New Placements

Yesterday was a BUSY day. The Scarecrow left for a trip out of the country for work and pretty much as soon as he left the calls for placements started coming in. The first call was for two little boys-a 1 year old and a 3 year old with severe cerebral palsy. Either one of the boys by themselves would have been fine, but both of them, combined with Munchkin 1 would have made it impossible for me to go ANYWHERE. I would have 3 kids needing strollers/carts/being carried and no way for me to manage that by myself with my current equipment. So, with great regret I had to call the placement worker and turn down the placement. During that very same call I found out that she had another situation for me to consider. This time it was for 4 children, 3 girls and 1 boy. Unfortunately I couldn't possibly take all 4 because my van isn't big enough to haul any more than 5 total kids and I already have 2. So, I offered to take all 3 girls if they could find another placement for the infant boy. It was pretty easy for her to find a home for the baby so sometime next week I will go from a mama of 2 to a mama of 5. I will now have a 7, 6, 5, 3, and 2 year old living under our roof! I must be crazy!

In other news, we had to make a 3rd hotline call for M1 after a visit. This one we had to take him to the doctor's office to make the report. I ended up held hostage in the exam room with a cranky, sleep deprived M1 for 3 1/2 hours. It was a horrendous experience. I had to talk to multiple law enforcement officers and an investigator. The doctor took photos, the investigator took photos, they drew blood, they took statements. It was an ORDEAL.

On a happy note, M1 said, "I love you," twice last week completely unprompted! He probably doesn't know what it means, but it still made me feel good anyway :) M1 has also learned to recognize the letters H, M, D, and sometimes S. He won't say the letter name, but he'll excitedly point to them and say a word that starts with that letter.

Still no news on when M1s next court date is or if termination of rights for his birthmother will begin soon or not. The courts around here seem to move at a snail's pace so as long as they don't think about moving M1 anywhere until he's going to stay then I guess I don't care how long it takes.

Pre-Permanency Conference

So we had M1s pre-permanency conference and it was definitely interesting. One of the most important lawyers, the one who insisted the meeting be held in the first place, didn't bother to show up and both of the birthparents' lawyers did not prep the birthparents for what they would most likely hear at the meeting at all! So, poor birthmom heard for the very first time in front of a room full of people that the state will be petitioning to terminate her rights, probably later this month. She was in complete shock. Now, she SHOULD have known this was coming on her own, but either she's in denial or even more likely has no clue and it was her lawyer's job to prepare her and she didn't. That makes me angry. Birthmom shouldn't have had to find out that way. Birthdad heard that he has 2 months to get his act together otherwise the state will also be petitioning to terminate his rights as well. Both birthgrandparents were told they were not suitable candidates for guardianship or adoption. They DID NOT like hearing that. The difference between termination and relinquishment was discussed. Well, discussed is a loose term. They told the birthparents about both options, but the birthparents did not participate in the conversation or ask any questions. The entire purpose of this meeting was SUPPOSED to be to discuss whether the birthparents were going to relinquish or force the state to file for termination. It was supposed to be for discussing their options, but since 3 separate lawyers dropped the ball that didn't happen at all. I'm not sure when the next court date or even team meeting will be. It should definitely be interesting whenever either one of them happens.