I finally said it...

therapy has become a huge problem in our house. I am so burned out for one by having to do it all of the time, but I know the kids need it. So, we press on! However, for the past few months our speech therapist has pulled some crap and she doesn't like to show for her visits sometimes. Our agency was audited and because they just wrote on the forms that the visit was cancelled and couldnt' be rescheduled, the state was asking a bunch of questions. We had a new worker at the time too and it really stressed me out and I asked our old worker to go and talk to them. Everything ended up ok as the foster care director was aware of the situation, she said the state was just being really picky. I still felt that it looked bad on my part and it stressed me out. Well, fast forward a month later, the therapy company found out that our agency wasn't happy with them and they brought dinner in to talk to our agency and handed out receipts for missed appts to our workers. Well, once again I was asked to provide documentation on why some visits were missed. Now, these were appts for like 2 months prior so I had to guess on some of them. But after that, I swore that any little cancellation or re-schedule was going to be documented on my part with who and why the appt was cancelled or rescheduled. So for the past few weeks, my speech therapist hasn't shown for appts, hasn't bothered to call, has rescheduled a lot and because I knew the state was being picky I kept rescheduling my plans every day to accommodate the therapist any way that I could to get speech in here for Baby T. Well, she called yesterday right when she was supposed to be here and told me that she wasn't going to make it because she was back in school and she wanted to know if she could come out in the middle of the afternoon. I was ticked! We had a caseworker visit and I finally came out and told them that something had to change....I am so burned out from feeling like I can't do anything because anytime I have a schedule in my mind, we have to change our plans to accomodate therapy. So, we are going to see about changing to a new company if they can do it in the mornings. I just can't do this anymore. This week, we've gotten out and the kids have had something to look forward to and it's something to break up their day and it gets me out around other adults and I am feeling better about things. I'm just going to continue to document the missed visits...even this morning was another no-show. I'll just document to cover myself and we'll go out and have our fun.

What a busy day...

8 am -- speech for Baby T

8:30 am -- quarterly monitoring and monthly home visit with new case worker

10 am -- subsidy paperwork with Baby J's adoption worker

1:30 pm -- med check with Baby J

6:30 pm -- training and Baby J's T-ball practice

Quick Prayer Request

We're meeting our 2 new caseworkers today. I always get nervous when I meet them the first couple of times. Please pray that everything goes well.

I love my case worker...

I wish all my caseworkers could be like her. She let me know how much she appreciates us being on top of everything and we're always really thorough on our logs so they know what's going on behavior wise with all the kids and socially, emotionally, and with their visits and therapies. She told me how she's always singing our praises and that I'm one of her best foster parents and she wishes all of hers could be like us. She wanted to make sure we were going to be at the foster parent banquet next week and she wanted me to know that she appreciated all the hard work that I do. It felt good to be appreciated.

We talked about the kids for a bit too. My heart is heavy knowing that Little J and Baby D are going home next month. My case worker and I really don't feel that they need to be going home just yet until we find out some other things that are going on with Baby D (that's all I can say, sorry), but CPS feels differently and there's nothing we can do.

Baby J's mom is back in our region and we're taking him to see his Mom on Sunday for a quick birthday visit at her RTC. Then in May he'll see her twice a month up until we go back to court in October. My emotions are different from day-to-day worrying about that, although my foster care workers keep telling me that if she keeps her behavior up that keeps her in RTC, she's not able to work a caseplan and that looks really bad to a judge that she can't take responsibility for herself and her behavior to get herself out of there. I'm just glad that Baby J's attorney knows that we are interesting in adopting him now and the judge is pretty quick to move on permanency. So, we wait and see what his Mom decides to do in the meantime.

Home Visit

Today is our home visit with our caseworker. It's her last week today. I pray that not only does our home visit go well, but that you will bless S as she prepares to move back home and go back to school and that you will help her to find her someone special that will overlook her disabilities and see how truly special she is. She's beautiful and sweet and she deserves to find her special someone. I'll miss her and wish her all the best.

Bummed...

We celebrated our 2 month anniversary of being foster parents yesterday and we're on our 2nd case manager with our agency. What do I find out today? She's leaving on August 10 to go back to school and be back near her family. I'm happy for her, but bummed that we face yet another change. I asked if we could go back to the first case manager that we had as we're familiar with him and he is with us...she said that she didn't know who we were going to get, but they wind up giving us back to him. So, I'm hoping that we can get him back as he was easy to work with and very nice. I hate change...can you tell?