Book Review of This Is US: The New All-American Family

A couple of weeks ago, I won a copy of This Is US: The New All-American Family by David Marin from a contest hosted by Goodreads.com. I just finished reading it tonight and thought I would share my opinion on it.  This is a direct quote from the back of the book:

"Heartbreaking, funny, and inspiring, This Is US, chronicles Davis Marin's quest to adopt three siblings stuck in the social services system, adjust to his new role as a father, and create a better life for all of them."

After reading this I thought to myself, why can't there be more men like this guy? Tired of waiting for the wife and white picket fence opted to make his dreams of a family come true by fostering and adopting children on his own. This guy should be made into a saint! This was an extremely touching book as well as sad. It's also very eye opening. I knew that there are a lot of children in the foster care system but I never knew how many were awaiting adoption and how few actually get adopted thanks to the ridiculous hoops prospective parents are put through. This book should be required reading for anyone going into social services as a career as well as for the parents who are seeking to foster and/or adopt. This isn't normally my usual genre of reading but it was still a really good book...a little slow in places but it was forgivable.                                                                         

A+ Kids!

Yesterday and today I attended parent/teacher conferences. Last night was Hannah's, who is in 6th grade this year. I was so happy and proud to learn that she is doing fantastic and is receiving mostly A's! Tonight was Stella's, who is in Kindergarten this year. To be honest I was a little worried about her. When she was in preschool, the teachers had told us that she wasn't ready and that we might want to wait until she turned six to enroll her in Kindergarten. We did follow their advice and I am so glad we did because she is doing fantastic as well! Her teacher even said that she is doing better than quite a few of the other students in her class. I can't express how proud I am of my kids and I'm so glad all our hard work is paying off! Now all I have to do is get my son into a preschool so that he can also strive for success!

Finding a preschool for Bub-bub has been tough because I don't have the money to pay for it and they all seem to be really expensive. One place wanted $116 a week and then on top of that I would have to pay daycare too because it isn't a full day program. There are some free preschools around me but they are only 2 hours a day and they aren't exactly close to my house so by the time I  got him there and came home it would be time to go back and get him. I just can't justify the waste of gas or time. Of all my kids he needs the preschool experience the most, especially the socialization aspect of it because he can be a bully when around other kids and he doesn't get his way. I feel bad for him too because he hears his sisters talking about all their friends and the stuff they do while at school and he feels left out. Hopefully I will get it all figured out soon.