Name Surreal

So far the fall has been good to us at the Morton house. We went to the pumpkin patch a week ago and everyone picked pumpkins. The boys determined the bigger the better. Since this was their 1st pumpkin experience we decided to indulge them. I said if they could lift it they could have it. We had lots of fun riding the wagon out and petting the animals at the attached petting farm. Brad and the boys carved the 20+lb pumpkins with great delight this weekend.

Isaiah's school work is going well. He's in gymnastics this fall with a class of just 2 other 7 year old boys and he is getting really good! He's doing hand stands, they don't quite look right yet but he's getting the idea and he's doing back pull overs, almost by himself. As his strength increases he is enjoying seeing what else he is capable of doing -climbing the walls (yikes) and lifting himself up with just the strength of his arms on chairs, tables and anything else that will hold his weight.

Sam is working on words and we're really happy with the speech teacher he has this semester. She is really working with him and we're noticing a daily difference in pronunciation and willingness to learn words. He points at something and says "name" we tell him and he repeats it, usually not to bad. Sam also is having a fit with tags on anything, clothes, sheets, rugs you name it. If it has a tag, as far as he's concerned, it has a fault, so the tags must be abolished. Cute for now but if he doesn't grow out of this phase he'll possibly drive us nuts.

We met with the case workers recently to go over where we are with this case. I was disappointed with the lack of answers. Everything takes a long time and it all depends on other people, timing, and issues. For the planner in me it is frustrating. Probably the most frustrating part is the fact that nothing can be planned except that things take longer than seems necessary.

Right now life seems surreal. We've known the boys almost a year. When we look back over this year we've had a lot of challenges and a lot of triumphs. We don't know what the future holds (but we know who holds the future). It's hard to think about the boys ever not living with us, but the reality is that as a foster parent you have to hope that the best happens for the children and know that what you think is best is not always what the courts think is best.

As we enter this fall season we ask that our friends and family pray for our strength, for wisdom for the powers that be and for the boys to have memories that they can take into this unknown future. That they will have memories of love, teaching moments, spiritual heritage and a (possibly brief) time of two parents that love them unconditionally and want the absolute best future for them.

ps. I hope to actually have pictures to share soon.