One of our family routines or traditions, if you will, is eating breakfast at a local restaurant every morning. At least, every morning for David! I usually only get too on my "weekend" Tuesdays and Wedensdays. For 20 years or more it was Bobby's, but recently it's changed hands and now it's called Maddie's. The food is only ok, but the prices are good and the cook, Tonya has been there for years as well as one of our favorite waitresses, Michelle. So we go nearly every morning. Have for years. Anyways, David pointed out that we really do share everything-even our food! When we go out to eat, its not unusual for one of us to order one thing, but then decide we'd like to have a little of the other person food too and vice versa! For instance, this morning, me and Addy split a pancake and sausage. John ordered chicken strips and onion rings (yes, for breakfast!). Halfway through the meal, Addy decided she wanted some of Daddy's hash browns and I had some of Bubba's onion rings! I bet it looks kinda funny to other tables, the way we "share."
It's rainy and storming in Arkansas today. Rain is good. I'm off "work" today from the police department and David has called his employees off till noon time. When he does this, he'll usually spend the morning working on paper work, books and numbers-his least favorite part of owning his own business. I'll be busy on the other hand (blogging! Yay!) cleaning, catching up on laundry and running errands-both for our family and for the business. I love being in the vehicle and driving and running and getting things done. I dislike staying home and cleaning and all that. Mostly because right now, we are alos remodeling our home and with 4 kids, that has been CRAZY! Nothing is where is should be and everything else is in storage!
I've been keeping Addy home from daycare on my days off, even though we still have to pay full price for her to go. It's a great daycare as far as daycares go, I just hate sending her and wish we didn't have too. If I could stay home full time, I might only send her one day a week. I enjoy our time together. She watches Dora some, but mostly, she sticks close to me, even helping me clean. She can put away dishes and sort laundry, which is a big help! That's something else we "share" in our family, is chores. Everyone works and works hard. Even foster kids; their first day here, they get chores to do. We think that helps them to feel important and a part of the family. Psalm 128:2 reads "when you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy and it shall be well with you." And of course, our family favorite, Proverbs 10:4-5 "He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the dilgent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a wise son; He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame."
We're builders and I think building is much like farming. It's respectable and it's hard work. In the summer, John work alongside Dad, no matter the weather. John has learned a work ethic and has learned about business. He sold his first house at the age of 12! Working has helped John is football and in school. He takes very good care of his grades and his things. He gets nice things, nice clothes and stuff, but because he works hard for it. He is careful and respectful of his things and besides naturally wearing out, John doesn't tear his stuff up.
Presley and Addy mostly help with inside chores, but lately Presley has been wanting to learn to cut the grass on the riding lawn mower. We'll see where that goes. In the meantime, she's learning to cook and help with supper and she made macaroni and cheese last night all by herself!
Michelle, our "new kid" is a very hard worker too and that is why I think she does so well in our home. She's 17 and of course wanting to find her independence, yet on her second day with us, she was out applying for summer jobs. She found that summer job at a local Sonic and then she also made the decision to attend Harding University this fall! She applied for her own financial aid, filled out and completed her own admission applications and got herself accepted! On the days she works, she still finds time to help out by making her and the girls beds. She does dishes and helps with laundry and sweeps and just whatever is needed. She is an asset to our home, but just as imortant, she has become a part of our family. She has become a regular Philpott!! She gets teased and picked on because she is a teenage girl, but we enjoy having her just the same!
In our house, we share everything! We share the love, the teasing, the responsabilities and the discipline! We share happy, sad, mad and glad....
I guess I better get busy sharing some vacuuming and dusting! It's my day off, but there's plenty to do! And thank goodness for the rain, or I'd be at some job site checking on the guys and running errands and not cleaning house!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
There's a first time for everything.
There is definatly a first time for everything. This is my first blog and I'm gonna just say, I was inspired, have been inspired and continue to be inspired by someone I consider a friend, fellow foster parent and now a fellow blogger, Amanda Busbea, also of Arkansas, so I hope you'll consider reading her musings a well: ldsmom1975@blogspot.com.
So, I guess I'll start with a little more about our unique family and how we got started. I met my husband, David at Harding University, where we both graduated in the 90's. While we were friends, we both found we had aspirations of adopting children one day, but David had an interesting idea. He thought it would be cool to adopt older children "because no one else ever does." I've always liked things a little, shall we say, unconventional, so I thought that was a novel idea. We married in 1995 and thought about fostering around 1998 but then I got pregnant in 1999 and miscarried. Miscarrying a child is much like a death and yet everyone just kind of expects you to move on. For us tho, that baby was a baby at conception and it was hard to lose it. I was barely 3 months along, but it was tough on us and had it not been for our 2 year old nephew on an extended visit with us, it would have been much tougher. Finally, in 2000 we made a move to Northwest Arkansas where I got a new job and David opened an office to his steele building business. I got pregnant again about mid-Spring. In Novemeber, the Lord presented us with an awesome gift, our baby girl we named Presley. Presley had swallowed her miconium before birth, so she was born with collapsed lungs and we had a chance of losing her as well. This was so tough on the two of us, but my Mom was there to help us through it all. Presley was in ICU a few days before being placed in Peds for another 10 days or so, but we were lucky and got to stay with her in the hospital. She pulled through and true to the Doctors promise, "If she makes it through the next 24-48 hours, in 10 years, you'll forget this ever happened." She DID pull through and we often DO forget that our on'rey little girl once had such an obstacle to overcome just to live. She's tough. She's a fighter. And as I said, she is a gift from God.
I think it was 2003 when moved back to central Arkansas, the place I call home. My Mom lived here as did my sister and her family. We moved back and within 6 months I was working for the Little Rock Police Department and David was building residential homes in and around Little Rock. Little Rock was a 45 minute commute I couldn't handle, so as soon as I could, I made the move back to our small towns police department. I took a job in Communications as a Police/Fire Dispatcher. So now I had an almost 4 year old child, a new home, a new job, I was supporting my husband building homes in Little Rock by spending my days off helping "in the office" and we had a new puupy. But I guess that wasn't enough. :)
We had long talked about fostering children. David was a fan of the program. I was not as easily convinced. I was ok with the idea of adoption, but not necessarily fostering. We prayed about it and I read books and more books and we talked to everyone that would listen. And I'll tell ya, we got plenty of negative reactions from both, friends and family. We never wavered. We knew what we wanted and what we didn't want. We filled out the mountains of paperwork. We had the homestudies. We had the interviews. We went through so much red tape, it began to seem undaunting and never ending. Many encouraged us to give up. I met 2 of the most encouraging and inspirational people I have ever met in my life. Two ladies, one named Trina and one named Karen. Both of them sent from the Lord above.
We had a setback in 2007 with a failed adoption placement. We were heartbroken and I felt like, maybe this wasn't the plan the Lord had for us afterall. I cried for 3 days because it felt like another miscarriage. Truly, I could have quit then.
But in early June I got a call from Karen that Trina had a "beautiful baby girl with blue eyes." Let me back up here and remind you, we were interested mostly in older children. We actually signed papers that we did NOT want to be called by the Department of Human Services for babies. We did NOT want to be called for medically needy children. We would only consider bi-racial children (IF they were used to being around white people and IF the bio-parents were ok with a white family.) Turned out this child was 5 months old, bi-racial AND medically needy. Luckily, Karen was not with DHS, she was just a mutual friend trying to help each of us out. Trina had only taken the baby on emergency status and the baby had to be moved by Friday- and this was Thursday morning!
Karen called at 9:46 am. I was at work by 10:00am. Had lunch with David at 11:30 and by 4:30 we were being trained on medical equipment, including oxygen tanks, pulse-ox and an APNEA machine. I was being shown how to use and dispense certain medicines and how to use a thickening agent on this babies liquids. And this baby was beautiful!! She was beautiful but very, very sick. She had a swallowing disorder, she quit breathing at random times and later we discovered that due to a stroke soon after birth she was also not able to use her right side. Born 5 months earlier, she "came out the oven" way too early. There were no real records of birth, but it was estimated between 26-28 weeks of gestation and she weighed between 1.6 and 1.8oz. At 5 months old, she was unable to hold her head up and she was still on a bottle, as well as all her medical equipment. We called her Addie; my Mom had shortened her birth name to the nickname we all used. Friday she was living with us full time. I took 12 weeks off work on FMLA...oh, and Presley, now age 6 was scheduled to have her first eye surgery Monday morning at Arkansas Childrens Hospital! Was I overwhelmed!!
David was a tremendous help from the start! He started building houses in our little small, college town, so he was closer to home and became a huge presence in this little babies life. My Mom helped out alot and so many friends and neighbors came together to help out as well. In fact, on that Thursday, our spare bedroom had been decorated to the tune of a 10 year old boy-our hope. By 4:30 we had a completly outfitted little baby girls room thanks to dear neighbors that made a run to their storage building!
We continued to foster other kids here and there. Not very many and not very often. As soon as Addie entered the therapeutic day care where she could receive her therapies in speech, physical and occupational, I went back to work. I was on an evening shift, working 2pm-10pm, So I was doing Mom-duty in the morning, helping David in mid-day and then answering 911 calls in the afternoon and early evening with my dear friend and co-worker, Michelle. I juggled all my balls and responsiblities as best I could.
As soon as possible, I was changed from the Evening shift at work to Days, which suited our afternoons better. I have to be at work at 6am, so I am up at 4:30 most mornings. David took the girls to school and then went off to build houses and handle a business. I am off at 2pm so, this meant I could pick Presley up from school, Addie up from daycare, help with homework, fix supper, give baths, read bedtime stories and put my girls to bed. I LOVE my afternoons with my babies.
In 2008 I got an e mail from Karen! (uh-oh!) She knew a little boy we had met at an adoption fair a year or so prior had been in a failed adoption and he was back in foster care. He was 10 now and had just been baptized....what a sweet boy, she said. She encouraged us to get back in touch with him through DHS and maybe at least foster him. We did. John came with us at the end of April, I think. He entered 4th grade and he fit our family like a hand in a glove! We adopted Addie in 2009-she was 2 years old and we changed her name, but was able to keep her nickname, just changed the spelling to Addy. The following year we adopted John, at the age of 12.
Today, we have 4 perfect children, John, Presley and Addy....and a foster kid, Michelle that we love like crazy. I'll talk alot about these kids. They're my life!! IN addition to parenting, we run a business, David Philpott Builders in which I do all the advertising and promotions and run the errands on my "days off " and anything else David needs. We build new homes and do dabble in rentals and try and do a flip a year. I'm the current President of the White County Foster Parents Association. And my days begin at 4:30 most mornings.
Recently, we've had a little run of bad luck...David's grandmother Philpott passed away and we'll be out of state for her funeral in August. My Grandmother Crankshaw passed last week and my Mom's sister, my Aunt Goldie has had her breast cancer that was supposed to be in remission, return. So please keep our family in your prayers.
I also hope to write on here about genealogy, "my drug of choice" and music and some politics-I ain't skeerd! I'm kinda vocal in what I believe in-but I'm not hateful, I don't guess, but don't test me either! :) I'll pry get on a soap box or two...and post lots of pics....thanks for reading!
So, I guess I'll start with a little more about our unique family and how we got started. I met my husband, David at Harding University, where we both graduated in the 90's. While we were friends, we both found we had aspirations of adopting children one day, but David had an interesting idea. He thought it would be cool to adopt older children "because no one else ever does." I've always liked things a little, shall we say, unconventional, so I thought that was a novel idea. We married in 1995 and thought about fostering around 1998 but then I got pregnant in 1999 and miscarried. Miscarrying a child is much like a death and yet everyone just kind of expects you to move on. For us tho, that baby was a baby at conception and it was hard to lose it. I was barely 3 months along, but it was tough on us and had it not been for our 2 year old nephew on an extended visit with us, it would have been much tougher. Finally, in 2000 we made a move to Northwest Arkansas where I got a new job and David opened an office to his steele building business. I got pregnant again about mid-Spring. In Novemeber, the Lord presented us with an awesome gift, our baby girl we named Presley. Presley had swallowed her miconium before birth, so she was born with collapsed lungs and we had a chance of losing her as well. This was so tough on the two of us, but my Mom was there to help us through it all. Presley was in ICU a few days before being placed in Peds for another 10 days or so, but we were lucky and got to stay with her in the hospital. She pulled through and true to the Doctors promise, "If she makes it through the next 24-48 hours, in 10 years, you'll forget this ever happened." She DID pull through and we often DO forget that our on'rey little girl once had such an obstacle to overcome just to live. She's tough. She's a fighter. And as I said, she is a gift from God.
I think it was 2003 when moved back to central Arkansas, the place I call home. My Mom lived here as did my sister and her family. We moved back and within 6 months I was working for the Little Rock Police Department and David was building residential homes in and around Little Rock. Little Rock was a 45 minute commute I couldn't handle, so as soon as I could, I made the move back to our small towns police department. I took a job in Communications as a Police/Fire Dispatcher. So now I had an almost 4 year old child, a new home, a new job, I was supporting my husband building homes in Little Rock by spending my days off helping "in the office" and we had a new puupy. But I guess that wasn't enough. :)
We had long talked about fostering children. David was a fan of the program. I was not as easily convinced. I was ok with the idea of adoption, but not necessarily fostering. We prayed about it and I read books and more books and we talked to everyone that would listen. And I'll tell ya, we got plenty of negative reactions from both, friends and family. We never wavered. We knew what we wanted and what we didn't want. We filled out the mountains of paperwork. We had the homestudies. We had the interviews. We went through so much red tape, it began to seem undaunting and never ending. Many encouraged us to give up. I met 2 of the most encouraging and inspirational people I have ever met in my life. Two ladies, one named Trina and one named Karen. Both of them sent from the Lord above.
We had a setback in 2007 with a failed adoption placement. We were heartbroken and I felt like, maybe this wasn't the plan the Lord had for us afterall. I cried for 3 days because it felt like another miscarriage. Truly, I could have quit then.
But in early June I got a call from Karen that Trina had a "beautiful baby girl with blue eyes." Let me back up here and remind you, we were interested mostly in older children. We actually signed papers that we did NOT want to be called by the Department of Human Services for babies. We did NOT want to be called for medically needy children. We would only consider bi-racial children (IF they were used to being around white people and IF the bio-parents were ok with a white family.) Turned out this child was 5 months old, bi-racial AND medically needy. Luckily, Karen was not with DHS, she was just a mutual friend trying to help each of us out. Trina had only taken the baby on emergency status and the baby had to be moved by Friday- and this was Thursday morning!
Karen called at 9:46 am. I was at work by 10:00am. Had lunch with David at 11:30 and by 4:30 we were being trained on medical equipment, including oxygen tanks, pulse-ox and an APNEA machine. I was being shown how to use and dispense certain medicines and how to use a thickening agent on this babies liquids. And this baby was beautiful!! She was beautiful but very, very sick. She had a swallowing disorder, she quit breathing at random times and later we discovered that due to a stroke soon after birth she was also not able to use her right side. Born 5 months earlier, she "came out the oven" way too early. There were no real records of birth, but it was estimated between 26-28 weeks of gestation and she weighed between 1.6 and 1.8oz. At 5 months old, she was unable to hold her head up and she was still on a bottle, as well as all her medical equipment. We called her Addie; my Mom had shortened her birth name to the nickname we all used. Friday she was living with us full time. I took 12 weeks off work on FMLA...oh, and Presley, now age 6 was scheduled to have her first eye surgery Monday morning at Arkansas Childrens Hospital! Was I overwhelmed!!
David was a tremendous help from the start! He started building houses in our little small, college town, so he was closer to home and became a huge presence in this little babies life. My Mom helped out alot and so many friends and neighbors came together to help out as well. In fact, on that Thursday, our spare bedroom had been decorated to the tune of a 10 year old boy-our hope. By 4:30 we had a completly outfitted little baby girls room thanks to dear neighbors that made a run to their storage building!
We continued to foster other kids here and there. Not very many and not very often. As soon as Addie entered the therapeutic day care where she could receive her therapies in speech, physical and occupational, I went back to work. I was on an evening shift, working 2pm-10pm, So I was doing Mom-duty in the morning, helping David in mid-day and then answering 911 calls in the afternoon and early evening with my dear friend and co-worker, Michelle. I juggled all my balls and responsiblities as best I could.
As soon as possible, I was changed from the Evening shift at work to Days, which suited our afternoons better. I have to be at work at 6am, so I am up at 4:30 most mornings. David took the girls to school and then went off to build houses and handle a business. I am off at 2pm so, this meant I could pick Presley up from school, Addie up from daycare, help with homework, fix supper, give baths, read bedtime stories and put my girls to bed. I LOVE my afternoons with my babies.
In 2008 I got an e mail from Karen! (uh-oh!) She knew a little boy we had met at an adoption fair a year or so prior had been in a failed adoption and he was back in foster care. He was 10 now and had just been baptized....what a sweet boy, she said. She encouraged us to get back in touch with him through DHS and maybe at least foster him. We did. John came with us at the end of April, I think. He entered 4th grade and he fit our family like a hand in a glove! We adopted Addie in 2009-she was 2 years old and we changed her name, but was able to keep her nickname, just changed the spelling to Addy. The following year we adopted John, at the age of 12.
Today, we have 4 perfect children, John, Presley and Addy....and a foster kid, Michelle that we love like crazy. I'll talk alot about these kids. They're my life!! IN addition to parenting, we run a business, David Philpott Builders in which I do all the advertising and promotions and run the errands on my "days off " and anything else David needs. We build new homes and do dabble in rentals and try and do a flip a year. I'm the current President of the White County Foster Parents Association. And my days begin at 4:30 most mornings.
Recently, we've had a little run of bad luck...David's grandmother Philpott passed away and we'll be out of state for her funeral in August. My Grandmother Crankshaw passed last week and my Mom's sister, my Aunt Goldie has had her breast cancer that was supposed to be in remission, return. So please keep our family in your prayers.
I also hope to write on here about genealogy, "my drug of choice" and music and some politics-I ain't skeerd! I'm kinda vocal in what I believe in-but I'm not hateful, I don't guess, but don't test me either! :) I'll pry get on a soap box or two...and post lots of pics....thanks for reading!
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