More Summertime Fun-- Water Park!

Meeting the *statue* of the guy the park is named after....

J & his sister (and a few other kids) climbing the stairs to get on the slide

Yep! That's J in that big splash!

Climbing out so he could go back on it again (and again, and again!)

A few weeks ago, J's sister's foster parents invited us to go with them to their company picnic today. It was at a local water park. To be honest, I have lived here for 11 yrs and never have been here before... It's nice but, I am afraid of heights so, not very exciting to me since most things are BIG, TALL slides.... I did enjoy the wave pool (kinda as J had a tight grip on me) and walked the kids around the lazy river a few times (they didn't want to float themselves so, I had to *push* them around... No so lazy for me! Then we went to the *kiddie* pool where they could play and go down a slide themselves.... There is where I relaxed! We could just let them loose and kick back! They had fun but, J got tired out easily and wanted to go home, so we did... It was fun (especially since it was free for us too!) and I am glad we went.... He fell asleep really quick tonight and it really tired him out! I got some really cute pics of J & his sister coming down the slide but, can't show them b/c their faces are in them.... Trust me though-- I did a great job catching them in mid-slide! I am going to print the ones out of his sister and give them to her and her foster parents.

This past Monday (August 23rd) was the 10 mo *anniversary* of J coming to stay with us. Last week I was one of 3 foster parents on a panel for the newbies in our county who are finishing their PRIDE classes. I was a bit nervous and didn't think I had much to contribute but, the case workers that run the class know our lil guy and situation and guided me on some topics and how much I could or couldn't say.... The newbies had lots of questions for me... Afterward I felt really, really good! I told them the good, the bad & the ugly.... I told them my story of how J was supposed to be with us *for a weekend* and has now been here 10 mos and as of now no end in sight...

Less than 2 mos til we go to court again.... I am anxious to see what happens then... When we go to court we will be 3 days away from our 1 yr anniversary w/ J in our lives.....

Time flies.....