Saturday, September 20, 2014

Seven is the New Thirty is the New Ninety

(August 7, 2014)

Need I say more?

30 is the New 90

(July 24, 2014)
 
Part of the timeline heading toward adoption is a 90 day wait period (for blahblahblah to hopefully not happen). I thought these were the longest 90 days of my life.

Till I got to the last 30 days of the 90 day period.

Yup. These 30 days (with about 19 to go) are most DEFINITELY longer than the first 60.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The Parking Garage

(clearing out the Adoption Archive, May 14, 2014):

I spent $18 in a parking garage for trial since we'd be there all day and the meters cap out at three hours.

It was the best $18 I've ever spent.

Separation of Church and State

Sunshine at dinner: "God is Grace, God is good, and we thank Him for our food. Amen. My teacher say that at school."

Speed, in response: "My teacher not say that prayer. My teacher prayer go like this: First, eat. Then, talk."

Patience, Patience

Sunshine from the back of the car this morning:
"{sigh} It taking a long, long time to be a Russell."

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The Part I Was Worried About

From Sunshine while brushing her teeth this morning, regarding Junebug (who is not leaving anytime soon): But why can't she ALWAYS stay with us?

And from Speed: Why does she have to go to (her final stop)? She can live with us always!

This week's mantra: Any attachment is good attachment, any attachment is good attachment....

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Adoption Party Requirements

from Sunshine: cupcakes
from Speed: lollipops

Done and done.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

On The Decision To Continue Fostering: Part Two

(more from early June):
 
If another kid comes, it will impact our whole family. It's not just me in the mix anymore so I had to ask the kids.

The conversation started with some sort of (re)acknowledgement that alllll those kids on my bedroom wall have lived with me because they needed a safe home. We went on to talk about how the Sisters went back to their family. We talked about our friends who have been adopted and are staying forever in their homes. I reiterated a zillion and one times that we are a forever family and no one will take them away. I wondered out loud if it would be OK, if Ms. Caseworker ever called and said another kid needed to stay somewhere for a while, for us to say "yes" and let a kid live with us for a while.

Sunshine smiled and nodded her head. Speed thought for a minute and asked a few questions:
Will I still get my bed?
Will Sunshine still sleep in my room?
and then something to the effect of: Will we leave when they leave?

I answered. He thought. He approved. We are on "the list". We (read "I") have made it very clear to our placement agency what I think will work with this crew. Time will tell what happens. If we do this once, and it doesn't work out, we've tried. If we do it more and it feels right, we'll help more kids.

On The Decision to Continue Fostering: Part One

(from sometime in early June)
 
It strikes me that sometimes in life, we are sure, ABSOLUTELY sure which way we are going to turn when we get to a fork in the road. We get to that point in the journey though and something jumps out to tell us to go the other way.

I was cleaning out bins of clothing the other day. Anything under girl size 18 months and boy size 4T should be weeded out but those clothes just have so much more life in them. My plan has always been to retire from foster care the minute I knew someone was staying. In fact, I felt very adamant that children who were once foster children should not continue to grow up in a foster home (even though they aren't leaving). I have, admittedly, judged others pretty harshly on this exact topic.

So why the change of heart?

I really don't know. Bottom line: I believe we as a family may have more to offer others.

We won't know until we try.

On Good-bye Visits

(from late Spring):
 
I'm not sure there is a way to explain to a 3 year old what a goodbye visit is. So we sat, in a parking lot, 30 minutes before the goodbye visit right after taking a 4 year old to school, so that I could explain to her as best I knew how:

We are going to see (x) today, but it will be the last time. You will say good-bye today and you won't go back for more visits. X loves you very very much but cannot take care of you. So X will say goodbye to you today and we will still make sure you are safe and are taken care of. X really loves you.

The questions I got in return were just:
Is Chickadee coming too?
and
You gonna pick me up later?

Answer to both: Yes.