Friday, January 26, 2007

Another Poncho

I'm working on my third poncho. This one is a faux mohair varigated yarn in pinks and peaches - very girly. I got the pattern free off the internet and it's simply double crochet with a gigantic hook (Q). Here's a photo of the work in progress.

Anyway, I've altered the pattern only slightly - 1) it said to start by chaining 58 but that didn't seem long enough to me so I kept chaining until it measured approx 50 inches 2) the pattern is only 10 rows which didn't seem enough for me so I'm adding a few more.


The photos were with my cell phone again.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Crochet Catch Up

For some reason, the autumn season seems to bring on crafty projects for me. In 2005, I had just gotten my sewing machine for my birthday and I was busy sewing October through December. This past November, I learned how to crochet. My first project was (of course) a potholder...

After that I was feeling pretty confident and since we had the girls, D & P, I made a baby afghan. The weird thing is that I apparently made up the stitch. I thought I was doing a double crochet but after showing my mom and my sister and then consulting several books, it was determined that I created my own stitch.














By the time I finished it, we no longer had the girls. So, I moved on to smaller projects - at first, ponchos...

















And then I moved on to hats. Unfortunately, I haven't taken photos of every hat but here are two...



I think my next project will be another poncho - a style similar to the green one.
Sorry for the crappy photos - they were all taken with my camera phone.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

A Year in the Life of a Waiting Family

As I was looking through my 2006 appointment book, I came across a very special notes page. I have kept a detailed log of all the children we submitted our home study on and how things turned out. I thought it would be interesting to put it out there...into space. I thought someone might like to see a glimpse of what it's like to be a waiting family. We already had T at this point...we were just waiting to see who would join the family. Here goes...

Oh wait...just a couple of points of interest... I jot down whatever is told to me by our case worker. Sometimes I have age/race/hair color/eye color/name. Sometimes I have nothing at all.

Jan 3 - submitted on A/A girl - D
submitted on A/A girl - K

Jan 24 - Four-way at 1:00 on D
Four-way at 2:30 on K
Up for four-way on 2/9 for baby boy K
*We were picked for K (girl)!! Court date for placement approval on 2/6

Feb 6 - Judge said that we could not have K (girl)

Feb 9 - Four-way on K (boy) rescheduled

Feb 14 - Four-way on K (boy) will be March 10th
submitted on: bi-racial boy - just turned 2
girl C - 3 months old
girl H - 9 months old, blonde/blue
girl T - anglo, heart murmur
bi-racial boy - 18 months old
girl K - A/A, 2 months old
multi-racial girl - 6 months old
A/A boy - 4 months old
girl E - A/A, newborn, tons of hair

Mar 3 - Four-way on girl K (born 12/5/05) scheduled for 3/20
Four-way on boy S scheduled for 3/14
Four-way on boy K was cancelled and we are waiting for reschedule
submitted on: girl L - born 8/05
boy F - born 2/06, bi-racial

Mar 14 - Not picked for boy S

Mar 20 - Four-way on girl E scheduled for Apr 6th
Not picked for girl K

Mar 27 - placement of brothers M & C (foster placement)

Apr 6 - Four-way on girl E
*We were picked!! Court date for placement approval on 4/10

Apr 10 - Judge said no

May 1 - Submitted on A/A girl - legally free for adoption - born Jan 06

May 5 - told our case worker that felt T needed a different home

May 12 - M & C move to foster-to-adopt home

Aug 31 - Inquired about sibling group

Sep 17 - discussed another sibling group with cw, decided not to pursue

Oct 12 - cw called about sisters D & P (3 & 2 y.o.)

Oct 13 - D & P placed in our home (foster placement)

Nov 29 - told our cw again that we felt T needed a different home and that we did not want to adopt him

Nov 30 - T moved to new home - D & P moved to new home

Frustrating, huh? So many hopes dashed. We have not had any children in our home (by choice) since November.

I can only hope that 2007 brings realizations to dreams that were put out of mind and if I can't have that - I at least hope for peace within my heart.