A Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Crowes!

We've noticed that it's difficult to find time to blog while children live in our home :-) But, despite the sabbatical from blogging, life has continued on! Here are a few updates!

Andy's doing well. At the beginning of the year, he'll begin the sales side of Labor Link, visiting local businesses to try and gain new temp accounts. With his personality and experience in sales, I know he's going to do great in this new role!

Ashleigh continues to help students find their way at ISU by advising undecided students. In addition, she continues to teach UNIV 101, a university skills class she very much loves to teach. Last semester she taught two have semesters courses and this semester she'll teach a full term course and perhaps a half semester course, if necessary. Though she loves advising, she also appreciates the opportunity to impact students in the classroom, too. Speaking of the classroom, Ashleigh also plans to retake the GRE this semester in preparation for entering a Ph.D program. She doesn't know when she'll start the program, but she knows the first step is getting an updated GRE score, so that's where she'll start!

Now, the reason you really read - the LO's. They're each doing very well. C continues to loves school and is really excelling there! He's so smart and witty and challenges us everyday as we attempt to answer his curious questions!

S continues to learn new words every day and is even beginning to put words together in short sentences! It's such a joy to witness, considering that when he first came to us, he barely spoke and never tried new words. Now we can't stump him with any words...he's willing to try it all! As he learns more words, he's also showing more of his personality and we're discovering that he's pretty stinkin' hilarious! Today we told him he woke up on the funny side of the bed, because from the moment he woke up, he was crackin' us up. Then, when we picked him up from the nursery the volunteers told us that he was a "hoot" the whole time!

M is starting to take steps, is weening off the bottle, and turns one in January!! It's such an exciting time for her and we're so blessed to get to experience this with her. We know she's days away from walking and we can't WAIT! The poor girl still doesn't have any teeth but judging by how cranky she's been lately, I'm guessing they're coming any time now.

We continue to learn how to parent every day and are so humbled by what God is doing in our lives. Though we know it will be difficult to see the LO's go home early next year, we know God has brought them and their family into our lives at this time for a particular reason. We're thankful to have a good relationship with the LO's mother and hope she allows us to remain in the children's lives after reunification. In the meantime, we just focus on enjoying them, loving them, and showing Jesus to them!

We would have loved to send out a holiday letter but of course, didn't get around to it. Just another thing to add to the list :-) Know that we love all of our friends and family dearly and wish you a very happy and blessed New Year!

"Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! The walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance. In your name they rejoice all day long. And in Your righteousness they are exalted." Psalms 89:15-16

See you in 2013!
The Crowes

We survived the first month!

So we're already more than a month into our first foster placement and WOW! Talk about going through a million changes all at once. To try and summarize, it's been a little like this:

1. Yippy!
2. Wow!
3. That's so cute
4. I really miss my sleep
5. Why the heck did ____________ just do that? (blank can be filled with child's name, DCS, parents, Andy or myself, etc.)
6. My heart is overflowing with happiness
7. What did we get ourselves into
8. This is too much
9. God has called us to do a mighty thing!
10. We're never taking another placement
11. Yippy!
12. Wow!
13. That's so cute
14. I really miss my sleep

..and so on and so forth.

Getting the picture? After our first month, it's very clear that fostering children is the most complex and dynamic thing we've ever done. And even though all of the thoughts and emotions above play through my head on a daily (sometimes hourly and sometimes by the minute) basis and I'm constantly thinking of how demanding raising children really is, it's always indescribably sweet and reassuring that we've done the right thing when C runs to me to show me something new he's learned or M smiles the second she sees me or S gives me a hug out of nowhere.

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Acts 20:35

Though we don't know how long we'll have these little ones, I have a strong feeling that we'll have them with us through the holidays and alongside us as we ring in 2013! I've already been daydreaming about little hands and feet in the house at Christmas - what a blessing that will be!

I wish I could share every last detail of life over the last month and include pictures, but for privacy and confidentiality, obviously I can't. But, here's a little snippet for your reading pleasure!

C - the oldest boy. Super smart and pretty funny. Always wants to be the best at everything. Loves bossing around his little brother. Loves his baby sister. Protective of both his siblings. Loves preschool.

S - the youngest boy and middle child. The mischievous one! Very familiar with our time out corner, which we have affectionately called the Wall of Tears, because it's stained with C and S tears. It sounds more dramatic than it really is, I promise :-). S has a smile that will melt your heart and he wants to be just like his big brother. Over the last two weeks we've noticed S making huge strides in his speech and is saying more words and even stringing some together to form sentences! Great to see since he's been working with a developmental therapist for a while, now.

M - the baby girl. Such a happy, easy-going baby. Very smiley and entertains herself easily. We're blessed to have celebrated her latest achievement, pulling up, and her 8th month b-day in our home :-) Still doesn't sleep through the night but we're getting more accustomed to disjointed sleep schedules. M loves to watch her older brothers, even if she sometimes looks at them like "what are you DOING?!"

Even though the kids are very well-behaved and are filling our home with so much joy and so many laughs, Andy and I still struggle occasionally to have gone from 0 to 3 children overnight. In those times, it's good to remember the words and promises of our God:
         
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Proverbs 3:27
      
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Hebrews 13:16

        

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:4       

        

Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38

         

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 1 John 3:17

Until the next time...

 

Well that didn't take long!

So we were licensed the first part of August and about a week later received our first placement! THREE little ones (now referred to as LOs), under the age of 5! Talk about an immediate change in the Crowe's Nest. Though I'm not able to share specifics, here's a bit of our story for the last few weeks...

We were called in the middle of the night and the LOs arrived about 30 minutes later. Well, 2/3 of them arrived. The other LO didn't come until the next morning. I took the day off work but Andy didn't miss a beat and managed to make it to not one, but BOTH of his jobs! He's currently working part-time at Sony, doing security from 4-7 a.m. and then comes home, changes, and heads to his day job. Talk about a hard-working guy!

I took the day off to manage the children and Andy headed to work to work (duh) and arrange childcare. DCS assisted us with that, providing names of possible foster families willing to be our daycare and by the end of the day, we had something arranged (thank you LORD!) That day, it really only took me around 45 minutes to gain a whole new respect for stay at home mommies. WOW! I really had no idea :-) Kudos to all of you!!

That evening was rough, as the baby didn't want to sleep and I hadn't slept since about 1 a.m. the night before. Luckily the two other LOs went right to sleep and slept through the night (thank you LORD!) The next morning it was off to daycare and work and that's how it's been since.

Andy and I are having a wonderful time and the LOs are such a joy! A lot of work, but it's so worth it. It's been amazing getting to know the LOs and building relationships with them. Even on the rough days, I go to bed with such a full heart. It's really indescribable.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17

The process has been a real learning experience. Despite hours of training and talking with DCS folks, there's still so much we don't know. I'm still getting used to not knowing and just continuing on, first and foremost loving the children and providing a safe, secure, love-filled home for them. I'm definitely a person that needs everything laid out in front of me so I can understand and see the direction we're headed but God is teaching me so much about trusting Him above EVERYTHING else (like policies, procedures, information, plans, etc.) Every day is such a humbling experience. To say He's stretching me is an understatement :-)

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." (James 4:10)

We have been so blessed to have so many people willing to help us out - bringing us clothes and items for the children, agreeing to help with childcare, bringing us meals, providing much needed advice about what the heck to do with three children, etc. The love has been so overwhelming but so, so appreciated. Thank you so much!!!!

Also, for friends and family far away, thank you for your calls, texts, encouragement, and love. I'm sorry it's taken me a while to get back and I'm really sorry if I haven't yet responded. In just a few weeks, it's been amazing to be reminded that so many people care so much for us and care for the LOs in our nest at the moment. God has provided so many beautiful people to live life with and we couldn't be more blessed.  Thank you, LORD! (are you seeing a theme ;-) )

We're Licensed!!

After starting the process in January 2012, we just heard from our Foster Care Specialist this afternoon that she has submitted our home study and to "be ready."

We're officially licensed foster parents! More to come soon, hopefully :-)

Hello again.

I actually typed up this post a few weeks ago, meaning to add pictures before posting the final version but that hasn't happened yet. Apparently it's too much work to walk downstairs and upload pictures. It's so hard having a desktop...I can't set it on my lap while I catch up on DVR...my life is HARD.

Anyway, here are our updates!
We moved into our home March 3 and are loving every minute of it! We've been decorating slowly and it's definitely starting to really hit me that this place is OURS. For the first several weeks it just felt like we had moved from renting an apartment to renting a house. But "homeownership" has slowly started to kick in. Everyone keeps teasing us that we'll really feel like homeowners when something breaks and we have to fix/replace it. I'm sure that will happen in the 13th month of our 1 year home warranty. Stay tuned...

Our first home visit for the foster care license was done six days after we moved and we just finished our final visit last week! Now we just have to wait 3-5 weeks to receive our license and once that happens, we could have a placement at any time!  It continues to be a process of hurry up and wait, but we're trying to be patient and rely on God's timing for this whole thing.  Thankfully, God has given us peace and even patience and we're both feeling really good about everything at the moment. When our FCS visited the first time we asked her how long it might be before we got a placement. Of course, she told us there was no way to estimate that sort of thing. When we saw her again last week, she mentioned that there was a good chance we could be called very soon after being licensed. In the meantime, we're trying to gather the essentials. We've already been blessed with a car seat and stroller, pack 'n play, high chair, clothes, and toys! We're so thankful for such loving friends and family who are supporting us through this adventure.

Since moving we've had a lot of opportunity for visitors and we are just loving having a place to host family and friends. Though sometimes I get to work on Mondays thinking I need a weekend for the weekend, we're so blessed to be able to host and love spending time building memories in the new place. If you're ever in the area, let us know...we've love to have you!

Otherwise, life contiues as normal. Andy really loves his job and the company he works for. May has been my calm before the storm that is new student orientation every day in June. Andy and I are excited to celebrate our fourth wedding anniverary with a weekend trip to Indianapolis soon! Though it's not an exotic location, there's so much to do in Indy that we figured why not stay close to home this time around!? We've got big plans to visit the zoo, see an Indianapolis Indians game, and explore downtown Indy. If you've got any suggestions of things we've got to do or see, let us know!

Pictures to come, I promise!

"You know what all this is?! It's a blog post in the making!"

Yesterday afternoon as Andy, Spike, and I were driving to the house to tape everything off for Saturday's painting adventure when I turned to Andy and said "you know what all this is?! It's a blog post in the making!" to which he laughed hysterically and then responded "That has to be the title!" So. There you have it. But maybe I should back up...


A little over two weeks ago we posted a blog about waiting. Today, we're thanking God for providing so much for us, including some much anticipated relief!


Three days ago we closed on our first home! Despite being delayed almost two weeks, the closing process was quick and simple. We got our keys at closing and headed straight over to the house and couldn't help ourselves from wondering around, in awe, that this dream of ours had actually come true. Having a home of our own is something I knew would happen eventually, but I honestly never imagined we'd be able to do it at this time in our lives. But, God has blessed us with a lovely starter home that we're anxious to move into! We're painting the majority of the interior walls this weekend (hey, I've only lived in my parents' house, residence halls, and apartments for the last 29 years...we're going to make this place "our own!") and pulling up the stylist maroon and blue carpets in the bedrooms with the help of my lovely Dad and we'll be moving in next weekend. We took Spike with us last night when we went over and he LOVED the fenced in backyard. He's still very much an inside dog, as the first place he ran to after we'd shut the gate was the back door steps to sit patiently for the door to be opened, but once we took him off the leash and played a bit, he got the hang of it. For a few minutes, anyway. We anticipate he'll have to have supervised backyard time for many weeks, given his abilities to climb chainlink fences and jump at least 2 feet vertically but we'll keep dreaming of the time we can open the backdoor and let him roam free, without fear of losing him forever.


Relatedly, since we closed on the home and have our moving date in order, we were also able to schedule our first of two home visits with our Foster Care Specialist. Once those are complete, we'll be eligible for foster placements!


The other piece of this puzzle that we're so thankful for is...Andy just accepted a new, full time, day shift, M-F job and he started TODAY! After, by the way, working all night at the factory! It's been four months since Andy left Sofa Mart and I have to admit, we've both been quite discouraged, especially over the last several weeks. It's easy to remind each other that everyone is looking for a job and that God would provide according to His timing, but the day in and day out living of such reassurances was still really frustrating. But then, things started moving quickly. On Tuesday evening, right after we closed on the house, Andy got a call from someone needing a salesperson. After a short phone conversation, the man told Andy "talk to your wife and call me back, because the job is yours if you want it." I had been out of the car running an errand and when I climbed back in, Andy looked at me strangely and said "I think I just got offered a job." After talking over the position a bit, I still had a lot of questions and we were both a little apprehensive. We agreed to think about it for a little while and make a decision the next day after Andy had had a chance to email the guy back with our questions. But then...Andy called me Wednesday morning and said that as he was leaving work, he had been given papers to become a permanent employee at the factory were he's been working as a temp since last October. Of course we were both relieved and I could see that the sales position Andy had mentioned the night before wasn't supposed to happen. Though Andy and I still weren't thrilled that his permanent position meant 3rd shift for a while longer, we knew we could hang on until something else came our way...and then...that same day while I was at work, I heard of another possible opportunity and passed it along to Andy that evening. By Thursday night, Andy had accepted another job offer, this time working M-F, on day shift!! Three job offers in three days. Not only are we excited that Andy is going back to day shift, but we are excited that he's going to be working for a Christian man and company (not a just a company that totes Christian values but doesn't mean anything they say...I'm looking at you, Furniture Row.) and better yet, he's going to be getting back to what he loves - interacting with people. I'm telling you folks, 3rd shift was getting to him... :-).

This past week has been overwhelming, to say the least. We're so excited and unbelievably thankful for the blessings we've been given. We're also reminded that there really are lessons in the waiting. A few days ago, a friend posted this on her Facebook page and I thought it was a perfect way to end this current post. Thanks, Deanne, for sharing this originally!

Has God made a promise to you that seems sluggish in coming? Has He planted a dream in your heart that has yet to come to fruition?Don’t give up hope! God is faithful, and you can rely on His perfect timing. Fix your eyes on Him and enjoy the journey to your destination. There are things to be learned along the way that will enhance the joy of a promise fulfilled. Dear Lord, sometimes I don’t understand Your timing. It’s often very hard to wait, but I trust You. I want to rely on Your ways and Your timing. Help me to learn what I need to learn as I wait. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

And for those waiting on pictures of the new place, you'll have to keep waiting! I'm taking progress pictures as we go along and will post everything once we've moved in. :-) Stay tuned!!

Waiting...

The Crowes seem to be waiting on a lot these days...right now the list includes:

1. A permanent job for Andy
2. A closing date for our house
3. The process in becoming foster parents

Though Andy continues to be thankful for the employment he has now, we're both anxious for a permanent job (whether at his current location or somewhere else) to come our way soon. In the meantime, we are so thankful God continues to provide.

"And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

Everything seems to be finalized and now we're just waiting on a closing date to be set by our bank for our first home!! We are SO beyond ready to move out of the apartment and into the house. Of course, being a master planner, I'm getting very angry that the bank is messing up my perfectly thoughtout timeline for the move. We're trying to coordinate painting, pulling up carpet, packing up the apartment, moving, etc. and it's aggrevating when things don't go as planned. But, I just keep trying to remind myself not to fight against the minor roadblocks. God's timing is perfect and if that means my timeline is offset by a few weeks, well then I guess that's how it's going to be :-).

We continue to move along in the foster care process. We've completed the first two of three training sessions and finish up the third next week. Our application is in and one of our references has been contacted. I'm planning to follow up with the local DCS office today about when we can expect to be assigned a Foster Care Specialist, who will be our go-to person. Today we're completing our fingerprinting and then the only thing left is the stack of paperwork I mentioned in a previous post (we're working on that veeeeeery slowly, hoping to knock out a lot of it this weekend) and the homestudy. Of course, we have to wait to move into the HOME before it can be studied, but that should be our last piece of the puzzle!

In our frustration and impatience, it's good to be reminded of some beautiful truths within Romans 8:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

We know that the things we are waiting for, including fun things like our first home, and unimaginable things like our babies are sweeter than we could ever imagine. May God calm us as we wait and bring us our children swiftly.

Jan. 2012 is off to a great start!

Well folks, 2012 is off to a great start! Yesterday evening Andy and I accepted a counter offer on a home and if all goes well, we'll be moving into our first house at the end of February. As plans materialize, I'll blog more specifically about them. Instead, I wanted to focus this blog on the amazing night we had last night during...

Foster Care Orientation. For years, Andy and I have talked about adopting and eventually came to the conclusion that we wanted to adopt through the foster care system. We originally thought we would not foster children, but adopt through the system. However, as we began talking more about foster care, we realized our hearts were really being pulled toward fostering, as well. We couldn't deny how strongly we felt about providing safe, loving homes for children, no matter if we had them for a few weeks or months or if we were eventually blessed to adopt them. Through some friends in Iowa we've seen what a positive impact fostering can have on children and we hope to have the opportunity to show these children that we love them and have been praying for them since before we ever met.

In IN, you have to go through ten hours of training to become a licensed foster parent and the orientation served as our first three of ten hours. I was happy to be surrounded by people in the room with a variety of experience with the foster care system. It was comforting to have other people asking the same questions I was thinking, as well as families sharing their experiences with foster children. Overall, the night was incredibly overwhelming, but Andy and I both walked out with the same objective - God has directed our hearts toward this - let's do it.

For now, our preference is to foster infants to 5 year olds. As we get older, my prayer is to adopt teenagers from the foster care system. By far, the teenage population is the least likely to be adopted and my heart truly aches for these children. Though the situation is complex, if they have a desire to be adopted before "aging out" of the system at 18, I want the Crowes Nest to be a loving family and home for them.

As for resources, when we first starting talking about adopting through the foster care system, I started here:
http://www.adoptuskids.org/

For IN folks in particular, the IN gov website has a lot of great information:
http://www.in.gov/dcs/2341.htm

Our next step is to look through the huge folder of information we were provided yesterday and complete our foster care application, which includes fun things like getting finger printed! As things move along, I'm sure we'll be blogging about it! In the meantime, would you keep us and the children God has for us in your thoughts and prayers?