Trinity's Special Day!!

The morning of the hearing was very stressful! Everyone needed showered and dressed nicely (Hunter's idea of nice is wearing a pair of basketball shorts that he has only wore one other time...nice try dude!). Because it was only the second day of school we didn't want the big kids to miss the whole day so we were trying to get them off to school. Once they were gone John went to get a haircut while Trin and I got ready. Trinity comes into my room as I am getting dressed and hands me my cell phone "Momma, I need to call grandma Lynn." So I dial my mom's number and this is what I hear "guess what grandma, it is my special day today! You are going to be there right??" This was the first of many times of tears. We went to get the big kids around 10:45 and then we were off. By this time my nerves were off the charts. I was nervous, anxious, excited, etc. We had been waiting for this day for so long that it was all kind of surreal. I kept thinking to myself "Is this really happening?"

Side note: John and I have known for a very long time that our family is not complete. We know that we are meant to have more than two kiddo's. When we started fostering we hoped that the experiences we gained would help prepare us for adoption, should an opportunity every arise. Well, 11 months ago when we got Trin we had a glimpse into the possibility of adopting her. The whole process is an emotional roller coaster, but we are so blessed to have the opportunity of having her in our lives forever!

We got to the courthouse and was joined by family to share in this amazing day! As we entered the courtroom our atty told us that Trin needed to go in first. She bent down and asked Trin if she would go into this big dark room and turn on the lights for her. As Trin walked in the lights automatically turned on. Trin whips around to us with this huge grin on her face and tells me "Look mama, I'm a princess. I made the lights turn on with magic!"

Judge Leonard was the judge to preside over the hearing and he really made it special for us. He spoke mostly to Trin and the big kids.

John and Trin waiting for things to start.

Judge Leonard told Trin that in order to make it official she needed to get hugs and kisses from everyone in the room. She started with me and made her way slowly around the room.


Showin' Pa a little love


Here you can see Trin placed between my Mom and Roger. She was done giving out hugs and hopped up on the bench and got cozy. The Judge asked her if she wanted to come back up to the front and her response was "um, no! I am just going to visit with my grandma Lynn and papa." We all got a good laugh, forever my social butterfly!

The fam with Judge Leonard

Just outside the courthouse ~ giving Morgan a little love

All the family

Kelly, Grams, Papa Rick and Pa (Kelly is an officer for the city of Eugene and was able to take some time off work to be there with us ~ hence her cool clothes!)

Grandma Joyce, Grandma Lynn and Papa Roger

All of the grandkids ~ I love this picture!

Me, Mindy & Trin

So after the hearing some of us went to Red Robin for lunch. We had this amazing server named Stu. As he came to take our drink order Trin looks at him and says "Guess what ~ its my special day today." He asks her if it is her birthday and she tells him "Nope, today I am a Sepulveda!" Seeing his confused look my mom explains what today was all about. As we finished our meal Stu comes up to the table with desserts ~ on the house he tells us, for the special day. About five min. after that the entire Red Robin staff comes out to the table shouts "Congratulations, Welcome to the Family!!" and hands Trin a huge bouquet of flowers and a card that was signed by all of the staff. Trin was on cloud nine and John and I were getting some watery eyes. It really was incredible. Trin carried her flowers everywhere with her when we got home. It wasn't until about four hours later that I convinced her to let me put them in water. "The flowers are thirsty honey, they need a drink."

The cherry was the most important part
Notice the cherry stem in her hand....The cherry was the first thing she ate and she refused to put down the stem. She held on to it until we got home :)
Little Miss Morgan

This was a great shot ~ the element of surprise!
Daddy and Jazzy


Mom and Rog ~ True love under the neon burger sign!

Trin with her flowers

Trin and her flowers watching the Care Bears because "Mom, it's my special day and I don't think I should take a nap...."

Thank you to all of our family and friends that have given their support through this looooong process. Trinity was immediately welcomed into everyone's lives with such loving arms, it was almost as if she was born part of the family. I know that our Father in Heaven has a plan for each and everyone of us. He knew that Trinity was meant to be with our family and he knew that with us she would have a loving home and be surrounded by family on all sides. So many of our family members have not had the opportunity to meet Trin face to face, but she knows who you are and she talks of you all with absolute love. We have talked about trying to get down there in the near future and she always gets a huge smile on her face and starts giggling. When you ask her whats up she will say with a smile ~ I will get to meet more of my family. She is very aware and we couldn't have asked for a more amazing kiddo. Thanks for making it to the end of this post and in a way sharing our special day with us! Much love to all! ~ The Sepulvedas

What Is With All Of These Posts???

Some of you may be thinking....Geez what is with all of these random posts? Why hasn't she posted anything about the adoption?

Well, I went over to Amy's today to go through all of the pictures and pick the ones that I wanted to share with everyone. I put them all in a nice file and then was going to put them on my jump drive.

I sat down this evening to work on my adoption post and my pictures weren't there....duh....I never put them on my jump drive. They are still sitting on Amy's desktop.

John is on an overnight camping trip with his scouts (he is the 11-year-old scoutmaster) and I had all this time tonight to work on my post. Unfortunately he has my car because his is in the shop, so I am totally house bound.

I am going to try to get it all finished tomorrow, but until them I had to do something with my time ~ and it sure wasn't going to be laundry!!

Stay tuned ~ it was such an amazing day and I can't wait to share it!

First Day Of School

This is what I woke up to at 7:00 on the first morning of school ~ everybody piled onto Hunter's bottom bunk. Yes Jazzy normally looks this beautiful in the morning.

Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, sausage, toast with a little coconut oil and agave and then hot chocolate (aka rice milk with a little Hershey syrup which is thankfully dairy free because no powdered hot cocoa is). Before bed the night before lunches had been packed, outfits laid out and backpacks set by the front door. They were all anxious to get to school and Trinity was crushed because her "pretty" school doesn't start until next week. She quickly recovered when Jazzy reminded her that she gets to stay the whole day with mama all by herself.

Here are the traditional "first day of school pictures at the house"

Jazzy had picked out this cute outfit and then walks out with her high top Converse on..."Hey Jaz, you have your cute white sandals that would go great with that." "No, my Converse are fine." She is no longer receptive to my futile attempts to help her pick out her clothes... oh well!

Jazzy at her classroom. This year she has Mr. Christner and is in a 4/5 blend. Mr. Christner is a first year teacher and totally high energy. Jaz was a little apprehensive about having a male teacher, but after meeting him the day before she was totally at ease. I look forward to this year~it's a little sad because it is her last day of elementary school, but I am excited for her, this will be a great experience!

This year Hunter has Mrs. Olson for his third grade teacher. Her classroom seemed really neat, but he is so uninterested in anything school related that I couldn't tell if he was excited or not. I tell ya, nothing changed my life more than being the mother to a boy!
I had to bribe this one with money in order to get these two pictures...sheesh!

That is a $2 smile right there....money well spent!

Both kiddo's had a great first day of school. Jazzy was quick to tell me about all of the academic stuff they had done that day "Mom, we have load of work, are you listening?? LOADS! This is going to be such a long year." ....Hunter.....oh, he played at recess. Anything else bud?..."nope, well I guess lunch was pretty cool. Daddy put marshmallows on my PB & J!" What!?! Note to self: don't let John help pack lunches.

Bottom line: They returned the next day, so it couldn't have been all bad. I long for the days gone by when the kids were little and school was so exciting and fun for them!

My Cousin, My Best Friend!

I had always hoped that my kiddo's would have cousins their age. I myself was very close to my cousins growing up and there were three of us born within a year and a half. We loved hanging out and were always very close. My older two are very close to my little brother and sister ~ they are all two years apart. And Trinity has Morgan ~ Trin was 4 in July and Morgan will be 5 in October, and with the way that birthdays land they will both be in kindergarten together.

They often can fight like sisters, but it warms your heart to hear them say "she is my cousin and my best friend." This is a phrase that we all hear quite a lot and I love it!

Amy and I did some shopping this week after the big kids started school. We bribed the girls with time at the playground if they kept their cool during our shopping. We finally made it down to the playground and about 5 min later their other good friend Stella showed up (Stella's mom Emily is my sister's best friend, but she is also 4). I got some cute pictures of our time playing...

Trinity reached the top of the mountain and then started shouting "Hey mama, take my picture. I have a really pretty smile right now." Total goof-ball!

Morgan's facial expressions totally crack me up!

And we're down...

Stella joining the party on the canoe

This picture depicts Morgan and Trinity's attitudes perfectly!

You Know It's Football Season When...

You know it's football season when even the animals are sporting Duck wear! We are die hard Oregon Duck fans in this family. We have season tickets to the games and we love getting dressed up to cheer for our ducks! After Trinity got her build-a-bear my mom bought her a little UO cheerleading outfit for Gracie to match Trinity's cheerleading outfit. Trin loves getting Gracie dressed up and was excited for the first football game and that her and Gracie were going to be "twins." She had lovingly laid out Gracie's cheerleading outfit the morning of the game right next to her own and was waiting until after her bath to get Gracie dressed. I was in the bathroom doing Jazzy's hair when I hear this 4 year old sassy pants yelling at the top of her lungs "Daddy, don't do that ~ those are mine! DAAAAADDDDDDYYYYYY ~ Those are for me and Gracie!!"

When I came out to see what the screaming was all about this is what I found...

Lola showing her team pride

Look at that face ~ it just screams "I am so humiliated, but Go Ducks!"

My husband is easily amused....

GO DUCKS!

A Trip To The State Fair

So ~ for the record I HATE FAIRS! I know that is terribly negative, but it's the truth. They are dirty, creepy people work there, and I think it is the biggest rip-off! We have not gone to a fair since the kids were born. Often times when the fair comes to town we are able to avoid any talk about it ~ the kids don't even know it is here. This year we were not so lucky. It is getting harder and harder to pull a fast one on my kids ~ they are just too smart and too aware of life around them now. Every day they had a way to make us feel like the worst parents ever because they had never been to the fair.

In July I had received an email from the state (we get these all the time as foster parents) telling us that we can get free tickets to the state fair we just needed to email them how many we needed. I talked it over with John and we felt this may be a way to win our "cool" parenting status back.

My brother Jason and his girlfriend Erin were coming down from Portland the day we planned on going and we were able to talk them into going with us. Then Jason talked my Mom, Roger and Zachary into joining us as well. None of us had ever been to a state fair before. It wasn't too bad. We had eaten at home before we left (it is in Salem which is about an hour away) because we didn't want to spend too much money on the extremely overpriced fair food. It did get pretty hot that day, and by the end of the day we were spent!! Here are a bunch of pictures to capture bits and pieces of the day ~

Here we are in the beginning ~ we started out strong.... the plan was to take a pic at the end of the day to show how ragged we had become, but we didn't have the energy! By the end we were very hot and sweaty, tired and cranky and all three kids had basically fallen apart. Gotta love the fair!

We met up with Uncle Jason and Auntie Erin (Melissa's brother and girlfriend) after getting there.

Trying to get a picture of the three kids ~ surprise ~ Uncle Jason must be one of the kids!

Cheese!!


Some of my most favorite boys!

f you look at the religious booth behind Zack you will see that it is asking "Are you going to Heaven?" We asked Zack that question as he stumbled upon his next task on the path to becoming a man...

Behold ~ The quest to conquer the motorized bull **Spoiler** It doesn't end well for Zack!

This was right before he was flung off of the bull. He didn't stay on the ground long enough for me to get the picture ~ too many chicks around and he had to keep up his image.

Trin was on cloud nine at all of the animal exhibits. Every cage we came to was "oh mama, I think we should get a ________." Fill in the blank with bunny, chickens, goat, pig, cow, etc.

This picture cracks me up ~ the look on Hunter's face and then the goat with his snaggle tooth. A match made in heaven!

Then starts the rides...

Ready...

Set...

Go.... yes my children are upside down. My mother was freaking out ~ here was our conversation:

Mom ~ Melissa, do not let you children go on a ride that will take them upside down.

Melissa ~ Mom, I don't care what rides they go on, they meet the height restriction so it will be fine.

Mom ~ That doesn't mean anything, look Jazzy, maybe you should go on that one. (points to the spider/octopus ride)

Jazzy ~ Grandma, come on, that ride is boring.

Mom ~ I would prefer your bodies to stay upright that's all ~ upside down rides break down you know.

Jazzy ~ Will they crash? (her voice full of sarcasm)

Mom ~ Maybe...

Jazzy ~ I love you grandma (laughing and waving as she runs over and gets on the ride.

Melissa ~ Looks like she didn't fall for your bad attempts at scaring her out of it.

Mom ~ Well, this is only their first ride, I will get them on the next one.

Did it work for the next ride???

Ummm.....

Negative ~ You can only see the heads of Hunter and Zack ~ they were spinning around too fast.

Trin informed us that she was big enough to go on the rides by herself. Grandma Lynn was more comfortable with these rides :)

I think this was Trin's favorite part of the whole fair experience ~ measuring herself. She would do this several times at each ride "just checkin mama."

Daddy and Jazzy on the scrambler ~ of course metal was flashed.

Uncle Jason, Auntie Erin and Hunter

The day ended with a walk through the miles and miles of infomercials (fair booths) and a very cranky walk back to the car. We came, we saw, and we conquered. We have won back our cool parent status! Maybe next year we will go camping during fair week! :)

Oh How We Miss Our Dairy!!!

Some of you may know that our dear Jasmine has been blessed with raging ADHD. This was discovered halfway into her second grade year when she still couldn't read and had behavior problems up the wazoo. As parents we were just taking it one day at a time, because hey, it's your kid. We had finally had enough when we realized just how much it was taking its toll on Jaz. She was distraught with what was happening in her life. She had no internal control over her actions and absolutely no focus. This was the beginning of a life on medication.

Jasmine had been taking 2 pills a day to help control herself. Let me tell you what a lifesaver they were. She quickly learned to read and then quickly became one of the top readers in her class. We went from huge behavior problems to none at all. And all of this made her feel successful and was a huge self esteem boost.

Well as Jazzy grew the meds didn't have quite the same effect. Soon she was on three pills and just a few months ago they bumped us up to four pills a day. The problem is that even with four pills it just isn't working that great anymore. I was fine with her taking meds as long as I could see that it was making her life easier, but I am not okay with it once I see they aren't working.

I talked with several friends from church and about ways to naturally help Jazzy with her issues. John and I looked for days and days over things that I had found on the Internet. This is the list of the changes we have made:

• We cut dairy completely out of our diet - this means vegan "cheese" and margarine spread, tofu sour cream, rice milk, and non-dairy "ice cream" ~ this has all been very interesting!


• New supplements for everyone but Trin - Cod liver oil with A & D, high dose of vitamin C, Super Nuthera (which is an extra strength B complex) and calcium magnesium.


• Jazzy can't be cut cold turkey from her pills so we are down to 2 pills first thing in the morning and next month she will be down to one pill and so on.

One of the people we spoke with was a homeopathic doctor, so don't worry that we are shoving our kids full of vitamins. We have the correct amount of dosage for each of them.

The results......WOW!!! Because most of the supplements we take are liquid we have noticed a dramatic change in a short amount of time. I can't even explain through words how different things are. First and foremost Jazzy is a totally different person ~ rather she is under control without all of the prescription pills. No more crazy extreme mood swings, still totally focused and she has been amazingly loving and kind. Most of all she is happy once again.

John and I have also noticed a difference in our own moods with being on this new regime. It's crazy what some changes can do.

Although it has been difficult ~ We all LOVE dairy, we have found ways to make do with the changes. All in all it is worth it!!

This is our new favorite ice cream. And the great thing is that our close friends are the producers of the cookie dough (gluten and dairy free) that go into this ice cream.