Just Plain Busy

This week has been so busy that I can't believe that it is only Wednesday. I thought that yesterday was Friday for sure. I do believe that I fell asleep in class yesterday. If I wasn't sleeping then is sure was zoning out.
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I was able to get Sarah and my nephew enrolled in a virtual school. We all went to Columbia on Monday for a mandatory orientation. They have been doing some testing and online orientation classes this week and will start classes on Friday. Sarah has English, chemistry, US history and German. She is real excited about being able to take German. She took it in Texas but it is not offered at the local school here.
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Tylor has been staying at our house this week until all the testing and orientation classes are over. I will be overseeing his education along with Sarah. His grandma, Cindy, does not have much computer knowledge.

Do not let the hats fool you, the house is warm enough. I am not sure what is going on with the hat thing, Sarah wants to wear hers all the time.
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I have so many school projects to do that I am constantly in a state of confusion. I need to find kids with intellectual disabilities, lots of them for lots of required projects. I also spend time in local schools throughout the week as well as attend my 4 classes. My free hours are very limited and the homeschooling has added more to my plate. For this reason I have decided that after our two foster kids go home we will not take any others until life is back to normal (well, our normal). I don't feel that it is fair to the foster children to have such little free time for them. We will continue to pursue adoption and make adjustments as needed if we get a call. This is a very hard decision for me to make but one that I feel is necessary at this time. I do believe that I have reached my limit, sigh.
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So far John has not been able to get back home. We are hoping that some jobs will open up this summer but we are getting frustrated. I am tired of being a single parent during the week and John is tired of being alone. We constantly think up different options but haven't come up with anything workable yet. I guess that we are just not very patient.
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Today I was watching the news while at the doctors office with Sarah (strep throat) and they talked about how house prices were falling again. This does not help our situation. I guess it doesn't matter anyways, with Cindy living here we just don't think that we can move away again. The last time we did Cindy was left without support and broke her ankle. She had no one to help her. I will try harder to be patient.....I know that we are lucky that John has a good job......but it is just hard sometimes.
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Sometimes I wish that I had more local friends, more support for myself. Seems like I am the support person for everyone else. John and I have always taken care of everyone else and have not been able to rely on anyone but ourselves. I don't have any friends to call on if I get sick or need a break. When the foster baby went into the hospital, John had to take time off of work to cover the hospital stays. I couldn't relieve him because I had the homefront. Sometimes I just want a friend, someone to talk with, go to lunch with or shopping. I don't know why it is so hard to find, I guess I just don't have the time.
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Well, enough of the whining......
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I am currently in search of new hair products for Larissa. Her hair is getting thicker and longer and I haven't found anything that we like. Anyone know of some good products for this hair type...................

Tomorrow will be a nice day. I plan on keeping Larissa home and having a girl day with her. We plan on doing lunch and just having some one on one time. Sometimes I just need to slow down and have those special times. Hopefully she will want something besides McDonald's!

Well, I am off to bed. My alarm goes off way too early and if I get to bed past midnight I have a tendency to press that little snooze button.

Medical History

Every time you see a new doctor you have the forms. The form I dread is the family medical history form. For several of my children I can write very little.
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For Joselin I do know that her grandmother was blind....I don't know why. I know that her mother was living and that she was very short......I have pictures so Joselin can see where she got some of her looks from. We met her in Guatemala but we didn't get much medical history. About the only thing we were told was that Joselin had an older sister who died from cancer. That was it: not what type of cancer, how old she was or anything else. Just she died of cancer.
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So, when I got the results that Joselin had abnormal results on her pap smear it concerned me. When our doctor sent a referral for a gyn doctor to determine if a biopsy is necessary it scared me. I don't know if any women in her biological family have had any of these types of problems. All I do know is that she had an older sister who died from cancer. Not much to go by. I just hope that the results were wrong.
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With Anthony and Larissa I know just a little more. The only reason I know a little more is because their case went on for so many years and we were able to see what medical issues the parents had. I also sat across from their mom on many visitation days trying to get Larissa comfortable before the visits and talked with their mom. Little bits of information were shared.
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Interesting to me is that they have a half brother with nocturnal seizures similar to Larissa. Anthony and this brother also share the inability to do math....I wonder if math abilities are genetic. I do know that with Anthony and Larissa the parents were asked for medical information, they didn't give any.
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I wonder how many folks out there are unable to fill out the family history portions of their medical forms. I wonder how many make it up instead of writing "unknown".
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Just another little challenge in the world of adoption.

Long Weekend

Well, my long weekend has come to an end....and I am definitely in pain!
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Yesterday I was up before the sun. I really don't like getting up before the sun.
Unfortunately I haven't been given any gear of my own so I got to wear a Kevlar helmet that was waayy too big. I was finally issued a jacket. I was so thankful for that jacket, it prevented me from freezing to death.
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Our objective was to get qualified on our weapons this weekend. You have to shoot down at least 23 pop-up targets out of 40. You do this in three types of positions. Before you try to qualify you zero in your weapon...laying face down in the cold, wet mud.
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My biggest challenge was trying to keep that helmet off of my eyes so that I could see the targets. By the end I was taking a break between pop-ups to hold up my very heavy head. Thus the pain......I obviously need to work on strengthening my neck muscles.
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I was able to qualify on my first attempt which meant no more laying in the mud. (This old lady can aim and shoot a weapon pretty well) However, others weren't so lucky so I got to stand around in my wet, muddy clothing all afternoon in the cold, wet, windy weather. I really do believe that I am getting too old for this....hmmmm, I think I may have said that before.
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I actually enjoy doing weapons qualifications....I just don't like cold weather.
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On the home front everyone survived. The baby has a cold, Kiwi was quite busy, Larissa enjoyed some time with Tasha, Anthony made some bad decisions, Sarah spent the weekend at Aunt Cindy's, Joselin made some very bad decisions and John was very happy to see me home.
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No rest for the weary, next week will be very full. I need to take care of some paperwork for my mom, follow up on the program for Sarah and fill out the paperwork for my nephew, follow up on a doctors note I received in the mail, return adoption paperwork, study, go to school for my practicum and my evening classes. I am sure I am missing something.
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I hope that everyone else had a great weekend and stayed nice and toasty warm....sigh. I will thaw out sometime in the spring.

Life in General

Today we withdrew Sarah from school. I am looking at enrolling her in some online classes. Just when my life is at its fullest I am looking at homeschooling. I promised Sarah when she went back to school that if she had more problems then I would pull her out and home school her. A promise is a promise, even if it comes at a bad time!
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I really find it sad that my daughter will not have any great memories of high school. All she will remember is the kids who bullied her. Girls can be so mean.
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The foster babies had a visitation today. They seem to be doing well with their visitations. I have had some kids who had major behavioral issues after a visit. It is nice to not have that. So far they still have a mid-March court date so we will see how that goes.
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The baby is doing so much better. Her eyes still water a lot but she is awake and happy more often. She is well on her way to being 100%. We still don't know definitely what her problem was. I wonder if she had a reaction to one of her immunizations.
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John came home on Thursday night and will be in charge all weekend. I have drill this weekend. It is supposed to be in the low 40's with rain in the morning. We will be out doing weapons qualifications. I really don't like the cold. Especially when they don't give you the right gear. Apparently they will have some cold weather gear but no gloves so I am taking a pair of my own black gloves. Ugh, did I mention that I don't like the cold? And I will get to sit out it in all day tomorrow, ugh. However, I keep telling myself to suck it up and not complain. So, I am complaining here but tomorrow I will not. I need to remind myself of that tomorrow when I am shivering. I would like to know who scheduled this activity in February. The odds of it being pretty cold in February are pretty good, even here in SC. But, I will not complain. (I am getting too old for this!)
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Tasha, her husband and some friends are staying here this weekend to go to a wedding. Naturally they come on a weekend when I will not be around. I really do miss having Tasha around, she left way too quickly for my likes. I guess we have to let them go sometime.
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Sigh, not much else going on. I am feeling down for some reason, I think it is stress. Classes are crazy and some of the projects I have to do are frustrating for me because I don't work in the school system. I need to find some students to work with and don't have the contacts. Wow, I feel like I am just complaining tonight. Maybe going off tomorrow and freezing will put me in a better mood.
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I think it is time for a project. They always make me feel better.

Bullying

I received a text message on my cell phone today. Sarah was pleading with me to have Jason pick her up, she was terrified that a girl was going to beat her up. This girl bullied Sarah in her freshman year but we were never able to get it to stop.
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We tried to work with the school that year and nothing stopped the bullying. Finally, after her anxiety got so bad, we had to pull her out of school the last month and do medical homebound. I determined that I was not going to let that happen again. My child should not be afraid to go to school. Should not come home in tears.
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After that miserable freshman year we moved to Texas. Sarah did not have any problems that year. None. Nada.
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We moved back to South Carolina this year and Sarah went back to the old school. The first semester was pretty good. She was also out of school for half the day at ATEC. This semester she is at the school all day.
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Shortly after this semester started the intimidations started. Bit by bit a small group of kids were starting to make her life miserable. Finally today a girl threatened to beat her up. The sad thing is I know why these kids pick on her....she is an easy target. She is small (4'11" and 100 lbs), she looks years younger then 17, she is timid, she forgives easily, she is quiet and causes no trouble.

Well, I have had enough. I went and picked her up from school and told them that I would be withdrawing her. They told me that I can't without joining a homeschool group.
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So, Sarah is going to be out of school sick until I can determine what homeschool group we will be joining. She is sick of the intimidations. Sick of the threats. Sick of the bullying.

Court Date

Ever wonder what happened to Jason's driving without a license ticket? He had court today, possible fine of $240. He went alone to tell his story of DMV mishaps and armed with receipts.
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Shortly afterwards I received a frantic call. He said to bring $35 to the court house or they were going to take him to jail. Apparently they dropped the ticket but he had to pay court fees.....or go to jail. Seriously, jail someone for a $35 court fee. Have I mentioned that the state of South Carolina is broke, they have to get their money from somewhere
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I did save him today and take his $35. He needs to be real thankful for his momma.
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Jason said that the courtroom had only people traffic ticket tickets. The judge told everyone that if they didn't have their money with them today that they would go to jail. period. Because so many people couldn't afford their ticket (unemployment is very high here) most of them asked for a jury by trial. This gave them a delay to try and get the money. So instead of making some type of payment plan for these folks, they force them to ask for whatever delay they can. Seems like a waste of judicial time. But, no one put me in charge.

Gotta Love It

Well, apparently the state refuses to allow us to be over the 5 child limit because we actually have 8 kids in the home right now. Wow, this is news to me! You just gotta love it when they do not update their own systems properly.
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Apparently when we changed L and L's names they didn't change them, they just added two new kids. I did tell the SW that they could feel free to send me all the backdated subsidies for those other two kids. Nah, she is changing the wrong information online.
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Actually, this is new. The system didn't have us with 6 kids when we were certified foster parents over the summer. I assume it happened at adoptions when we reopened that dusty file and restarted our paperwork to do a new home study. I guess someone is at work over there.
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The babies have a court date in Mid-March so I am not too worried about the number limit at this time. They will either correct it or they will procrastinate until the court date. They can do that when they want to. Of course, they could also move them tomorrow if we were blackballed in any way.
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Gotta love the system, otherwise you might just get a little jaded.
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John and I talked tonight, he wants to get out of foster care. He says that it takes away from the other kids. I agree to a certain point. I also think that it gives them so much. Larissa is such a little mom to those babies. She loves to play with them and wants to change diapers. I really think that it is a give and take and in the end it comes out even.
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Actually, my bigger concern is the instability of foster care. I do know without a doubt that these kids will go home, I just don't know when. So, the kids do understand that the kids will go home. They know that the foster babies have a mom and dad who are doing what they need to do to go home. It is actually easier then to say that I don't know. That unknown is harder for me to deal with, so I can only imagine how it would be for the kids.
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I don't know what the future will hold. My preference is to adopt and add a forever child but I know that it may not happen. I have seen families waiting a long time for a child to be matched with them. I guess we will do our part and see what comes our way. If we are meant to have another child then it will happen. I guess that is leaving it in God's hands. We will do our part and allow Him to do His.