One Week

A lot has happened in the last week. One week ago I went and sat at the DSS office. Over the weekend I was sent a message by one of my facebook friends asking if we had an opening for a foster child. She said someone was going to relinquish a child (non family member that she had through DSS family services) and she really wanted the child placed in my home. I told her to give them my name and if they called I would take her.

DSS did call me and asked me to be at DSS at 4:30, the child was to be brought in at that time. I was at the office but then had to wait for the police. The police weren't very keen on having the child come into care. The lady had to write that she could not take care of the child. Apparently they normally do this through court. The police took down my information and did sign whatever they needed to. This type of situation is foreign to me. Apparently her mother is in the hospital and this lady could no longer care for the child. I had Benjamin with me and he held her hand and walked her to the car telling her that she was going to spend the night at our house. He buckled her in and talked to her. She didn't cry a tear, an actual warning sign to me. The next day they did take the case to court, she is officially our foster child.

Immediately I recognized that she had a speech problem, I can't understand her at all. I talked with Babynet they next day and they fought with me about having them come out and doing an assessment. After talking with others I understand that this is a problem in our area, getting early intervention services. I wasn't willing to relent, they are coming out this week to evaluate her. She turns 3 in March so really they won't have much time before the school system kicks in.

The child also does not know who is mom. She calls everyone mom and goes to all women. She is pickier about men. She has not cried for her caregiver, mom or anyone else. That seems to be an ongoing problem these days, no attachments to anyone.

So we are full. We have a 6 month old from a county about an hour away, a 2 year old from our county and a 5 year old from a county 2 1/2 hours away. Three different social workers, three different GAL's (although I havent' met the 5 year olds one yet), three different court systems. It is a mess!