The Daily Hailey

Doesn’t that sound like a great childrens book??

Last week, Rowan asked me if he could meet up with some friends at the spray park after school. I said yes, and gave him a time to be home by. He grabbed a towel and took off. Shortly after that, Cher left my house, and called me from the road. She told me Rowan was sitting out on his bike, alone. Apparently his friends hadn’t shown up, but he still really wanted to go. But not alone. So the loving auntie that she is, Cher confirmed with me that she was going to take him! And off they went!

I can’t really tell you all the stories, but I’ll show you some of the pictures. He. Just. Went for it.

He had an absolute riot, and he played hard! Until it was time to pack up, which he did willingly, and came home at our agreed upon time 💜

Thank you, Cher, for putting into our children and our family the way you do 💜 Every single thing like this is a gift for which I am SO grateful. I love you!!!

My dearest Dekker Thomas graduated out of grade six today 🥺 My first baby is hitting up high school! 

Yes. In our town, high school starts in grade seven. I know it’s not real. But it’s how it goes here. 

I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend, but I had a little lovely team there to take pictures, and videos, and celebrate with him 💜 

Every student gave a short speech about their time in elementary school, including Dekker, whose speech was fairly neutral, but ended with a zinger advising the upcoming grade sizes to always finish their work on time. He got a laugh. While he spoke, a slide he had designed showed up on the projector. Pictures of our family. Our Dahlsjos. Our camp spot. His newest little sib. And a really handsome picture of himself. He did a beautiful job. I am so proud of Dekker. 

I cannot believe my first baby is moving on up. He is less than enthused at the idea of being, as he said, in the kindergarten of high school. But I could honestly tell him that grade seven was my favorite year of school! I hope he feels the same! 

Happy grad, Dekker. I’m sorry I couldn’t watch, but I’m no less proud of you this way 🥰 My beautiful boy, I love you! 

Stuff changes pretty rapidly in our life, as you may have noticed over the past few years, lol! So as the theme goes, we’ve had a bit of a change of plans over here, and I’m going to be away from home for a few days. I slept VERY little the last few nights, and am only remembering now that I have a blog to write! Ack!

You may have to give me a day or two to get my ducks in a row, but I’ll be back with more intentional posts as soon as I have some rest and a clearer brain.
For today , I’ll leave you with this picture.

I hope you all sleep as hard as a tuckered out four year old who has spent her day in the sun ☀️

There has been some nice lightness in the house in the midst of some of the struggly stuff, and I wanted to share it on here 💜 Our days haven’t been especially smooth recently, but I love the bright spots. They fill my heart 💜

Rowan brought home Waverly’s kindergarten packet from school yesterday. While I was reading through the info for me, Rowan walked Wavy through the booklet for her, reading her the introductions to the important staff she’d get to know. It was VERY sweet, made all the better by the fact that it was unprompted. It was all Rowan 💜

Solly and Wavy have also played really nicely together recently. One of the latest jams has been kinetic sand. Yesterday, the goal was to combine it ALL and see how big of a volcano they could make. Teamwork, baby!

At the end of the day, Dekker went off with friends, and Laela headed out for an evening walk. I asked if I could join her, and bring a tiny friend with us. She was thrilled, and the three of us headed downtown for an errand together. It was really nice to get outside 💜

The days are nice. Windy, but beautiful. Its coming up on real live summer, and I’m really enjoying the lead up! Once school has officially wrapped, I hope to jump on the school supplies stuff on the spot and get it over with, hahaha! That way, we can just soak up summer without any big pending work to slap us in the face the day before school starts 😆 Not that that would be anyone else’s fault but my own, lol!

So many more sunny beautiful days to come 💜 Thank you, Lord.

I wanted to really thank you guys. So so many of you have reached out to celebrate our latest venture of fostering. Some encouragements are more than I even know what to do with. My counsellor would laugh and tell me to let people say nice things to me! And I would burrow. But I’m working on that 😅 It has been incredibly humbling to hear from so many of you that you believe this is a good move for us. Thank you so much for your warmth and care towards our family 💜 It is yet another time where its clear to me that we have an incredible community of people, whether in person or not, in our corner, invested. Its an incredible feeling.

Our hearts to foster stem from the desire to pour love out onto children who are entering an unfair situation completely innocently. Its not a secret that the foster system is far from perfect. Its all flawed. We all know it. Even they know it. We cannot know where these children are going to go after they leave our home, or how well they will be loved. So the goal is to put the bureaucracy and anger at injustice aside, and just POUR LOVE OUT. None of this stuff is for us. For me. It is for them. We choose to take the emotional hit when they go in order to give them GOOD solid deep love while we have them. Attachment. Connection. Affection. Guidance. A family.

We praise the Lord that we were able to be approved and to offer even just some care to someone who needs a place to be loved and cared for. If it all stopped today, it would have been worth it for this one week with this one child. ALL glory to God, and zero to man. We would NOT be fostering if not for HIM!

Yes. We went camping this weekend as a family of EIGHT! The greatest misfortune is not being able to blast all the pictures on here. But alas, thems the rules, so I found as many pictures as possible that don’t contain any forbidden faces, lol!

Laela is FINALLY crocheting!! I didn’t even teach her, Avery did!! She brought it to camp 💜 Because she’s my child.

We had the pleasure of having Cher visit for a day!! So this was the photo I sent to entice her to drive faster and get there!

Apparently Laela felt left out of the whole “baby” thing.

Rowan wanted to be dressy, lol! So he was rocking a button down shirt with his swim shorts, and he mis-buttoned it. And it was funny enough to diffuse a difficult situation. I loved it.

Piper brought out her pens to do tattoos on everyone. It has become a bit of a tradition when everyone is together.

A rare blue bird sighting at the lake! Can you spot it?

This photo cracked me right up, hahaha! SO serious. Dekker sniped Jaxon’s hat, and then they both got pretty lost in the fire.

Deep discussions about bubbles and fairy wands on the beach 💜

Cold toes 💜 Someone loves the water.

Out came the fishing poles. And hook. And down the beach, away from the people, they were sent!! Yikes yikes yikes!

Beautiful little lady 💜

Fun story! The Dahlsjos bought a paddleboat! So we have been LOVING that as a group so far this season! I don’t know what it is, but it just warms my heart to see our people pairing up 💜

Fishing for bait 😅

And these two have one of the best brother/sister vibes of the group! I LOVE when Dekker and Sadie hang out!

The weekend was loud and crazy and a bit chaotic and we were pretty over it by the end, if we’re being honest 😅 But we made it! And I am confident the weekends will only get better and better from here on out 💜 Thank you Lord for the beautiful memories we’re building in this season of our life!

*click*

The camper door is closed. Hailey just headed outside to start the fire for S’morning.

Our new little one is asleep amongst a snuggly scrunchaling of blankets after an early morning bottle. And I need to get the rest of the kids out of bed and outside, preferably without waking the baby.

To quote Barney Stinson, “Challenge Accepted!”

I finish getting myself ready for the day while ‘quietly’ moving around the camper. Let’s be real, nothing about my movement is quiet when I’m not in my wheelchair. But I make do.

I gather a few things that are needed as the kids get up and I decide to leave the lights low and the fan running for background noise. I can do this! 💪

I slowly creep the kids room door open and whisper ‘Boola Boola Boola!’ (The traditional good morning call of our campsite). ‘Boola Boola Boola’ is whispered back from all. A good start!

A few of the younger ones come wandering out for hugs and morning stretches. I rearrange the blankets around the baby to block the light as Solly slaps on the light in the kids room.

I take a moment to explain that the baby is still asleep and we need to try to be quiet and sneak outside. Whispering is a concept lost on a couple of them but they did their best.

The older kids start getting dressed up on the top bunk as I get the younger boys their daily vitamins and such. It takes two tries to get Rowan’s contact in but he’s patient and we make it work.

The kids begin filtering outside as they all get dressed and excited for s’mores breakfast with their friends. Wavy was the last one out after I helped her get her bathing suit on in preparation for the beach, later.

Quiet.

All 5 kids are dressed, contacted, medicated, and outside surrounded by friends. And the baby stayed asleep. But now needed to be moved to the playpen. Left sleeping on the bed was not an option.

Ok. I can do this. I’ll scoop the baby, pivot, two steps across the camper and down, carefully, the baby goes into the playpen.
Deep breath, slide the hands under and…

Success!

The baby shifts, eyes blink once, and back to sleep.

💪😎 Next level Dad mode achieved. 🎖️

I bumble around doing a few more things as quietly as I can and head outside. And the baby stayed asleep for another half an hour while we had breakfast s’mores and the kids ran off to play.

The baby woke at an appropriate time and we had a snuggle, coffee, and chat with friends around the fire to start our Father’s Day at the lake.

Happy Father’s Day friends!

So I’ve obviously been harbouring some cute things at my house, and its been hard to talk about much else! The warm outpouring of love has been incredible and overwhelming and SO appreciated 💜 Thank you, friends 💜

As you probably know, I cannot share details AT ALL about the child in our care on here. I can talk about fostering in general, and I will 🙂 But today, I’ll show you a couple of cute pictures that I felt needed to be on the blog.

Kids are still patching ✅ They have a check-up this coming week to see what they still need to do, whats improving, etc. I don’t have the kids patch at camp or outside, so I’m not sure they’ll log too many patching hours this summer. We’ll see what their eye doctor says!

Then there are these cute things 💜 Dekker is such an amazing big brother, and Wavy likes to tease and withhold from him. She’s mean, and he is so gracious. But when she happily goes to him and snuggles, it is SO SO nice to see.

He NEVER rejects her, no matter how many times she’s shut him down. He is an excellent big brother.

I have ZERO recent photos to show you of the middle boys that I can actually show you 😅 So you’ll have to take my word for it that they’re doing really well 💜

I am so grateful for my family 💜 That is all.

I’ve been annoying cryptic for a while now. Trust me, I know. Its not been a goal, but its been my desperate attempt to let you all know I haven’t just given up on blogging, but that I am working towards real things, and have been preoccupied.

I am still preoccupied. We all are. But in a new, beautiful way.

Brady and I have spent the last few months training to be a foster family, and one week ago, we were approved!

Quick back track! We actually had begun the process of applying for foster care about 2.5 years ago. We did half of the online training (which is a LOT) and were getting more in depth with the interviews and meetings when Brady had his surgery and everything changed. We spoke to the ministry that summer, and they said it was customary after such a huge medical tragedy, we would need to wait for at least two years before we start talking about reapplying. At that point, our file would have been closed, and we would be starting at square one. This all made total sense, but we were SO sad. We really really felt called into this field.

Come two years, we got back in touch and had some good discussions with some higher ups in the ministry who decided they would make an exception, reopening our file, and letting us pick up where we left off! So we positively crushed the online training, got acquainted with our new social worker, and got into all the work!

We have spent an amazing amount of time doing training both in person and online, going to meetings, interviewing, and preparing the home for whoever may come our way, all the while unsure if we’d be approved.

We were 💜 Just on Friday, June 9th, 2023. We met the social worker who will follow us for the first year or two that day, and she tipped us off that we were clear to start receiving calls on Monday.

We did 💜

Its been five days with this little morsel. Five days of figuring. Five days of meeting needs. I know we’re new at this, but it feels like a calling has been met, and our hearts are full.

The kids are acclimating well. Very well. Dekker is in full babysitter mode. Laela loves to play mom. Rowan is patient and compassionate with the added volume in the house. Solomon has surprised us all by helping with feedings and soothers. Wavy also feeds and soothes, and is helpful in every way she can think of.

Its a whirlwind in which we are so grateful to be part of. Praise God.

👆 That there is definitely an inside with Brady. Hopefully he’ll appreciate that. Anyway.

The time finally came to MOW our GRASS! Ya. We have grass now. In the front, anyway. The backyard is going to be a gigantic undertaking and we are simply not set up for it yet, as the entire yard is filled with weeds and large stones. So. We’ll look forward to that later this season.

I digress. The front yard is finally a yard. Intentionally set up rather than just a mess. As you may or may not know, when seeding grass like we did, you have to let it grow pretty good and long before cutting it. And yesterday was the day Brady decided it was time. And because, surgery or not, he is still 1000% himself, he insisted on doing it. Because 🤷🏼‍♀️ he could. So he did!

My favorite part is coming next.

Laela and Dekker had gone on a walk, and I greeted them as they re-entered the house. They were giggling, and asked if they could go back outside and heckle Brady as he mowed. And I told them to have at it, and I bet you know why! Within moments, Dekker was mowing! Hahahaha! I went out there and noticed Laela was still heckling so she landed on flower watering duty. They made quick work of it all!

Now we can lay down more seed and start getting rid of the big weeds over time. Its patchy, but its green, and its getting there! Thank you Lord for my hardworking husband who is absolutely NOT defined by his change in mobility. Who also wants to teach our children important things, even when it takes a little longer. And who comes back into the house with a smile on his face after working hard and feeling that reward. I am so proud of him.

Grassy ass, honey 💜