Finally!

We’ve finished the last of our foster/adoption classes!!! There will be additional classes to maintain our certification, but the classes required for our initial certification are done. Boo ya!

In other good news, our final walk through has been scheduled for September 13^th! This is the final step to our full-fledged certification. At that point it’s a waiting game until a child is placed with us. We expect this might happen within 30 or so days. Though it could be 24 hours, or 8 months. We really have no idea.

We are obviously beyond excited and trying to get everything together. Nikki is a sewing and knitting machine. Our car seat arrived today. We have onesies and diapers in the house (which is craziest to me for some reason). We still have a lot of stuff to acquire but we’ll get there.

More to know…

There is a lot that goes into adopting from the California foster system and frankly we’re learning as we go. Here are a few fun facts, if you’re interested…

Stats: There are over 20,000 displaced children in LA County. That’s Twenty. Thousand. Children, under the age of 18, exclusively in LA County, without parents to provide basic necessities let alone love them. This blows my mind. And then we say, ‘why is there so much crime and poverty?’ I don’t mean to get on a soapbox but this was insane to me.

Permanency: There is a high likelihood that the first, second, third, maybe fourth child we are placed with will be reunited with his/her biological family. We may raise that child for a year or more, and they may reunite. It’s the nature of what we’re doing and we’re happy to do it. For the scenarios that make it to adoption, on average it takes two years to ‘permanency’.

Monitored visits: The child we will be fostering will probably have monitored visits with their biological parent(s)/family. Nikki or I will be the ones monitoring and documenting those visits, occasionally supported by the case/social workers.

Baby name: The baby name is up in the air. Chances are high that he/she will already be named in which case they will keep their name. Because we’re fostering an infant, many times they are left at a hospital without a name. In this case, we would get to name them. Upon adoption, and yes we will eventually adopt, names are sometimes changed. The child will definitely become a Call and may get a new first or middle name (this will depend on many factors).

No pictures: Probably the biggest bummer, there will be no pictures posted online. Not on this blog, not on schmacebook, not on your blog, etc. It’s not safe for the children and potentially not safe for us.

And now we wait, until September 13^th. Then again after that, but we’re excited!!

Hello Dear Friends and Family,

Most of you already know what has been driving our lives in the past months, but some of you don't. We have been busy getting ready for a baby! We are currently finalizing the certification process to become foster parents, and will eventually adopt our first child from foster care. We have been working with a fantastic non-profit agency that specializes in adoption through the foster care system. We feel incredibly fortunate to take part in something so special.

Over the past several months we have been through interviews, applications, interrogations, baby proofing, foster classes, adoption classes, and we are currently awaiting our final walk through in our home to become fully certified foster/adoptive parents.

Deep breath.

We are incredibly excited to be parents. It feels surreal, but we are ready. Ready to stay awake in the middle of the night, ready to love the cuteness of a baby in our lives every day, ready for a child to change our lives, ready to change way too many dirty diapers. We are ready, almost. We still have to lock up our chemicals and kitchen knives, hang a fire extinguisher in our kitchen (yes it has to be visible), and get safety inspections on both of our cars. So we are almost ready.

Now the fun facts...

We have requested that our first placement be an infant (under 6 months of age). Gender as well as ethnicity will be a surprise. So now you wanna know when? Well, so do we. According to our friends that have used this agency, placements come rather fast, but really we don't know exactly how it will unfold for us. We will be fully certified sometime in September, so we can get the magic call at any moment after certification is final. Whoa.

We are thrilled to share our love. We know this will be an exciting and challenging endeavor and appreciate and love you for all of your support.

Happy Birthday Hank!

Our furry bag o' bones turned 2 today.

So he got what every 2 year old dog gets on his birthday, a hot dog.

Our Return

We're attempting a return to the blog world. I know you didn't miss us, but I don't give a care.

We have some exciting things coming up, and this will be our way to record them, because who has private journals anymore? Who has private anything anymore? The answer is no one. Everybody spills their guts on some online site, why should we be any different?

And so it is, our comeback.

•By the way, we'll probably eventually make this private, for reasons unbeknownst to you now, but you'll be knowin' 'em later•

Hank the Tank.

Hank has been "experiencing" his adolescence, if you will.

He has managed to:

Have severe diarrhea for weeks.

Eat only prescription diet food.

Eat a sparkly glass Christmas ornament.

Eat some cotton balls soaked in half and half to catch/pass the glass.

Have sparkly stool for 5-6 days.

Get neutered.

Discover his sexuality.

Poop all over the Taylor's house.

Fall in love with Puck the pup.

Eat 7-8 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Have severe diarrhea for a couple days.

Fall in love with any dog smaller than him.

Jumped out of Shane's arms, and nearly crippled himself.

Believe it or not, we are not negligent parents. Really, we're not.

He's approaching his 7 month birthday... here's to post puberty.

Christmas & the New Year.

We were thankful to spend Christmas and the New Year with our family and friends.

I got to celebrate Christmas, the week of Chanukah, with the Aboussleman's in Florida. Thanks to my place of employment.

We got to spend THE REAL Christmas with the Call's & Green's in Clovis.

And we brought in the New Year with our dear ol' friends, the Burbankers. We hope to spend many more years with these guys. Happy 2010.

2010 Resolutions.

These are private.

Henry Klondike Call

Meet Hank, the newest addition to the Call family.

He's 13 weeks old, and is half Cocker Spaniel, half Poodle. In other words, he's a Cockapoo.

Despite his canine ancestry, it seems as if he's part Polar Bear, hence the middle name.

Here are some of his firsts:

First Bath

Learning how to cross the street

Learning to use the leash

Aaaand I had to show off his cute little polar bear booty.

Ethan Jeffrey Kraft

24 hours later, Jordan & Paul welcomed Ethan Jeffrey Kraft into their family!

8lbs, 6 oz, 21 inches tall. That's right, tall.

I love him so much already, I can hardly stand it!

...and how cute are his little nostrils?

Mommy, Daddy, and Ethan are all healthy and happy.

Congratulations Kraft Family!

Waiting

Today I am awaiting the arrival of baby boy Kraft. My bff Jordan is is being induced this evening. I told her it was way too much work for the sabbath, but I think her response was, "I don't give a rat's bottom". I once knew her to speak harsher vulgarities, I'm comforted that she has adopted the mommy tongue already.

So now I just wait.

Baby mama: