A Quest For Large Family Friendly Destinations

And the excuses and intimidation begin...

2009-02-26T18:30:00.001-08:00

I knew when we started writing this blog that there'd be businesses happy to see our public reviews of them and businesses not happy to be reviewed. I had suspected some would make excuses and some would send veiled threats even, but I never suspected it would be a threat to "send" our "foster kids back to their sending state." Yesterday after our daughters' caseworker left I wrote a review about the head and heartache of the foster care system and today our certifier started with her request to revisit our home and discuss certification issues. Now it seems because we feel we should be reimbursed for all the medical and dental expenses we've paid for our foster daughters due to neither Oregon or Arizona providing medical insurance for the past seven months we have to be reinvestigated to see if we are financially capable of providing for our foster daughters. My point is obviously we are the better providers for our daughters as neither Oregon or Arizona has done it in 7 months. They are loved, well fed, treated by professionals, and most of all HAPPY here. Sorry DHS but my NAY! vote stands as is, I will not edit my blog entries to reflect the happy picture of foster care you need perpetuated in order to get other families to step forward and take total financial responsibility for children that are not legally there's.

I warn you this, if you attempt to "send the kids back" to Arizona because of the economic struggles the federal government is placing on the states you will not ever hear the end of it from this family. Everyone will know that you disposed of children that were settling into a forever family that loved them.

Arizona Department of Economic Security and Oregon Department of Human Services

2009-02-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

CPS, DSS, DHS
Department of Human Services500 Summer St. NE Salem 97301
DES 1717 W. Jefferson, 050Z-1Room 119Phoenix, AZ 85007

No matter what you call it if your biological child or foster child is involved you most likely have or will have a head and heart ache. After a decade of special needs foster parenting we have seen the economy put too many children at risk. A caseworker visit where we were told to either continue to pay for our foster children's medical expenses out of pocket as we've done for the past seven months or "send them back" to the state they came from has earned both Oregon's DHS and Arizona's DES a big fat NAY! for their treatment of the very children the federal government is supposed to save from neglect and abuse and the families brave enough to foster them.

Please feel free to add your stories of experiences in the United States Foster Care System.

About Our Blog

2009-02-23T10:55:00.001-08:00

This Blog is written by all eight members of our large family. We do not accept cash or threats about our reviews as they are simply our publicly voiced opinions about the treatment and quality of service our larger than average family recieves.

Last year we had the average 2.5 kids or two big kids and one little one to be exact. In one year thanks to social services adoption and vasectomy reversal we suddenly found the joys and frusterations of parenting a half dozen kids of varying ages and extra needs.

We hope to find a whole wide world of large family friendly businesses, destinations and services. Let the fun begin!

Gresham, Oregon Pediatric Dentist

2009-02-23T09:22:00.000-08:00

YAY or NAY for the Dentist?

Willamette Dental: 1107 NE Burnside Gresham, OR 97030 Appointments Portland: (503) 952-2100 Outside Portland: (800) 461-8994

Our first trip to Willamette Dental was our last. While the dentist themselves were mostly professional and friendly, the office staff got the thumbs down for their treatment of our special needs daughter and her Mommy. They stank worse then a dirty diaper left in the back of a hot mini van in the Oaks Park parking lot. The other dental staff made Mom feel awkward and over bearing when wanting to accompany her 8-yr-old back to the dental chair and observe. Sharp, rude treatment, only had two children's books in their sparse waiting room even though they claimed to have experienced pediatric dentist in the building, and some strange unclear billing procedure leaves this large family voting a NAY!

Douglas L. Park DDS Pediatric Dentistry: 1201 SE 223rd Avenue · Suite 240 · Gresham Oregon · 97030(503) 666-9800

Who'd think hidden up in a suite in a very pristine appearing office suite would be a man, a dental man, so good at his profession that even when your 6-yr-old child knows they have an appointment with a drill they'd be bouncing out the door to get to Dr. Parks office. Unfortunately, my daughter's dental problems required multiple trips to see this dentist and even more unfortunately my sitter had to cancel once leaving me with a few extra little siblings to accompany, but Dr. Park's office was such a kid friendly environment even the one getting the filling was happy to go! They all gave this Gresham dentist a YAY!

*Next stop Dr. Perry Stevenson's Orthodontics office in the same building. My 12-year-old has high hopes.

Pizza for 8 in Gresham, Oregon

2009-02-23T08:48:00.001-08:00

Papa John's Pizza

1108 NE BURNSIDE RD, GRESHAM, OR 97030-5711(503)491-4545. Delivery Hours: 11:00 am - 11:00 pm. Carryout Hours: 11:00 am - 10:00 pm

This wasn't one of our regular pizza places till we'd attended a special needs adoption event where this Papa John's parlor had donated a whole lotta really good pizza's and sauces. Wow! Even my very picky 4-yr-old ate two slices of the plain cheese pan pizza and licked the garlic butter dipping sauce container clean! It was actually fantastic pizza! All 8 of us agreed this is a YAY!