I had been chatting with a CPS case worker about possibly adopting a sibling group of three. It was looking really good and Jon and I felt after much prayer and thought that those kids where ours. REALLY good. We even talked to Kaylee and Regan about the kids. They were excited about bring their siblings home.
Well their Grandma last second decided that she wanted to adopt them. Which is good. For them. It was hard for us. Really a lot harder that I expected it to be. It really brought back some rough emotions and felt very much like a miscarriage. I was really surprised bay that. But life goes on.
A few weeks later that same case worker called me to see if we would be willing to bring home a foster only sibling group. She knew we were already set up for exactly what these kids needed. She told me they were currently in emergency respite care and separated while CPS tried to find a family to take all three and keep them together. When I got the call I just KNEW these kids needed to come be with us. Jon had a mild panic attack. Going from 2 – 5 kids is not an easy thing.
I said yes, BUT there was a small issue. Our paperwork was still sitting on a judges desk unsigned. For no real reason other that the judge had not signed it yet. So we didn't have our license yet. I called up our licensing agency and chatted with them about the situation. They called the judge who amended (first time foster families are only allowed up to two kids their first year) our license specifically for these three kiddos. Perhaps there was a reason on license was just sitting on that desk after all…
We got the call that we had an amended license and that the kids could come as the kids were halfway to our house. Talk about cutting it close! It's been a hard slow transition having 3 more kiddos in the house. Our newbies are 4yo (the day she came) girl, 14mo boy, baby girl 30 days old the day she came. That's right the babies are 13mos apart in age! So we have a 6, almost 5, just turned 4, 14mo, and 1mo in our home. Girl, boy, girl, boy, girl.
This is everything they arrived with. I've been doing a lot of online shopping to fill in their wardrobe gaps.
All the 4yo's presents from her party she had earlier that day during an office visitation. Not a great way to spend your birthday. We threw her a party that weekend and she ended up have three parties for her 4th birthday. We are really hoping she just remembers this birthday as the year she got three parties….
So far I feel like we are treading water. Just barely. Lots of hard stuff. LOTS. We know these kids are meant to be with us for a time. We also know and have known from the start that even if their parents do pull through for them they are not meant to be our forever kids. It's complicated.
