Paperwork Submitted

Today we had a visit from our social worker. She completed all of our paperwork and this afternoon she submitted it to the state for completion. We will see how long that process takes.

Things have changed since we fostered last. They now work in regions. When we fostered before a large majority of our foster kids came from our county. Now they have regions so we can receive calls from several counties surrounding us. We are in a small rural area but are right next to Columbia. From what I have been told a lot of our county foster parents receive calls from Columbia. I think that this process was a way of finding more homes for kids coming out of the larger area.

But with that can come complications. Visitation for one. When it was in our county DSS was about 15 minutes away from me. I always transported. Now visitation could be an hour away. I would have to think about transporting that far away, especially if visitation is at a time when my kids get home from school.

It would also mean that if the kid is school age there is no way they can stay in their school. Kind of sad for the child and even more disruptive for them. It also means that there isn't a good relationship with the child's social worker. I have heard a lot of complaints about lack of communication. I enjoyed the relationships I had with our local DSS. This shall be interesting.

We also changed our age, we are accepting ages 0 to 8. I just can't see taking in another 10ish year old into our group of 10-13 year old's. I think it would be too much drama, competition and such. Trying to prevent problems. I also told her that we would only take one family group. I don't want one child from one family and a child from a different family. She said we would receive those calls if we put down two. So we put down 1 and she wrote that we would take siblings in the notes. I say all this knowing that I will receive calls out of my age range.




All these social worker visits makes me realize that my moms social worker and the one who enjoyed butting in haven't contacted me at all since we got back from vacation.The one who liked to interfere cancelled our diapers and wipes. We asked her to not cancel the Boost but she did. Yes, my mom is out of her Boosts so I am buying them. I feel that I need to send that bill to someone.

Please pray for my mom. She is having a rough time. Sometimes her medications help and sometimes they don't. It is so hard to watch her cry and there is not much I can do about it. She cried for her mom, that she can't walk and can't get up. She will call for me and want me to help her get up. That isn't going to happen. Most of the time I end up distracting her with sweets, often times it works. Right now she is into those orange popsicle with ice cream in the middle. I was ice cream sandwiches before. While you are at it, please say a prayer for me too!