Did I ever tell you about the time I was almost arrested?

I just found this post that I started Dec 09/Jan 10...don't know why I didn't post it. - Enjoy!
Hehe.

And from the vault of "what we don't know about Auntie Mie" I thought I'd share with you a little known fact. I'd hope that it would be surprising, but I just rethought that and maybe it's not to some folks? I was out with some girl friends last week and somehow this came up. Actually the topic was who had been in the back of a cop car. On that note I was the obvious choice until one of the friends told us of the time she was arrested for prostitution...at work...driving a school bus...because her best friend used her id. Nice. But, when I explained my adventure had nothing to do with my husband, it did shock my friends. Hmmm...let's see.

So, I've always been a "good girl". Don't get me wrong I've done lots of stupid things in life and made dumb decisions like everyone else, but I haven't come close to any obviously arrestable offenses (I say it that way only because I know now that there are SO many arrestable offenses that I'd find it hard to believe that cops couldn't have arrested me for something at one point or another in life based on one of those little loophole things). Time numero uno happened at a point in my life where I was attending the small private Christian university, "dating" a guy that abused me, working full-time, still a good girl. The thing was though, that working full-time meant I was out at late hours...sometimes 3 or 4 am because I would close the place and that was social time. Super Loser Family didn't like me so we never went there, particularly in the early morning hours so we'd find random places to hang out. One night we had stopped on a street nearby in a residential neighborhood, not hurting anybody (or doing anything wrong). We were parked on a cul-de-sac that overlooked a cliff...I was in the driver seat. All of a sudden coming straight at me at a speed I couldn't tell was two bright lights. Obviously a car.

Now, we were in a very good neighborhood, but it was sometime in the wee hours of the night. The good girl that I was, I was street-smart enough to know that this car was nothing but trouble for us. My nightmare flashing before my eyes was that it was someone who was going to get their kicks from pushing us off the cliff by running head-first into my door. Thankfully, instead, the car slowed down...and the blue & red lights came on. Now I was safe and figured it was no big deal. I have nothing to hide...not doing anything wrong.

The officer apparently didn't believe me when I told him everything was fine. He asked me about 100 times if the guy I was with was hurting me and another 100 times if he was on drugs. It makes me laugh...in hindsight I should have said yes, which would have been a lie at that point, and given him a good lesson in life...but in reality I told the truth (I was good remember!) and he pulled us both out of the car. I was fortunate enough to get to sit in the back of the car while Loser was questioned, in depth. I was asked if he could search my car...I had nothing to hide so I consented...and of course he found some electronic/computer thing (it was a zip drive, but it was out of the computer in Loser's bag and didn't look like it belonged there). I was asked about it several times...where it came from, etc...I dont remember now what made him believe us that it was rightfully owned, which it was, but eventually he let us both go.

I remember going home and telling my parents, my dad in particular, this really funny story. We got in one of the biggest fights in our life and hurtful things were said (i'm sure on both parts). We eventually got through it and at some point I was let free of Loser. Thank God.

You see though...I thought (and to this day think) that the whole thing was funny. It was funny because I have no fear of the police. (especially now). I actually have no fear of the law. Maybe I should, but I don't. I kept thinking how funny it was when I was in the backseat, not having any fear about what he'd find in my car...that this was one of only a few times ever I'd get to have that experience.

And I learned a few things...

-Apparently right where we parked was a favorite party spot
-Backseats of cop cars are hard plastic-like materials, not soft and plush like most regular cars
-Hanging around with Losers, even packaged as good guys, only gets you in trouble
-Look for opportunities to teach your kids and then discipline as appropriate rather than looking for opportunities to simply discipline them otherwise you'll miss the teaching poitns
-Innocence provides a natural get out of jail free card, but looking guilty hides it in the sofa couches

We're Officially Foster Parents!

Yeah, I know...most of you know that already :) But what else do you title your first post after uh...what's it been now? 4 months? I think so.

So yes, we are definitely foster parents. Hence the absence. Plus a WHOLE LOT of other stuff that also happened that kept us on our toes. or at the very least away from the blog.

We received our license on March 19th or so. We also that day received our final notice that funds came through for the downpayment on our house, somewhat unexpectedly. Wonderfully, we already had planned that night to go out together to the Black Eyed Peas concert, which turned into a mini little celebration night for us. Fun times.

The next week we spent "paper pregnant". You experience all of these interesting terms when you enter the world of foster-adoption. Some people use them differently, this one is no different. The use here refers to the time when you are officially waiting for a baby and all the interesting pieces that go with it. What I'd say is it's very similar to that time frame between hearing the first heartbeat/that first doctor appointment where you're pregnancy is confirmed and the time when you learn of the sex of the baby (or, if you're not into that, I suppose the time you get to see your baby pretty clearly on an ultrasound with the face and a wave and all that...). You don't get to hold them yet but you know at least more than you ever have about the actual baby that's coming. If you can picture that time, I remember like it was when I was pregnant with Logan, the wait was hard. Everyday I tried to find out as much as I could about the baby inside of me, what he/she might be doing, might look like, all that stuff. Desperately waiting for that next appointment when you can learn just a little bit more. Is it one? Is it twins? Boy, girl? All of that anticipation, curiosity, and excitement.

In the case of fostering, you aren't waiting for a dr appointment but a phone call. Not just any phone call THE phone call. And as soon as you're officially licensed you're placed on "the list" of folks to call and therefore can get a call at any moment. So at any moment the phone can ring and it could be THE call. Instead of wondering what the heartbeat will sound like and what you'll be able to see in the ultrasound, you're wondering when THE call will happen, whether THAT ring will be THE call, and what you'll hear when it does happen. How many? Girls/boys? Ages? Race? Situation? So much anticipation.

By the time our first call came I actually had almost gotten over the idea that we'd get a call. We wondered if we'd actually get one. And, I'd stopped thinking every phone call woult be THAT phone call. So much so that when the phone call rang at 11:45pm on the 27th (sat), I was irritated that J was calling me again after I had just hung up with him! To my surprise we had our first placement call. A boy and a girl. Adding them to our home brought us to having 3 kids almost exactly 1 year apart, ages 1 1/2, 2 1/2, and 3 1/2. They arrived at our house about 1:30 in the morning.

Those kiddos were with us just for just over 2 months. Someday I'll type up our experience with that. But overall it was challenging, we learned A LOT about being foster parents and "the system", about how our son would be as a brother, how we would be as parents to a girl, and what it's like to send kiddos "home". Someday I'll type up more about that too.

Of greatest importance, we learned that we LOVE being foster parents. When we signed up for this journey we figured we'd get through the whole fostering thing until we found kiddos that could be ours forever. BUT, we found that we love the fostering part. At least for now. I'm sure I'll right more on that someday too. and I'm sure that will change overtime as we get burned out or see more stuff in "the system". But for now we're loving being foster parents.

We started getting calls for more placements (kiddos) the day after our first ones went home. The first call never materialized (which worked out well, we were worried about whether or not it would be a super good placement for our family but said yes and prayed about it). Then it went a few days without calls. Then we had 5 calls on the same day for about 15 kiddos (one of which was a newborn! and one call was for a known potential adoptive placement), but we couldn't take any of them because we were in California at the time. We were taken off the list until we got home, and then the next day we received a call for our current little guy, an 11 month old little boy (now 12 months). We never felt like he'd be a permanent placement and he probably won't be for too much longer. We'll see. But we have learned even more that we LOVE being foster parents.

This week we've started getting calls again, though none of them have worked out. We potentially have 2 openings, so we could potentially get 2 more kiddos at any time. And I still have that feeling about waiting for THAT call. It's still so exciting. And we're loving every minute of it. Really.

Maybe God had something up his sleeve with all this afterall.