No accident

To Gary James at A4cwsn,


I need to thank you. I stumbled across your website while searching desperately for help for my baby girl. I found that and so much more. Without you & this community I would still wonder why my 9 yr. old is such a "drama queen" & meltdown expert instead of sewing her a weighted blanket for SPD(Sensory Processing Disorder) issues. I would be staring at our 19 mo. old foster baby like she had 3 eyes instead of removing extra stimuli, teaching her sign language & reducing her frustration levels. I wouldn't have taken on a teenager because I would have had my own meltdowns instead of a tremendous group of friends who understand us better than our family. I would have felt helpless instead of feeling that I have something to contribute to help others. Thank you.


Sincerely,
Holly Stillwagon


For anyone who's child doesn't fit the mold of typical, normal kid. Don't give up. Keep fighting.Keep asking questions. Keep insisting on answers. Your child needs you to fight on their behalf. 

Life is good.

I just realized we had our first foster child placed with us nearly 17 months ago. We've had three so far, been able to keep one, possibly two. We've had our hearts ripped to pieces when we said good-bye to one. We still miss her terribly.

We were told in training, "If you do it right (be a foster parent) every kid that leaves will take a piece of your heart." How very true. Yet we know with out question we were created by God to be foster & adoptive parents. We wouldn't trade our time with that little girl for anything, even if it meant avoiding heartache.

At this rate we'll have our home license capacity maxed out in just over five years. Hmm... perhaps a group home license is in our future? Maybe, maybe not. We've learned to never say never. We'll wait for God to tell us His plan for our future. In the meantime, we keep hoping for a phone call to add another one, two or a few.

Grace has a request: no more white kids. LOL She'd like an Asian or African American sibling next. :-D Preferably a girl closer to her age. We've tried to explain she can't "shop for siblings" but, well, if you know Grace... 

Then again, Grace asked for a baby sister for Christmas. A week later we got the call for Autumn. Does she know something we don't? That's ok. I'm enjoying the ride. Even in the chaos, when you know you are doing what you were made for how can life be anything but good? :-)