QOTD

If you have children.. how many and describe what makes them special.

Never married and no kids for me Though I do often say I have 18 children. Its hard to be with those 8 and 9 year olds for 7-8 nonstop hours (I teach them all subjects except for a 50 minute break when they go music, pe, computers, etc) and not feel like they partially belong to me.

I agree.. you spend more time with them than their parents. how could u not feel that attachment. I think teachers have that motherese nuturing quality. They need to do what they do.

I give you so much credit Mandy! Did i tell you about my first day of student teaching, if i did then you know why i went on to be a business major if I have not then tell me and you'll laugh till you piddle. Hugs, ANDI

As you all know I have four of those cute things called kids..all of which are adopted. I will briefly tell you a little about each if I am. Angela- she just turned 16 and I think that at this age their brains are sucked out as apposed to getting more put in. She is an A type behavior with no brain sometimes to figure out how to do things more effiencently. It can be comical to watch. She is a 3 degree black belt and very athletic. Need I say she is spoiled rotten. yes I know its my fault. Angela has that mother mentality because when 5 years old she was left for days at a time to take care of her 1 year old brother while her mother went off on drug and alchol binges. When we met her at 8 years old she had her sister (1 year old) on her hip and her brother(4 years old) by the hand and let it be known they werent going anywhere unless they were together.. We accepted that and took them all. She still needs to be reminded some days who the parents are. Bobby- He is 12 years old now and is diagnosised with autism, mild mental retardation and severe behaviors. He was my first adopted child at 3 1/2 years old. The first thing he said to me at 3 was.. It's a pleasure to meet you. He has such an extensive vocabulary it is sometimes hard to realize that he is developmentally challenged, but if you talk to him you soon discover he is in another place. This wasnt apparent early on but as years have past it is more and more noticable. He will watch the same movie for a week straight which drives his siblings crazy.. How many times can you sit through Cindarella 3.. I am not sure... He is now in the questioning phase.. Bob you need to clean your room.. why.. its always why. this is about the developmental stage he is at.. 4 years old, but he is smarter in other areas. His most lacking area as you probably can guess is socially. He doesnt know or understand how to play with his siblings even though he really wants to. It requires constant redirection to be appropriate and play nice. He improves everyday and only time and maturation is going to change this and make him better in these areas. I know someday, God willing, he will be able to live on his own and have some type of job. Orlando- He is 11 years old. He has his own problems as well. He has severe ADHD and depression. He is still very angry at his natural mother and at life over all. He is very gifted as far as smarts but just refuses to use them. He maintains many of the bad behaviors he learned in foster care like hording food, and stealing. We work with him each day to make him a better kid. He is a great kid even with these deficits. Orlando is very sweet and wants love all the time. He will lay with you for hours if you let him and will come rub your back and just shows he loves you with all his heart.. he is truely a sweet child. Jessica- Age 8 is the baby. She also has ADHD and was drug addicted at birth. She is a little slow but we work hard to keep her on track in school. She is also a small kid. At 2 years old she still wore 12 month clothes. She is getting bigger but she is on the small side in all areas of the chart. She, as you can guess loves horses and grandma makes sure she spends as much time as she can with them. Grandma plans to make her a total horsewoman to show her horses some day. As you seen by my pics i posted she has been in shows before.. every friday she shares horse stories with her class... the other day I saw her teacher and she made me laugh.. does Jessica ever run out of pics of horses or stories about horses to share. I didnt realize that every time we visit grandma she always took pics home of the horses.. she used them for show and tell. All I could do was laugh. Being raised by folks from the south, I was always taught manners. I feel that is one of the things my children have learned. They are very polite.. in fact polite to a fault. I am always getting comments on that.. they say thank you, may I, would you mind, may I please. These are all qualities I have instilled in them early on. I have some pretty good kids if I do say so myself. I tell you none of my children are spoiled ok.. well I guess they are.. I feel what makes them special is they were choicen. We choice them to be ours and they are and they know they never have to worry about that changing now. in foster care they had been moved over 10 times.. that will never happen to them again.

My son is almost 15 and is a very smart kid with sings and plays the guitar and is one of the most kind souls I have ever met. My daughter is 24 and is beautiful and a good kid (but a challenge).... And has always kept me on my toes

Jean, you look WAY too young to have a children ages 15 and 24!!!!! Deanna

awwwwww thank you! I am 44 My daughter was 1 year old when I went to college

Well, you are still young at 44 ... but I honestly thought you looked like you were about 35! Deanna

Cindy 18 is alittle lost right now,she lived with us all through school and was a pretty good child till' this past summer, after graduation she had planned to join the navy ,but that all changed one day in june ,durring a visit to her mothers house when she decided she was not comming home and not going to the navy! Cindy then told her father she used him for what she needed him for snd was going to a com. college to become a "professional" soccer player Cindy only calls whwn she needs money or is up to no good and needs a place to hide out,I really hope she can straighten out before it's to late . Ashley 16 is a "rock star" she helps out around the house alot and she's very loving to her youngest two siblings! Ashley is a good student ,cheerleader,she has a weekend job and she running for Ms. California city, she says she like to keep busy to stay out of trouble.Ashley is truely a blessing! Anthony 12 is a quiet child and a little sneaky ! he plays soccer very well but is afraid of other sports.Anthony likes collecting comic cards and other odds and ends ,he does awesome in math but has a great deal of trouble in reading . Ryan 8 is hell on wheels and always has been ,he's not afraid of anything ! He could do alot better in school if he would just focus .Ryans frame of mind is there are no stangers only friends he hasn't met yet, Colleen 2 is the boss at our house ,she speaks english and spanish better than all her siblings,my mil watches he durring the day and by far she is the fave grankind.Colleen is very loving and funny and very independent .