Accomplishing one of the hardest Parenting Tasks

Juan and my first goals as a parent was to potty train Edgar. Juan and I were very determined to make this happen as we all know that potty training is one of the hardest tasks for parents to complete especially in a timely manner.

I can not officially state that Edgar is completely potty trained as he still has accidents from time to time but he has come a long way. In 2 months times Edgar went from fighting Juan and I to telling us that he has to go pee pee. Edgar was so out of sync that he even decided that the shower was an OK place to go potty. Juan and I basically had to trick him to get him to go potty in the toilet. Yesterday I think Marked the day that I became very proud of Edgar. At Day Care he apparently just went to the bathroom and went potty.

We still continue to watch him like a hawk and continuously ask him if he has to go pee pee and his reply is a typical “Pee Pee No” response.

Potty training is defiantly  a conversation piece that all parents can talk about and give advice about. The only advice i can give is that you need to keep with it and keep in mind how much money you can save once they are out of diapers. However… My bathroom reaks of urine as Edgar has not quite learned how to aim in the toilet but i am sure he will get it in time.

Another bummer that i wish that they would make a standard in public places is the height of the urinal. Edgar is not a tall boy and he has a hard time using public restrooms because of it. If there is any type of trick i would love to know but most of the time he is peeing all over the place.

If anyone is potty training currently i wish them luck and don’t give up.

 

 

 

 

Things are on track and our ducks are lining up nicely.

Since the last post there have been somethings that seem to be going for us. One of our concerns was the fact that Edgar had no medical insurance and the first time that we took him to the Dr the bill was over $200 just for a checkup. After several hours on the phone and filling out lots of paperwork we finally figured out how to get Medi-Cal for Edgar. After going around and around with the Medi-Cal people i called them and asked them why they needed Juan and my financial information when we really had nothing to do with if they were going to give him the coverage or not. The lady on the phone questioned me and said “So you do not want insurance for you and Juan?” I told her no and then the light finally clicked for these people and they sent me in the right direction. The lady on the phone told me that I was requesting to be a “Needy Caregiver” which in turn is someone that is a guardian of a child but is unable to add them to their insurance policy at any given time. In most cases this is for relatives that are taking care of family members such as we are. A week later Little Edgar was on his way and he had Medi-Cal. This was such a relief and i am glad that this was finally taken care of.

No surprise that we are still waiting for the social worker to do our home study as they agreed to help us out. I have contacted her and told her that we now have Medi-Cal and we are just waiting on her. Our fingers are crossed and we hope to hear from her in the next couple of weeks.

It has been a month since we terminated our needs for our Lawyer. We have since received a itemized statement of the charges that they billed us for and I am shocked. Just for the little work that they did it still cost us $1500. The other thing is that it has been a month and we have not seen out remainder of our money. I think that this is sort of weird but i am sure that there is a reason.

I have been trying to add to this site and make it a better experience for all of us and I hope that you are enjoying it. If there are any comments or concerns please let me know so that I can correct it.

Hope all is well. I leave this post with the most recent Picture of the little man. He now looks so happy and finally a healthy little boy.

 

 

 

 

Back To Business

Well the Holidays are over and Edgar still is not legally adopted. There have been some things that Juan and I have been trying to gather and put all the pieces together so that we can make this process as easy and cheap as possible.

The first thing that we did is Juan and I got a letter form the mother stating that Juan and I are sole guardians of Edgar. This guardianship paper is just a notarized piece of paper as it is nothing through the courts.

The next step that we did is that Juan and I hired a lawyer and decided that we would need help from a lawyer to complete this process. After signing with the lawyer and then telling them more and more about the case the lawyer then wanted to talk to our social worker seeing that we had gone through most of the process already though the county. once all parties spoke to each other the social worker, Juan, and myself decided that this was something that could be completed on our own and that we would no longer need the assistance of a lawyer to represent us. There are several reason why this is the case. Some of the reasons is that now dont quote me on this but it is either the State of California or it maybe a federal law ( I am not to sure) but with Edgar being a relative of Juan the process should be a little easier and since the father is unknown we would not have to try to track down him or his whereabouts as only one parent in this case would have to consent to the adoption. This right there saves us lots of $$$ as we no longer will be required to pay lawyer fees and we should be getting our unused money back.

Another step that Juan and I have discoverd or came about is about the home study and the process with the county other than the courts.

Apparently once the petition is filed for the adoption we are required to take the paper work over to the Health and Human Services where they can begin their process. At this point they are suppose to charge us $4500 but only required to pay half upfront and the rest at the end.  The problem that Juan and I were starting to get upset about is that we could not believe that they were going to make us go through all the hoops that we have already gone through and still charge us another $4500.

After pulling some strings and talking to some people Our social work finally agreed to continue on and finish our home study. This is great news as now we are going to be able to save more money. We still are required to pay for some part of the process but it is a significant price difference.

There are still some concerns and hoops that we need to jump through and we are trying to iron them out currently. One thing that comes to mind is the fact that Little Edgar has no insurance and if something would happen to him we might be in a world of hurt. I have since applied for Medi Cal and we are pretty confident that we are going to be able to get this coverage for him within a week or so.

This entire process is still a long way from being over but I am glad to be apart of it and really appreciate the support that all our friends and family are giving during this time.

 

Edgar’s First Xmas 2011

We are not too sure of Edgars past but we tried to celebrate this Christmas as if it was his  first. This year Edgar was able to meet with Santa. From the picture below I am not too sure what Edgar was thinking nor do I know if he understands who Santa is at this point. Edgar was really exited when we decided to decorate the house and put up the Xmas tree he even helped put some of the ornaments on the tree.

Xmas Day was kind of funny for Juan and I as we waited for Edgar to come out of his room and be shocked and surprised  to  what he had found. The funny thing is that we never really came out of his room as he just kept yelling for Juan and I. Around 10am I finally ran downstairs and yelled for him to come. Edgar Ran right past the trees not noticing all the gifts that Santa had brought. When Edgar come upstairs Juan and I both asked him if Santa had came to visit. Edgar replied “NOOO”  🙂

We then walked him down stairs for him to see the presents once again and then at that point he became very excited.

Below is a Picture of Edgar and Santa at a Breakfast with Santa we attended.