Yesterday was my first goodbye. I’ve been a licensed foster family home and this is the first time I’ve had to say, ‘goodbye’ to one of the kiddos. Baby A was 4 days old when I met him and 8 weeks old when he went back to mom yesterday. He was just coming into his personality and I hope he lives his life healthy, happy, and safe. His mom wrote me a thank you card which I’ll keep forever. It made me cry, it was really beautiful. It’s crazy how much love God made us with. It’s enough to give and keep and share and much more. So now I wait for the phone to ring so that I can blessed by more small people that need a secure set of arms, a safe place to sleep, a consistent routine, and a family to call home. I love being a foster mom. It is a job and I love it!
Catch Up
What a whirlwind it has been. So I increased my foster care license about a month after my mom died, since I now had an ‘extra’ room. I waited and waited and was informed by my licensing worker that she didn’t fill something out correctly so I wasn’t listed as a home with current openings. Fast forward a few months and I got a call mid March for a 12 year old girl. My aunt had recently moved in so I didn’t/don’t have the room at the moment, but the worker informed me that the transition would take some time and I could meet her now and she wouldn’t move in for a few months. She is in need of an adoptive home and I don’t want to limit my age bracket, so I accepted. The next day I got a call for an infant but she was part of a twin set and after researching the placement worker confirmed that one cannot have more than two under two years in the same home, so they placed her and her brother elsewhere. The next day after that I got a call about a newborn boy who was born meth positive and he needed a home. I immediately drove to the hospital to pick him up and bring him home. Baby A has been a great experience. My other two kiddos are great with him and he sleeps fairly well, for a baby. Well, the time has almost come for my to send back my first. His mom is in a treatment facility and he will be able to stay with her while she works on getting clean. I am so happy that she gets this opportunity to parent in clarity with help and support, all the while I am tearful of saying goodbye. I know she loves him dearly and to leave him in her care will be a good thing. Today he has an all day visit from 10-5 and then he will have an overnight next week and then he moves out by the 23rd. I’ve begun the process of packing his little suitcase and I am pretty sure the reality hasn’t hit me yet. I am hoping to get a call for another super quick so I can attempt to move past sadness with more love and less tears.
My move has been so up in the air and changing that its driving me bonkers. I am ready to loose my mind if I don’t get into something quickly. I simply cannot live in the land of maybe. I guess in all truthfulness I can but HATE it! I’m hoping to hear something positive very soon.
On a side note, after dropping the baby off with his mom I go to meet my preteen J for an hour+ visit at the park. She will stay in her current foster home until school ends and then she will move into my new place, wherever that is. I really want her to be able to do a visit in my home so she can feel welcomed, but until I know how, where, and if/when it’s going to happen/be, that’s not an option. Grrrr!
This girl loves to shop!
This entry is brought to you by your friends at Become.com.
As much as I love to sew I think I love shopping more. I despise spending money so I would rather look around at 15 different stores just to compare prices and then go back to the first one once I find out it had the best price. PURPLE LEATHER WALLETS
I never really understood the word, clothes horse, but isn’t there such thing as a shoe horse? I don’t know, there is a horse shoe, which is nothing like a person who collects, loves, drools over, and wants nothing more than shoes, but I guess that’s neither here nor there.
Well, all this talk of shopping makes me want to get over there to Become.com and all the other and spend some money on some super cute stuff!
Moving
So I have exciting news…we are moving! To a house I’m buying in a nearby city. It has 4 bedrooms, a garage apartment for my aunt, a closed in patio/playroom, and a back yard. I am researching high and low for ideas. I am stalking HGTV, Pinterest, and every other possible site or show for ideas. We should have keys by this weekend and I could’t be more stressed. I think I will also increase my license for a total of 6 kids so I can provide more help as needed.
I will post pictures shortly.
HGTV
I appreciate the guest post, Ignacio Phillips
My husband’s mom and grandmother know a lot about gardening and all different types of flowers. I, on the other hand, hardly know anything about it. After my husband and I moved into our house, my mother in law started asking me about what types of flowers I am going to plant in the yard. When I told her I had no idea, she told me she would help me. She also said that in the meantime I should watch HGTV to get ideas about what types of flowers I should plant together and when I should plant them. Luckily, my husband had gone to http://cabletelevision.net/ to set up our cable and I knew that I had HGTV. I started watching it and I was actually surprised at how much I learned. My mother in law and her mom are coming over next week to help me start planting. I think that is going to be a fun way to spend some time with my in laws. Hopefully, by the end my yard will look much better too.
Health
What a week! So it finally has been warmer here and the boys have been having a blast playing outside. Problem it, Isaiah pulled down a scooter and a rusty flat screw hurt his foot. The area totally looks infected so I took him to the pediatrician and since he’s up to date on his tetanus he is going to be fine. He just needs the antibiotic cream and a bandaid during the day. He has been walking all over and I think his increased mobility has him with some unnecessary injuries. Like head and face bumps. My poor baby.
As for me, I have been searching high and low for insurance information since I have none. I went to the following site and found it interesting. On a side note I had to head into the dentist yesterday where they only did about a third of the work I need and my face and jaw hurt so much. Hopefully I’ll feel better come morning.
Updates and such
What a whirlwind these last few months have been. Healing and dealing after my moms death is just difficult and seems impossible at times. To help with the distraction I’ve increased my foster care license by two in September/October. Well it took some time and phone calls before being the next in line. I received a call a few weeks ago for a 12 year old girl who is transitioning out of her group home and is looking for a forever family. I am in the process of buying a home so I do not have room for her to move in for a couple of weeks but the placement worker said that is fine since the visits will take sometime before she makes the final move in. I’ve yet to meet her due to a death in the foster family’s family. Im hoping to meet her this week ti see if being the mom to a teenager and younger ones is really a good idea or not. Within moments of this call i receive another for a newborn girl. When I accepted I was told she was part of a twinset where birth mom had taken the other baby and they had hopes she would return it shortly. I accepted and by next morning mom had returned the twin brother. As I scrambled and prepared for the additional baby I was on my way and then I received a call. According to the law one cannot have more than two under the age of two in the house. Seeing as I have my other little guy I was declined. I was so disappointed and frustrated. The next day we were off to meet a puppy that will be joining our family in a few weeks and then I received another call. This time for a newborn boy, four days old being discharged as soon as I can pick him up. I was on my way and within hours I had a houseful of boys. This little guy was born meth positive as was mom but he has no symptoms I can see so far. So I’ve been extremely busy, which is my way of trying to work through the loss of my mom….somedays it works, most of the time it doesn’t. I’m in desperate need of sleep right now but this post is to be continued so I can update you on birth family visits, court hearings, PRIDE training, TDM’s and much more. I hope you are ready for an education in foster ca because as I receive one, so shall you. 
Devastation
Baby is still here, yeah! But the judge/6 month review will be later this month to determine if he will stay as a foster placement for a few more months while his parents get housing or if he will move into an adoption placement. He would still stay but the paperwork would differ. His parents truly do love him but they have their struggles so only time will tell.
Devastation you ask, yes, August will never be the same for me. My mom, who has live with us since Korbin was just a few years old had some dental work done and complained that the assistant didn’t do a good enough job auctioning so she felt like she was inhaling pieces of tooth. Her asthma started acting up and after almost a week she went to the doctor. Her lungs sounded clear so he gave her asthma meds and sent her on her way. A little over a week later she was still pretty sick. She went back tot the doc and he gave her antibiotics because she had a fever. By this time she is still sick so she starts researching and realizes that the filling was a good 35 years old or older and that she is showing symptoms of mercury poisoning. She was throwing up and having difficulty breathing. She found a clinic nearby that did chelation therapy and she made an appointment to they and get these heavy metals out of her. She went to two appointments in the course of two weeks and then started having severe shortness of breath. A few weeks ago she called 911 because she feared if she went to sleep she wouldn’t wake up. The EMTs took her in and I stayed with my kids. I woke after a collective few hoursof sleep, took the kids to school and visitation for the baby and headed to the hospital. She was admitted into the ICU which completely scared me, because after 12 hours she should have been in a regular room. That day they took a ct scan and saw nodules on her lungs. They took a biopsy that night and had results in a day that is was advanced lung cancer. My mom never smoked a day in her life so we were very schocked. She didn’t want to start chemo so I called every treatment clinic I could find, even Mexico and the cancer was too fast, faster than natural treatments. She started chemo the next day and before a week was out she was not progressing in the right direction. She died with me and my aunt by her side at 6:30 am on August 23. I still feel like I’m in shock and I’m scared that once the reality fully hits I won’t be able to function. I now have two kids, one who may not even stay and I have my mom gone. Shes missing all their antics and development. It’s terrible! It’s truly terrible. Over time I know this will be my outlet, so there may be less small people focus and more me, me, me focus. I have a ton of support but that doesn’t bring my mom back.
Whirlwind!
Korbin will be 4 in a month and the time has gone by so quickly. I’m including so recent photos of both. The baby however hardly even looks the same. I feel like he changes every few hours!
A call, but not THE call
So I finally get a call today from one of the placement workers but it was on my cell so I didn’t realize I had a missed call until almost an hour later. I called back three times (I wasn’t obsessed…I only left a message once), but no call back yet. She mentioned that the placement may not be permanent but that it was for a newborn boy, just five days old that is about to be discharged from the hospital. I’m hoping and anticipating a call tomorrow, but county is so unpredictable that one never knows.
