Our Story:

My name is Stacy Greenleaf. I am 36 years old and a mom of 6 children. 3 through birth and 3 through foster care adoption. I did foster care from May 2007 till Novemeber 2011 and have provided care for 8 children in that time. I have been married to my husband Terry for 16 years. We are a one income household and I am always looking for ways to save money. People refer to me as a stay at home mom, though I'm always going somewhere! Three of our children have diagnosed disabilities and are receiving several services. In home, at school and by many doctors, specialist, counselors and Phyciatrist's. My life is never dull, and though I'm always looking to improve it I would'nt change a thing! Welcome to my crazy, happy life!







Topics of discussion include but are not limited to:

Raising a large family in this economy, tips for raising children with ADHD, SPD, PDD, Autism, XYY Syndrome, Tourettes, OCD, Anxiety ect. Adoption, Foster Care, frugal, thrifty living, living healthy on less and recipes! Not only do I live these things everyday and want to share what I have learned with you, I am always looking for information on these subjects as well! Welcome and I hope you enjoy my Blog. Most people find my life hysterical, as do I most days!



The Greenleaf Family!

The Greenleaf Family!
Terry, Stacy, Caleb, Cody, Carson, Connor, Carly and Cathryn

Monday, October 17, 2011

Wow, It has been so long since I've blogged on here! And have things changed since my last post! We have another child for one! Her name is Cathryn and she came August 5th 2010 at 4 weeks old. We are now in the process of adopting her and hopefully it will be done by Christmas. She is so amazing! Shes such a peanut, shes 15 months and only 29 inches tall and 20 lbs. but she doesn't miss a beat! Her brothers and sister love her so much! We named her Cathryn Darlene after my mom. On a much more sad note, my sister in law and great friend Tracy lost her long battle with cancer on Sept. 15th 2011. She was 42 years old! It was so hard for all of us. She has two children, Travis 17 and Tara 15, I see so much of her in them! Thank goodness they live right next door and have a wonderful dad and we will all be together. Caleb is 14 and everything a boy his age should be. Sassy, knows everything, unpredictable, I could go on but I wont! I will say he is still a loving and kind young man when he sets his mind to it! Cody is 10 he will be 11 next month. He is as smart as ever! He has taken up playing the sax and loves it! He went to the Dempsey challenge with Mike and the kids, he met Patrick Dempsey (who he did a report on as a famous Maine person, in 4th grade) and was so excited! Carson is 6 and oh how active he is! He did early K last year so this year he started Kindergarten. He is defiantly struggling with some things, he has fairly classic ADHD symptoms, sitting still, keeping his hands to himself, transitioning ect. We have an exciting appointment coming up with Dr. Iris Silverstien a developmental pediatrician. Our son Connor started seeing her last year and I really love her and her views. Carson is such a genuine boy, so full of life and happy! Connor will be 4 next month, he is just so wonderful. So happy yet hes gaining some independent ideas. He was diagnosed 6 months ago with PDD which is Pervasive Developmental Disorder which is on the Autism spectrum. He is starting to really talk and using 3-5 word sentences which is such a huge improvement for him! He has a great support team, including his Teachers at Crayon Country Developmental pre-school Miss Chris and Miss Terri and his awesome speech therapist Jenn. I am very grateful to them! Carly, oh our Carly! She just turned 3 and the princess of the house! She is such a GIRL! with all the drama that comes with it! She will even tell you shes the princess. She is very smart, she knows how to spell (out loud, not on paper quite yet) her name and most of her siblings names. Shes such a daddy's girl! She keeps us all in line! Baby Cathryn, she is an amazing baby! She is happy and healthy. She didn't have the greatest start in life and we were very worried, but our fear has been resolved! She has met all her milestones and then some! We love her and cant wait till she is a permanent part of our family! It has been a Very busy Fall! I am trying very hard to make things easier! I want to reprogram our family to include less stress and a less hectic lifestyle. A couple of major changes we have made as a family is a healthier living lifestyle! With the 3 boys disabilities we have gone to a more "natural" lifestyle. We have gratefully improved our diets to exclude overly processed food, food dyes, additives, preservatives ect. We have also started seeing a Chiropractor that concentrates on whole body wellness! We are trying to manage Carson's ADHD and SPD (sensory processing disorder) naturally and Caleb's as well. Although Caleb will be much harder because hes much older and has been controlling his Touretts, OCD and Anxiety with meds for years. He has gained a tremendous amount of weight on these meds, to the point where his health is at great risk! So we are working really hard! I have to go to bed sometime tonight, its 4 min. away from being tomorrow! I will soon get into how we are becoming more frugal and aware of money and how we need to make some major changes to our budget, this is a a newer more drastic struggle for us and I'm still a work in progress, but i hope to share with you all the things we are learning to do to eat healthy on a budget, and reduce our debt, with the uppermost desire to one day have a house and another toilet! One toilet to seven people (The baby isn't there yet! lol!) is NOT ENOUGH! Thank you to all who support me and check in on me through this blog. You are my cheering section!

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