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.