Birthday Party

Today was one of our little girls' birthdays. She turned 2!! It was so fun. We made a little crown of flowers, a birthday sash, and put her in a pretty pink dress. The theme was fairies so we had fairy napkins and a big Happy Birthday Fairy balloon. We decorated with pink streamers and a Happy Birthday sign. We had cupcakes decorated with Swedish fish and Dots to resemble flowers and fake pink and yellow flowers with Pixie stick stems as fairy wands. She was so adorable and all the kids had a lot fun! It was so fun being able to celebrate her birthday.

Twinkle, Twinkle

So our new little girl often gets scared at nap time. If she wakes up, she starts to cry. She shares a room with another little girl who is almost 2. She did the cutest thing today. I could hear her all the way upstairs yelling "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She was trying to sing to her so she wouldn't be scared.

I don't know how soothing having Twinkle Twinkle yelled at you is but it was possibly the sweetest and cutest thing I have ever heard.

My Typical Saturday Night

So I found out we are allowed to post pictures as long as they do not show the kids' faces. Saturday night is always movie night and last Saturday we watched The Lion King. They loved it! They were all sitting on the couch and then the 5-year-old got up and arranged pillows and they laid down on the floor together. She was very cute in laying the blankets over the other two kids. They looked so precious all cuddled up! Here are three of my babies :)

A Different World

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to take part in a fundraising "Gala" with the other half of the world (or top 1% actually). People bought tickets to come to the opening of a new restaurant where drinks and food were provided as a sort of fancy cocktail type party and all the money went to Casa. It was neat talking to some of our donors and also people who don't know anything about what Casa does. These people are essential to what we do, because Casa is a nonprofit organization and completely funded by private donors.

It was crazy. I felt like I was living someone else's life and watching from the outside. It was definitely not what I was used to. We were waited on hand and foot, everyone was over 40 and very wealthy. The restaurant was super upscale and it was like a little window into how some people live daily. It was weird to think that is what other people's lives are like, while I had 6 kids at home sleeping who came from nightmarish existences.

After, all of us girls went out salsa dancing at Taco Milagro. It was a lot of fun! There were so many old men and they were all such good dancers. We enjoyed the night out since we never all have time off at the same time together. What a change from changing diapers and dancing in circles with 2-year-olds.

This is House J! I live with Hillary, Lauren, and Nicole. (L to R)

I am Official

I feel like so much happens day to day that it is hard to remember what I haven't told you. So instead of trying to work backwards I'm just going to blog about today. This was my last training shift. I am officially on the schedule next week and work my first overnight monday night. That means I will be up and work from 10 pm-6 am and then crash :)

It is hard to say goodbye to the kids we fall in love with but we need to remember that there are always lots of kids that need help just as much as the ones that left. Anyways, we got a new kid Saturday morning. She is a beautiful 19-month-old girl. She is still getting adjusted and would only sleep in my arms at nap time because she was terrified of her crib. She is a sweetheart and needs prayers for her health please.

On a side note, I "successfully" did african-american hair today for the first time in my life. Let me tell you, it is a challenge but will be a cool skill to have. It may take me all year to master! The little girl told me it looked good though so I was happy. It took like an hour compared to 5 minutes for my pony tail.

Miami won today..Yay! Now we are heading to church. I hope you all enjoyed your Sundays.

Sad Day

Alright the next couple of posts may be out of order but I was just going to do a quick little post this morning before I run off again. This week not a whole lot was going on so I didn't really feel like I had much to report, but true to Casa style my life became crazy again and I've had no time the last couple days.

This morning my favorite little boy left. He was a voluntary placement, which means his mother can take him back whenever she wants. So this morning he was discharged. He gave everyone hugs and the older kids kept asking where he was going. They don't understand why he has to leave. One of the little girls started crying because she didn't know what was going on.

I had to try so hard to keep from crying and I only knew him for about 2 weeks. This is just going to get harder and harder. Please pray for him, that he is safe and his mother is able to take care of him. He is an absolute sweetheart. I am going to miss his huge hugs every time I walk down the stairs :(

Chaos

With one spot open in our house, being an intake house, we knew it was just a matter of time before we had another child placed. Throughout Friday our house received three separate calls. We were supposed to get a 4-year-old boy who was the brother of one the children already in our house. Then we heard the child was missing. We got another call about a 2-year-old girl who had fresh burns all over her hands. About half an hour later they had placed her in a community foster home. So far 2 possible new intakes with neither panning out. About 8:30 p.m. Hillary and I were watching Benjamin Button and Lauren comes running upstairs to tell us we have another potential intake. Everyone drops everything and rushes to get things done.

She was 5 1/2 so we did not have a bed for her. She had a younger sister who was two and was being placed in another house on the campus. So we went to their house and switched beds. It was quite the sight. Never did I think my typical Friday night would be dismantling a crib and hauling it down the street. We rushed around to make sure we had appropriate clothing and the right paperwork. Then we sit and wait for the call to pick her up.

A little over an hour and a half later they called. Lauren and Hilary brought back a beautiful, terrified little girl. We always give them something to eat and bathe them first. Then it was bedtime because it was so late when she arrived.

At the same time she arrived one of our supervisors showed up at our door with a 3-month-old who needed to go to the ER. We hurried to feed her and bathe her because she smelled pretty bad, gathered up a diaper bag and some rushed paperwork and left for the ER. Nicole took her and I went along so she wouldn't have to be alone because she would most likely be there all night.

We ended up being at the ER from midnight to 7 a.m. When we got back we found out we were keeping the baby and discharging our 14-month-old. So we had to round up appropriate things for the baby since we did not have infant stuff in our house and fill out paperwork and pack up the 14-month-old's things, after being up for the past 24 hours.

Mornings are normally pretty chaotic without adding in a new baby and the discharge of another child. The 5-year-old got sick, a 3-year-old had an accident on the floor and one of the 2-year-olds ran out of her room naked :) About 8:30 I finally crashed in my bed and slept through most of my first Saturday here. Welcome to life at Casa.

The Pace of Casa

My world has been crazy the past 36 hours. I will update later tonight but just so you know how quickly things change around here... Friday morning we started out with six kids ranging from 17-months to 3 years old. Two of our boys left and went back to their parents, 10 minutes later our house received a 14-month-old baby. Throughout the day we got 3 different calls and call-backs saying they were placing another child in our house (since we still had one open spot). Friday night at 10 pm we finally got the call to come to the office and pick up a 5 1/2 year old girl. And now this morning the 14-month-old is gone and we have a 3 1/2 month old baby girl. So now I have six kids in my house again and they range from ages 3 1/2 months to 5 1/2 years. Oh how quickly things change around here!

"The Broken Child"

If you can find the video "The Broken Child" please, please watch it. It is done by HBO. It really wakes you up and shows you just a little bit of what my life will be like for the next year. I am dealing with kids from situations like this video shows and worse. Please pray for all the children out there right now that are being neglected and abused, so many are terrified and alone as you read this. Pray that God continues to watch over and protect them until someone is able to reach them.

Fun Roadtrip

Zach and I had a great roadtrip down to Texas! We left thursday morning and stopped in Fairmont, Montana to go for a swim in the hot springs. This was pretty cool! The next day we stopped in Fort Collins, CO to see Allyssa and Linz..this was a wonderful visit. We got a chance to see downtown Fort Collins (which is so cool) and spend some great time with the girls and Allyssa's parents.

The next day we spent the morning at the Denver Zoo. They have a great zoo and there were so many things to see. There was even the cutest little baby orangutan. She was so strong she could hold onto her mom while she climbed around and the baby was hardly bigger than a 2-month old!

We made it to Texas that night and camped briefly. Then the next day we stopped at the Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth, TX. The Japanese Gardens were beautiful. Zach had a lot of fun practicing his kung-fu moves on me. We both enjoyed feeding the huge Koi fish.

We got quite good at making sandwiches on the trunk of my car with no supplies, we played science trivia for kids (the fastest growing plant is bamboo and it grows over 3 feet a day!), we listened to just about everything, talked about everything and only got pulled over once. The cop was very nice and very much a Texan and only gave us a warning. We also saw many gorgeous sunsets!

Hope whispers, "Don't Give Up!"

Above the doors at Casa there are signs that read: "Through this door, Hope begins..." Hope is all these kids have.

"To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death." -Pearl S. Buck

I am completely overloaded right now and have way too much to say. I live in a house where I have to keep my shampoo on the top shelf in a closet instead of the shower because of licensing regulations. I have to keep my advil in a locked box. Any time I want to use an outlet I have to pull the little plastic safety device out first, and there are no locks on any doors except to outside. I can hear the kids downstairs screaming and laughing. I want to run down and scoop them up and kiss them all over.

I have already heard enough stories to make you cringe and bawl and make you want to slap these kids' parents silly. These kids truly need love in the purest form. I know God's heart has just been breaking for them.

There are six kids in my house. They range from 17 months to 3 years old. They are the cutest kids in the world. The house is complete wonderful chaos all the time. I am definitely home.