Fostering is such a roller coaster ride...

Abba, I pray for the strength and peace to get through all of this. I know this is my calling, so I just need to trust You. Baby J's court hearing is this month. THe CPS worker was holding out hope that his mom would relinquish her rights and do the open adoption that she was wanting. We found out that this judge doesn't terminate on teen mom's so that's our only hope of adopting him at this time. Then, my agency worker said that she was starting to think that his mom is trying to get out of RTC so that she can get Baby J back, but she couldn't divulge any more than that because of HIPPA. I understand that, but it's so hard not knowing all this and what's going to happen. I just want to be able to prepare my heart. I guess I'm just going to have to prepare for the fact that he probably will go back to Mom now at some point. If she gets out of RTC, she'll more than likely go into foster care or independant living like she wanted before and then she'll have her case plan to work while she finds housing, a job, and has her weekly visits with Baby J before she can get him back. That's what I'm thinking anyway, but of course I may be way off base. I guess we'll know for sure at his hearing at the end of this month once everything is laid out on the table and we know where it's all headed. I pray that the judge will do the right thing by this baby boy and only You, Abba, truly know what that is. I pray that you will give the judge guidance along with all the people involved in the case at the hearing this month.

I met with Little J's kindergarten teacher on Tuesday. We're going to hold her back in kindergarten one more year and if she still struggles to retain the information next year, they'll test her for a learning disability. I really think she's got one, especially with her IQ as low as it is. But, they're hesitant to test her this early. They said if she struggles later on, they can't test her until the 3rd grade, so they think it's best to hold off on testing now in case she needs it when she's in first or second grade. We asked if there was a summer school program that she could attend as I worry about her being out of school for the summer and forgetting what she learned this year. The teacher said she could definitely attend summer school, but she'd have to do it at our school district so the parents would have to drive her back and forth. I don't know what they'll decide to do about that, but we'll see. I worry about her...her behavior and self-confidence have been so much better lately though. She's come a long way since November.

Baby D has his moments of defiance, but for the most part he is very mild-mannered and very sweet and he just absorbs everything we teach him. He's so smart too for only being 2 1/2. He can recognize his alphabet now (he gets confused on V and Y and I and J sometimes) and is counting to 5 now and can even recognize a couple of numbers now. He is a little sponge and it is so fun teaching him things.