Tuesday, June 19, 2012

MIA

I know I have been missing in action for a while.  Life gets in the way of a good blog sometimes.  Last month my 17 year old graduated high school, my 14 and 15 year olds graduated middle school and my 6 year old graduated kindergarten.  On top of that my dear Uncle passed away.  And right now I have 3 weeks left until my 22 year old's wedding for which I had to make all the floral arrangements.

Apparently this was not "busy enough" for us so we thought we would throw in a little social services action too.  Yes, I know, I know...we are crazy.  Trust me, you are not telling me anything I haven't already thought about.  But really, these two munchkins are too cute.  Oh wait...did I say 2...at the same time?  Well, that will be new for us at least.  We have never taken on a sibling set before.  Of course, social services never makes these things easy and we are battling our way through red tape even though we don't even know for SURE that these children will become OUR children.  But, I decided we are close enough to a final decision by social services that I should at least let all of you know so it isn't a TOTAL shock.

We are apparently 1 out of 2 possible matches for this sibling set and I trust that God will help these worker's make sure that these children are placed with the BEST possible parents, even if that is not our family.  The social worker called me today to let me know that they had not made a decision yet because they feel like both families are so experienced and so perfect that they can't make a "wrong" decision...and they can't figure out what the "right" decision is.  If only it was this way for every child in foster care.  It certainly should be.

Unfortunately, there are hundreds of children that never find a home because there is never a good match or in many cases...no family ever even shows an interest in them.  The guardian ad litem for one of the children we are hoping to match with stated that she had another sibling set with similar stories in another county that she had been trying to get placed with a family for over a year and they have never even come close to a possible match...and yet, this sibling set has TWO excellent families to chose from.  It makes no sense to me why some children are so well recruited for and others are not.  We found these children on the Adoption Exchange web-site...and inquired immediately.  Was the other county's sibling set even ON the web-site?  I don't know.  In the year that the county has supposedly been recruiting, I certainly haven't SEEN any sibling set that matches the description the guardian ad litem gave me.  Regardless, even if a kid IS placed on the web-site, that is not a guarantee that they will find a home.  One girl, (we will call her "A") has been on the Heart Gallery every year for 3 years!  My husband has literally watched "A" grow up on a web-site because she first showed up at the end of elementary school and is now starting high school.  And we have to wonder did anybody EVER inquire about her?  Beautiful, bright eyed, intelligent, talented Caucasian female...and no family?  If she had been an infant, she would have been placed with a family right away...but just because she was around age 11 or 12...she was no longer the "perfect age" to adopt and now that she is 15, her chances are reduced even more.  Sadly she may very well be yet another kid that ages out of our foster care system with no family to spend Christmas and other family holidays with.  If only I believed I could handle 3 kids the same age...  But to be honest, they cost of car insurance alone for 3 kids learning to drive ALL AT THE SAME TIME, would bankrupt us!!!  And so I pray for her.  I pray that somebody finds her and loves her and gives her the family that she so rightfully deserves.

Well, that I guess that is my soap box for today....

Until tomorrow my friends...and by then perhaps I will be able to share with you some news about K8 and K9.  Ya ya ya....I know, 8 is enough...but they are cheaper by the dozen you know.

Hugs to all!   Yes...I know my pictures have nothing to do with the blog...I just thought they were cool!