Umm... yeah... sorry about that.

Oh my goodness! Since my last post in (I can't believe I really haven't blogged anything since...) September, I started my job, Ethan broke another arm, we went on vacation, got a dog... but the biggest thing to shake our world around was the other little addition to our family.

One Friday night, October 8th, Chris and I were enjoying a night alone after EmPower Group Leaders Training. He was really wanting me to give him a hair cut, but the clippers we had at the house just weren't working. It was around 11:30 and we headed to WalMart to grab a new pair. Hey... we're still young, Ethan was at some friends' house, and it was Friday! About an hour later we return, I cut Chris' hair, clean up the mess, and while Chris is in the shower freshening up his new do', my phone rings. Now, for any of you who are mothers, and your child is not at home, and your phone rings at 1:30 AM, I'm sure you can relate to the instant panic. "Weird... it's a number that I don't know." Slightly relieved that it's not my friends calling to tell me that Ethan is hurt or something, I answer the phone.

"Mrs. Dendy? This is Julia from Conway County DCFS. We have a little boy in our office who just needs a place to sleep until Monday. Can you take him?"

Uhhhh.... what??? Now, yes, Chris and I are foster parents, but since adopting Ethan, we had agreed to only do respite care and babysitting for other foster parents. We had never received a middle-of-the-night phone call before. I was in shock.

After getting a few details over the phone about this little boy, we say "Yes" and around 2:30 AM a car pulls in the drive way. A woman gets out, opens the back door, picks up the little guy out of his car seat, hands him to Chris, hands me some papers to sign, and says "Thanks!" And like that, she was backing out of the drive way again.

It all happened so fast! It was so surreal. Just like that, we had another child. We were not prepared at all... Luckily, since Ethan was gone for the night, our new little guy could sleep in Ethan's bed, and we would have to figure something else out the next day. Also, we some of Ethan's clothes still from the previous fall so we had clothes for him to wear until we could go shopping.

Long story short, Monday never came... It's been 6 months and 2 days and Daniel is still with us. It took a while to get him good and settled in... for about a month he slept in the "office" before we moved the desk out and it became his own room. He's a part of the family now! Daniel & Ethan play great together, love each other, protect each other... they are best friends and we couldn't ask for better kids!

Since I can't show his face on the internet, have chosen a few pictures in which his face is undetectable.

Christmas Day at Cocoa Beach!!! Daniel's first time to see the ocean!

Chris, Ethan, Daniel, & Me with Dora at Universal Studios!

The whole family with Jaylee at her baptism! I had to blur Daniel's face.. haha... Sorry. :-)



Oh yeah...

This is Zeus. He's that other addition to the family that I mentioned.



We think we'll keep him too... :-)