Thankful Thursday - My newest placement

Christmas was a wonderful time except for an unfortunate argument with my hubby.  We'll forget about that. All-in-all it was a great day and we even received a nice blanket of snow in our neck of the woods.

Christmas night my two kiddos went to bed in my bed.  We watched elf.  They slept well.  I slept ok between the dogs wanting to go out several times and trying to get comfy with my littlest child in my bed.

I went to bed as a mother of two.  Little did I know that it would be the last night for (a while) that I would have the chance to have a full, peaceful-night's sleep.

I woke up the day after Christmas with grand plans.  We were going to finish watching elf.  We were going to enjoy the snow with sledding and snowball fights in the backyard.  I thought maybe I might get started on cleaning the house.  Friends and family were coming over to enjoy the sledding fun.

About midway through the day my phone began to ring from an unfamiliar number (it seems by now I have all of the CPU numbers in my phone).

CPU: Hello, I was wondering if you'd be willing to accept a placement.  He's a 2-day old..
(jumping in) Mie: Yes!... Uh I'm sorry go ahead.
CPU: He's a (insert kiddo's story here).
Mie: Um of course!  I'd love to!!!  Um...I need to go ask my hubby really quick but I'm sure we will.

Mie: (waking hubby up) - Hun.  It's CPU with a baby.  Can we take him?!!!????  He's 2 days old.
Hubby: That's SO young! (Kind of whining)
Mie:  *sheepish grin*  Can we?

Needless to say after what seemed like the LONGEST wait EVER a little (3-day) old baby arrived at my home, straight from the hospital.

I'm. In. Love.

I'm super giddy, even after a night of (no) sleep with a newborn.

There's a high likelihood this kiddo will not go back to his family, in my guess.  There's also at least a high likelihood that a family member will step up.  We shall see on both.

Nevertheless, I'm SUPER thankful for this opportunity.  It will be interesting in the next few weeks as I go back to work with a newborn at home and no daycare to take him to until after he's 6 weeks old, but hey...I couldn't turn this chance down!

Our First No

No sooner than I posted my last post (and then sent out about 25 emails to all of our past caseworkers & investigators letting them know our house was open) I received another call for placement.  This time it was from a FAD worker looking initially for a respite placement but really a pre-adoptive or at least legal risk placement for a 2 year old boy.

This boy would be almost guaranteed to be an adoptive placement.  He needs a family now.  They are wanting to find him a good family now.

CPS is known to embellish the truth or omit key details sometimes when they are looking for a good family to take certain placements.  When you've been in this world a bit you start to notice certain phrases like "needs structure" or "enjoys fantasy stories" that sound like typical parent/child things but really are code-words for challenging diagnoses.  As a foster or adoptive parent, it's just something you keep your eyes open for when listening to a child's initial description.

In the case of the boy I was presented with yesterday, there appeared to be NO sugar coating.  I think I heard 2 "good" things about his boy in the entire conversation ("he's very smart" and "on his good days he can be really sweet").  The rest was full of real and pseudo diagnoses.  Given the brief history CPS has and I was given I would guess that most of the trauma behaviors are directly due to the trauma (it would be our first abuse case instead of neglect) and attachment disorder(s).  The way it was described to mie made it sound like this child will be on psychotropics as he gets older (that was actually said) and he would likely be a prime candidate to develop a conduct disorder and/or ODD as he ages.

I told the caseworker I'd think about it and talk to my husband.  Thankfully, he and I were on the same page about this one.  We will offer to do respite but otherwise say no for the following reasons:

• We hope to stay open to keep a sibling group together.  Taking a single child would limit our ability to take larger sibling groups in the future, which are harder to place than a single 2-year old boy.
• If the description is accurate, we would almost certainly need to close for a while to give this boy the care he needs.  Again, it doesn't quite fit with our openness to have a large family.
• Based on the behaviors this child has, it seems as if he'd be better as a single child.  Most likely he'd be better with a SAHM.  Most likely he'd need to stay out of childcare and need an alternative schooling arrangement as he gets older.  Not exactly our situation in our home.

Ultimately we want to be available to what God wants for our family so we want to be open to taking this child but we also want to make sure this child gets to the best family for him.  We feel like we'd be an acceptable family for him but not the best family for him and since they are looking to find a home he can stay in permanently, I'd hate to take him and prevent him from getting to the family he needs to be in.

BUT/SO, we're happy to do respite for the family he's currently in so he doesn't have to go to a residential treatment center as a 2-year-old.  This would keep us open and available to him as a possible long-term placement, giving us the chance to evaluate his behaviors and fit in our home at least temporarily to get confirmation of whether we should move forward or not with him as a placement AND it would give his current foster family rest so they could take him back for a while until they find the permanent family.  For us this seems like a no brainer solution.  I just have to call the CW back.

Of course as I typed this out all I heard was "don't you trust mie?"...*sigh*  Here goes! (the call to the CW, I mean)...