Ponderings from a mother of 3

Why is it that my 8 year old son's pants are never zipped.....and he doesn't care?

Why is a mother not built with a back up battery supply to get her through a day of work after being up all night with a crying child.

As I listen to my kids I stop and wonder how many more years I will have to listen to the age old argument of who is touching who and who was playing with what first.

What magical power do kids have that no matter how upset you are once they kiss you and hug you it seems to melt away. Even if you know you should still be upset. (I think mike was a jedi and passed it on)

How can one nugget of poo make an entire house stink?

Why do I spend 20 minutes each morning on my daughters hair for her to immidiatly do a flip and mess it all up before we even walk out the door?

When my 2 year old smiles in his sleep what is he dreaming of?

Will my daughter always think her full name is princess Lili?

Why can my 8 year old remember every diolog from his favorite cartoon but not be able to recall me asking a bazillon times to put his cup in the sink?

I will tell you the answer to all of these questions.......I will never know. That is the answer. All I do know is that I have three of the worlds greatest kids and they nevre fail to make me laugh, smile or feel completly loved. I love being a mother.

My road just got bumpier

The Saga still continues to the point that our adoption hearing and sealing have been canceled. The second round of the hearing (Old Foster parents fighting to adopt) went long and none of the lawyers were able to do closing statements and so now they must be submitted in writing and we should get a ruling around january or february of 2010. This was heartbreaking to me since our courtdate for finalization was 11.20.09 just two short week away until we could legally calim our children as our own. Now I do not know when that will happen. I know that it will work out in the end but it is sometimes hard to accept bumps in the road and this bump has been getting on my nerves for seven months. However, my oldest son's delevery was 36 hours and rough so why should I have expected any of my other "official" entrance into our family to be any easier. I am still coping with this latest bit of news and I am trying to see the possitive side to it but I think for now I will allow myself to feel bad and pout for a few days, then I will smile and accept things as they are. Please keep us in your prayers and I will keep you updated.

National Adoption Month

In celebration of National Adoption Month and finally being placed with two beautiful children after 7 years of trying to add to our family (both naturally and through adoption) I am going to repost an old post about how and why we got into adoption.

Monday, October 29, 2007

The story of why we are adoptiv and foster parents
By request I am going to tell you all a little story as to why we are foster parents.
Beau's Family Picture:
I have Poly Cystic Ovarian syndrom better known as PCOS. What does this do? Well, it makes you gain weight, lose hair and lots of other stuff but most of all it makes it really hard to have kids. But you had one right? Yes, Mike and I got pregnant very quickly after we got married and the doctor thought that the PCOS would reverse itself like it sometimes does with Women that manage to get Pregnant. It did not work. Mike and I tried and we were not getting any luck in having a baby. This was making me very depressed and Beau was starting to realize that being an only child was not his bag of candy. He even came up with an imaginary brother and when he killed a bug one day he freaked out saying that he killed his brother and.....well......anyone familar with my son knows this story and has shed a few tears for his imaginary brother. It was an issue for almost a year he would just start talking about it and crying. It was heartbreaking and it made me feel worse. I was the one that was broken and unable to give him a real sibling, so in my mind I was the one breaking his heart.
We will now skip to the end of the year in mourning for the dead imaginary brother and move into Beau's Three year old Preschool year. I had just gotten a job and we moved into a house out of our apartment. Mike and I had talked a little about adopting but had decided that while he was in school it would not be an option so we put it off. We never talked about this with Beau or even mentioned it around him. Well, he came home from school one day and had a family picture drawn and it was matted on construction paper and looked really nice. I was looking at it and noticed that there were lots of people in it and so I asked him who they were. He said that those were his brothers and sisters. Oh, no. Here we go again with the dead brother. Beau, I said, Remember that you don't have any brothers and sisters? Yes I do mother. No Beau you don't. Mommy can not have anymore children. Then Beau said, I know but these kids are at their homes waiting for us to get them and bring them home. I was taken back. I said what do you mean, Beau. He then told me that these were his brothers and sisters that were not happy and were waiting in there homes to come to ours. I was taken back by this. How could a three year old that has never been told about adoption or foster care know about this? How would he know that there were children all over that needed a good home? Mike and I knew at that point that the Lord was informing us that we did not need to go at our own pace with adoption and foster care but by his timeline and if we would not listen on our own then he would speak through our child. We have now had 6 children in our home and Beau has never been happier. He is patient and loving and for the first time since he was born I feel like our family is complete. I know that my children are waiting for me and that they will not come from me but will come from someone else but they are still my children. I will always be grateful to my son and to my father in heaven for hitting me in the head and telling me to get the ball rolling.

Posted by Desiree at 8:47 AM

UPDATE: November 3, 2009

We have finally found tow of our missing children. We were blessed this year by getting a call about two beautiful kids that were matched with our family. From the moment we met them we knew that they were ours. Over the course of almost 4 years we have had 11 children plus Beau in our home. I have had my heart broken several times by watching my "kids" come in and out of my life. Each of those children left something behind and helped us grow. They prepared the way for the children that would never have to leave us. For that I am grateful. We still have a kid or two out there waiting but it is all in our Heavenly Father's time.

Happy birthday to 2 of my men.

So when we were matched with Link we did not realize that his birthday was the same as Michaels it is really funny. So now we have two birthdays to celebrate on October 26th. Link turns 2 today (he has already got the "NO" down pat) and Mike turns 30. That last one is a bit hard for me to be OK with. I am still not ok with being 29. I guess you can not stop the clock. We had fun last night celebrating both of the birthdays. Lots of Balloon games for the kids and presents for both of them. We did not do a big birthday since Link is a bit young and mike is a bit old but it was still a lot of fun for our little family. My parents did come over to help us with the festivites and the kids enjoyed getting to show off all of the ninja balloon skills they have. The best part was when Link got his stick horse and started mooing. He still thinks that thing is a cow. I love it. Princess decorated the cupcakes for chase and mike got a cheesecake. I am going to have to start working now to try and figure out a way to do the dual birthday thing. One idea is to do Link's party on a weekend and do a special dinner for mike and then on the actual day let the birthday boys go out on the town and have fun. I don't know. I still have 365 day sto work it out.

Full and Fun Weekend!!!

I had one of those weekends that you are never get a moment to rest until it is time to go to work on monday. We had the state fair, Presents to make, Costumes to make, church and a birthday party. It was a lot of stuff but to be honest it was a blast. Here is the break down.

Friday: I decided to make my Nieces birthday presents because I had learned som really cute crafts. I made here a crayon tote and some hair bows. This took all night but while I was sewing we had a family movie night and watch Halloween Town II on disney. My niece seemed to really like the presents at her party and I also made some for my three kids for Christmas.

Saturday: STATE FAIR! No Seriously, this is a huge thing in our family. We start talking about the fair in July! I was so excited about the fair that I could not sleep the night before. (How sad is that) After Beaus golf lesson we went to the fair and had so much fun. Princess and Beau got to ride the rides (with dad sometimes) for about 3 hours. The faster the better seemed to be the motto that day. It was fun to watch them get so excited about all the different rides and food. We also went to a tiger show and we all loved it. Princess loved it so much she wanted her daddy to catch her a tiger to bring home. No such luck. We got to see animals, games and lots of other fun things. Plus the food, that is just a given. Now it is over and we have a whole year to wait until the next one.

After fair still sat.: It was our nieces birthday party and we went there after the fair. We really enjoyed getting to see the family, hang out and talk. What I loved seeing most was our niece and princess being so excited about seeing eachother. They really love to play and have fun together. It is so cute!

Sunday: I realized that I had to have Beau's costume completed before the end of the week. If he wanted to be something normal this would note be a problem but no, my son has to be Ike from Mario Bros Brawl. So I get to look online at all the pics and try and figure this out. Really, I could rock a Project Runway challenge if it was about Nintendo Costumes. I make it work. I did finally get the costume done last night 6 hours, and then Beau put it on and I had to make him take it off when he went to bed. That is always the reward. Last year was link from Zelda and he did the same thing. He is so good about making a huge deal about how perfect the costume turned out and that it is so cool. Then he gives me a hug an all the stress from the sewing melts away.

Now the weekend is over and I am getting ready to decorate for Trunk r Treat at church but before then I am claiming tonight as a Mom Night. No sewing, no nothing but relaxing and enjoying the fact that I have nothing to do for a few hours. Maybe, this is my family we are talking about.

Three little pigs

well, just one so far. When I got home yesterday Link threw up and so I took his temp and he had one. Mike and I talked and because the school had sent home a notice that some of the students had confirmed H1N1 viruses we decided to take him in to the doctor the next day. Mike just called and we now have an almost 2 year old pig. He is on meds and we are to keep him away from the other two hopefully not pigs. I called all three schools to let them know, I called the DHS workers and I am now contimplating how long of a weekend I am going to have with mike working the whole time. I am going to stop by the fabric store and pick up some stuff to work on in my isolation and hopefully the other two kids will stay symptom free. Princess is allergic to tamflu so we are really concerned with her coming down with it because how will they treat her. I guess I will huff and puff until this flu is blown down.

Baby Zone!!!!

So, I find myself calling my husband it seems everyday to share the news that another one of our good friends is having a baby and we talk for awhile about how we think that each of these people will be such wonderful parents and that we are excited for them. This has happened four times in the past year, three of which have been in the past two weeks. All of these families have a special place in the Taggard's memories and hearts. All of them have even watched as Mike and I fell in love, got married and started our own family. I want to leave a special message to each of these friends and leave with them all our good wishes, congrats and a firm warning to keep all baby producing water away from me. I will leave the messages in the order that we found out about your newest additions.

Aria and Eddie- I know the Eli has already been born but we continue to marvel at how wonderful you both are as parents to this special child of God. He is beautiful and I only hope that all of our children will grow up together and feeling the love that only family can offer. I am looking forward to seeing this young man grow up and follow in his parents steps. I promis not to let Mike infuence him too much.

Mary and Martin- WOW!!!!!!! Yours took me my complete and utter suprise. Holy cow. We have been so blessed to have both of you in the family and I can not wait to meet the newest Downey. Mary, I too was not able to keep it quiet for the 3 months or even long enough to suprise my husband and that is what we love about you. I know that both you and martin will be excellent parents and that your baby will be loved and guided through this life in the best way. I also know that he or she will be fully versed in the marvel comics, wrestling and all things media. By the way, you know that our doorstep is always open for a little kid wanting to play video games. Please give martin a big hug for me!!!!!!!!

Kara and Ben- I am still tearing up. Just to let you know. Maybe it is just hormones or the fact that you and Angie were always there for me and I prayed that you would receive wonderful blessings in your lives. When I told Mike he said that he could not think of a better thing for you and ben. I know that you will be a great mom and Ben will be a great dad. I am just sad that I do not live close enough to you to help you through your morning sickness, laugh as you can no longer fit in the desk and come over and wash your dishes while you lose your plug. But you know I would!

To the friend that has yet to spill the news- You are already a mother and have a beautiful daughter (one that I would not mind my son dating if they were not kids) and you are also one of my very good friends. I am so happy about your news and can think of nothing that could have made this stormy day seem sunny. Mike (when I called) told me that when I told him about Kara that he had a feeling that you were pg too. You and your husband are wonderful people and I love that your family is growing. I will not add any personal things since you have yet to announce anything but know that if you need me I am there.


To all of them- We love each of you very much and please know that I could never express in words or on a blog the happiness and joy that I have that each of you are mothers. You have all been there for mike and I and even our kids and I hope that you each know that if you need anything, to talk, share pics, drive, support or anything that we would love to help. All of you live so far away and we miss you. Please keep us updated on your little ones.