The Foster Care System is Unpredictable & Our First Placement!

Like I mentioned last week, our social worker told us to expect a call early this week.

Rae was already disappointed when a call didn’t come on Friday. By the end of the day Monday she was devastated. She had pretty much reduced to a constant moan. Ha, I told her to enjoy the quiet while she could!

Then a call didn’t come on Tuesday.

On Wednesday Rae said a call was going to come either at 12:00 or 3:06. Lunch came and went and still no call.

But then at 3:03 the call came! (She was just 3 minutes off!)

 

 

That call resulted in a series of calls.

We ended up getting presented with two sibling groups – that was incredibly hard. Had the call come for either one of them we would have said yes but to pick . . . oh man, it’s hard.

We made a decision that there was one sibling group that would probably be better suited for our family right now, thankfully it also worked out that it was the group that was more urgent, it made it a little easier to decide.

So around supper time on Wednesday we welcomed two boys: a 3 year old and a 21 month old into our family!

I can’t show their faces or their names here so I may end up giving them nicknames for online to make things easier (unfortunately I’m terrible at nicknames, so let me know if you have suggestions!). (Update: they are going as Buzz and Woody here!)

As of right now we have no idea how long they will be with us, there are some signs that it may be just a few weeks and other signs that it may be long term. We are just going into this without any expectations in regards to a timeline.

 

 

I am obviously not going to be sharing any of their history or personal information here but I do want to blog through our journey for my own sake (because I have a terrible memory) and because I know there are a lot of people who are curious about foster care out there and I hope we can be an encouragement for some others out there to look into the process.

That being said, I don’t want to gloss everything over. Because I am a little behind in sleep I wanted to do a quick highlight list of things that are hard and things that are good (though, just because things are hard does not also mean those exact things are not good).

 

Things that are hard right now

• I’ve never had two toddlers at the same time before, so this is a new-to-me challenge!
• the first night not a lot of sleeping occurred, the second night was a bit better and they are both currently napping and went down without a fight so I’m hoping this is a good sign for tonight (if you think to pray for us I would love for you to add in some extra prayers for good sleep)
• listening to the three year old moan for his mom before he falls asleep at night (it just breaks my heart)
• it feels like babysitting – I knew this would happen but I definitely was not looking forward to this first transition phase. It feels like babysitting, you are always on alert and your whole day is thrown off. I am looking forward to in a week or two when we are into more of a rhythm.

 

 

Things that are good right now

• sweet toddler hugs!
• seeing my kids really step up even when they have been kept up most of the night due to loud crying
• all the praying the last few days have resulted in
• one easy nap time! (and hopefully more to come)
• having a husband who is 100% on board with this – I’d be a walking zombie already if it weren’t for him.
• a supportive extended family and friends

 

Unfortunately, Jared and I have to get our first aid and CPR training done this weekend so that means the kids are getting sent off to each of our parents for a day. They are long days too (we need to be there from 8am to 5:30pm) and I am a little worried that will throw off the little bit of a routine we’ve started and put us a few steps back.

Thank you all for your prayers, we would love for you to continue praying!