Woertman Family

September Blog

2007-09-18T18:10:00.000-04:00

The activities never seem to stop around here. Scouting has started again in full force. Monday night is cub scouts for Ashton, boy scouts for Jordan, and girl scouts for Heather. This weekend Jordanis going down to Charleston, SC to spend the weekend on the USS Yorktown. Ashton has this same "field trip" in March. Tuesday's belong to Caroline and Jessica. Both are in the same troop and Candy is still an assistant leader. They are planning on going on a huge trip with all the fundraisers they have held over the years. Looks like the girls want to go to London. They need a lot more money to do that. Wednesday evenings consist of youth group. Thursday's is gymnastics for Heather and Jessica. Friday we head out to the counselors after school. She has given us great insights on how to deal with dealing with certain kids behaviors. Each week gets a little easier. I like to say 2 steps forward then a step back. Bedtimes have become much easier. We have loaded all the bedrooms with sound machines and lavender scented plug-ins. The kids are all in their own rooms at night now as well which has helped a lot.

Some of the weekend trips have included going back down to the beach house for a weekend. Jessica didn't want to go so she stayed with grandma and grandpa. We also went to Lake Gaston for the kids CAR (Children of the American Revolution). The house we went to was on the lake with a dock. Ashton rode a jet ski, the kids got to go boating, and a cookout for lunch.

2007-08-09T09:06:00.000-04:00

A few items from the last month. School started on July 9; we tracked out for our summer break on July 27; Candy turned 40 on July 28; we spent one week at the beach; we went boating at Lake Jordan; and we have had the construction finished on the house and have begun the excruciatingly painful chores of moving into the new rooms. Here are some updates on the family:

Caroline: Caroline started her 8th grade year at Lufkin. She is a terrific student and is well organized when it comes to her schoolwork. She will do great this year because I have come to find out that she knows just about everything. At the beach she went skating on two of the nights and showed that she can stay up on them for long periods of time. She also went to the movies with some friends from school and saw "Hairspray". She stated "That was a great movie and John Travolta is really dreamy." Right now she is attempting to cram a lifes worth of "stuff" into her new bedroom which is painted pink and green. She finally realizes that she has truly been blessed.

Jessica: Jessica started 6th grade at Lufkin. Her favorite teachers are her language arts teacher and her math teacher (I never get tired of hearing how great her math teacher is). She scored a 100 on her first science project and has kept up in all of her classes. She likes to keep her locker ajar because it "takes to long to open." This girl flat out likes to swim and dive. Of course on land she does all these gymnastical moves that we are looking at enrolling her in the gym for real training. The picture at the right was taken at the roller rink. She was pretty good at getting around the place and fell hardly at all. At the lake she enjoyed riding the inner tube and doing flips off the boat.

Jordan: Jordan has had the busiest summer so far. He spent one week at boy scout camp, he has been camping on 2 other weekends and has been advancing through the ranks at a brisk pace, as well as all the other trips to the beach and lake. He started Lufkin this year is grade 6 so he has the same teachers as Jessica. Once again he just raves about his math teacher. This guy must be really great. Jordan tried to skate and lasted approximately 30 seconds before realizing he was not made for walking on wheels. Jordan helped to paint his new room in orange and his furniture is all black. He calls it the "tiger" room. He has also been doing Networks (basketball) on Wednesdays and Thursdays. He is getting some skills.

Heather: One morning Ashton came running into the house shouting that there was "a huge snake at Uncle Todd's house." I love snakes so I went to get my shoes on and go on over and look. I stepped out the front door and there was Heather holding the thing with it wrapped around her body. Heather loves animals/reptiles. We let the snake go but she still takes care of her bearded dragon, Tinkerbelle, as well as walks and plays with the many dogs on the street. She has been a huge help in the reorganization of the house as she assisted in the painting of 2 bedrooms, assembling the bunkbed in Ashton's room, disassembling and then reassembling the bunk in Jordan's room, putting together the entertainment table for Jordan's room, and assembling her own bed. She is the self-proclaimed "drill girl"! Heather is now in the fourth grade and can't wait to have the math teacher that her sister and brother say such terrific things about.

Ashton: Ashton started grade 2 at Olive Chapel Elementary. He is not a big fan of doing homework and we typically have to wait for him to calm down and then he does quite well. He has improved so much in his swimming. He goes so often that I guess that was bound to happen but he does seem to pick up on things rather quickly. At roller skating he fell and fell and fell. By the end of the night he was falling a lot less and then he won the elimination game. His prize was a free night of skating which is why we went back 2 nights later. He improved quite a lot and now he is talking of playing roller hockey. Who knew? Ashton bought a spider man fishing pole with his allowance and when we took the boat out on the lake he spent a good portion fishing. He learned to cast that line out there a good ways too!

Parents: The parents are coming up on 15 years of marriage (August 22) and although these last few months may have been the toughest they have been some of the best. The house is finally completed. All the kids have their own rooms. We have a giant new family room and we are all on vacation together now at the same time. This is the first time we have the same school/vacation schedule in the last 7 years. Candy turned 40 but seems no worse for the wear. She also has lost 70 pounds and has decided that she can now inner tube. She is also telling me that we are snow skiing in the winter. Me? Just give me my one night of poker a week and I am happy. Fantasy football is coming so that also brings a smile to my face.

Home

2007-07-08T15:20:00.000-04:00

The last 10 days have been spent enjoying the time off from school and learning how things work around here. The house is a wreck with all the construction. The dry wall went up on Friday so the end may be near. It will be nice to have all the kids in their own bedrooms. School starts tomorrow and we are gearing up for that. Ashton had his 8th birthday at the end of June. We had a party for him over at Aunt Wendy's house. A small affair with an attendance of about 25 people. We have made many trips to the pool as swimming is a favorite activity of the family. Jordan just completed a week of boy scout camp. He had a lot of fun and earned many merit badges.

Emergency 9-1-1

2007-06-03T13:42:00.000-04:00

We have been allowed to watch the kids until Wednesday of this week. I drove to Crossnore early on Friday with Caroline and Jordan to catch the end of school year awards ceremony for Jessica, Heather, and Ashton. We ate a cookout style lunch and then came on home. Upon our arrival Heather decided to call me on my cell phone (even though I was upstairs). In her haste, instead of area code 919 she dialed 911. Fortunately the police called back and verified that there was no emergency. Saturday morning Ashton picked up this Pirates of the Caribbean phone and he dialed 911. Now we have never used this phone but Heather had found it laying in the boys room and plugged it into the wall in her room. Once again the police called to verify that there was no emergency. Later the same day we go to the pool. The pay phone there was too much temptation. Jessica could not get any calls out (because she had no money and it is a pay phone remember). She wants to check if 911 works so, you guessed it, dialed those 3 numbers. This time an officer came out and Candy had the guy give them a speech. Hopefully, this will end our experiences with the Apex police department.
Today is Sunday and we have been to church and McDonald's. Ashton has not fallen today yet (he fell Friday night off his scooter, Saturday walking from the car, and Saturday night running in the street). Things are going well. We meet with the Wake County social worker tomorrow to submit all our paperwork and get licensed as foster parents. She says we could have that license by the end of next week. Then it is only a matter of time until the kids will be placed in our home and there will be no more long trips up and back to pick them up.

2007-05-29T07:16:00.000-04:00

Memorial Day Weekend 2007
Friday--We left Apex at 3:00 for the 4 hour drive up to Crossnore. This was the weekend that we were to be allowed to bring the kids home for the first time. We arrived at 7:00 and were not expected. No worries. A phone call sprung the kids from their rooms for the weekend. We took a trip to the grocery store to buy breakfast and lunch foods. Eating out was getting old (as well as expensive). Quite an experience shopping with 5 overly excited kids. They all had differing tastes in food fare.
Saturday--The kids actually went to bed at a reasonable hour but were up at 5:40. Ouch! The trip of the day was to Wet n' Wild, a water park in Greensboro, NC. We started swimming at 10 and kept swimming until 5:30 with a short 30 minute break for lunch. No one slept on the 1 hour car ride back to Apex. I do not know how to tire out this lot. We were greeted on our arrival home from many members of the family. Aunt Wendy was there. Emily, Matthew, Aaron, and Katie were there. Aunt Kate and Uncle John came a short while later. There was more playing outside on the basketball hoop, skateboarding, exploring. The kids were shown where they would be staying and where all their clothes were. The 3 girls were in one room and the boys were in the other. However, Heather saw opportunity in the bedroom downstairs. It used to be an office but we transformed it into a very small bedroom. Mostly we used it as a video game room. Heather took it over and moved her bedding to the bunk in the room. (As a side note, construction has begun on the new addition to our home. 2 more bedrooms, a bathroom, and a large family area will be completed sometime in July. All the kids will then have their own room.) That evening we held Christmas in May as we had expected to be visiting with Jessica, Ashton, and Heather in December and the church had purchased a lot of gifts for them way back when so we just opened them Saturday night. Bedtime was at around 10:30.
Sunday morning was very quiet (except for Ashton and Jordan who decided to play this new air hockey game outside our bedroom). We went to Sunday school and church. That afternoon we visited some old friends of the kids from Crossnore -- five girls who were adopted a year ago. We went over to their house for some more swimming. It was a great reunion and Candy and I had a real good time talking to Robyn and Seth (the parents). After 3 hours of swimming it was off to the next event--a cookout at Aunt Wendy's. Lots of good food was present and there was more climbing, ziplining, and running over the next couple of hours. Heather had the chance to put a harness on her new bearded dragon and walk it around the house. Then after all that it was a trip to our neighborhood pool for another hour of swimming. The kids went to bed at 10:00.
Monday was more playing with the cousins. Then the long trek back to Crossnore. The trip went smoothly as mostly the kids just watched movies. We arrived back home at around 9:00pm and are expecting to bring the kids home for another weekend this weekend.

2007-05-15T06:56:00.000-04:00

We drove up for our second weekend visit on Friday. We arrived at around 9:00 pm so it was too late to really do anything except go to bed. We had been encouraged throughout the week that the kids had enjoyed their time the previous weekend. It was told to us that Ashton cried when we left and Heather talked about us the whole week. Caroline and Jordan were very excited to be along on this trip to meet their new brothers and sisters. On Saturday we went up to the cottage to pick up the three kids and go get something to eat. Heather saw us first and came tearing out of the house to meet us. Jessica and Ashton followed. Then I was handed 3 sleeping bags. We were told that this weekend would not be the best time for an overnighter but the housemom told us that they were so excited to spend the night. So that was that. We took all five kids to Tweetsie Railroad again for about half the day, spent some time at the park, and played wiffle ball outside the cottage we were staying at. All the kids were getting along great. Nighttime we couldn't get them to go to sleep they were having such a good time.
Sunday we went to our kids church. We met their Sunday School teachers and got a tour of the place. We all then went to Sunday School. After church we ate at some chinese food place which was pretty good. We left at around 3:00 on Sunday. Once again it was a fun weekend. It is so strange to see pictures of our family with 7 people in it. I have included a link to many photos from the last weekend. The animal pictures were taken by Jessica and Heather (both animal lovers). So anyway just click and enjoy.

Our first visit.

2007-05-06T21:43:00.000-04:00

This weekend did not go as planned. We were supposed to meet the kids on Friday in the presence of the social worker, and counselors from Crossnore. The kids were going to have some questions prepared to ask us. Then we could talk for a little bit then that would be that. Maybe two hours tops. Saturday we were going to be able to have an on-site visit alone with the kids. Have them give us a tour of the place, play a little, eat lunch etc. then we would go home. Again, maybe 4 hours tops.

Here is how it really went down: Candy and I were nervous on Friday when we got there. When the kids came in they were with the social worker and the counselors and my first impression was how little Ashton and Heather were. We said hello and went into this conference room. Heather spoke up first and from there we just started talking. After about 30 minutes the counselors and social worker said they had to leave but the kids could stay with us and show us around. Now that wasn't supposed to happen. They gave us a tour of the school, took some pictures, went to the coffee shop (they had shakes and brownies), shopped at the thrift store, and showed us where we would be staying that night. Later we were allowed to drive off campus and so we ate at a diner called SanDees. We hung out together until 8:00.

Saturday we were going to take them out to breakfast at 9:00. When we got to the cottage Ashton and Heather came sprinting out to meet us (Jessica is in middle school and that would not be a cool thing to do). We were told to bring them home by 8:00! Wow an entire day and we could go as we please. It started off terrible since the first stop of the day after breakfast was a trip to the mall (I hate shopping). Fortunately we didn't stay long and found out that the local theme park, Tweetsie Railroad, had just opened for the season. We went and although many of the attractions were closed we still spent the whole day there. It was great fun. Whew was I tired when I returned them back home. Then it was off for our 3.5 hour drive home. The worst fog I have ever driven in but we made it (obviously).

Oh, and about the attached picture: We got the camera ready to take the picture on the timer. When I pressed the button I ran around to my position on the bed and lo and behold the bed frame broke. So the expressions on the faces are suppressed laughter.

Jessica

2007-05-06T21:36:00.000-04:00

Jessica is 12 and from what I saw, a typical pre-teen. We went shopping and she bought flip-flops and a pair of pants. Then she bought the fake nails. When we first met and we went on a tour of the school she took us to the thrift store on campus and she got some more clothes. She also was an excellent photographer and took many pictures with the digital camera. The one of her here is one she took of herself. She wants her new bedroom to have a dolphin theme. I was gonna put a picture of her up here on the phone because she also spent a great deal of time going through the address book on my phone and calling everyone: "Hey, this is Jessica, I'm your new..." She is definately not shy although she is much more reserved than the other 2. I did wow her a couple of times with cheap magic tricks.

Heather

2007-05-06T21:28:00.000-04:00

Here is Heather showing us the fake nails that her sister glued to her hands. We told her that it would difficult to pick her nose with those on but she informed us that "I don't pick my nose I use a tissue thank you very much." She did have problems putting the quarters in the air hockey machine and pulling up her pants after the bathroom, though. She ended up biting them all off before the day was through. Heather also seems thrilled to be getting adopted and she took no time to calling us mom and dad. She loves animals and nature and wants her own room with a dog theme. She was very helpful in giving us a tour of the school and liked to call people on our cell phone (some of you reading this may have received a call). She has a big heart as she bought Candy and I presents at the campus store (shell necklaces and a jewelry box and a Jesus figurine). The one thing she wanted us to buy for her was this play rifle. She enjoyed pretend shooting me in the car ride back to school (hmmmmmm).

Ashton

2007-05-06T21:20:00.000-04:00

Here is Ashton (aka:Bubba, Bud, Fred). He really wants a mom and a dad real bad. He was the first to call us both mom and dad and he said it a lot. It felt good. He likes to press buttons so he got a real kick out of shooting the laser pen (until he unscrewed the end with the batteries and they fell out and got lost), taking photos with any camera, and playing with the thermostat in our room. When we asked what kind of theme he wants for his room he stated "horses" because he wants to be a cowboy when he grows up. He also is quite coordinated at throwing and receiving. We spent a some time passing the shopping time away by chucking footballs in the stores. In the shown picture he just bought himself a remote control plane. He left the instructions in the car.

2007-05-02T22:42:00.000-04:00

So anyway last weekend I went with the Girl Scout troop of which I am a leader and we went up to Crossnore to assist in various projects. One of the projects was a quilt for cancer patients. You see the Crossnore kids each needed to color a quilt square and we helped them with that. Some of those kids sure can color! Another project we did was helping out with chores in different cottages. The girl scouts cleaned and moved stuff around like furniture. The picture is one we took on the school sign in case you didn't know. The girl scouts stayed at this neat little hotel where they got to swim and climb and go to some creek. Caroline said "it was the best creek ever." Boy was I tired when I got home.

Home Alone

2007-04-27T08:51:00.000-04:00

This weekend I will be all alone. Caroline and Candy are on their way up to Crossnore for a Girl Scouting activity. They will be seeing our kids but must pretend that they do not know who they are. Jordan will be going to the beach with his cousins. What am I to do?

Welcome

2007-04-26T14:08:00.000-04:00

Here it is. Our attempt to keep all those interested a place to find out about our family without having to actually call or e-mail us. The fantastic news is that the family will be growing by 3 in about 2 months. We are adopting 3 terrific kids from Crossnore Academy located in the mountains of NC. On May 4th we finally get to meet them and from there many more visits are scheduled. What about our own kids? Caroline is really angry that she does not get to visit until a week later. Her eagerness and excitement is encouraging to us. We still do not know if Jordan is aware that we are adopting. Our house is going to be added onto pretty soon here to make room. Two new bedrooms (with walk-in closets), a bathroom, and a super large family room are to be added. The new bedroom wing will go to the girls. :)