Waiting and Saying "No"

We are back to the placement waiting game- my least favorite part of the process. Good thing Roman is around to give honest answers and ask good questions about placements because I pretty much read the descriptions and think "why the hell not! send that kid over here!"



It feels weird and bad to say no to placements- through its good to be picky about who to let in your family, and what would benefit us in the long run- it feels icky to say no.

Things one might say no too:
- someone who is too young
- an overly complicated case with many over-involved adults
- grouped siblings
- situations that sound like they are looking for a sitter for a few weeks- not a family to be a part of

Officially Foster Parents

Jellybean has left the nest- giving us official foster parent status. We sent our first one back to his family- he got to go home. All we can do now is send prayers, good juju, and thoughts to him and his family, and hope we don't see him ever again.

the most important things: the firetruck for car rides, and penguin for bedtime

We did get to put a caveat in his file that if he does come back into the system (which we hope he does not) then we will get notified and he can be placed with us again. Now, we get a few days break, and then clean up prepare for a new bundle (or rather - small tornado) of joy to come into our house.

Saying goodbye was not as difficult as I thought it would be. The closest I came to bursting into tears was when I was talking to his beloved preschool teacher. Both of us are just concerned about his future and trying not to assume the worst. Packing up his stuff was kind of fun. Even though he was only with us for 5 months he grew a lot and went from having one target bag of possessions, to several favorite books, cars, stuffed animals, too small clothes, and clothes to grow into.

Roman and I had a great time going through all the pictures and videos of Jellybean. On his last day I took a lot of videos and for some reason, Roman was surprised that there was a 4-minute slow-motion video if jellybean eating oatmeal. If you have ever seen Jellybean eat you know its pretty hilarious. I laughed my butt off watching him try and take those big bites over and over.

On to the next adventure!

He got his lungs back!

This reindeer sings and tells jokes about the John. it has a button, but it also has motion sensors. shortly after the strep epidemic at our house someone got his lungs back.

Usually, we use the reindeer as a reward for brushing teeth (which is a whole other screamfest) but this particular time he was screaming because the deer was acting on its own! It took a while to convince him I wasn't pushing the button for him- the deer was just watching him brush his teeth and would sing when he was doing a good job.