I moved this over here after the same thread was locked in GD. Some nimrod there suggested that I was too emotional. I say horseshit. This is an issue that needs passion. I have no issue with responsible gun ownership. At one time I owned 3 revolvers. I sold them legally in 1997 when my then fiancé moved in with me. They scared her and, unlike some NRA whack jobs, My future wife meant more to me than the stupid damn guns!

As we all know, there has been a nauseating level of brazen behavior recently from the right wing gun nut ammosexuals who are determined to insure that nobody will ever interfere with their "God Given" right to have as many assault substitute penises as possible. These are people who are fully convinced that the solution to any gun violence is to throw more guns at the situation and whose apparent slogan for NRA Christianity is "WWJS" or, "Who Would Jesus Shoot"?

Lately I've seen this new talking point hanging on a sign in the window of a gun shop in Lewiston, Maine and it was used as an argument against me in a Facebook thread started by a gun nut who called on us to not politicize the military shootings as he went on to politicize the tragedy and rant about his sacred 2nd Amendment rights and how those damn liberals had better not try to take HIS guns!

When I pointed out that the NRA solution to gun violence is always more guns, a couple of people responded with a new (to me at least) response.

"I'll be happy to not use MY gun to protect YOUR family WHEN someone breaks into your house in the middle of the night"!

Statistically, I know that it is much more likely that a gun will wind up being used on it's owner when they lose their nerve, piss in their pants and have the gun taken from them. I also know that a gun owner is much more likely to shoot himself or an innocent person because they have NO IDEA of how to use a gun properly because the extent of their training consisted of watching Lethal Weapon movies while they masturbated.

SO, to any Rambo wannabe junior Yosemite Sams out there who want to deprive my family and I of your protection because I see no need to have a gun in my home, I say this...

...Please DON'T "protect" me and my family. given that in 60 years of my life, my house has never been broken into. I would feel MUCH better if your gun and YOU stayed FAR away from my home, family and me! I feel safer not being around the type of people who believe that they need an assault rifle to buy a cheeseburger or to pick up milk bread & the Enquirer at the supermarket.

if you're offended by this, I frankly don't give 3/10 of a rat's ass. To the thinking people out there, I say...

PEACE!

As we all know, there has been a nauseating level of brazen behavior recently from the right wing gun nut ammosexuals who are determined to insure that nobody will ever interfere with their "God Given" right to have as many assault substitute penises as possible. Those people who are fully convinced that the solution to any gun violence is to throw more guns at the situation and whose apparent slogan for NRA Christianity is "WWJS" or, "Who Would Jesus Shoot"?

Lately I've seen this new talking point hanging on a sign in the window of a gun shop in Lewiston, Maine and it was used as an argument against me in a Facebook thread started by a gun nut who called on us to not politicize the military shootings as he went into his rant about his sacred 2nd Amendment rights and how liberals had better not try to take HIS guns!

When I pointed out that the NRA solution to gun violence is always more guns, a couple of people responded with a new (to me at least) response.

"I'll be happy to not use MY gun to protect YOUR family WHEN someone breaks into your house in the middle of the night"!

Statistically, I know that it is much more likely that a gun will wind up being used on it's owner when they lose their nerve, piss in their pants and have the gun taken from them. I also know that a gun owner is much more likely to shoot himself or an innocent person because they have NO IDEA of how to use a gun properly.

SO, to any Rambo wannabe junior Yosemite Sams out there who want to deprive my family and I of your protection because I see no need to have a gun in my home, I say this...

...Please DON'T "protect" me and my family. given that in 60 years of my life, my house has never been broken into. I would feel MUCH better if you gun and YOU stayed FAR away from my home, family and me! I'll feel safer not being around the type of people who believe that they need an assault rifle to buy a cheeseburger.

if you're offended by this, I frankly don't give 3/10 of a tat's ass. To the thinking people out there, I say...

PEACE!

Hi everybody, Again, thank you all for the support that so many of you expressed while we had our foster son, Tommy. As I'd mentioned in a post late last week, a cousin of Tommy's birth mother expressed a desire to take hi in, they passed all of Maine DHHS's criteria for a kinship placement, and Maria (my wife) and I took him to the Augusta office yesterday where his new foster family took him home. When we said goodbye to him I wished him a long, happy, healthy and successful life. I know that he doesn't understand that yet, but I certainly felt good about saying it to my little man.

We had the opportunity to meet his new foster mother and we can say that she is a lovely lady and we're very confident that he will be in a very loving and nurturing environment with a blood relative. We are very happy for him and for his new family.

That being said, we will MISS this little jelly bean. 15 years ago, when we adopted our son, he was almost 4 months old. When we accepted Tommy's placement, he was 4 days old. While we are experienced (and I believe successful) parents, we had no experience with a baby THAT young. We were pleasantly surprised to see that even at his young age, he was developing a very fun and fascinating personality. He loves being held, belly bounced, cuddled and being sung to, especially "The Wheels On the Bus" and "Sing a Song" from Sesame Street. That's nice because we, including our son, enjoyed doing all of those things with him. If he has the spirit & spunk as an adult that he has as a newborn, than NOBODY will trifle with him or give him a lot of unnecessary BS!

While I don't think it would be positive to make any serious predictions about his future, here are some fun speculations!

He may grow up to be an architect, because he is certainly skilled at building mountains in his diapers. He may become a movie director, because as he was learning to use his hands, he would reach into my shirt and pull on my chest hairs and I'd see STARS...Yikes! He may become a professional wrestler because as he learned how to move his little noggin, he'd frequently head butt us.

He may become a thief, because he certainly stole our HEARTS!

So, farewell, Tommy! Much happiness is wished for you in a LONG life! We hope that DHHS will place another baby with us ASAP and we will love THAT little peanut as much as we do Tommy. It is a baby's RIGHT to be loved by the people caring for him or her, and we consider then ALL to be little princes and princesses!

So, yesterday we said goodbye to our little man. We love him and really miss him...even the middle of the night feedings

Again, thank you all for reading and for your kind words of support and encouragement!

PEACE!

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone in the DU community for your kind words of support when I wrote of our foster son Tommy arriving in our home back on June 30th.

Back when he arrived, he was 4 days old and had his DHHS social worker brought him here directly from being discharged from the hospital in Augusta.

I said at the time that we would love the little jelly bean if for no other reason that it is a baby's RIGHT to be loved by his or her caretakers. We got to love him regardless of that. It is amazing seeing how this little peanut changes from hour to hour. He is a hungry little baby and he makes our 15 year old son look like he's on a hunger strike!

Maria (my wife) and I were very complimented yesterday when we took Tommy to his first pediatrician's appointment and the doctors who examined him stated that it was obvious that he was a very well cared for and well nurtured & loved & contented a baby he is. Apparently our treatment plan of lots of cooing, cuddling, playing, songs and belly bouncing has been successful.

We had a bit of good news/bad news yesterday. Apparently a cousin of his birth mother has expressed a desire to foster Tommy and it appears that they meet all of the criteria for taking Tommy into their family. The GOOD news is that Tommy will be with a younger family that is a blood relation. The BAD news is that, even though hi is only 3 weeks old, we will miss him and his company. The likelihood is that he'll be going by the end of this week.

Maria and I get the definite impression that we've earned a very good reputation with DHHS, so we're confident that they'll place another baby with us very soon. We hope so, because we really ENJOY parenting. SO, Tommy is likely to be moving on very soon. we'll miss him but we'll be happy for him. We will love the next baby as much and we plan on following the same treatment plan with the next little jelly bean!

Thanks for reading.

PEACE!

First and foremost, THANK YOU to all of you who've posted your kind and positive comments and expressed your support when I posted last night about how we've become foster parents to Tommy, who entered our world on 6/26/15 but who needs a family to care for him while his mommy makes some changes and adjustments in her life.

While my wife and I had been saying that out 15 year old son may well eat us out of house and home, BOY HOWDY does this 5 day old make him look like a piker! Every few hours, this 5 day old little rascal wants his bot-bot and God help us if we don't get him one PRONTO! This little bugger makes our teen look like he's on a hunger strike!

What amazes us now, as it did when our son was a baby is how they can change from hour to hour. He can do so much more today than he could do yesterday!

Yesterday I said that we'd love this little guy. Today I say that that was a very accurate prediction. Tomorrow, we have a meeting with his case worker and he'll have a visit with his birth mother. We completely support the goal of reunification, but when he goes home we're gonna miss the little jelly bean!

Thanks for reading again.

PEACE!

My wife, son and I welcomed a little 4 day old jelly bean named Tommy into our family tonight. He is so tiny, so cute and SOOO hungry! He went to bed a few hours ago and my wife and I just went in to visit him sleeping so contentedly in hi little crib. While we watched him sleep he let out an ENORMOUS fart, so I suspect that when Foster Daddy goes in t get him when he wakes up, weather it be during the night or in the morning, there is going to be a surprise package waiting in hi little dyddie.

He is so cute and so tiny! This placement may well be short lived because, up here in Maine, the ultimate goal of foster care is to reunite the child with the family, and we support that. If you tell me that by bringing a baby into the house at age 60, I should have my head examined, I'll most likely agree. However, for however long we have little Tommy or any future foster baby, we will love that baby weather the baby is eventually reunited with the family, is adopted by another family, or remains with us for good. We will love that baby because, if for no other reason, it is a baby's RIGHT to be loved by his or her caretakers. I have explained to my son that if we eventually have a little girl stay with us, when she gets to dating age and a boyfriend needs an ass kicking, HE will have to do it because I'll be in my 70s by then.

Anyway, we became foster parents tonight. It's a new adventure that we have been looking forward to for the better part of the last year. We don't know how long Tommy will be with us, but we have guaranteed DHHS that in the coming months, this little boy will be having a lot of cuddling, kisses & hugs, singing, stories and overall spoiling between diaper changes, feedings and sleeps/naps! They heartily approve of this course of action!

On edit, halfway through writing this, the little Prince woke up loud and hungry with a BIGload of poop in his diaper, so I had to do a change and a feeding and a burping...Yikes!!!

Thanks for reading and wish us luck!

PEACE!