Changes in our house

On January 9th my brother-in-law passed away. He had full custody of my nephew Alan who is 7. In August '06 Jason and I signed papers stating that if he passed, we would take custody of Alan. Needless to say, on Monday the 14th we met with CPS and signed for temporary custody of my dear sweet nephew. Alan's mother, my sister Sarah, has not seen nor talked to him in almost 4 years. LONG STORY!!!! She does love her son soooo much and wants for him to be with her. He will stay with us for at least 6 months and slowly get to know and be comfortable with his mom again. He is doing pretty good as far as we can tell. He still has not showed any emotion in the passing of his father and if you ask how he is doing, he will just say "GREAT!"

Our lives have changed so much, our house also. We converted our office into a bedroom for Alan. It was crazy trying to find a place for everything that was in the office. Our room is so crowded right now because the bulk of everything was moved in there. Our kitchen table is now used for eating...... what a concept;) We have been eating more veggies and healthier snacks also. Those are just a few things.... our schedule has been turned upside down. I am working on setting a new schedule that will work for all of us. It is difficult in seeing that Alan has never had much stability and expects things to be different everyday. A bedtime, bath, brushing his teeth, going to school EVERY day and meals at a set time is somewhat foreign to him...... how crazy is that......but he is taking to it great.

Registering Alan for school was a real blast. Being in an office with Ammon and Alan trying to fill out 20 papers that basically ask the same question over and over again while they ran wild. It

was the longest hour ever, next to an hour of labor pain. Alan wanted to lay in the floor at my feet and Ammon was a pill. He knocked over a plant (fake luckily), unplugged a lamp from the wall, crawled under tables and benches, so on and so on. I will not do that again. The cherry on top was when they informed me that Bransom Elementary is a uniform school. They let him attend his first day in jeans but let me know he could not go back until he had a uniform. Much to our surprise, some of Jason's family bought Alan's school clothes. Thanks Debbie, Sissy and Jack! One of the many blessings of charity that have been bestowed on us since Alan was welcomed into our family. I am so glad we payed a generous fast offering this month. lol.

Doesn't he look so cute :) I mean "handsome!"

Ammon has just loved having Alan around. He is just so excited when we pick him up from school. He nearly jumps out of my arms when he sees him, too cute. Ammon cannot stay out of Alan's room.....not so much fun for Alan. Alan plays okay with Ammon for a little while, but it is hard going from an only child and not having someone, especially a 9mth old, to share time with. Ammon follows him around everywhere. Alan is a lot faster and sometimes Ammon gets pretty upset when he can't keep up with him, but they do have fun together.They were riding on a "roller coaster!"

Ammon did get to have his first French Fry!!!!

Oh yeah, and he loved it!!