Welcome

First of all, welcome to our new blog to all of the followers of PERAMBULATIONS through Pittsburgh and From The Crib...Diaper Duty and BEYOND!! This blog will pick-up on the story of SnuggleBug and help hopefully take away some of the fear of becoming foster parents and dealing with Multiple Sclerosis.

About Us:

We’re a family of four including Hope (formerly known as SnuggleBug in other blogs), Hope’s Mom, Hope’s Dad, and The Dizzler who is a 3 year old Boston Terrier- Beagle mix who was adopted 2 years ago.

Hope’s Mom was diagnosed seven years ago with Multiple Sclerosis and has been on aggressive treatments for her disease pretty much since she was diagnosed. We really won’t go into much details on her treatment, but we feel that you must be your own advocate and find the right doctor who will find the right balance between risk and reward for you.

Mom and Dad were raised as Christians but not as active as we are now. Our faith in God is our absolute foundation that without it, we can’t exist even though we often fight our faith/ brain barrier. We are active in the Methodist Church, but God frequently has to show us his way very directly. He often shows us his approval of our choices by showing us double rainbows- we had one at our wedding reception, we had one over our house when we put our offer in on our house and we had one in a non-traditional way when we were matched with Hope.

Hope is 19 months old and is in the process of being adopted by us through the State Department of Child Services. We are just at the beginning, but her former foster parents and sister have helped pave the way for us to go down the path to adoption. She came to us from a wonderful family that is in the process of adopting her sister, but they had already started adopting a second child when Hope was removed from her birth mom. Due to all sorts of difficulties, her sister's foster parents had to ask for help with Hope.

We became very close with Hope's sister "Ladybug's" (foster) parents as Hope transitioned to us from them. Needless to say, the decision for Ladybug's mom & dad to split up the sisters was incredibly tough, but with the support of DCS and the courts, it was the right one to make. We are deeply connected to her sister's parents as it is critical to both girls that they maintain contact.

Hope's Mom had been secretly struggling with her MS over the last few months and had been struggling with the decision to leave her job due to symptoms of her MS. She had been working with her doctor and resisting her doctor's recommendations to leave the job she loved for a long time, but her disease made the decision for her during the week before we met Hope. This means that as Hope has been transitioning into our family, Hope's Mom has been transitioning out of a job she loved to become a stay at home mom.

And this is where our story will begin….