Family of FOUR?!

When A was reunified with his parents we asked our Family Development Specialist (FDS) to put us on inactive status for a while so that we could have a parenting break. We were sad to lose A, even though we always knew it would happen. Now he has been gone more than two months and we honestly weren’t sure if we would ever be ready to foster again. Or we thought that if we eventually decided down the road that we could do it again we would need to have either a totally different age group or a girl so that we weren’t constantly reminded of A.

Then last weekend, right before baby Z came to stay with us, we got an email from our FDS asking if we wanted to consider accepting a special placement of two young boys. Our initial thought was that we still weren’t ready. Then we decided that we’d just ask why the placement was special before we said no. It turns out that the boys are (relatively) happy and healthy, but that no one is currently able/willing to take two boys. So they’ve been temporarily placed in different respite homes while the agency continued working on finding a foster home for them.

Thing shirts

It just broke my heart to think that our home would be the fourth one they’ve been to in two weeks! I think that if it had been placement calling us, just going down their list of possible homes we would have been more likely to say no. But since we got asked specifically to make a special consideration it was almost impossible to turn down. It was a pretty unusual situation to be given a couple of days to think about taking a placement since it’s usually an immediate need. It’s also unusual to know a week in advance that they will be coming, once their current respite arrangement is over. It still hurts my heart to let another child move in, but it didn’t seem right to leave the bedrooms empty when there are two boys who need to use them.

Sometime this weekend will be pick up the two boys who will stay with us for as long as they need to. We have no idea how long the placement will last. (Local friends: please don’t ask us repeatedly how much longer they will be here… especially in front of them. This happened so often with A and I know he understood and it seems like an unsettling question to hear so often.)

We have been excitedly preparing for the boys to arrive. Would you believe they are giving us yet another “A” boy… third one in a row? A (#3) is 3 1/2 and little brother R is 2 1/2. And yes, we already realize we are a little crazy and our house will soon be insane with two little boys running around. But then again, little boys are our only parenting experience so far. Let the fun begin!!

Licensed, At Last

We were notified on Wednesday, April 25 at 2:05 pm that we were officially licensed! The call came from a lady who has years of experience being a foster parent and is now our foster parent mentor. Jesse actually did a loud “wooohooo!” on the phone to her when she called. By that time I was pretty sure I knew what the call was about.

Side note: We have to be very careful about sharing any personal information about “our” kids. We are allowed to share only very general facts and absolutely no pictures. Which is really a bummer because our first two little boys are just as cute as can be… you’ll have to take our word for it!

Blocks

We had been told to expect a call for our first placement very soon after we are licensed. And they weren’t kidding! We got a call just a few hours later and were asked to accept a little boy who was twenty months old. He was adorable! He had the best little smile and laugh. We were able to love on him less than twenty four hours before he was cleared to go back home.

We felt very good about how handled our first little one. At first he was completely silent, obviously scared to death, when he arrived at our house just after midnight. He got more and more comfortable as the next day went on. We kept him entertained and laughing, we fed him three super healthy meals which he gobbled right up, and held him close all day. His care manager came to pick him up just after dinner.

Funny story about our dinner with him… We fed him peas with dinner that night. Apparently he didn’t like peas. After trying one he started handing them to Jesse one by one. At first we thought he was being nice and sharing so Jesse kept saying thank you. Then we realized that he planned on handing us all them since he didn’t want them. When we just took the peas away he said thank you. So cute!

Even before our first little boy had left our house, we got a call to accept our second placement who was to arrive later that same day. A couple of hours later we welcomed another little boy who is two and a half years old. He is expected to stay with us for several months, but we never know for sure. We are loving each day that we get to spend with him. We definitely underestimated the amount of energy required to take care of this little man, so we are still working on figuring out how our new routine will go.

This little one loves to eat! So far we’ve only found one food that he doesn’t like… cucumbers. I had a bunch on his plate at lunch the other day. He kept going back and trying them, forgetting that he didn’t want them… and making a yucky face each time. He tried them at least four times so I know he really didn’t like them. The other surprising thing is how much he loves broccoli, he keeps asking for more when we have it. I love how easy he is to feed since he is more than willing to eat whatever we are eating. He is also super helpful too. He has made himself in charge of throwing away little pieces of trash while I’m cooking and loves to close every kitchen cabinet, pantry, fridge, or other door when we are finished with it.

Funny story about this little one… We are very amused by how much he loves to imitate every little thing we do. Since we’ve been spending more time outside now than we used to, I’ve been blowing my allergy nose more often. After watching me do that, he now loves to blow his nose too. He will go to the table, grab a kleenex, rub his nose, look at it and say “oooh, essussing!” (disgusting), and then run to the kitchen and throw it away. I guess I must make an essussing face when I blow my nose.

We are loving having him here, for sure!