Halloween & Surprises

Halloween is this week.  Boo! We got invited to a Halloween party so we all bought costumes and took Sue to her first Halloween bash. Sue chose to go pretty, her costume was a Greek Goddess. Dave chose to go scary, he was an old-time gentleman ghost (or something like that). I chose to go weird, as a winged fairy…that was a zombie.  For Halloween night, Sue is going to pass out candy to all the little kiddos in the neighborhood.

An interesting thing that keeps happening since we got Sue is surprise mandatory meetings. Foster kids that are 16 years or older have to participate in a program to help kids learn independence so they can live on their own when they age out of the system. Sue is turning 16 soon so she is starting to be included in that program. They called her to a mandatory meeting and I wasn’t very happy about it. She isn’t 16 yet, so technically not in the program yet. They are going to teach her stuff that we will teach her as her parents. And it was on a day where we already had stuff scheduled. I called and told them she couldn’t go due to a conflict. They are going to invite her to the next session they hold – and she has to go…never mind the fact we will probably have adopted her by then.

Just this week Dave and I had to attend a Foster/Surrogate Parent Training program put on by the school district. It was mandatory. It was during the work day. It started 30 minutes late and went for 2 hours. It was all stuff that would have been super useful to learn about before the school year had actually started. Seven weeks into the school year, not so much. We have already been through all the things they talked about.  I could have taught the class…we would have started on time if I had, that’s for sure.

Happy Halloween!  Everyone be safe out there.

Football and kisses

Dave and I love football.  The football season is our favorite season of the year. We watch every Thursday night game, all day on Sunday, and every Monday night game. It doesn’t really matter who it playing. We just love the sport. Guess what Sue doesn’t love.  If you guessed football, you are correct. She is so bored on Sundays that she cleans the entire house. Seeing as how her room looks like a tornado hit it by the end of the week, cleaning it up on Sunday is perfect (for all of us!). We have all had to get used to new things…like now Dave and I are watching Glee and the X-Factor.  We are becoming Gleeks!  AGGG, someone save us!!!

We are an affection family. We are all about the hugs and kisses.  But, we have been told that we have to do our kisses correctly.  When I kiss Sue, it’s usually 5 quick kisses on her forehead.  When Dad kisses her, they are one or two long kisses to the forehead.  One day Dad gave her 5 quick kisses and was quickly reprimanded and then told all about mommy vs daddy kisses. Little did we know that there were kissing rules!  Mom does the 5 quick kisses and Dad does the long kisses – we can’t cross over.  So now we make sure to give to correct kisses and Sue is happy.

As fast as things seemed to be moving along last week, nothing new happened this week.  No new lawyer for Sue, no news from our lawyer, & no news from our case managers.  We all figured out what we are going to be for Halloween though, so I guess that’s something.

 

Things are a’ movin’

Things are on track for us to be able to adopt Sue. We hired a lawyer and requested Sue’s name be legally changed, her social security number will be changed, and her birth certificate will be altered to show us as her parents. From her side, Sue’s lawyer ‘resigned’ and requested a new lawyer be appointed. We have not yet be informed who that person is. But her CPS worker has started the paperwork from their end and is getting this moving. We have to foster Sue for 6 months. That date is December 18th. Our hope is to be able to have a court date set up and adopt her on December 19th. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, sing a song or dance a jig…let’s all hope everything from the court continues to go smoothly.

Sue’s arm has a radial fracture and she has to wear a case for four weeks. She chose a bright yellow for the cast. The thing is so bright it can be used as a night light if she needs to go to the bathroom at 2am. It’s crazy. We went to the store and bought markers and glitter glue. Now the bright yellow cast has drawings, well wishes, and sparkly dazzle.

The 6-week school report cards are coming out. We were very worried about how Sue would transition from her small school into the public school system. She is doing amazing. She has great grades and works hard every day to study and keep her grades up. We are very proud of her.

Abuse Hotline

Dave and I went from being by ourselves all the time to suddenly having a teenager.  To make sure we get some alone time, we decided that we’d occasionally meet up for lunch.  Our schedules finally allowed us to do that this week. We met at the restaurant, ordered some chicken wings, got 2 bits in, and got a call from the school nurse. Sue fell down the stairs and (after x-rays and a doctor visit) fractured her wrist. I secretly think she knew Dave and I were meeting for lunch and she had to break it up.  🙂  I am joking, of course.  She has a 6-week recovery time frame and is getting a cast put on this week.  Other than now being functionally one-handed, she is doing great.

A foster kid getting hurt means we have to file an incident report within 24-hours of the diagnosis. If you ever need to report child or adult abuse (in the state of Texas), here is the website: https://www.txabusehotline.org/Login/Default.aspx.

Things I learned while filing this report:

• It provides a secure way for reporting suspicions of abuse, neglect, and exploitation of children, adults with disabilities, or people who are elderly (65 years or older).
• I didn’t like the way the questions were all worded – I felt like I was being forced to say Sue is being neglected or abused when in fact she fell and I was being forced to report it.
• Because I didn’t like how it was all worded, I called my case manager twice and Dave once to see what they thought of the questions.
• Because of all the calls, it took me about an hour to fill out the form – which was 11 pages long.
• Page 11 was the summary, and the summary showed that I was missing data.  I clicked that button and it proceeded to erase the entire 11 pages I had entered…because at 45 minutes the form times out.
• Did I fill that form out again?  Hecks no.
• I called.  I waited for 10 minutes on hold. I talked to a very nice lady named Shannon and she filed the report for me.  It was a much less frustrating way to file the report.

If you ever need to call, the number is 1-800-252-5400.