all and take that emotional step back. She is often doing these behaviors when I am at my worst, think she knows that?

Things with Lani, DBG's mother seem to be going well, or at least better. She weathered the Christmas visit from DBG's Dad and did not waver in her determination to hold him to sobriety before he can come back into their lives. Imiki's heart surgery (catheterizing to fix a hole) went very well and Lani did great with that also. Lani's dad, Pawpaw, who had heart and kidney trouble before Christmas is back home and seems to be coming to terms with his disability. And the good news, CPS closed the protective case on DBG and Lani is just feeling on top of the world with getting that last worry off her back. It was good for her to have that oversight, especially to keep her strong in her decision to kick out druggie dad, but she seems to have internalized a lot of what she needs to do as a Mom and she is doing a good enough job of it.

People seem to have a hard time understanding Lani's and my relationship, they assume that there must be jealousy and repressed resentment. But there is not. We have worked past a lot of stuff and now we trust one another to love and raise our precious DBG. It works well for Lani to have a break every two to three weeks and we love to have DBG visit. We also have Lani visit, she was with us Christmas morning and stayed for Christmas dinner. Sometimes she hangs out when she drops DBG off. The best way I can describe it is, it's like she is my daughter-in-law and I think that is kind of how she might feel about the relationship. She calls me her second mother. All in all we have stepped through the minefield of reunification and come out the other side an extended family.

Catching Up

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:01:00 +0000

Oh, I have been a bad blogger. So sorry. Work has been absolutely crazy, a lot of stress and tension over budgets and thus over whether we have jobs. Plus I have a new class of prospective foster and adoptive parents beginning their journey, so that has been and will be intense. We have an awesome class, 15 families are starting out, I am hoping that about 12 will finish and become certified homes. That would be great, being able to place 12 kids in the first quarter of the year!!

At home things continue apace. Doug went down to court with Brooke and full guardianship was granted to the state. We will petition to take over guardianship, at least of the personal not financial aspects, in 6 months. It has been a long road with her but things are looking a lot brighter.

Annie, on the other hand is a hot mess. Doug and I traveled to see her over the New Year's weekend and she is not doing well. Her seizures have increased. Her weight is ballooning, she gained 11 pounds in a one week period, and it is all from overeating and not moving around. Her placement is in total jeopardy, her Medicaid was cut off on Dec. 31 and no placement in at all interested in taking her on the long-term Acquired Brain Injury Waiver that we were so es tactic about receiving. The main reason for their reluctance is how much of a flight risk she is. So we go around and around, calling this state agency and that ombudsman office and never do the right hands know what the left hands are doing. Frustration, fear, anger, hopelessness, determination and exhaustion would about describe my feelings about all this.

I had one adult son get to experience jail time for his poor choices about what to do before one drives. I am hoping it was an educational experience and may serve as a wake-up call. Some folks are terribly hard-headed.

Douglass is off to Texas to see his girlfriend again. That relationship really worries Doug and myself as the girlfriend is extremely manipulative and uses a lot of emotional blackmail. Douglass does not really have the capability to handle that well at all. We also are concerned about how immature and self-centered she is. But he is what passes for an adult these days so we try to remain supportive and carefully point out issues in ways that hopefully will not alienate him.

More on Kendra and Dancing Baby Girl and anything else interesting later as I must get Kendra off to a dance competition.

Reading Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:56:00 +0000

Sorry I have been gone so long but I am on a "Twilight" reading marathon and nothing else is getting done. I only have the last book to go so I'll be back soon. I have to finish before my daughter wants them back, see it is finals week and she can't do anything except dance and study, so they have been mine, mine, mine for the last little while. Good books, very good writer, would have preferred different subject matter, but hey.

What I Worked On Between Thanksgiving and Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:01:00 +0000

I made these four T-shirt quilts for the young adult children of my very good friend Diane. Even though they were all T-shirt quilts I made each of them a little differently. It was quite a bit of work. They turned out pretty big as you can see from my DH's head just barely peeking above the one he is holding and he is 6'4".

I really tried to capture each person a little with their quilts. The one above is done with delicate sashing and is done on point. The one below is for the guy and I incorporated his college colors as well as making his bold and very rectangular.

The one below was done for the younger sister and I did a crazy quilt idea with each block being totally different and a little well "crazy"

This final one is my favorite and I made it for my favorite one of the four. This is for Judy, she is severely mentally retarded and autistic but she is the sweetest, most loving person and I adore her. I made this one a combination of a T-shirt quilt and tied fleece blanket. The sashing is fleece and the backing and border are fleece and are tied together with fringe. I chose this style specifically for Judy as she likes to feel a variety of textures and it helps to soothe her. You can't really see, but the theme of the sashing is fish which she loves only second to bugs. I couldn't find any bug fleece this time of year :-(

Anyway I had a blast making these, loved the challenge of the crazy quilt and the effort of personalizing each of them to the person's personality. It was a lot right before Christmas and I think I will start earlier if I do this again.

My Absence Was The Computer's Fault

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:29:00 +0000

I've really missed being able to post and comment lately. My old computer completely bit the dust and although I had backed up and moved all of my files to an old laptop it was not a seamless transition. So I have been struggling with this annoying laptop and have finally wrestled into somewhat of submission. Hopefully I can now use my files and favorites and all that good stuff to keep up with everyone and even let you all know what is happening here.

So belated Merry Christmas, hope everyone had some joy.

The big kids (written before Christmas but lost in broken computer land.)

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:35:00 +0000

The "big kids" as viewed from Dancing Baby Girl's perspective! (see her head at the bottom of the picture. They were all discussing putting the star on top of the tree the day we decorated.
Interactions between these two are not always the best but they are getting better. They are the last two home and have been for a couple of years now so there has been jockeying for postion going on as well as just getting tired of each other. But still I see enough expressions of caring and compassion to know that they do care for one another.

We have been lucky so far with both of these teens in that we have not had a lot of the typical teen defiance and bad choices from either of them. Douglass' mental health issues can make him high maintenance and difficult to live with but so much of that is not choice of behaviors that we roll with it and go on.

I'd like to think that it is because of my wonderful parenting, and I do think there is a kernel of that, I have indeed learned something over the years, but I also think a lot of it has to do with the truly attached relationship we developed over the years of homeschooling. The level of respect between the parents and children (teens) is very high and because of that respect we treat each other differently, we interact differently and life is better than was possible with any of my other kids. In retrospect I really regret that I did not homeschool all of my kids through at least part of their school years.

What a Christmas Present!!!

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 20:03:00 +0000

I haven't posted much about our funding problems with Annie because it has just been too life sucking. Suffice it to say that we have been doing the Medicaid denial of funds and subsequent appeal dance for the last few months. We have called in favors from our network of social service folk, and we have talked with our State Senator and Representative (or at least their minions). But we were really scared. We cannot let Annie come back home because she is too dangerous to the other people in the home, particularly Kendra as she has intense jealousy towards her and has physically attacked her many times in the past. But there didn't seem to be anywhere for her to go, I am not sure even homeless shelters would take her.

Well today the official sounding knock came at the front door and I was required to sign a certified letter for Annie. We opened it and to our surprise discovered that Annie has qualified for the Acquired Brain Injury Waiver. This is a new funding program and there were only 50 spots funded for this year and Annie got one!! Some one is looking out for her, her guardian angel pulled some major strings.

With this funding stream we can now seek a residential/group home style facility for her much closer to home and one that will meet her needs for brain injury rehabilitation. This funding stream was created to fill the hole between children's services which end at 18 and adult services which don't start until 21. It is totally amazing that Annie got funded. I mean, I am not saying that she isn't in desperate need but so are so many others.

The weight that has been lifted from our shoulders is immense. I feel like we can be happy at Christmas now.

There is still a lot to do, we have to find a case management agency and then start investigating programs. There is one we have in mind but we don't know if they have an opening or if they would consider Annie given her issues. But it so much more hopeful to know that now we can start looking for a home for Annie rather than worrying about her being homeless.

Our prayers have been answered and now there are just the ton of details to deal with, but I am not complaining.

The pictures won't work

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:58:00 +0000

I wanted to post the pics of the other children (?), young adults helping to decorate the tree as they were having a great time also. It is rare for Kendra and Douglass to horse around together, so it was fun to see. But the pictures won't work for some reason. This new computer thing has me frazzled. I have been assured by my resident computer geek, aka DH, that all my files have been transferred, etc, but I can't access some of them because I am not the administrator. See it is a laptop borrowed from the business so it is frustrating to wdeal with right now. And I don't want to seem too grouchy about it all as DH took several hours to get me set up with this machine and he saved all my important files from the other machine. Still the pictures won't work as I can't connected to the network, argghhh!!

The Missing Letter

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:37:00 +0000

My PC dies. An unhappy demise. I am using Kendra's lapPC which isn't letting me use the letter that resides between N and P in the alphabet. I will write using all letters except that 1. It may be a little stilted and very unusual. I am sure it will be a challenge but certainly an achievable thing. Glad I'm keeping this relatively unlengthy as I might wander in a state resembling despair!

Will I be writing again in the near future? Perhaps, but maybe using my PC at my engagement that pays.

Bad News, Prayers Needed

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:08:00 +0000

Lani told me when I took DBG back that her, Lani's father had been taken to the emergency room again with heart issues, apparently an aneurysm. So prayers for DBG's PaPaw. He is the glue right now holding things together. If he cannot support the family financially I don't know what will happen. Lani is of course panicked, but luckily her big sister flew in to help out so the burden is not entirely on her shoulders.

Computer Problems and an Action Packed Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:46:00 +0000

What could possibly be grander than seeing the big guy in red and getting to dance on the big stage? Dancing Baby Girl had quite a blast at the Christmas dance recital.
Then it was on to tree decorating. First DBG had to supervise the placing of the lights. Luckily my DH has the patience of a saint.

Then it was time to decorate. Boy did DBG have a blast. She looked at each ornament, wanted to hear the story that went with it and took real care in hanging them. She is wearing her Christmas dress here as we had a Christmas program at church. you may not be able to see, but the dress sparkles, her tights sparkled and she had on glittery shoes. She was in seventh heaven and the envy of the Sunday School classroom. Hey, what are quality hand-me-downs for?
After all that she changed so that we could make cookies for Santa Claus. I am not sure she really understands that Christmas is still a few days off. But we put milk and cookies under the tree anyway. Who can deny the hope of a 4 year old? (She kept looking up the chimney to see if he was coming down :-))

After all that she took her reindeer for a ride and had a wonderful imaginative playtime with the reindeer and the snowman, constructing an elaborate story. She was being such a delightful goober that we did a whole series of funny pictures with the reindeer.

On another note, my computer is very ill. I backed it all up to the server and it is limping along but I do not know for how long. So if you don't hear from me for a bit it is just computer issues.

My Favorite 15 Year Old

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:35:00 +0000

I love this girl. One minute gawky, fun loving kid, the next introspective, mature adult. This is by far the most pleasant of all my children to be around. (No offense all you other moody folk!) She has her things she needs to work on, like helping with chores and keeping any sense of organization of her own stuff, but aside from those things all is well in the 'ville. I think she has benefited from the luck of her birth order. I know if I still had a passel around the house, that the resistance to chores and the detritus of her life strewn about the house would really have worn on me. Now when she is often the only one about I have a higher tolerance for the mess. I still don't clean it up or take responsibility for knowing where anything is, but I have more time and less stress to let her cope with the consequences of being messy and disorganized.

She has been the recipient of the best of my parenting. All the skills I have learned, the books I have read, the techniques I have practiced were experiments on the other kids. By the time we got around to this darling I pretty much had a handle on how to do this parent thing in the least destructive manner to both the child and myself. It helps so much also that she has an easygoing and happy personality.

I truly miss the time we spent together homeschooling, although I love to see her flourish and grow at the Youth Performing Arts High School. I do not have the same sense of worry and impending doom that I had about a number of my other teens who when faced with the difficult choices of the high school years seemed to always choose the drama filled, negative consequence generating, sometimes life threatening path. This one has a good head on her shoulders and a sense of who she is and who she wants to be.

I don't think I am deluding myself, she will inevitably take some wrong turns. But she will take responsibility for her choices and be able to see appropriate ways out of her predicament.

It is refreshing after having been worn down by years of parenting difficult, sometimes violent, sometimes law breaking, sometimes suicidal, teens to not be under that kind of stress and still be parenting a teen. Almost, let me stress almost, makes me sorry she is the last of our long line of teens (she is 9 of 9).

Thanksgiving Day Hike pics

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:16:00 +0000

As is our tradition on Thanksgiving we got the pies baked and the turkey in the oven and then we all went for a hike. usually we go a little further afield and find some actual forest/wooded park land for our hike, but this year we had a lot of rain and the trails were very mucky so we took advantage of the walk beside the river. From these photos it is hard to tell that we are right downtown. Even that little bit of nature was incredibly uplifting.

I was unexpectedly blessed...

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 12:55:00 +0000

Sometimes blessings in life come in the most unexpected packages, from people and situations that we would least expect to see the hand of God at work in the world. I am no stranger to the incredible generosity of many, many good folk in the work area of my life. Working in the Public Relations/Recruitment/Development area for the children's home I am often amazed at the way people will reach into their pockets to help abused and neglected kids.

That being said, I was still unprepared for an experience that I had TWICE last Thursday. We were downtown at the central eating/shopping area during the lunch hour handing out fliers to the corporate lunch crowd about the Santa Sleepwear Drive that the local business association was sponsoring. It was hovering at 32* and we handed out over 400 fliers in a 3 hour period. The initial response was tremendous and hopefully we will see the fruits of our labors at the collection times that are upcoming.

Any time you hang out downtown you have a chance to interact with the homeless and the mentally ill. Thursday was no exception. We had the corporate executives in their business suits and cashmere overcoats as well as grimy, smelly, unkempt folk shivering in their meager clothing. As we were a diversion from the usual we drew any number of homeless who stopped by to chat and ask questions about our display. Most of them were interested in our giveaways, the ink pens, the post-it-note pads, the magnets, etc. And it was fine, that was what they were there for.

It was amazing how much compassion these folks expressed, any number of them revealed that they had grown up in foster care, and hoped that the children we served would have a nice Christmas. We were not specifically collecting money although we had our donation box out as we do whenever we have a display.

It brought tears to my eyes when two different homeless women, women with nothing to their name, women who were living on the streets, gave us a donation from their meager resources. The percentage amount that they gave to help another was incredible. I was reminded of the Widow's Mite, etc. But to see it in action, to see people who have nothing give to others that they perceive as being more needy than themselves, and to give with no thought of reward or recognition or compensations. It humbled me in a profound way. And it blessed me as well. To see the good of God in unexpected places is so the message of Christmas and to be able to be present before God's work was ... I am wordless.

Thanks be to God and may God hold the homeless in warm hands in the coming days.

Happy Pie Day

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:06:00 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving!

At our house we celebrate pie day, every one has their own pie. We share but there is always at least one pie per person. The turkey and dressings are all extras as far as the limelight at our house. The spotlight is on the pumpkin, apple, pecan, mince and berry pies.

We have just finished the first round of pies. I expect to see them out again a little later. Then we all have pie for breakfast, a true tradition for our family.

Hope your days were as successful as ours. We had a mellow, calm, enjoyable time. It helped that we did not have two of the most volatile at home. While I missed all 3 of my missing kids it was so much more pleasant without 2 of them.

A countdown of the missing: James, 22 is in his senior year at college in California, so he went to a friend's parents' house to avoid the travel and airport madness.

Annie, 19 is in a Brain injury rehab center about 5 and a half hours away and not doing well so not invited home.

Douglass, 18 went to Texas to visit with his girlfriend and he won't be back for two weeks a nice little respite for all of us at home.

Well, now the clean up begins.

4th birthday reprise

noreply@blogger.com (quilted family) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:19:00 +0000

Just got back from the birthday party that Lani threw for Dancing Baby Girl. She did it up right and was so proud of herself. DBG was so thrilled, she kept saying this is my party? this for me? She handled the excitement well, only was mean once and that was to her Mom. i got to meet some of Lani's other family members and they all handled my presence very well. I think that is because Lani is so comfortable with our relationship.

I am proud of Lani, this was a huge step for her, the first birthday party she has thrown and it may have been the first one she has gone to like this. I get the feeling she didn't have a lot of the experiences that one would hope for for a child, like a recognition of your special day, etc.

Anyway, I am tired after a long and pretty emotional weekend for DBG. So I need to get some sleep, work again tomorrow whether I am ready or not.