Friday, August 2, 2013

Working Around The System

Yesterday was our second to last day at the Vacation Bible School I've been volunteering at and my girl cub has been attending. We brought Little Miss with us. She was very apprehensive. Who could blame her? We were all in pretty bad shape as LM was brought to our home so late. We had all had about six hours or under, which is very little for two school-age kids and a very active Mama parent.

She went with the flow pretty well but kept herself wrapped around me like a koala bear hugs a eucalyptus tree. Eventually, she did get used to it as I knew she would. She is such a spirited little one. By the end of the day she was loving it all, singing the songs with her strong, raspy little voice and talking to the other kids and staff.

Then I got the call...

The social worker told me that she had gone to Little Miss's original foster home and that Little Miss would not be staying. She said it was a misunderstanding on her part; the fact that the original foster mom hurt her back and needed to get an MRI and a shot, but had planned on the kids who were taken from her home, being returned by Monday.

A misunderstanding? From the little time I've spent working within this system, I find that a pretty big misunderstanding. How do you take a child out of a place she has known as "home" for the past few months pretty late in the evening...and bring her to a new home. How do you tell her new foster family (us) that she will be staying until she is due to return back to her Mom in September and then call a day later and tell us it was a misunderstanding?

I guess it happens but talk about confusing the kids.

To make a long story short...I met with Little Miss's mom today when I had to bring her to the agency so she could go spend the weekend with her. We talked at length. She said Little Miss looked very happy and that maybe it would be best for her to stay in our home and to go on our overnight on Monday, even.

She seemed to think the original foster parent's home was a bit chaotic and that there may be too many kids there. She was concerned about the recent tantrums and asked if LM had displayed any of that behavior. I told her no, and we haven't.

She is going to call me over the weekend to let me know what she decides.


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