Painting Party

Today I had a painting party at my church. Three of my daughters came along to help. I have to say it was a lot of fun. Sometimes I miss my old shop but I know I don’t have time to run a business at this time. I have another painting party on the 17th at Jason’s bar. I am putting the money I make at these parties into my mission fund account.

Weekend Placement

I have a sneaky licensing worker, when she is on call and is struggling to place a kid she will call me talking all sweet. I understand, late Friday afternoon and they want to go home for the weekend. We have two boys until 7 am on Monday morning when they will pick them up and try again for placements. Strange is that they came from a foster home and they have nothing. They have me a gift card to go and get them socks and underwear.  I got them those items and toothbrushes. Asked friends if they had 7/8 boys clothing and dug through my stashes. I have come up with a couple of outfits for them.

We will have them for three nights but won’t receive any clothing allowance. This is why I stock up a little bit (ok, too much) clothing. My problem is it isn’t well organized.

Wish us luck this weekend! These boys are quite busy and are keeping us on our toes.

Options for Foster Teens

Foster care is a little more complex than the kids come into care and they either have reunification with their parents or termination of parents tal rights. There are many other options for kids, especially when they are teenagers.

When it becomes apparent that kids will not be going home before they age out alternate plans are made. It used to be called long term foster care, now called APPLA, another planned permanent living arrangement. Independent living is the goal but so hard for kids who age out to maintain without support. Teens can remain in care to keep support when they hit 18 but so many are tired of the system and sign themselves out. The outcome for kids who age out is not very good.

Before our teen came to our home she was living in the children’s home expecting to age out under APPLA with plans to go to college. In her own words she accepted that because she thought no one would want her. It took some adjustments but she is doing great in our home. She and Larissa share a room and have a great relationship. She wants to be a part of our family. We are hoping to adopt her but recognize that time is against us. Either way she knows that she can stay in our home as long as she need to.

Court

Today was court day for our foster teen. It was a permanency hearing. Our foster teens siblings are TPR while our teen was APPLA. This was set 9 months ago, in 9 months nothing has happened. However, our teen wanted changed to TPR so she went to court with me today. This is the same county where we never got seen in a timely manner if we were heard at all. Amazingly we went into the courtroom on time today! Teens case is now changed to TPR and dss was given permission to publish for the running dad. After court mom texted teen that she is willing to sign her rights away!

What does this all mean? After they publish for dad they can then work on terminating his rights. If mom does sign then this will mean that there is a possibility that teen will be adopted. It will be a tight race, she turns 17 next month.

Room Shuffles

We are shuffling around 4 rooms and it is a challenge! Especially when one room has to stay empty until Friday. We have been struggling for a while with Benjamin. Joselin told him a scary story about upstairs and he will not go up there alone. This has been going on for quite a while. I was contemplating moving him down to one of the offices and putting my office upstairs. Then I went and looked at Emma and Michelle’s room. We were planning on painting it but when I looked at all the damage they had done I realized that the room needed a fit job. Seriously, the flooring had to come up, the walls had been stripped and paper glued to the walls. They were in the FROG which is a pretty big room. They were in there because they can’t stand each other so needed a big space to place furniture between themselves.

Well, I decided I wanted the FROG for my space. My office is so cramped having homeschool space and art space. John wanted my office and Benjamin Johns office and the girls went to Benjamin’s room. What a mess. I decided that since I had to strip the flooring in the girls room that I’d put in carpet. It is over the garage and that will give it extra insulation. They come Friday to put it in. In the meantime I am shuffling rooms and fixing walls in their room. We got rid of some furniture they had written all over and broken as well. 

I helped the girls move but didn’t do their unpacking. It looks terrible, like two caves. They are mad about losing the big space but that is OK with me, I am mad at them for destroying a room.

Michelle glues her papers to the wall and likes to write on walls, furniture and trim, ugh.

Imagine my shock when I walked upstairs and saw what Emma had done! I was shocked. She did this a couple of months ago and I was procrastinating on repairing and painting it. It was on my list of things to do but not top of my list!

Jason helped strip the floor. The girls couldn’t agree on curtains and had two different styles.

I am also building a closet in Benjamin’s bedroom. It used to be my moms room. He wants Star Wars theme and red! Slow going...

Future closet location.

I am excited about my new room and so is Benjamin. The girls have stopped grumbling and o know Michelle likes the location close to the bathroom. I will have to go check their room tomorrow. I told them nothing is allowed on the walls. 

Benjamin is 6

Benjamin is now 6! He wanted to celebrate at the skating rink. We need to go more often, he needs more practice skating!

Later that evening, after bedtime, he came into our bedroom and snuggled with me. He said he came to give me a recap of his day. He told me that he had a great day and really liked all of his gifts. He loved spending the day with everyone. He then told me he loved me. I told him that I was glad that he had a good day and that I loved him too. I then asked if he was sleeping with us or going to his room, he went to his room. Funny, we work so hard on encouraging him to sleep in his room but I miss hi when he does.

I am often asked why I say yes to so many placements. This is why. I feel that we have blessed Benjamin but he has blessed us back ten fold. When each child walks into our home we never know how we can bless that child or what blessings will come our way.

Neighbor

My neighbor story actually has a sad ending. We actually hadn't heard from him since the one time I yelled across the fence that he was making my 4 year old cry. I also complained about him looking over the fence at my girls in their swimsuits. We were actually surprised that he stopped and hadn't had any words with him in a long time.

Sadly, a few months ago he went to our fence and shot himself while we were at church. My husband was home and heard the shot however, we didn't know what happened until the next day. I am glad that my kids weren't in the yard at the time.

It was scary to me that he did have a gun when he threatened to shoot the kids. But I also find it very sad that he was obviously dealing with something big and wasn't able to get the help that he needed. I can't imagine what his wife went through and is still going through.

Sometimes when we have conflict with someone we just don't know everything that they are going through. That doesn't excuse what he was saying to the kids but it could have been a sign of something bigger going on or the two may not be related at all.

Regardless, I pray for his wife.