Friday, September 12, 2014

Roller Coaster of a Week

It's been a roller coaster of a week, ending in this:



Meet Tank. (Blog name chosen for reasons that may or may not be obvious from this picture... but the child is four months old and weighs 20 pounds!)  Remember the four-month old that I said no to last weekend?  That's him. 
After I got the call last Saturday night, something told me that I should double-check with Evie's daycare to see if they had any unexpected openings for some reason.  And that if they did, I should call the placement worker back to make sure that they had found a permanent place for Tank.  Then Sunday afternoon, I was thinking about the fact that TT had said she would take another baby, and I wanted to check in and see if anyone had checked with her about fostering him.  I texted her and asked if she had gotten a call, and she said, "He's in my backseat as we speak."  I told her about my feeling that I should check with the daycare and then the new feeling that I should check with her. 
Tuesday evening, I got a text from TT asking if I ended up checking with my daycare about openings (I had, for future potential placements, and they said no space).  I asked if she had gotten him into her daycare, and she said that the situation looked like it might turn long-term (I think they had made it sound like it would just be a week or two), and the babies (Tank and Twin) both deserved more attention than she physically could give them as one person.  I said I would love to take him, and would check with the daycare to see WHEN the next spot would be opening up, and maybe she could hang in there until then.  The next morning, I also remembered that there is a daycare LITERALLY next door to Evie's that also takes ABC vouchers, and told her I would check with them to see if they had a spot.  I checked, they did, and by noon on Wednesday the plan was for me to pick him up on Thursday evening.  I went to my storage unit at lunchtime and got all the baby stuff.  Then by 2:00, when I talked to the caseworkers (mine and the child's caseworker who finally got assigned that day), the plan had changed.  Court was Friday (today) and the plan was for Tank to go with his biological dad, pending a negative drug test.  I said, "Wait a minute, I don't think TT would have been initiating a move if she knew this."  And I didn't want him to have to move Thursday night if he was just leaving Friday.  TT agreed it was best for her to keep him one more night.  So the plan changed to: he will either go home with Bio Dad on Friday, or he will come with me on Friday. 
The result - he is not going with Bio Dad (I don't know what happened there), and he is now here with me.  They said there are two other relatives that are wanting him, so it may only be another two or three weeks.  However, I have read enough of other foster parents' blogs to know that when things like that are said, they should be taken with a grain of salt!  So I'm just loving on him for whatever time he happens to be here!  It was kind of eerie, because from shortly after I got the call, something weird just told me that he was going to end up with me anyway. 
We made the transfer (and caseworker visit) before I picked up Evie from school to make things less chaotic.  After the caseworker left, Tank properly broke me in with a poopy diaper that exploded out of the top, getting poop all over the changing pad cover, his clothes, his back, and me!  So bathtime came early today. 


2 comments:

  1. What a cutie. I'm so glad I found your blog. I'm 35, single and childless and considering joining you on this new journey to foster parenting. I'll be devouring your blog for the rest of the day. Cheers.

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  2. Nice to have you! I know that I do the same thing - often when I find a new blog, I spend hours reading it from start to finish!

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