Supervision Hours

This weekend Eddie, the kids and I got to meet the coolest couple. We'll just call them the Joneses for privacy reasons. They are foster parents to SIX littles, ages six and under! Talk about blessed! (Not sure I want to be THAT blessed!!!) Let me tell you, this mommy  has it together. She may not feel that way, but she definitely had me fooled. I don't want to say too much about their names or ages, but they are some of the CUTEST kids I have ever met. They have two different sibling sets. One set they will be adopting in the very near future! What lucky kids to have such cool, loving parents.

The other sibling set will hopefully be reunified with their bio parent soon. I know that is the ultimate goal of foster-care, but let me tell you.....if anything goes wrong with reunification with the bio family, I would definitely want to pursue those little guys. (With Eddie's permission, of course!) They are gorgeous. One of them just kept staring at me. He had the prettiest eyes and the cutest snaggle-tooth grin! I asked Eddie if we could take them with us one day this week while I'm off so their foster-momma can have a little break (the little ones all nap!!). As fun as it would be, this has got to be a BAD idea! I want these kids to be reunited with their bio family. That is what this process is all about. But I know me, and spending more time with them would just make me want to keep them! Okay, I know what you're thinking, and your probably right. They'll place a child in our home and I'll want to keep him, even though reunification will probably be inevitable. I don't know if I'll ever get used to raising someone else's kid, falling in love, and then handing them back, knowing that their parents may very well go back to being the same person that had their child removed from their home. But I do know that God has called us to do this, and for that reason, I know he'll take care of my heart.

Back to what we learned! They had a divide and conquer plan since it was pretty windy and they have three babies that didn't need to be out in the weather. Mr. Jones and Eddie took our three kids and the Joneses three boys to the park, while I stayed home with Mrs. Jones and the babies. I say babies, but really two of the three are toddlers. They JUST started walking, so their mommy has her hands full! She showed me all the paperwork involved. Told me who to call when I needed help, how to work the computer program where I'll be documenting EVERYTHING that our foster son does in a week. You have to document every time you toss/sale an article of clothing or toy. You have to document every doctor/dentist visit. She mentioned that if we have a child that tends to lie to document, document, document. Said it comes in handy if they decide to lie about us. That way we can prove a history of lying to basically CYH (cover-your-hiney!). She showed me how they "double lock" their meds. They put a key lock on their bathroom door for lock #1, and for the double lock, they store their meds in small plastic containers that have pad locks on them. Much better than the safe or locking filing cabinet we had in mind! She also has a cool system in their kids' bathroom. They bought a locker set that has six lockers w/keys. Each child has their own space for towels, rags, shampoo, toothpaste, lotion, etc. Also, each of the kids have their own colored towels and rags. Talk about organized! I guess when you have six kids, you don't have much choice. :)

A couple things that were brought up that I had mentioned/questioned in previous posts: When the kids come to us from CPS, our county provides a duffle bag for each child with 3-4 jammies, 3-4 outfits, socks and underwear, and I think shoes. Then all we'll have to worry about is school uniforms. Also, payment is the 15th and the end of the month. She said if you have a child placed in your home on the 14th, you would be paid on the 15th of the next month for ONE day. She says it's that way because payments are a month behind. I think if we're only going to have one child in our care this won't be so bad, but can you imagine how much of a struggle it would be if we had multiple kids or babies for that matter?

Hopefully we'll be able to get in some more hours with the children's shelter nearby. Only 22 more hours to go! Maybe we'll get to hang out with the Joneses again soon.....they are a great source to have living so close by!