Kodak is giving away another 100,000 free $15 gift codes. Just go here to sign up for yours. There is a limit of one per person, so you should be able to register an account and get a free $15 for each person in your household.

Be sure to place your order through Ebates or ShopAtHome to get 10% back, too!

I used my free $15 gift code to order a mug with pictures of my grandkids on it. It turned out very nice and was very easy to put together.  Thanks Money Saving Mom!

This site doesn’t work well for AOL users, so I got on the highspeed internet at Barnes and Nobles and used Firefox instead.

Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, but faith looks up.

OH MY, OH MY! I just ran across this today – very interesting reading for those of us who have experienced difficult children through adoption. Click here. Here and here are other sites that speak of these disorders.

This is an excerpt from an article on Answers.com:

• The key characteristics of a sociopath include: (1) having no conscience, (2) inability to treat others as human beings, with feelings and rights and (3) inability to learn from experience, from life. One result of this last is gross immaturity, though it may be hidden unless one knows the person well. A sociopath behaves as if he/she were the only person in the whole world and as if everyone else just existed for their benefit and had no existence in their own right. (4) Sociopaths treat other people as toys and hanker after the power to control and hurt their ‘nearest and dearest’. (5) Many are monumentally self-important: they may pretend to be millionaires when in reality they are sliding towards financial disaster. (6) Habitual dishonesty.

• He will charm his way into your life and heart, then take complete advantage of you – your emotions, your finances, your intellect. He will make you think you are the crazy one. Your friends will see right through him. He will isolate you from your friends and possibly your family. He cannot hold a job and will probably commit crimes – theft, fraud, forgery, and spend time in jail or prison. He will abuse drugs or alcohol. He may abuse you.

Would you like a $40 gift certificate to 1-800-Flowers–for free? Here’s how to get one:

::Sign up for the 1-800-Flowers Fresh Rewards program here. Make sure to use an email address you don’t mind getting advertisement emails to

::Add at least 10 reminder events to your account (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.)

::Once you add 10 events, 400 points will be added to your account within 48 hours and you’ll receive a $40 savings pass by email within 2 weeks.

::Remember to shop through ShopAtHome or Ebates when you use your $40 Savings Pass so you can earn 10-16% back on your order!

Thanks, Surviving the Stores and Money Saving Mom!

Voters in Maine have rejected an effort by lawmakers there to impose homosexual “marriage” in that state. Same-sex marriage has now lost in every single state - 31 in all - in which it has been put to a popular vote.   Click Traditional marriage now 31-0 for the story

Click here for a Power Point that shows the story of one adoptive family’s struggle to get help for their emotionally disabled child.

Those of us with similar stories find that Michigan does not want to fund residential treatment centers though often they are the only solution for families with these types of kids. They cannot risk keeping them in the home due to safety issues.

It appears we will be losing our funding for our son’s residential treatment center at the end of November. The state would be willing to continue funding if we’d rescind our adoption and place him back in the custody of the state welfare system. Unfortunately, saving money (versus serving the best interests of a child) is their goal.

 By Steven Elbow, The Capital Times, posted Nov. 1, 2009

 Tyler Mills finally got what he wanted: a mental defect that carries some weight in court.

The 30-year-old state prison inmate last week was found not guilty of a crime because of defects caused by his exposure to alcohol when still in the womb. Experts who track court cases involving fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) say it’s the first time in Wisconsin a defendant has won a not-guilty verdict because of the array of physical and mental defects caused by alcohol use by pregnant women.

And some think it could open the door to a more enlightened approach to dealing with criminal defendants suffering the effects of the disorder. Todd Winstrom, formerly an attorney for Disability Rights Wisconsin, the state-appointed advocacy group for disabled individuals, says the case sets an important precedent.

“Fetal alcohol has actually finally achieved some legal recognition in Wisconsin as a condition that could lead someone to be found not guilty by reason of insanity,” says Winstrom, who for years tried to get jails to provide Mills with the psychological and medical treatment he needed. “The hope that this gives me is that the system now will respond to Tyler and hopefully to others like him with a n approach that’s grounded more in an understanding of the disorder and some attempt to provide treatment and intervention rather than corrections and punishment.”

For Mills, its a hard-won personal victory that comes after years of disappointment.

“I think it was my stubbornness that paid off,” he says.

In early 2008, Mills was being passed from jail to jail in counties where he had committed a string of petty financial crimes, mostly stealing credit cards. He says a man he met in a federal corrections halfway house led him on the crime spree. But the charge that landed him his current seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence was child enticement. The charge stemmed from Mills’ attempt to meet up with a 14-year-old girl he met on the Internet, whom he later discovered was a police officer conducting an Internet sting operation.

An Eau Claire County jury in that case found that while his fetal alcohol defects constituted a mental disease, they didn’t cause him to commit the crime. Last week Mills appeared in Pierce County court to answer to two charges of identity theft, both for stealing ID cards. In a deal struck between his attorney and prosecutors he agreed to plead guilty to both charges. But the district attorney agreed to stipulate that on one charge he was not guilty by reason of mental defect. The judge ordered three years of commitment by the state Department of Health Services to be carried out concurrently with his current sentence, which will likely mean he will go to a mental hospital.

He’s currently appealing his Eau Claire County conviction, but if he fails he will have to spend another two years in prison to finish off his sentence in that case in addition to his mental commitment. In itself, Tyler Mill’s plea hearing was an insignificant court event, one of thousands of plea deals reached every year in Wisconsin courts. But for defendants with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which some estimate make up thousands of Wisconsin prison inmates, and their advocates, it’s a ray of hope.

The resolution would have had more impact as a precedent if it had been decided by a judge or a jury, rather than being the result of an agreement between attorneys. “It would have been better had it been on record in terms of a ruling,” says Natalie Novick Brown, a clinical psychologist at the University of Washington’s Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit. But she says that because a judge endorsed the defense argument that Mills was not guilty because of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, “We still regard it as a foot in the door.”

Brown says recent years have seen an increased volume of case law dealing with fetal alcohol issues, mostly death row cases such as a recent Nevada case where the perpetrator was spared the death penalty. One case involving a Louisiana death row inmate was even considered by the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court eventually denied review.

“The fact that there is growing awareness in the legal system is positive,” says Novick Brown, who spends much of her time supporting the cases of criminal defendants with FASD and who has testified on behalf of Mills during his trial. The resolution of Mills’ case, she says, “is just another indication that people are paying attention to FASD as a legal argument.”

But the attorney who struck the deal on Mills’ behalf, Liesl Nelson of Hudson, questions the value of the case as a precedent. “I don’t know that it necessarily throws the door open for the next guy that comes along,” she says. But Nelson praised Pierce County District Attorney John O’Boyle, who didn’t return a phone call seeking comment, for going along with the agreement.

“I really respect a prosecutor who finally looks at this and goes, ‘Let’s do the smart thing here,’” she says. “I really give him a lot of points for that because nobody else has been able to do that yet, to say, ‘Let’s try smarter, not harder.’”

A Capital Times story in May 2008 chronicled Mills’ odyssey through the criminal justice system at a time when his appalling behavior in jails usually got him thrown into solitary confinement, which typically inspired even worse behavior. He infuriated prison officials by creating scenes, attempting suicide, spreading food and feces on the wall of his cell. He has a compulsion for eating objects like tooth brushes, razor blades and pencils, and on at least one occasion jail officials refused to provide medical treatment for complications from objects lodged in his stomach.

Mills had been facing more than 100 years in possible prison time mostly for petty financial crimes. Most of those cases have been resolved, many of them dismissed because of the time and expense it would have taken to prosecute them. Only the Pierce County case remained.

“It was the last chance he had to persuade someone that his fetal alcohol was an important factor,” says Nelson, his attorney. “That was a huge moment for him, to have somebody acknowledge that.”

It is still unclear when Mills’ mental commitment would start. He was taken from Pierce County to the Wisconsin Resource Center, the Department of Corrections program facility where he spent the last year. The center gave Mills a job, put him in classes and kept him busy every minute of the day, providing a rigid daily structure that is the only way many with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder can function. Most experts consider solitary confinement to be one of the worst possible punishments, but one Mills is all too familiar with.

As his Pierce County case wound down, the Department of Corrections was on the verge of sending Mills back to the general prison population, where if his past is any guide he would undoubtedly act out, and once again find himself alone, staring at the wall of a cell.

Nelson says after the Department of Corrections and th e Department of Health Services hashes out the details, they’ll likely send Mills to a mental treatment facility. The Corrections Department would be crazy to want him, she says. Placing him back in prison where there are no resources to deal with his behavior problems would be punishment not only to Mills, but to corrections personnel as well.

“They just don’t have the resources to deal with him.”

Oct. 26, 2009

Dear Friends,

It has been over a month since my last update and really that is good! I am very excited to tell you that the civil case regarding the Burns family is closed. Aletheia is no longer in state’s custody but now completely in her parent’s custody. Judge Steetle signed the order on Tuesday of this week, so from what I understand – no more FST meetings, no more DSF visits, no more court hearings (in the civil side of things). Unfortunately the criminal case is still open so Nate and Beth are still facing trial next year for the charge of endangering the life of a child. The prosecution can still drop the charges at any time and our prayer is that he does drop the charges soon.

Thank you for praying for me about my deposition. God’s grace was there and I’m so thankful. The deposition itself lasted close to 2 hours and I remained another 20 minutes or so longer talking with the Burn’s lawyer and the prosecutor. There were only two times that I felt very uncomfortable but I did my best to answer honestly.

The prosecutor said on more than one occasion that he thought this whole thing (the arrests, etc) could have been avoided if only Beth would have let the officer and DSF worker into the home and answered questions, I didn’t really respond to him but my thoughts were, that she didn’t have to and shouldn’t have to let people into her home if they don’t need to be there and she has that right to refuse esp. because they didn’t have a warrant (another point is that he must not really believe Aletheia was in danger if it all could have been avoided by answering questions)! Anyway, I think he believes the ends justify the means because he also said that in the long run, no matter the outcome, that Aletheia and her parents are better off because of all this and they will be together as a family regardless. I’m really not sure why he thinks they are better off now (perhaps because she looks fat, I don’t know) but I wonder how he can say some of that when both Nate and Beth are facing lawyer fees, possible wrecking being involved in children’s ministries, and even prison time if convicted (which I have a hard time believing any jury could be convinced they were endangering the life of their daughter). Mr. Mark Williams at the moment is continuing prosecuting the case. Pray for this man, maybe through this whole ordeal he could be introduced to Christ, because after meeting him I strongly doubt he knows our Lord.

This is a long e-mail but just one more bit of news regarding my husband’s case. We have still not received state’s evidence though all the proper papers (motion of discovery) have been filed in the proper time frames. Our lawyer at the first of Oct. filed a “motion to compel”, basically asking the judge to order the prosecution to give state’s evidence and the judge ordered the prosecution to give the evidence by Mon, Oct. 19. If we still are not given the evidence I think our lawyer can approach the judge, asking him to dismiss the case. If the evidence is given to us, our lawyer can finally start preparing our defense. Again, the prosecution can drop the case at any time and we think that sure would be easiest but we know God has all authority and we don’t always know His plans!!!

God bless you and again thank you for praying for us!
Vee Rodgerson

These first few pictures are some candids I took of April’s family, my oldest daughter, during our family picture outing. Take a look at the pictures of the four of them and let me know which ones you like the best. We’re having a hard time deciding which ones to use for their family Christmas picture. Of course, being the mom, I’ll be printing them all and placing them around my house, in scrapbook albums, sending them to the rest of the family, etc. If you would, just leave me a comment letting me know which one of their family is the best. Thanks!

It’s precious when brothers love each other.

Isaac told me today that when we move here to Wausau that he’s going to put tape on both of our houses so we’ll never be apart again.

Hudson was a real trooper during pictures. When he wasn’t sticking his finger in his dad’s ear, or looking at his brother be silly, he was flashing us smiles right and left. I was even able to catch a few.

Please leave a comment, letting me know which foursome you’d choose. Thanks!

KFC: FREE Grilled Chicken on Monday 10/26