Friday, April 9, 2010
Date Night
Valley View Baptist Church in Coppell (a mega-church not too dissimilar from Fellowship Church -- where we attend) began a new ministry offered to all Covenant Kids (CK) foster parents. Friday night from 6:00 - 10:00 they provided free babysitting exclusively for CK kids so the foster parents could have a date night. When they sent out the invitation three weeks ago, we quickly signed up.
Since we started this journey with our respite child over a month ago, Melinda and I have not had a single night alone (a huge switch from the last several years)! After dropping our thirteen-month-old boy CO and our nineteen-month-old girl LP promptly at 6:00 PM, we went to see the nearby mall, quickly ate delicious Panini and visited the 30-screen multiplex theater to see the action-packed Matt Damon movie, "Green Zone."
While the dinner and movie were great, so was the free time together. Melinda and I recalled that we had not seen an entire movie without falling asleep since our respite child. This would be quite a change since prior to this journey, we regularly watched DVD's at home our entertainment center and we keep falling asleep exhausted during every attempt since then. That being said, there is no way we would trade our Melinda and Jack version 2.0 Life for the old, less animated one. We love these kids.
Date Night (which the church is now considering doing once a quarter - yea!) meant new socialization for LP and CO. They did great and stayed up until we arrived right before 10:00. Needless to say, they were exhausted and slept late on Saturday (which was basically chill out and run errands day).
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Fellowship Church
With all the excitement over the prior three weeks (including the Easter weekend), we had not been able to get organized enough to get to our own church until this Sunday.
The first thing we have to do (and had to do with our respite child, too) is get them registered in the youth area. This means filling out a form that then gets entered into a computer and name tags and unique code stamp labels are generated and printed. One set goes on the back of the child and the other goes with the parent. We then take them to their respective classes and we go to the main service. If there is major problem with a child, their unique code is flashed on sign in the main service auditorium and you need to come to their room. Usually a very efficient system, but it took nearly 20 minutes to get them both entered due to some computer glitches. Next time, it will take just a few seconds to pull their names up and print out the tags.
This gave us more socialization for both kids (who cry for us for only 20 seconds before starting to play). Both kids again were reported to do very well. Yea!
Tapestry Foster Care Support Group Meeting
Irving Bible Church (IBC) has, as its mission, adoption and foster care support through a ministry it calls Tapestry (see http://tapestry.irvingbible.org/). This is a HUGE resource of materials and personnel offered free to anyone considering or active in foster care or adoption (either through CPS or private adoption). They work closely with all 35 foster / adoption agencies in the area and come highly recommended as a support service by CPS. No matter what your religious affiliation, anyone considering foster care needs to look over these great resources. Evidently, their reading room is huge and they have a large staff supporting all these things.
Once a month they have a foster care support group. We have been wanting to go, but just could not seem to schedule the time until this Sunday. Fortunately, IBC also offers free, on-site child care while you are in the meeting. They have the exact same computer registration system as Fellowship Church did, but there were no computer problems this time.
The meeting was interesting as we heard about the victories and heartaches in this very informal, round table discussion. Like most support groups, we listened, contributed and asked questions -- getting first hand information and experiences. They are offering a Tuesday night, 8-week, intensive training class for which the two of us just signed up.
Once again, the kids did great - three events in a row! Woo Hoo!
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