The Otte's

I have been doing a lot of thinking about my kids lately.  I think back to when Quinn was in Kindergarden and how the teachers thought I was making stuff up about how smart she was, and how now her goals are so high, and I leave the meetings thinking, wow, Quinn you have your work cut out for you!  I'm so proud of how smart you are and how you are showing folks around you how smart you are.  At the same time I thank her teachers who take the time to get to know her and love her.  At the same time, she puts that effort into everything she does, therapies, walking, standing.  She amazes me and I'm so lucky to have her in my life and so very thankful she is as healthy as she is.  I do not take it for granted and am prayerful it continues.

Denali in this picture is working so hard to help Quinn.  When John and I started the foster care / adoption process, we knew we needed to be careful, as having Quinn we wanted to keep her safe.  When Denali came into our lives, she was a high stress kid, who did not know how to control her emotions, and she was so emotional.  Right away, she loved Quinn, and I remember her crawling into bed with her, and crawling over humidity tubes and feeding tubes.  Wires checking her pules and pressures.  The wires did not phase Denali at all, she saw Quinn for the kid she was, and loved her through it all.  At the same time, Denali would scream and cry and over odd things as she had every right to for what she has gone through in her short 5 years at the time.  Now seeing her so loving, and such a mother hen to Quinn in a good way.  Always talking to her and helping others see Quinn for being a hard working kid and nothing more or less then that.  She is developing into such a caring kind emotional (in a good way) child.  Granted her room is a mess and she likes checking boundaries at times, but seeing her in a happy place with her emotions and having her love her brother and sister unconditionally makes my heart so happy.

Isaiah just makes me smile in this picture.  When we met him, he was 6 and he told us how he had to be the grown up and take care of his sister.  He hardly ever smiled and was so serious and melancholy.  Now seeing him embrace childhood, jumping into the picture with a big smile on his face still surprises me, and makes me so happy for him.  He understands the importance of being a kid.  He loves his sisters and wants to be a good role model, but also gives himself permission to play and giggle and be silly, and that was something he did not let himself do for so long.  He is so loving and smart.  He reads for hours, only because I won't let him use electronics all the time.

I see all three of my kids feed off each other in great ways.  Denali finds her caring side and can't wait to help Quinn, I am so thankful for that, and at the same time am so careful not to push her to have to care for her.  Isaiah is great at being there for his sisters while still being a kid and understanding that he does not have to be the adult, that is our job as parents, so he gets to be a kid, while loving on his sisters and playing with them instead of having to look after them.  Quinn just comes to life with them.  She is so much more excited and happy with them in her life.  She will watch what they do and break out in the giggles.  Isaiah loves to tell her things to tell people in the store, he loves to have her ask people about their underwear, and she thinks it's so funny.  So if we run into you at the store, be ready to tell us what color your underwear are.  (I love that!)  Denali on the other hand will be sure everyone in our family has their fair share of hugs and drawings.  She wants to share her emotions in a healthy way and shower her love onto our family.

I don't feel like we have ever really been a broken family.  We have gone through a lot with surgeries and almost loosing Quinn and John with in a few months of each other, over 7 years ago now.  To deciding that we wanted to add to our family, and I would tell anyone to foster kids.  They are amazing.  I won't say it's easy because raising kids is hard work and most nights I go to bed exhausted, but I will say it's worth it!  Every minute of it.

I have so many folks tell us how well behaved our kids are, or how well they act with each other and how much they love each other.  I agree, I have three beautiful, amazing kids!  Sometimes I think wow, we are great parents, then I think we are just lucky, then I thank God for the family we have and the support we have.  I am so grateful!  Our life is busy, it's not always easy, we are grounding our kids regularly, and will continue to help them learn, but there is a lot of love in this family, and we accept each other for who we are and the love we bring, and really what more is there then that!  Acceptance and Love!  Phew, what is going on with me.

Thanks for reading!  We will see if this makes any sense in the morning, but tonight I'm just feeling very thankful!  Thanks God!  We have it pretty good!