Other People's Kids

Back in the Fostering Saddle

For the last month or two we've been in kind of a holding pattern, and there really hasn't been much to write about. That was good...you need times like that in life, where you can just recharge your batteries. Ours are now about fully charged...and none too soon.

A couple days ago we got another 14-year-old girl. Tonight we got three girls, a sib group, ages 9, 8, and 8 months. Whew. Luckily those three are a weekend respite case and they're only for a couple of days. The other one may be longer, but we're not sure yet how long. Time will tell, I guess. I'll come up with a blog-name for her, do a background/introductory post and add her to the sidebar.

Thinking of blog names, you know it's funny...I got so used to referring to "Josie" as "Josie" in this space that I actually once called her that to her face. She looked at me like I was losing my mind. I've had a couple of other people who know "Josie" in real life mention that they think of her by that name more than her real name. Heh. I just thought that was worth mentioning.

And speaking of "Josie"...we had planned on going to visit her at the residential treatment place on Sunday, but the sudden full house may prevent that this week. I feel really bad about that and I wish we could make it...I was planning on ditching NFL opening Sunday just to go and be with my little brat for a couple of hours. But I guess we can delay it another week under the circumstances. I'll bring her a whole foot-long Subway sandwich to make up for it. Those are to her what heaping plates of spaghetti are to me.

In other news, adoption proceedings continue apace. I was looking back through the paperwork we've had to gather and came to my arrest record for my DUI in '99. Scary. My life was so very out of control then, and I was so pathetic. I have indeed come a long way in 7 years, my friends, and I'm so glad. The Wife never would have become The Wife if I was still that lost, lonely soul of only a few years ago. Anyway, we've got almost all our I's dotted and T's crossed. Our home study (the second in two years) was completed today and the last of our paperwork has been gathered as of today and will be in the mail tomorrow or Monday. The last item I'm aware of (The Wife has been handling most of this, but I'm something other than a disinterested observer in this) is our profile, which is basically our "please pick us" pamphlet. Advertising, ladies and gentlemen. We do live in America, after all. We're still trying to decide whether to do it ourselves or fork over $350 to have it done. We may just have it done to make sure it's right. We've already got a lot invested in this venture, and it would be horrible to risk that to save a couple of bucks. Plus, we sometimes tend to be lazy.

And finally, the surprise that I keep nattering on about was unofficially finalized in a phone conversation I had today. There were twists and turns over the last few weeks, and the result was far from what was expected...in a good way. This turned out better than I had dared hope. I can't yet elaborate on it more than that until probably sometime next week, but suffice it to say that there are a few very happy people this fine night. And there will be one or two pretty unhappy people next week.

Heh.

posted by Dan @ 9:22 PM