Seems about time for an update

If you have not been following the caringbridge site, John is doing well and is back in school. He is getting caught up on his work and staying on top of his grades. His teacher is very good at helping him. And all the staff are super supportive.

John will be starting football next week. Mary will be starting ballet next week. And James has started Tae Kwon Do training. Sports along with school stuff, work, and doctor appointments leaves little time for good housekeeping.

We have not been matched with any kids or young adults yet. I know that the right match will come along.

Well, it's been a long week and I'm so tired. Off to bed!

Long time no post

So we've been very busy around our house here lately. The most recent big thing is that John just spent some time in Children's Hospital in Phoenix. We now know that John has type 1 diabetes. As you can imagine this was devastating news to all of us. But we have no choice other than to accept it and move on. There are so many other things that could be wrong, that diabetes, although life altering, seems very manageable. I have created a website for John that we started when he was admitted to the hospital. It is called caring bridge and it is a website that was created for children with illnesses so they can stay connected with the outside while hospitalized and ill. John's site is www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnmcconkey Read all the journal entries and it will catch you up.

In other current news, Jim and I finally received fingerprint clearance and will be able to begin our work with the foster children. We could have put it off, due to everything we've had going on here, but I don't want to do that. My view on helping these kids has not changed a bit. So I've got a potential girl that I am going to meet with. Jim is going to take a little more time since he is still dealing with the loss of Alan and the new diagnosis for John. Nobody faults him for that.

Dani and Casey did not make it into a nursing program this fall. Dani is working at Cracker Barrel and Casey is working at WalMart. We will wait and see what next semester brings us.

Mary is loving school. She is still excited to go every day. James is getting along well with his teachers and classmates. John was doing great and has been out since he was admitted to the hospital. We are trying to catch up on his work that he has missed so far.

Jim and I are still working in Mesa at Arizona Regional Medical Center.

That's pretty much it for now. Check out the caringbridge site and I'll try to do a better job keeping everything posted.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

BACK TO SCHOOL!! BACK TO SCHOOL!! Well, we are off to school today. It's 10:15 am and the school has not called here yet!! Woo Hoo!! Mary is off to kindergarten, John is off to 4th grade, and James is big man on campus in his last year of jr. high. I've put the morning pictures on my dropshots site. Will add some this evening after school.

Back to School

Tonight is open house for school. James is in 8th grade, John is in 4th and Mary is off to Kindergarten. We'll go tonight and find out who their teachers are, where their classrooms are, and how many school supplies we don't have yet. School starts Thursday the 6th!

Just an update

So Dani and Casey hiked the Grand Canyon and lived to tell about it. Sounds like they did well and had a great time. Jim and the kids and I all went up to see the Grand Canyon. We are planning on making a hiking trip ourselves this fall. Except for John and Mary. We will leave them home with Grandma.

I recently changed my email address. Want to make sure everyone has it. It's icucathy@live.com

Keep checking for updates!!

Time for Updates

So Dani and Casey are officially on the waiting list for the fall nursing program at Estrella Mountain Community College. They do placements every Tuesday. So hopefully we will know something this Tuesday. Until then, we wait......

Jim and I have completed everything for the Special Friends/Community Adviser program. All we are waiting for is our fingerprint clearance cards to come back. This could take up to 6 weeks. Until then, we wait....

School is just around the corner. The kids are busy trying to come up with ways to get out of it. Mary has agreed to go to Kindergarten, but she says that's it. She believes that "grades are stupid and boring". Not sure where she got that idea from (James and John!)

Dani is leaving for the Grand Canyon with Casey and his family tomorrow. I think it's a bad idea, Jim thinks it's a bad idea, and I believe that Dani thinks it's a bad idea. Not sure that July is the best time of year to hike the Grand Canyon. Guess we'll see.

And so, we wait....

If you missed it....

Check out my new dropshots site www.dropshots.com/cathymm5 for pictures of Dani's totally rad 80's Birthday party!!

YAY! Interview went well!!

They seemed to like us! Like we thought they maybe wouldn't?? So they fingerprinted us and the case worker will call us next week to set up the 4 hour training class. Then they match us with a child!! I can't wait to meet him/her!!

INTERVIEW!!!

Interview for special friends program is Wed. July 15th!! YAY!!

Getting Closer

So we are ready to move on. Our application has been reviewed and accepted (was there any doubt?) and now we are waiting for an interview. At that time we will be finger prInted. Those will probably take 6 weeks to come back. Will keep you posted!

Still waiting.....

So we are still waiting for Dani and Casey to get their letters from the college as to whether or not they will begin nursing school this fall, or if they have to wait until January.

We have submitted our paperwork for the special friends program. Now we wait to see if they like us and then they call us for an interview. At that time, if they decide they like us, they will fingerprint us and do the background check. I think it will take about 6 weeks for the results to come back as to whether or not we are criminals. Once we are determined to be safe and sane, we will hook up with a case worker and get matched with a child.

My hope is to let everyone know all about us and let the child make the decision as to if they want to give us a try.

And so we wait........

Yay Sharon!!

Congratulations on your new teaching job!! Best of luck!! Yay second grade!!

Jim, Cathy, Dani, James, John, and Mary

Who We Are

About Jim and Cathy:
Jim and I have been married for 20 years. In the course of those years we have had 4 children and somehow found time to earn nursing degrees. 3 years ago we moved from farm town Ohio to Arizona. We go back to visit Ohio every fall for Halloween and our family's haunted corn maze! We are both currently working in a hospital in Mesa in the Intensive Care Unit, and I also work in the Emergency Room. When we are not saving lives, we are hanging out with our kids; Dani (19), James (13), John (9), and Mary (5). You can view pictures of us by clicking on the dropshots sites at the bottom of the page or check out the slide show at the top of the page. We enjoy going to the YMCA to work out and exercise and swim in the pool. When we can we like to take day trips to visit interesting sites, like the Casa Grande Indian Ruins. We also enjoy bike riding, going to the movies and going out to eat ending the outing with spending a couple of hours at Barnes and Noble book store. More frequently though, we have movie night or game night at home which involves a table covered in snacks and goodies!! Disney's Scene It and Bunco are some fun games we enjoy. We have a media room upstairs with a big screen tv and surround sound stereo. This is also where the video games are played including rockband and guitar hero. James is saving up money to buy a playstation 3. Currently we have the playstation 2. We also have a big air hockey table up there, as well as a digital drum set, electric piano, and 2 guitars. Our kids friends say they enjoy spending time here and we like it that way. Sleepovers are the norm and always end with a big breakfast of french toast and sausage or pancakes, or whatever is requested. We have a big kitchen where we like to cook and bake and grill and try new things. One of our favorite things to have is make your own pizza night. We've come up with some crazy combinations! (Check out the recipe for Jello loaf I posted on here.) We also like to roast hot dogs and marsh mellows over the fire pit in the back yard. We plan to eventually put in a pool, but that won't happen this year. But we have a few friends with pools that let us come over and swim, and the YMCA where we are members has a very nice pool.

About Dani:
Dani is nearly 20 and she and her boyfriend of 2 years, Casey, are in college to become nurses. Dani and Casey enjoy movies, music and art. They are both very talented artists. Dani played soccer all through school, participated in drama, and is a former dancer and was an instructor in the studio she and I owned in Ohio.

About James:
James is 13 and going into the 8th grade. He is at the top of his class and served as 7th grade student representative. He is planning on becoming a genetic engineer or a heart surgeon. He is very athletic and competitive. He loves soccer, wrestling and cross country and is currently into Parkour. He likes video games and working on his computer. He is a drummer in a band he helped create called "City Rock". He is clever and witty and will make you laugh.

About John:
John is 9 and going into the 4th grade. He is very smart and good grades come easy to him. He is very happy-go-lucky and brings joy to everyone around. He is an awesome big brother and is very watchful of his younger sister. He enjoys cooking, cars, transformers, dinosaurs, anything to do with outer space, and playing football.

About Mary:
Mary is 5 and starting Kindergarten this fall. She loves gymnastics, cheerleading, ballet and soccer. She loves pink and princesses and enjoys drawing and coloring. She loves Hannah Montanna and icarly. She also loves trains and has quite the train set. Throw in some My Little Pony's, Barbies and Tonka Trucks and she's happy.

About Diesel:
Diesel is our Rottweiler. He's roughly about 6 years old or so. He is a big black and brown dog that loves kids, going for walks and attention. He enjoys slobbering and shedding and licking your legs. I don't know why. He is strictly an outside dog and keeps our back yard well protected.

We are a very fun loving family and enjoy a full dinner table and lots of laughter. The kids have nerf dart guns and it's not unusual to have a dart go shooting over your head when you least expect it. We recite lines from movies and can make a full conversation with just movie quotes. I drive a Ford Excursion, so there's room for 8 people and when we load up and go places we listen to the radio and sing our way there.

Our house is clean enough to be healthy, but messy enough to be happy. People enjoy spending time here and say they feel at home and are very comfortable. Invitations or appointments are not necessary.

If you like chaos and noise and the "never a dull moment" life, then we are the place for you. If you want clean, calm and boring, you maybe better check next door.

Check out our pictures!

By Cathy

Our Sympathy

Our family would like to extend our sympathy to the families of Ed McMahon, Farrah Faucet, Billy Mays, Gale Storm and Michael Jackson (hey, no matter what we thought of him, I'm sure his family is still tore up).

Our Heritage

Jim and Cathy's latest venture

Special Friends
Taken from the website for AASK-Arizona

"Special Friends are volunteers who commit to spending quality time each month with a foster child who is matched to them based on certain commonalities. These can include gender, shared interests, and location of residence. Special Friends are caring adults who listen, support, and encourage children while exposing them to life-enriching experiences involving the arts, sports, volunteer activities, etc.

As a Special Friend, you can help make a difference in one of these children's lives by serving as a role model, advocate, mentor, and friend. Special Friends assist youth in learning important life-skills such as decision-making, relationship building, and living successfully within a community.

Mentoring

Do you remember the first time you invited someone special to watch you perform in a school play? Shopping for your prom dress? Being cheered on as you played your first varsity game?

You have the opportunity to create these memorable experiences for a child in foster care. Away from their parents and without a stable home environment, what these children need more than anything is just one adult to step forward and say: I care about you. Your life is important. You matter to me.
How does the program benefit children?

With the presence of a stable adult in their lives, 73% of youth are more optimistic about their futures. You can be the difference in a child's life simply by spending time with him or her doing things that you love. As a mentor, you can watch movies, go hiking, do arts and crafts, go to your favorite restaurant, or just sit around and chat. You can motivate a child to achieve his or her personal best by cheering them on and taking pride in their accomplishments.

By listening, supporting, and encouraging, you can make a huge difference!
How can you get involved?

Being a mentor is fun and rewarding! All you have to do is show up and be a good friend."

Cathy adds:

There are 10,000 children in Arizona alone in out of home care. Mostly in group homes, or "orphanages" they are more commonly known as. And let's face it, people who adopt generally want young kids, babies, cuties. They rarely adopts teenagers. When these children turn 18 they "age out" of the foster care system. Where are they going to go for support? Help filling out college applications, buying their first car, getting their first apartment? Where do they go for Thanksgiving? Christmas? Their birthday?

Working in the emergency room, I can tell you that many of them end up there. Drug overdoses usually. Some just looking for a place to spend the night.

So, yes. Jim and I, along with our children, are taking on a foster child living in a group home. We have just started the process, filling out our application, getting fingerprinted and getting letters of reference. Once we are proven safe and sane, which takes about 6-ish weeks, they will match us with a child (which we have the option of choosing) and we agree to spend 2 days a month with them for the next year. If this turns out to be a good match, and the chosen child does not get adopted in that time, we can chose to continue to mentor this child indefinitely. So we pick up our special friend and take them to dinner and a movie, or the mall, or the pool, or just to our house to make pizza's, or cookies, or do whatever. And while we're at it, we teach them life skills, social skills, and survival skills.

One child was quoted as saying something like, "he was the only person that spent time with me because he wanted to", referring to his special friend. The staff in the group home were wonderful to him and took excellent care of him, but anyway you look at it, they are getting paid for it. Special friends are there because we want to be. If I remember correctly, this came from a 16 year old boy who has been living in a group home since he was 8. No mom, no dad. No family. Very sad.

SO...... we are going to be special friends. We are very excited about it, but realistic. We know we can't save the world, can't bring them all home with us, but maybe we can keep one kid out of the ER.

Visit www.aask-az.org for more info

Wish us luck! I'll keep you posted!!

Cathy

Helping friends move

Today we are going to help our friend move into his new house in Buckeye Arizona. We are very excited to have our friends Dean, Penny, Trace and Jodicee Sawyer moving here from Alaska. Dean is here now and Penny and the kids will be here later. They all visited us several months ago. I will post some pictures of that visit later. The kids are awesome and alot of fun to have around, so we are anxiously awaiting their arrival.

Cathy