Sometimes being a Foster family means scheduling conflicts. Because the State doesn’t really care that it’s preschool graduation. Court days and times are set and that’s that. Jon had gone to every court date previously and I REALLY felt like I needed to attend the one this morning. Because today if my kids parent didn’t show up then their parental rights would be severed….

Court was at 8am. Graduation started at 9:00am. They were 30 minutes apart. Issue problems. My hope/wish/dream was to be able to make it to the last half of graduation. But then on the way back to the school after court we came to a standstill on the freeway. An unfortunate car accident had traffic back up. 🙁 I was texting Barry furiously the whole time. Getting and giving updates. “He walking up to get his diploma.” “We’re 20 min away now going ten miles an hour!” “It’s over. We are headed back to his classroom now.” I cried.

Not a great cherry on an emotionally crappy morning. Parents didn’t show. No one from their family showed. Jon and I were the only ones in that big court room who knew and loved these kiddos when the judge declared parental rights severed.

BUT Barry was coming down to meet Logan and visit with us. So he was my back up plan. He had the camera. He took a ton pictures. He was there as Regan’s person when his Mom and Dad couldn’t be. Today Barry was our hero. He helped soften the blow to for me and Regan that I missed preschool graduation. Which let’s honest is kind of a joke, but still a big day for us.

I love this one of Regan running to Barry.

There were some tears and an argument with his buddy about playing with their “diplomas”. And he got sad when Jon and I had not arrived by the time he was headed back to his class for the after party.

Barry said he just kinda got quiet and sad. 🙁 All the other kids had at least one parent and some even had Grandparents there.

Barry and Mrs. Brown tried to get him to smile after receiving the actual certificate to be handed immediately to an adult. But he wasn’t feeling it. Barry said he kept looking around for us because he knew we were coming. His little face breaks my heart. 🙁

When we walked into the hall way after getting to the school (finding parking was a nightmare) he was sitting out in the hallway with Barry quietly chatting. The look of joy/relief on his face when he saw us was great. He perked right up and I was able to get some happy face photos. 🙂

Regan and his awesomesauce teacher Mrs. Brown. She’s amazing. We are so blessed that she was Regan’s teacher this year.

I should have had Jon check the camera settings. Wonky things were happening. 🙁Regan and his hero Uncle Barry. And boy, oh boy does he look like a ginger next to his Latino Uncle! Viva la Gingers. 😉Regan and the amazing awesome wonderful Mrs. Geiser. My brother. My Hero. Who by the way has been studying/working way more than playing. You can tell from his lack of color. Meanwhile I look way less pastey than normal next to him. 😉 For example….

Oh, man! I had no hope of having kids with any color to them when I married a ginger. Bwahahah! SPF is our friend. We buy in bulk.

We went out to eat lunch (kids are done with school at 11:15) at Red Robin to thank Barry for helping us out and have a short visit before he headed out to Jack’ee’s house. He will come and stay at our hose in a couple of days. We do so love when family comes to visit.