Amazing August (this might be kinda long)

Well, I have almost not written a new post for the whole month of August. It is not that there is nothing to write about, more that there is so much going on. There have been some ups and downs but thankfully more ups than downs.

August 1st - Well, my last post was on August 1st. It was the day that we told Tyler that we were going to be his foster parents. For more on that, look at the post before this one.

August 2nd - Let's start with my last day of work. August 2nd was officially my last day of work at Childhelp. I was filled with mixed emotions. I was happy to say that this was my last day knowing that the result would be that Tyler would be coming home with me within the next week, however as the day went on I started to get sad thinking about the fact that I will not be able to see my boys anymore. Many of the kids acted up during the longest 14-hour day that I have ever worked. But then towards the end of the shift, I think it really started to hit them that I wasn't coming back because they started to get really sentimental. They started talking about how much they are going to miss me and I almost cried because I really miss a few of them too. I actually miss more of them than I thought I would. But my staff made my last day very special. They bought me a card and everyone signed it and they bought a cake. It was pretty cool. Here is one of the pictures that one of the kids gave me as a Good-Bye card. It's from one of my primary residents, Christian. He is the only kid there that knows how to spell my name.He wrote: Terecita the Worker, Me the Kid.
Then he folded it up and on the outside it said. To: Terecita, From: Christian, I LOVE YOU! This was such an emotional day. I really had to work hard not to cry.

Another kid, Enrique did a cool card that I haven't had a chance to scan yet. But it has 3 parts to it on each section of the card. It goes like this:
Front of Card: "By Tiarctta. I will miss you the moste.
Wher are you"
Back of Card: "There you are."
Inside of Card: "Thats to far a waya. I will miss you."

I thought that card was pretty funny when I first read it. Some of the kids also gave pictures of themselves that they knew that i liked. It was amazing.

August 4th - This day I had scheduled for my friend, Heather, to come over with her two children so that we could have lunch together. In anticipation of not having a lot of time, I asked her if it would be okay to just make a frozen pizza with some fruit and she so kindly said yes. Well, when I was gonna go to the store on this morning to get the pizza, I walked out of my apartment to see that a gigantic tree branch had fallen on top of my car. Believe it or not, in this picture, my car is underneath this tree branch. The branch goes all the way from the front to the back of my car. It's pretty crazy.

When the tree branch was removed, my car had to be taken to a body shop for estimates and repairs. One bonus to this: I've been driving around a 2008 Chevy Colorado ever since this happened. Actually a nice truck and it gets pretty decent gas mileage...very interesting. My renter's insurance actually pays for the rental vehicle (Renter's Insurance...Definitely a must have if you rent an apartment or house...Just a side note).

August 5th - On this day we were able to schedule a day pass with Tyler so that we could hang out with him for a little bit before we actually got to take him home for good. There was two big reasons for this visit. One was to help Tyler get through the anxiety of waiting for the move. The other reason was so that my mom could meet Tyler before she left for the Philippines (she left on August 6th) for 3 weeks (and returns on the 28th). So, we took Tyler to our apartment so that he could see his room for the first time and we went out to lunch with my parents. It was a good time. Here are a couple of pics of us in Tyler's room on his first day of seeing his room.



August 7th - So, moving on through the week to Thursday... the day that we are expecting Tyler!! Now, while we are waiting for Tyler to arrive, I get a phone call from the insurance company stating "You're car has been declared a Total Loss." Basically, that means that the car is worth less than the cost of the repairs. So, just shortly before Tyler is scheduled to arrive, I receive the news that I am no longer going to have a car. At the same time I also find out that my car was previously declared a total loss and was salvaged, which means I can't get full value from the insurance company. Well, that was a lot to take in at that time but I pretty much had to put that in the back of my mind because we were about to welcome into our family an awesome boy..... So, moving on to the overwhelming Joy!

So, this very same day, we welcome Tyler into our home. It was a pretty crazy day of getting Tyler unpacked and settled and documenting all the items that he brought with him and signing some paperwork. There was lots of hugging and laughing and more hugging and rejoicing and more hugging! It truly was a blessed day!

Now, I am fully aware that I said to look for pics of this day but I am realizing now that we were so involved with welcoming Tyler and helping him get settled in to his first day that we didn't take any pictures of this day. I do however have a picture of him sleeping in his bed on his first night. I also have a pic of the first morning when Tyler crawled right in to bed next to Taylor. I tried to get up really quick to take a candid picture of this because I thought it was so adorable but Tyler was paying attention and smiled right as I took the picture.


August 9th - This day we had a little get together at the park where we invited some friends and family to come out and meet Tyler if they haven't already met him. Quite a few people came out and showered him with love and everyone welcomed him to our family and community of friends just as if we had birthed our own child. It was so awesome. Thank you to everyone that came out to meet Tyler and show their support on this day. And thank you to everyone who has also been praying for us, supporting, and writing references throughout the whole process. You have no idea how much it means to us!!

August 13th - This was the day that Tyler was supposed to start school at McKinley Elementary School but there was some mix up at the Redlands School District. So, ever since this day until now, Tyler has been at home with me and I have been trying to still give him educational work. I have been able to teach him to write in cursive, we've been working on his print writing, his reading, his math, and we have just started to tackle multiplication. In addition to educational stuff, Tyler also learned his first Bible verse during this week. And as of today he has memorized two and is working on his third one. This is a video of the first Bible verse that Tyler has learned.

"The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid." - Psalm 118:6

August 15th - This was an interesting day. The week before this day we had taken Tyler to the Summer movies in the park at Brookside Park in Redlands. At that time he met this kid, named Jonathan, and they decided they wanted to be friends. They met because Jonathan cut in front of us in line and then they started talking. Well, by the end of the night, we met his dad and swapped phone numbers. Well, now that brings us to August 15th. On this day they called and asked if we wanted to come to the movie in the park early because it was Jonathan's birthday and they were going to have a cake for him and stuff. So, we went and met them there. It was so crazy because this kid actually threw his party favor at Tyler, hit him, kicked him, and slapped his cheek and Tyler STILL calls him a friend....Talk about turning the other cheek. :-) And then the funny thing is that after Jonathan slaps Tyler in the face, Tyler responds with, "Wait, I'm gonna share Jesus with you." Taylor and I thought that was amazing. Jonathan didn't want to listen but Tyler sure tried. We were very proud of the effort.

August 17th - On this day Tyler got to sit in "Big Church" with us during the evening service. We weren't quite sure how well he would be able to sit through it but he did. It was pretty cool. He did everything that he saw others doing. He may not have understood why but when he saw us raising our hands to God, then he would raise his hands and when we would stand up, he would stand up. He loved singing praise songs and he was very excited when there was a song that he knew. Then during the message, he pretty much sat through it all without talking. Only a few times did he talk and it was just to point out something that the pastor has said that made him excited. And then at the end of the service, the pastor invites anyone up that needs prayer. Tyler went up there twice. First he went up to one person and asked them to read the Lord's Prayer to him in his Bible and then pray together. Then the second time he asked a different man if he would pray for us (his parents), that God would take care of us and that we would not take him back to Childhelp. We totally lit up when the man told us the reason that Tyler went up there was to pray for us. And then after the service, Tyler ran up and down the aisles collecting all the little plastic cups in the back of the chairs from communion. He seems so happy to serve.

August 18th thru August 21st - This was a bit more of a trying week for us. Tyler was getting pretty anxious and pretty stubborn. He knew that he should have been in school already and was getting upset because it hadn't happened yet. I must admit that I was getting pretty anxious about him starting school, too. This week he has been doing a lot of testing and being very stubborn. Pretty much attempting to refuse to do any assignments, attempting to refuse any foods that he does not like (ex. vegetables with dinner, tomatoes in sandwich, oatmeal in the morning, etc.). He has wasted a few days away just being rebellious. If you remember, please do pray for us as we go through this journey with him. And for any of you that are already parents, we welcome any advice that you may have to give. We do struggle a lot with the fact that he is already set in some ways that he didn't previously realize were wrong. But we do believe that he truly has the heart to want to change that. So, please pray for us as we truly learn patience ("long suffering"). :-)

August 24th - This was a very big day for us. Tyler made the decision to be baptized! For those that don't know, about a year into working at Childhelp, I was blessed to lead Tyler in a prayer to receive Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Tyler really seems to understand what that decision means. He does struggle everyday with thoughts that it is just too hard to do what is right - but we have all been there and are still there. But yesterday, Tyler made the decision to get baptized. We made sure that he also understood the importance of this and he was able to tell us the reason to get baptized. Now, whether he fully understands the words that he said is between him and God. But I think he has a pretty good idea of what it means. Here is a picture of the pastors praying over Tyler before they baptized him and then a picture of him coming up out of the water.
In addition to Tyler getting baptized yesterday (August 24th), Taylor also decided to get baptized again. He came to a realization that the first time that he was baptized he didn't fully understand the importance and meaning of what it was. So, he also felt led to get baptized. So, I have a picture of Taylor speaking with the pastors before being baptized but then my battery died to my camera when he was actually getting baptized... Bummer. Here's the picture of Taylor talking to the pastors.

So, I think that pretty much catches everyone up. I'm sure there are little things that I have left out here and there but I guess you get the idea of how the month of August has been going for us. And I'm pretty sure you're probably tired of reading about us now. But all in all, this month has had a few bumps in the road but mostly praises. YAY GOD!!

P.S. I started writing this all the way back on August 14th and never really finished it. That is why it says that it posted on August 14th. But I really posted it on August 25th. Kinda weird.