Summer nights!!!

Oh!!!Why is summer so long and HOT!!!!

I don't know about you,but summer seems to be busier and more difficult than when the kids actually go to school. There are camps, places they need to go, people they need to see. At our house we go from little to big; not driving yet to driving but don't have a car yet; we have it all. Well I shouldn't complain, we have air conditioners, cold water to drink and shopping malls.

Our family is moving along, the kids are liking summer camp, at least the little ones. Other than that we have the usual tween, teenage and post-teen; "'I wish I didn't have to do anything more than spend time with my friends, set up to meet my friends at the furthest mall from our house, no chores and no summer reading, food that cooks itself whenever I feel hungry, a magic "fill up itself" refrigerator and specially no taking a family mini vacation together which will totally mess up my plans with my friends....are you with me?! This I say knowing that my children are far better; loving; close to us and open with us than most teens.

Now totally changing the subject:

This week I am very frustrated with the system. Even after adopting the children because we depend on it for some medical expenses things just don't get done. I feel like I have to do everything over and over again just so that they can get it right. Here we are so worried about other nations problems while we can not even clean up our own mess.

If you are like us with special needs children in the school system I wounder if you feel as frustrated as we feel dealing with them. At times I feel that all I do is to spend my energy "'fighting" for their right to a good public education. For their right to be respected and treated as an individual full of possibilities.

The child they said had already no hope, our 8 year old this week asked me: "Mom, why did my old mama gave me the name Emmanuel? It will take many years to heal some of the inflicted pain, but children are so resilient!

Well it is already morning, the summer night is over, the heat is still lurking outside my door. I better go for some rest, later this morning there will be more kids having nightmares and jumping in my bed, the alarm will go off and as fast as my arm can stretch I will try to make it stop...at least for five more minutes...ten minutes would be even better!

Today is already another great day!

And then there were 7...

How do you deal with a 6 year old going on 17?


As if our family was not large enough a few months ago Priscila, our oldest decided to adopt 8 turtles. They are cute, green and all different sizes. Sunday as she counted the little creatures she noticed one was missing. The whole family spent the day looking for it inside the room, under the bed, under the piles of clothe, the little one was no where to be found.

I don't want to frustrate you with the small details of the intense process of interrogations that took place during the next several hours at our house. Monday came and still no sign of "Toots". The questioning continued taking up all my energy and using all my "experience". In the end here are the facts; Didi got angry at Gabe, our 13 year old for something and decided someone had to pay for it. Sadly Toots was the chosen one. How can I blame the children for becoming hard, always interested in self preservation, experts in the art of emotional manipulation? It is a constant battle that keeps us on high alert all the time. A difficult balance, when love has to show up as a constant reminder that Didi is loved so much that we will not let her get away with it!

So now there are 7, little Toots went to turtle "heaven" or wherever you go when you are flushed down the toilet. I was left with an overflowing toilet, a carpet soaking wet, a 19 year old sad for her loss, a 5 year old begging her for forgiveness for something he didn't do and a 6 year old taking the consequence of her mean actions showing no emotions on the outside, ready to play another "role".

With it all, love and faith are our only glue, what keeps us "stuck" to each other ready for the next day, for the next opportunity to prove to them our undying, unconditional love. Their forever family.

To all of you moms out there,

Good night!

Family bites

And now we are 8.
I can't believe it but here I am; writing my 1st blog!
My hope is that this blog will help keep my sanity, to vent and hopefully share life and help others learn from our experiences.

This October we will celebrate 2 years of having our new children. Thou the adoption was only official this last March they have belonged to our family from the 1st day they came to visit. We really blend in together and I don't see life without them anymore, we adore them!

If you have ever dealt with the foster care system and is frustrated with their lack of speed, organization, funds, people that know what they are doing, good children advocates...I better stop talking about this subject, at least for now.

Our plan was to foster one child or two if she had a sibling which sounded like enough for our than family of five; My husband and I with two daughters (18 and 15 at the time) and a son 11. Now we are 8; a multiracial family, three boys and three girls. The little ones are birth siblings, the oldest, 7 was already "red" marked by the system as a future sex offender and rapist. They had been moved 6 times in less than a year and would now be separated because no one could handle them, they were described to us as having " animal behavior", impossible to control. It would take a long time for me to share all that has happen during this almost 2 years. I will try to little by little to give you some insight into our absolutely crazy, difficult, rewarding life.
I cannot finish this 1st post without mentioning how much I value my husband and my oldest 3 children. It took us many hours of family meetings and discussions until we decided to take in the 3 little ones. I am so proud of my family and their courage to take this step of faith with me. Life has not been the same, at times funnier than a comedy, other times the most difficult job I have ever had.

So here we are, in this journey, pouring ourselves head first, full of expectations for what the future holds. Ah! I forgot to mention that all 3 of our new children have special needs. Each with a long list of problems and difficulties, but among their few personal things we did not find a "manual", as a matter of fact it did not have anything more than a "warning label" with no further information.