BellaOnline Forums Family Adoption Grandparents adopting grandchildren

Here is a photo of my cedar chest

Kinship adoption is common and has been for countless years. Centuries ago when the medical field was in its infancy and people could not overcome illness,many children were left orphaned when their parents died of illness.

I compiled a book in 2004 called "Letters and Reflections to My Adopted Daughters" by John Newton,Englsh writer of the most famous hymn Amazing Grace, pastor and adoptive father of his two orphaned nieces.

As an adoptee who is an avid collector of adoption books, I saw a vintage book on ebay about Letters to an Adopted Daughter. I purchased the old vintage leather copy of this small book and was very touched by the letters of this humble,loving adoptive father. I wrote the publisher and found that only old vintage frail copies were available from the 1800's. Realizing that the book was out of print and very expensive for others to purchase I had the book reprinted, along with another small book John Newton wrote that had reflections of the last weeks of his young adopted daughter Eliza's life and his Christian faith recollections.These two books are included in the softcover book as one book.

The book is available on Amazon.com- just look for it under "Jody Moreen" or the title listed above. On Amazon the nice thing is you can read some of the book on that site- one of the letters is available by clicking the arrow to see the books title page, contents, and one chapter. The book is written in old English, and definately shares John Newton's love for God and the scriptures. I did not reprint the book to make money- it cost alot to publish but to be a benefit for others.

Some libraries carry the book, or I often fill in the suggestions for books forms at my local library and then they have wonderfully ordered the books- then they call me as the first person to take the book out on loan.

If anyone reads the book, write a review on it on Amazon.

God bless those in kinship adoptions. Children adopted into their extended families do have the wonderful kinship connection which many adoptees long for.

Blessings, Jody

Hi Connie!

Your cedar chest is beautiful!

I'm so happy you and your husband had some time away together alone. It must have been a relief to just be able to relax a little.

How about your sister making $400?! That's fantastic!

I had visions years ago about turning ordinary flower pots into hand painted 'works of art' lol.

I set up a few in our basement, and went to town with my paint. Well, for about five minutes at least. The fumes from the paint were a bit overwhelming.

My dreams of selling my hand painted flower pots across the state at shows and festivals went down the drain as I went out to get fresh air.

Are you guys having a good weekend?

How are the visits with the Mom going? Is she making the required number of visits so far?

Hey Brandii, I have always wanted a cedar chest. I had a friend that had one and she called it her hope chest, her mom called it her hopeless chest lol.

Visits are ok. She missed one last week because she was sick. This is week 5 now. One more week after this week and she should be on unsupervised visitation. We have another new case worker (this makes #6) and so she is supposed to come make a house check this week sometime, I feel like she will just pop in because she didn't want to make an appointment.

It has been pretty busy here. I have been canning tomatoes and yesterday I made cherry jelly. On Thursday I bought an 18# box of colorado peaches (yummy!!) and made juice. Enough to make 5 batches of jelly so I was very pleased. Today I am taking my grandaughter Tiffany clothes shopping for school. She starts the 20th. My son is off to college on Thursday so we will move him and he starts school next Monday. Tommorow I am off to Oklahoma City to take hubby's dentures in. We have to leave at 5:30 to make it there by 8:15. I will have till 4 to do some shopping. I have found some quilt shops to visit and it will be a fun day!

Connie, I love your 'hope chest'. Back, before my generation, girls/women were given these as graduation gifts, etc, to be used as a storage unit for them to begin to accummulate the things they would need to take into a marriage - bedding, silver, table linens, etc. Thus they were 'hoping' to become a bride. So my mother got one when she graduated high school. She used it throughout her life (storing the good linens) and when she died, I got it. She had it a little over 40 years, I have had it for 25. The finish is not as good as the finish on yours. When I decided to refinish it, image my surprise that (on mine) all the woodgrain, and what looked like in-laid wood, was just painted on. I still have a nice cedar chest, but it does not look like my mother's cedar chest.

I'm beginning to count down to the end of summer myself. There are less than 4 weeks before school starts again. The entire family (Grandma, Grandpa, both sons, both spouses, and 5 of the grandchildren) went to the closest water park last weekend for a family 'fun in the sun'. Had a great time.

Granny Daycare is winding down. I think the two I watch have really matured this summer, and I may not do this next year. Now towards the end it seems as if they are here only to eat and that's fine with me. We have started some cooking lessons - my sons were making whole meals by this age. Brandii, I should probably start poking my head in on your other forum.

I will still check in here from time to time, so keep keeping us up-to-date Connie.

Granny, school starts here in a few days. Thursday my son is off to college. It is going to seem weird around here with my last little "chick" fledged from the nest. Today was my birthday and my daughter made me a cake and we had dinner before cake. It was a nice day.

I should have noticed the birthday cake BellaO gives you for your birthday. I DID NOT. But I hope (since I'm a little late) that you had a very good birthday. My birthday is the day I break down and have cake, too. I hope it was your favorite.

It was so long ago that my baby (he's 36) left the nest, I can't even remember. But you don't have an empty nest. This is probably not the place, but if I remember from other forums, this is also the anniversary of your older son's death, and the reason you're here, so it must have also been a hard day to get through. Most of the time I feel as if you could be one of my kids, so I think about you a lot. Keep being strong. GrannyH

Happy Birthday Connie!!

Here are my birthday smiles and wishes for you:



How was your birthday cake? As an active poster on this forum, you are required to tell me what flavor your cake was. Just kidding of course, but I sure hope you enjoyed it!

I'll post more on this thread tomorrow, but wanted to be sure to wish you a very Happy Birthday!

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Hey girls...thanks for the wishes! I did have a nice birthday. Yes, Granny, you did remember correctly. It was the first anniversary of my son's death. I spent the day with my daughter. We went shopping and I bought her an outfit for her first day of school. She starts on Friday. She is hoping to be able to get into the nursing program at the local VoTec. We remembered Barrie and it wasn't as sad as I would've thought. I know he wouldn't want us to be sad and feel sorry for ourselves.

We had funfetti cake (grandaughter picked it out) and it was just a white cake and the icing had tons of little chips in it.

Aww, thanks for that complement granny....I am sure I could be one of your kidos!

GrannyH,

I'm glad the grandkids have matured--I'm sure that makes it easier. Come on by the Cooking for Kids forum anytime!

A lot of the recipes on the Cooking for Kids site are inspired by many fun times in the kitchen with my mom and grandmother. They had to have had great, great, patience, lol!

Connie, did your son get off to college ok? Refresh my memory--is this is first or second year?

I can't believe all of the canning you did! How long does it take?

I'm glad you enjoyed your funfetti cake!