The girls got a new social worker. Wow, this one listens. This one takes action. One child had a new forensic interview based on my reporting. It all happened so fast. Wednesday I texted the social worker about an ongoing issue, Wednesday afternoon she told me that they were going to move her to a therapeutic home but had to have an evaluation first. So she planned on getting her on Friday. Thursday I spent most of the day looking for clothing, I found three pairs of matched socks, many unmatched ones.
Such is this child's level of attachment that she was delighted to go with the worker to a new home. Her sister hasn't even mentioned her, such is her level of attachments. I have mentioned that they have no attachments. This social worker gets it, she says that they don't seem to care if they see their parents or not and don't mind leaving. I told her that this is my first foster kids who walk in the door after a visit and have no behavior changes. It was as though they had just taken a walk down the street.
I think I was more upset about her leaving, I knew it had to happen but I hate breaking up siblings. Not sure where this will lead to in the future but I think it is going to be a long term case. It is truly amazing how much quieter my house is with one less child in it!
Itty Bitty......I couldn't make it to the foster care review board. I texted the GAL and told her. She thanked me for reminding her because she had forgotten. She called me after the meeting to catch me up and to ask the question. Would you be an adoptive resource? No, this doesn't mean the case is going towards adoption, they have 15 months to work their plan. It does mean that the GAL heard some things that lead her in a certain way. This will be a long case as well. It feels as though less and less kids are able to go home. Things are brutal out there.
"It feels as though less and less kids are able to go home. Things are brutal out there."
ReplyDeleteI completely hear you. I don't know the answer, but when I get in my head sometimes I wonder what the effect would be if there could be more focus on coming along side the parents before the kids are taken into care. I don't exactly know how that would be achieved, but in the long run, I feel like the costs to help parents learn and recover would have to be less than the cost of a life time in foster care for the child and the long term effects of coming though foster care. (even with the best care providers) :-(
Before we took our break with fostering the push was to have foster parents to come along beside the parents and mentor them. That got completely blown out of the water when they changed from county placements to regional (actually I think statewide!) placements. Kind of hard to mentor parents when you never meet them! One of our first foster placements that went home went home with our support in place. Today, about 10 years later the kids are still home and we still have a relationship. Actually, they now go to our church. In some cases it is possible. I know that with my baby the parents have moved out of state and I send them pictures and encourage them to keep moving forward.
DeleteHeartbreaking. But it has got to do with broader political choices as well. Support structures for adults should not have to come down to mentoring by foster parents.
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