How are you paying for the babies?
They are on medicaid for health insurance until the adoption is final. WIC provides their formula (which costs roughly $600/month, yikes!!!) Beyond that they receive no other assistance or foster care payments because this is considered to be a "long term family friend" placement and not a true foster care placement. We have had lots of people help with buying baby gear, diapers, clothes, etc... which has been soooooo helpful. We are also hoping that the sky will open up and rain down buckets of money into our bank account ;)
How long will the adoption process take?
Probably somewhere around 6 months depending on how backed up the courts are. At that point, the babies will officially become members of our family and will share our last name.
How are Turner, Clay & Lanie doing with all of this?
Lanie thinks she is a big helper and hasn't shown much jealousy, which is a huge relief.
Clay is very hands on, and also was with Lanie. He will hold & feed the babies and loves to have one snuggle on the couch with him to watch TV. He also says that he doesn't look forward to them getting bigger and learning to talk because then they will drive him crazy like Lanie!
Turner is more hands off. When we had a serious family meeting to talk to the boys about the whole situation, Turner's response was: "They are total chick magnets, they should stay with us"... nuff said?
What is the mark on Peytons face?
It's her birthmark, a hemangioma. It's grows rapidly at first, but usually shrinks and disappears. We call it her strawberry :)
How are they sleeping?
Peyton is only up once a night to eat and is generally a great sleeper. Marleigh (aka Mad Marleigh) has good nights and bad nights. Still mostly bad nights, she wakes up in pain, probably from her reflux, quite a bit. I have tried to keep them on the same schedule eating, napping & sleeping... but in the real world it is hard. Especially while juggling the 3 other kids schedules.
That's all I can think of for now!
