Munchkins forever?!

So it's been months since our last blog update! So here is the update on our lives since August. :) We are currently not fostering anymore. After #1 left we just had #2 which we loved but we felt like she was lonely and needed some other kids to interact with during her time away from her sister. So we willingly put ourselves back on the "list" and accepted some more kids. We received 2 18mo old twins in a matter of days and so for about a month we had basically 3 two year olds. This was intimidating at first but soon we realized few things could push us close to our "edge" like #1 did.:) The last weekend of September we had to give up the twins. Their grandma got custody and just happened to be taking them the same weekend we lost #2. #2 was to join her sister at her foster home making it terribly sad for us but a happy ending for her.:) In order to deal with the pain of losing all our kids we took a week off. Honestly I don't think the pain of loving them and giving them away will ever truely vanish, but in hopes to move on we accepted a placement of 3 kids out of San Antonio.

This placement was so planed out by God it was unreal. I even began asking myself maybe we will adopt these kids? Well, that ended up not being the case, but I know that we couldn't have had better kids in our home for the time being. The placement was of 2 girls and a boy. The girls were 5yrs and 11 mo and their brother was 2. The poor baby was coming off of drugs from her moms breast milk when we got her and the screams couldn't have been sader! This was the kids 3rd removal and they were super well behaved, even the baby knew what the word NO ment! We had these guys through Halloween and took them trick or treating which was fun. At the beginning of November we got the dreaded call once again that CPS was going to place the kids with their Aunt. So we said our goodbyes and as sad as we always are the kids can not fully understand that they will never see us again.

Thinking we were going to take a break, the quiet house didn't last long. We soon accepted 3 boys who happened to be African American.
This was not our first placement with black kids but was out first placement with all BOYS. Having 3 black boys that call you mom when you are at HEB or anywhere in public raises a lot of questions from onlookers! I don't really mind people being nosey but I sure did notice the people amount of people with the comment, "your hands are full!" Really no one ever said this when I had 3 other kids. Some how people
think that boys keep your hands fuller then 3 two year olds or 3 kids one of which is a baby that never stops screaming? Apparently girls are less of a hassle? Well #1 might have lessened the blow for us or maybe when you have normal kids you just learn to handle it and it's not that big of a deal. :) Yeah there were days when I was exhausted, but thank goodness all of our kids after #1 were content playing in the backyard. When you have all boys all you really need is a football and they will go all day!:)

Shortly after getting the boys Mike and I found out that child number 11 would be entering our lives and as surprised as we were we knew the boys couldn't stay. Luckily God has a plan and their Aunt got custody right before Christmas.

Tomorrow I will be 22 weeks pregnant and a journey it has been! Until week 16 I was puking out my guts! I lost 15 pounds and somehow at the same time my pants stopped fitting.:) I have never felt so awful for so long! Christmas break was miserable and going on a 16 hour drive while nauseated was one of the worst decisions ever! It's crazy to think that we will have a baby that we dont have to give back in 18 weeks or less.

Our #11 kiddo and #1 permant addition is Finley Adele Whitson and she will be her around the 17 of July. We get to see her every 4 weeks via ultrasound and it's amazing! We could not be more excited. She moves so much that I am afraid that she will be a wild child. At our last ultrasound the Dr could hardly track her heartbeat because she wouldn't stop flipping.