Thanksgiving

This morning I was making a salad for our family Thanksgiving dinner. (It's something my mom and gradnmother before her always made.)  Little Bit and Iron Man were both watching and asking me what I was doing.  I explained it to them...and thinking about how I wanted them to have a "little taste of home" if possible, I asked what type of things they had for Thanksgiving when they lived with their mom.

The grim reality of their situation hit me like a 2x4 as Iron Man flatly replied, "We've never had Thanksgiving dinner."

I know that this really should not have been such a shock.... but yet, it still was a learning moment.

They loved the adventure of Thanksgiving with the entire family.....food, fun, food, fun, ALL DAY LONG!

God, thanks for blessing me with parents that, although they weren't perfect, loved me and cared for me!

A Very Merry Un-Birthday.....to you!!

Yes, so in the course of conversations I discovered that neither of the boys have celebrated a birthday....or near as I can tell, they may have "gotten a gift once" as Iron Man put it.  Oh, me oh my.....

It is moments like that when you really get a glimpse of what life is like for kids in foster care.  This kind of stuff just aggravates me....there is NO reason for a child to not have his or her birthday celebrated.  NONE!!!!  Poverty is not even a reason.... As a mom I know that even if I make something  special or even a DollarTree toy can be special!!  UGH!!

OK, enough of that rant now....

So, today we cooked up a bit of a surprise for Little Bit.  A "un-birthday" party.  I fully expect that the boys will be here long term enough to celebrate Iron Man's birthday in January....and I know with our a celebration for Little Bit he won't understand.  Why he didn't have a birthday.

So complete with Chocolate cake, candles, and a few gifts....A Very Merry Un-(6th)-Birthday to YOU, Little Bit!!!!!!  I love you.

(I have some great photos of this day...but can't post them due to the confidentiality. So you will just have to trust me....and I promise to try to edit some later.)

New vision

Yes, a few days ago we were looking at toys ads in the newspaper.  Oh, yes, time for making a list and checking it twice..... but anyway, Little Bit had the Walmart ad and was trying to peel up a sticker that was on there....EXCEPT for the fact that is wasn't "stuck" onto the ad...it was part of the ad....so that was my first clue that he was really not seeing very well....

After a call to my eye doctor to squeeze him in....he got glasses!  His vision was -3.5 in on eye and -4 in the other...SO DAG-GONE is it any wonder why he has had behavior problems???  The frustrating part to me is that he should have had glasses this entire time in foster care....after diving into his 'red book' (the binder of info they send with the kiddos in this state.....yes, even in there, there was an old IEP from before coming into custody in APril....Bio-mom knew his glasses were broke then but hadn't bothered to get the fixed/replaced.

I just can't imagine not being important enough in my mom's life for her to replace my glasses.  Yes, I know they get expensive....and YES, I know kids break them....a lot.  I was THAT kid!!  I fell asleep on my many, many times.  And that was back-in-the-day before springs in the ear pieces!!

Little Bit, you are handsome with those glasses....and yes....I love watching you compare how you see with them and without.  I know you too are amazed at how much you have been missing!!