Has it been almost 3 weeks?

It seems like we have been working on moving the girls for EVER now!  Believe it or not, they are still coming.  I met their current provider this week and took the girls out to dinner.  Their current provider is a very sweet woman who deserves a medal or some sort of award for her longevity with the Department of Such Matters.  She is SEVENTY FOUR (!!!) and has been fostering since 1983.  She currently has my two girls and two of her grandchildren living with her.  Needless to say, she is worn out.  Heck, I'm worn out and I don't even have the kids here yet!

We went out to dinner and then stopped at the store to try on clothes.  They LOVE shopping.  I don't recall being that excited about trying on clothes until I was in high school.  And I still don't love trying on clothes now.  In fact, I am notorious for just holding them up to me and eyeballing it.  Therefore I return a lot of clothing that doesn't fit when I get it home.  I think they would have tried on clothes until the store closed if I would have let them.

The plan at the moment is to have the girls here for a weekend visit with me and then move them next Friday.  We were going to move them this Friday, but my childcare option (Boys & Girls Club) fell through.  Apparently they are closed for 30 days until school starts back up.  Really?  CLOSED???  I can't imagine what the parents who were using them as inexpensive child care are doing with their kiddos for that month.

I need to finish getting their room ready tonight and go grocery shopping as the fridge looks like I have been living the single life. I feel compelled to feed them more nutritional meals than I make for myself. (What?  Popcorn and cold cereal are TOTALLY nutritious meals! 5-6 days a week.)

I got the girls enrolled in school on Monday.  They were going to attend the school they went to (sometimes) last year, but the caseworker decided that since they attended less than half (!) the year last year, I could enroll them at the school down the street.  I am very thankful for this as it was going to be a 30+ minute drive each way to get them to their old school.  I would have done it if they were really attached there, but I'm so glad I don't have to.  Besides, there wasn't any after school care at their old school and I have the option of Campfire at this one.  I won't have to use it very often, but I may need them a couple days a week when I have to work until 6pm.

Hopefully I will have some pictures to post after this weekend!  Of course you know that any pictures I post here will have their faces cropped out because of privacy.  Headless children.  I'll take two!

I said yes

I talked to the case worker yesterday.  Yes, she called me back.  This could be the start of something big I tell ya!  I'm hoping that she is one of the rare case workers that tries to stay in the same lane as her cases and not on another road altogether.

As an aside, I do really admire the case workers.  They are underpaid, overworked and they always have someone pissed off at them about something.  There is a reason why I never went back to school and got my MSW.  I was thinking seriously about it before I spent 3 years as a CASA.  I realized that as much as I wanted to work with kids (particularly those in foster care), I would lose my ever lovin' mind if I went to work for The Department of Such Matters.

I got some more info from Case Worker (CW) about the kids.  They are the oldest of five and have been in care for a few months now.  Their three youngest siblings are in another home and they haven't seen them very often since they were removed from care.  That is one of the goals of moving them is that they would get more sibling contact.  The Department of Such Matters doesn't have the resources to arrange sibling visits as well as parent/child visits, so that falls onto the foster parents shoulders.  I am okay with this and the provider for the younger sibs is on board for getting the kids together as well.

There still isn't a ton of info about the kids.  By all accounts they are doing fairly well and are behaving appropriately for their ages.  The oldest one is in love with Justin Beiber (oh, joy!) and the youngest is a big fan of Dora the Explorer (Oh.Dear.Lord.  I'll take The Beibs over squeaky Dora and her creepy backpack.)  They are of mixed opinions on school.  The oldest is very - meh, about the whole idea.  The youngest is excited about starting 1st grade in the fall.

I talk to the CW again tomorrow.   She had to talk to her staffing team, the kids attorney and any other powers that be on the case.  We are hoping to set up an in person meeting with her, the kids and me in the next week and then develop a timeline for placement.

I can't believe this is happening so fast.  Or quite frankly that this is happening at all.  It's very surreal.

Certifiable

I finally did it.  I passed all of the certification requirements and am now approved to be a foster parent.

It took forever.  I started this journey back in March with a phone call to the Department of Such Matters in my state. I was blown away when I got a live person on the phone with my first call.  (One should note that this is not normal.) The screener I spoke with was very helpful, answered all of my initial questions and sent out an application packet in the mail the next day.  She patched me through to the voicemail of a Certifier who in true family services fashion did not call me back for over a week and about 3 follow up calls on my end later. (Sadly, this is normal.)

Then I started the application process.  It required letters of reference from friends and family, my doctors, my therapist and I was beginning to fear that I might need one from the pope.  Seeing as how I am not Catholic, the last one was going to be a challenge.  I had to write statements about my philosophy on discipline, drugs & alcohol, bedtime, fire safety, rules of the house and my personal favorite; the use of pornography in the household.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The Department wanted to know if I had pornography in the house and if I would be using it with or around the children.

Fast forward to June where I finally finished my certification classes and had my home inspected to make sure I didn't have any cleaning products in easy reach of kids, my medication was locked up and I wasn't keeping my handguns and other weapons of mass destruction on the coffee table.  (Since I don't have a coffee table, I decided to stash them under the mattress.;)  I had a couple of issues to correct (non working smoke detector - ooops and a lock box for medications) that required a return trip at the end of the month.  I also had to get a bed and dresser for the child's room and wasn't willing to spend the money or relocate my office until my certification was eminent.  But with the bed & dresser in place, I was ready for final inspection which launched a conversation that I was not at all expecting.

Certifier: "So, you decided to get bunk beds!"
Me: "Yeah.  I was set on a single, but then a girlfriend was getting rid of these with the mattresses for about what I was going to pay for a new mattress and box spring.  Used beds were out of the question unless I could get them from someone I knew because, well, bed bugs - EEEWWW!"
Certifier: "Well, that's funny that you got bunk beds, because I have a pair of sisters that need placement."
Me: "Sisters? Placement when?"
Certifier: "We would like to have them moved in the next week or so."

Seriously?  Sisters.  Placement.  NOW?  Not at all the direction I anticipated this conversation going.  I was hoping I might have a placement by the time school started, but not right NOW.

The certifier had limited info about the girls, but put me in touch with the caseworker who has not called or emailed me back yet.  I'm thinking about it.  I'm thinking that I am likely going to say yes unless the case worker if she ever gets around to calling me back tells me something that leads me to believe that this would not be a good idea.  Something like they are fire setters or animal torturers.  I'm not prepared for that level of therapeutic parenting at this point.

I know this is what I was hoping for, I just had no idea that it could happen this fast or that it would happen with siblings.

Instant parent.  Just add children.