Good News

I knew it would be this week! I just knew it. ha, hoped is more like it. But it could still all go down the drain quickly. But, we have made the short list for a group of kids. Yes! Now we have to wait until right before Thanksgiving to see if they picked us. If they pick us we will then have to wait until after Christmas to go get them. They've been dealing with some stuff lately and their caseworker doesn't want to create more trauma by pulling them right before the holidays. So, I can get behind that. We are one step closer, and I only have 3 weeks to wait to see if we are closer to that finish line, or we are are back at the beginning. Here's hoping!

quilts

A friend sent me an email the other day and it had an article from the 2013 Ensign   (LDS church magazine) and one of things she pointed out was a way of thinking that I might just have to consider. She said "okay, done with that, what can I do next?" in regards to preparing for our kids to be home. Last Christmas I made quilt for my nieces and nephew. I had lots of flannel left over, not to mention the flannel from the PJ's I had made for the girls and for my nieces & nephews on the other side of the family. Needless to say, I had a LOT left over. So I decided to make some quilts. Right now, I have 2 strip quilts with all the panels done, and one that I have sewn the panels to the borders. My goal is to have them for our kids when they get home. So I guess I started thinking along those lines of "what can I do next?" a while ago, just didn't want to admit it. I'm really screwed if we end up with 4 boys instead of 2 boys & 2 girls. HA. Today is a good day, I'm totally optimistic that we will get an email from our caseworker this week. When Friday rolls around, we'll see how optimistic I am. here's hoping.

Foster kids

I've seen a lot the last week about the Florida boy Davion and his plea for a family. He's 15 and has been in the system for his whole life. And now there are 10,000 families interested in him. I am so happy that he will get his forever family. But I'm also frustrated. There are people like us that want kids, want them out of the foster care system, have our papers completed and our home study done, and are waiting......a long time. We are willing to take boys & girls, up to 6 siblings, and can't find our kids. We feel that we honestly cannot deal with kids that have serious mental and physical handicaps, but we feel we can deal with the PTSD and behavioral issues that these kids some with. There are LOTS of those kind of kids out there in the system and not many families willing to take on more than 1 or 2 kids. Which leads me to my comment that something is wrong with this system. There are over 100,000 kids in the foster care system any given day that are ready for adoption, and 300,000 that are there for a short stay until their parents get their lives back in order. So why can't we find our kids?! I totally understand the need to make sure the parents actually want the kids and aren't planning on abusing them or selling them. I get that, I seriously do.....BUT! I know one of the issues is just the vast number of kids and the "un-vast" number of case workers. They, like teachers, do not get paid enough for what they do, and there aren't enough of them. I also know that some of the problem is the laws in each individual state. For example, in Ohio the state favors bio-parents and they get chance after chance after chance to screw up. Meanwhile the kids are in foster care for 7 or 8 or more years while their parents will never get their act together. Those kids deserve a real, stable, family. One thing I like about PA is that they have a law that bio-parents have a set number of months to show improvement or their rights are terminated. (it's slightly more complicated than that, but that's the just of it) Those kids don't languish in foster care for years, the people in government understand that there are just some times when the parents aren't going to be fixed and the best thing for the kids is to sever ties. And the number of kids in foster care in PA is half what it is in Ohio and there are more people in PA. Kinda backwards, ain't it? I guess all the little issues everywhere combine to make one big cluster storm. (name that movie :) Meanwhile we wait. And our kids wait, cause I know they are out there somewhere, I think we've seen them, we just can't have them yet. sigh.

Same stuff different day

Obviously, since I haven't posted since August, nothing exciting is going on in our lives. The girls started back to school. Abby is in 8th grade and Sabrina is a junior. Yikes!! Totally crazy. And within a month they will each be another year older. I'm feeling old, let me tell ya! On the adoption deal we haven't had much success. Actually 2 weeks ago we got the "thanks for your interest, but your family doesn't fit the needs of these children," email. And we got it 4 times. It's worse than a job rejection email. So we are still waiting. waiting. waiting. Have I ever said I'm not patient? like not at all. moving on. We got another call back from a worker about some kids we were interested in earlier this year. I thought the case worker had found another family for them, since we haven't heard anything since July, maybe August. They called our case worker yesterday. This whole process has really had a negative impact on my excitement response. I'm not excited that they called. I can't seem to work up the energy so that I can get shot down....again. So, we wait. I don't think I'll be getting excited until I'm on the plane or in the car to go pick up my kids. I'll let you know when that happens.