Cousins

This is my niece Ryleigh and Nadia at the arcade today.

We went to the arcade today for my nephews birthday that was earlier in the week.

I sadly did not take pictures, but Ryleigh did in the photo booth.

This morning our day started off with an accident outside of our house.

At about 7:30 we heard a crash so we ran to the window and got there in time to see the car drive off.

We went out thinking maybe it was our truck she hit, but quickly realized that it was the bishops van next door. The girl took off, but soon returned as she is a neighbor. She is 16 and a very new driver so she got scared and took off. She called her sister and her sister came out and let us know that she was on her way back and that she was a new driver.

Thankfully she was ok.

I am thankful that my kids were not out there playing at the time.

We actually live on a very quiet street. Yes some people drive a bit too fast on this road, but for the most part it is very quiet.

We ended our evening with a phone call from Quynsie's birth dad.

We are trying to plan our annual 1 visit a year.

For those few birth family members that we do have contact with, we have made it very clear that they are not allowed to single out one child. They have to treat them all the same.

Quynsie has contact with her birth dad and just recently her grandparents in California.

Raven has contact with her grandparents in Arizona and her half sisters.

Nadia and Carson have some contact with an Aunt.

It is very complex and we struggle to figure out the dynamics sometimes, but we do the best we can.

It is not easy having these extra relationships to navigate.

The only way we have been able to make it work so far is because the few mentioned people respect us as the kids parents and they all follow our rules. (Which are not many: Stay clean and healthy, respect Joe and I and the other kids, do not share the kids pictures or information with those we do not have contact with or on social media, and don't single individual kids out)