Project 365, Week 44

An unusual week, for sure.  You might ask what a "usual" week is for us and I'd have a hard time answering that, but throwing a hurricane, a show and an extra foster child into one week truly does make it interesting.

Sunday afternoon we were feverishly packing up our hotel room five minutes before our late checkout time when we got a call from another foster family asking if we'd take their child because they were leaving, due to the threat of the storm.

So, on the way home from the show, at 11 PM, I picked her up.  It was her 16th birthday and I felt awful that I hadn't had more time to prepare.

We enjoyed the few days we had with her (this is the same girl we had while Shaun was in Europe back in September).  On the last day, on the car ride home from soccer practice, Amanda was talking about what she wants to do for her birthday, later this month.  K asked me, Do you know what I did for my birthday this year?  I said, Yes, you said you played paintball at your friend's house.  She said, I went on respite.

Wow...took my breath away.  So much of the time I feel completely inadequate to do what we are doing (especially with a 16 year-old!!) but also so very honored that God has called us to this and is equipping us on an as-needed basis...daily!

So here is a bit of our week....

October 28

We spent much of the morning and afternoon playing at Coco Key Resort.

We got word pretty early that school was cancelled for Monday and Tuesday, so I made the decision to stay with the kids through the final show.

 October 29
We stayed in all day...we had rain and wind in our little part of the world from Hurricane Sandy.

October 30
Time to get the dog exercise and the kids some fresh air...me, five kids and a dog walked/biked to the highschool to get some air.

October 31
Can you guess what we did on Halloween?  :)

 November 1
A mighty warrior met me in the hallway.

 Later he brought me a stack of books to read.  Oh, how I love board books!!  I've memorized many of them and the times and memories that they hold from all three kids are simply priceless.

 View from my kitchen window.

November 2

No picture.  My favorite memory of the day is the date Shaun and I had while the kids were at their Friday night activities.  :)

November 3

Football just will not die.  This was the Consolation game for the two teams who didn't make it to the SuperBowl.

This past Thursday I was doing a happy dance all the way to pick Z up from his last football practice.  He got in the car and announced, Guess what!  I made the All-Star team!  Oh...super!  Another week of practice, another game.

Aiden sure doesn't mind football though, especially since he usually has a cousin or three there to play with.  :)

 Meg and I arranged a time to get our families together so we could swap family picture taking.  Cold, windy and quick, but we got the job done!  Love this "outtake".