Wednesday, March 10, 2010

So What is Next

I feel like I have been lead to the spot where I'm am today. I have adopter 3 children with FASD( Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder) I find the teaching methods I used with my older children do not work with these children. With the help of a wonderful therapist and others such as people working with mental health in children I'm learning. It is taking a while to let all this sink in and see the behaviors that each of the children need help with. It is hard to see what is missing when the children are very young because very young children are not expected to understand time , money, socal cutes ect... One of the things we have to do is to go over things again and again trying to wear a pattern in the brain.(Children with FASD brains do not fire in lines like ours do. They fire randomly. ) So things have to be done in the same order and at the same time every time to wear a pattern in the brain.
When Jasmine finished kindergarten she didn't have the kindergarten material learned. So we took it home and over the summer we worked on learn the material. We repeated it and learned it. By the time school started again she had the kindergarten material down. So she did very well until January of the first grade. (When they started learning new material.) After the first grade was finished we took the first grade material home and we went over it and over it until by the time school started again she had the first grade material down. So she started out the second grade in great shape however now that we are past January she is starting to fall behind. Also more of the social ques are being missed so that is becoming an issue as well. I know we will have to do some role playing to get her to understand what is going on with her friends and how to stay safe and out of trouble. What a learning curve for me . I hope I can figure it out.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Taken by the Hand

In my story we are now parents of Jasmine. We moved to a new town and had her sealed to our family. The adoption was on July 18th or 2005, the move was on October 15th of 2005 and the temple sealing happened on Jan of 2006. We had peace for a while before the Lord took us by the hand and asked use to start taking in children in Foster care again. So we got everything ready and renewed our license.
Our first placement was two little boys they were Indian ,Sioux. Oh how we loved Mona, and Toffe. They returned to the tribe after we had them for only 4 months. (So much the same as Andre he was Navajo and returned to his Grandma.) Just before they left we got word that Jasmine's sister was coming into the system.(foster care) Grandma Nancy called. I insisted on taking Janae into our home. We had all three children only for 10 days and then the boys were gone. Janae stayed. She was and still is adorable. She came to our family on August 30th of 2006 at 7 months of age. On february 26th we got a call from Grandma Nancy that Joseph had been born and he would not be going home with his biological mom. So we waited to hear and prepare for a new baby. We got the call on February 28th and they asked if we would take him when he was ready to be released by the hospital. We said "Yes" and waited. The hospital called on March 1st of 2007. We went and picked him up from the hospital. What a sweet baby.
We adopted Janae on July 9th of 2007 and Joseph was adopted on September 10th of 2007. Both children were sealed to us on November the 23 of 2007 in the Bountiful temple. All of our children were present except Lael who had left for the mission field in June. The Lord hand was in this all along the way. I cried when I heard that Janae would join us. and again then we got the word about Joseph. What wonderful little children God has placed in our care.
It is good for me to remember how much I felt the Lord's guidance while all these things were happening. I know that God wants these children to be part of our family and so I need to know that He will show me how to help them have all that is GOOD IN THERE LIVES. I pressed the caps by mistake but I think it was to be that way for me so see. Sometimes my vision gets so cluttered by what is not important that I forget what is of most importance. This is what He has for me to do and so we will succeed.