If you had it to do all over again would you pick the same parents?

If or even if I didn't know what I know now about my sons parents I would with out a doubt pick them again to be his parents. They are meant to be Jaodn's mom and dad. Plus the joy I saw on their faces when he arrived in to the world was priceless. Plus they include me in in the important parts of his life and I never feel as if I am not part of it. They are also amazing with my other son who loves when we visit. They are Christians which is very important. Most of all his mom has become a close friend of mine. When something great happens she is one of the first people I want to call. His dad is quiet like me, you see some times I just don't know what to say when people are around. They have great smiles. Plus they match......meaning he looks like them a lot. To me it would be odd if he didn't look like his parents. They were exactly what I wanted in parents. You know they say you don't get to choose your parents.... well I picked his and they are great.

Two Visits

I decided last summer I would like to have two visits instead of four a year. I figured it would be better for everyone. But as I sit here this month I remember last year and the visit I had with Jadon. It was the first one post his placement. I remember being so nervous and not knowing what to wear. I shopped all day to find matching shirts in two different sizes. So when the boys had their pictures done they would match. I am thankful that my sons mom lets the boys have their pictures taken together. I remember walking in and he was a sleep on the bed, and I wanted him to be up. It didn't take long to help him along with that. Wow did he change in just that short amount of time. He looked like this little person. I remember how he stared at me as if he knew me from some where. I like that about him no matter how long its been since he saw me last he always gives me the look as if he knows me even if it takes him a minute.

At the same time I sit and wonder what it will be like when I see him again in March. It will be six months then since I saw him last. I know when I talk with his mom on the phone he is always chatty in the back ground which can cause me to be spacey in my conversation. So I know he will be chatty and I get excited. Well by then he will also be walking. Scary!!!!!!!!! Which means he is no longer this baby that I laid in his parents arms and exited. I also wonder about how tall he will be. Will he give me that same look or will he cling to his parents in fear of me. I know what ever it is it will be great.

This is why I think two visits are good. Well, they need time to be a family and learn what works and what doesn't. Second visits are super emotional no matter how much you think that you are prepared for them. Third Life happens and we all get wrapped up in our own. I am glad we are able to communicate other ways in the mean time though. Fourth I don't worry about if he is in good hand or not because I know he is. Plus there are huge changes to look forward to and if it doesn't work we can look at it later.

One year down and five to go!

This week I finished my first year of college. I am super excited because my GPA was a 3.0. How I have no idea. I am also excited bcause I did it and this time next year I am hopping to be on the graduation list. I won't stop until I get my masters though. I will however start working as a social worker as soon as I can. I want nothing more that to be able to make a difference in someones life.
Looking back in some ways I wish I would have went to school right after school, but at the same time I am glad I waited because I know what I want to become. I also want it a lot more than I did right after school.

Clean out my life

Lately I have been reflecting on the relationships in my life and I think I would be better off with out half of them. So I am ending them slowly but surely.
Take my relationship with H friends till the end or in this case until she finds some one else to give her what ever she wants. It was a relationship of what could I do for H but if the shoe were on my foot she always had a reason she couldn't help.
My relationship with K wasn't much different and she just told me she is moving in two weeks. Since I no longer drink our friendship was put to the test. Sorry I just don't see a need to drink to hang out with people.
Now my family is going to be the hardest string of all to cut. Hint they are family. I have decided for my son that one last visit home would be good. I would like to have pictures with my grandma and him, but other than that they can all kiss my rear. I don't need someone to tell me what kind of parent I am being or how I should be nice to my mother, or why and I raising my child this way when I wasn't raised that way. Oh yeah and when I fall on my face don't turn to them for help, but if I am soaring they are there to take all the credit for helping me get there, when really they had nothing to do with it.
I am also giving my orthodontist the boot. Three years and counting and he still has no idea when my braces will come off. See yeah I will go to some one who knows what they are really doing and aren't just money hungry.
Oh yeah and I am looking for a new job since my boss thinks its okay to judge my character and get away with it. Sorry I have had people judging me all of my life and I will be darned in my boss gets away with it.
My J dad. well I tried to be nice to him and guess what the street goes both ways and since he can't be man enough to stick to anything he says sorry I also have no time for him either.
I need healthy loving relationships and I have that with a few people in my life and I would rather have that with a few people instead of crappy relationships with a lot of people.

My Visit to the PICC Center

After reading the article in the paper I felt the need to do something. Well, babies always need diapers. I went to this value store that has things stores can't sell and bought up some diapers. I pulled up in the parking lot and through the window you could see a nursery I just sat there thinking to my self if I really wanted to do this. What if I saw a baby? What if the people were not nice? I grabbed my bag and opened my door and walked up to the door and rang the door bell and waited. Finally a lady beeped out and ask what I needed. I told her her I brought some diapers. A few minutes passed and finally this lady came through the door. I took one look at her and realized she was the lady who started the center. I wanted to just hug her, but i didn't, we made small chat and she went her way and told me the lady at the counter could help me. I was so over whelmed with emotions that I sounded stupid as I talked to them both. I wanted to sign up to volunteer but the only class is on a Thursday when I am sitting at my desk job. So there goes that chance. Over all it was a good experience though and I know what a great thing she is doing, but yet I feel this need to write her a letter, and I may just do that.

PICC

Yesterday I had to get a news paper for my office, and right on the first page was this amazing article about a woman who had become a foster mom at age 22, it went on to tell about how she had rarely been with out a baby and she has since retired from being a foster mom but she is the co founder of a place called Kent’s Pediatric Interim Care Center. I was so moved by the article that I called them and ask what I could do. I am attaching the link and the article. I hope it touches your hearts as much as it did mine. I am going to go through my oldest sons baby things and things I know he will never use I am going to donate, and plus other things. You may want to grab a tissue. Sometimes it takes one small step to change the life of many.

http://kentreporter.com/jumpstory.html?story=news1&pubdate=10/10/2007 Thats where I got the article from.

http://www.picc.net/ This is the web site for PICC


Enjoy reading:

She’s a mom to so many by Daniel Mooney Barbara Drennen sounds confident when she calls herself a mother, and she has the history to back it up.
In addition to bearing two of her own children, the 64-year-old has adopted three and cared for countless others over the years, all from the time they were newborns.
“I started fostering at the age of 22, and I just gave up my license two years ago,” Drennen said. “It was pretty emotional for me. All those years, I only went one week without a baby.”
Her fostering days may be over, but as co-founder and executive director of Kent’s Pediatric Interim Care Center, Drennen won’t have to go without a baby anytime soon. She wouldn’t have it any other way, and that longtime passion for the care of newborns who need it most was recognized this year, when she won the 2007 Stand on a Better World Local Award.
The award, sponsored by New Jersey flooring company Mannington, recognizes three women who have made a significant impact locally, nationally or globally. Drennen won the local award for developing her unique center, called PICC for short, which provides unmatched care for drug-exposed infants from across the state.
“I was honored,” Drennen said. “To receive an award like this is very humbling.”
The idea for the center began when Drennen, a longtime Kent resident, was busy fostering babies in the 1980s. She began to notice what was then becoming a widespread epidemic in the U.S. — the use of cocaine, often by pregnant mothers. The result of the drug use was premature, addicted newborns, many of which came to Drennen’s door.
“I had been a foster parent for many years, and the babies began to change,” she said. “They became very much more difficult to manage, so I decided to do something about it.”
Partnering with fellow Kent caregiver Barbara Richards, Drennen consulted with physicians and academics to learn and develop therapeutic techniques for guiding the infants through the painful period of withdrawal. “The Two Barbs,” as they were called, began providing the care in their homes, and before long, hospitals were prompting them to design a center for the valuable service.
Drennen and Richards formed PICC in Kent in October 1990.
“It’s been almost exactly 17 years now,” Drennen said. “We had no idea of the depth of the program. We knew what we wanted to do with the babies, but we didn’t know how far-reaching this was going to be.”
PICC became the first full-time newborn nursery specializing in bringing drug-addicted infants through withdrawal. It has yet to be replicated, Drennen said, though many have used the center as a model.
Richards retired in 2000, but Drennen continues to lead the PICC as executive director. Over the last 17 years, she and her staff have led more than 1,900 drug-exposed newborns through their first weeks. She has trained hundreds of caregivers, medical personnel and others in the techniques of diagnosing and handling drug-exposed infants.
PICC moved to a new facility in 2006, located at 328 Fourth Ave. S. in Kent. The two doctors, two nurses, aides and volunteers at the center now can handle about 13 babies at a time, placing them on a level of morphine that mimics their level of addiction and then slowly decreasing that level until they are no longer dependent.
“I have a staff like no other,” Drennen said. “They share my passion for the babies.”
The Legislature recently increased funding for the center, allowing for 17 infant beds.
Drennen has been a valuable resource to the public, medical community and the government on the importance of educating women about the effects of drugs on newborns, even helping to pass legislation to require reporting of newborns testing positive for illicit drugs to Child Protective Services.
And she doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
“People always ask me when I’ll retire, and I always say 10 years,” she said. “But I’ve been saying that forever, and I’m still saying it. I don’t think there’s any place I’d rather be than here.”
Drennen was selected for the Stand on a Better World Award by a panel of judges, including world-famous athlete Billie Jean King, Emmy award-winning “20/20” correspondent Deborah Roberts and 2006 Stand on a Better World recipient Olga Murray. Drennen will be honored at an awards ceremony Nov. 15 in Wilmington, Del., where one of the three recipients will be chosen as the grand-prize winner, receiving $25,000 to be donated to her chosen charity. The other two winners will receive $10,000 to be given to their chosen charities.
Contact Daniel Mooney at 253-437-6012 or dmooney@reporternewspapers.com.
In addition to bearing two of her own children, the 64-year-old has adopted three and cared for countless others over the years, all from the time they were newborns.
“I started fostering at the age of 22, and I just gave up my license two years ago,” Drennen said. “It was pretty emotional for me. All those years, I only went one week without a baby.”
Her fostering days may be over, but as co-founder and executive director of Kent’s Pediatric Interim Care Center, Drennen won’t have to go without a baby anytime soon. She wouldn’t have it any other way, and that longtime passion for the care of newborns who need it most was recognized this year, when she won the 2007 Stand on a Better World Local Award.
The award, sponsored by New Jersey flooring company Mannington, recognizes three women who have made a significant impact locally, nationally or globally. Drennen won the local award for developing her unique center, called PICC for short, which provides unmatched care for drug-exposed infants from across the state.
“I was honored,” Drennen said. “To receive an award like this is very humbling.”
The idea for the center began when Drennen, a longtime Kent resident, was busy fostering babies in the 1980s. She began to notice what was then becoming a widespread epidemic in the U.S. — the use of cocaine, often by pregnant mothers. The result of the drug use was premature, addicted newborns, many of which came to Drennen’s door.
“I had been a foster parent for many years, and the babies began to change,” she said. “They became very much more difficult to manage, so I decided to do something about it.”
Partnering with fellow Kent caregiver Barbara Richards, Drennen consulted with physicians and academics to learn and develop therapeutic techniques for guiding the infants through the painful period of withdrawal. “The Two Barbs,” as they were called, began providing the care in their homes, and before long, hospitals were prompting them to design a center for the valuable service.
Drennen and Richards formed PICC in Kent in October 1990.
“It’s been almost exactly 17 years now,” Drennen said. “We had no idea of the depth of the program. We knew what we wanted to do with the babies, but we didn’t know how far-reaching this was going to be.”
PICC became the first full-time newborn nursery specializing in bringing drug-addicted infants through withdrawal. It has yet to be replicated, Drennen said, though many have used the center as a model.
Richards retired in 2000, but Drennen continues to lead the PICC as executive director. Over the last 17 years, she and her staff have led more than 1,900 drug-exposed newborns through their first weeks. She has trained hundreds of caregivers, medical personnel and others in the techniques of diagnosing and handling drug-exposed infants.
PICC moved to a new facility in 2006, located at 328 Fourth Ave. S. in Kent. The two doctors, two nurses, aides and volunteers at the center now can handle about 13 babies at a time, placing them on a level of morphine that mimics their level of addiction and then slowly decreasing that level until they are no longer dependent.
“I have a staff like no other,” Drennen said. “They share my passion for the babies.”
The Legislature recently increased funding for the center, allowing for 17 infant beds.
Drennen has been a valuable resource to the public, medical community and the government on the importance of educating women about the effects of drugs on newborns, even helping to pass legislation to require reporting of newborns testing positive for illicit drugs to Child Protective Services.
And she doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
“People always ask me when I’ll retire, and I always say 10 years,” she said. “But I’ve been saying that forever, and I’m still saying it. I don’t think there’s any place I’d rather be than here.”
Drennen was selected for the Stand on a Better World Award by a panel of judges, including world-famous athlete Billie Jean King, Emmy award-winning “20/20” correspondent Deborah Roberts and 2006 Stand on a Better World recipient Olga Murray. Drennen will be honored at an awards ceremony Nov. 15 in Wilmington, Del., where one of the three recipients will be chosen as the grand-prize winner, receiving $25,000 to be donated to her chosen charity. The other two winners will receive $10,000 to be given to their chosen charities.
Contact Daniel Mooney at 253-437-6012 or dmooney@reporternewspapers.com. -->

Stem Cell Research

Okay so I have to write a paper for my child development class and I am in need of some help on this. The topic when is a life a life? Where I have to also discuss if I am okay with stem cell research. I am pretty sure I am against it for a few reasons. But I tried to look up on line the first few days of development and there isn't much out there.
What I am asking is if you could just write your views on this and I will see if I can make since of all of this in my head for my paper.

Thanks for your help.