29 Months Old!

On Monday evening, the kids took the dogs for a walk with Jeff. They ran into Yvonne. Somehow, they got on the topic of songs. Jeff asked Henry what his favorite "Mamma Mia!" song was in front of Yvonne. Henry replied, "Honey, Honey." He knows what he likes.

On Tuesday morning, it took forever to get the kids out the door. Between having breakfast, diaper changes, teeth brushing, giving Miss R the nebulizer, and braiding her hair (b/c today she was scheduled to have a bio family visit), it took us about two hours to get out the door. I then, of course, realized that I had forgotten the bag that goes along with her to bio visits (it has diapers, snacks, and juice in it). I had errands to run. Dropped my mom's car back at her place. Got a new bag for Miss R (quicker than returning home). Went to order contacts and glasses at Pearle Vision (that took 2 hours...and I knew going into the place exactly what I wanted). Dropped a new bag at daycare for Miss R. Got Lily licensed with the county. It wasn't exactly how I envisioned spending my day. Long story short, Jeff had planned to spend a little time with Henry but when he got to the daycare, they informed him that Miss R had been returned there by the driving service. Apparently, the bio visit got canceled while she was in route. Jeff returned with both kids. The great news was I spent some time with the kids. The bad news was that my work day was blow to pieces.

The kids were very chipper. Miss R gave me a huge hug. Henry wanted to read and color, so that's what we did. Henry made a circle-like object on a paper (kind of a squashed, jagged oval really...but he was very purposeful about it). He wants to learn how to make happy faces on his own. He played on the slide and ball pit and managed to get himself stuck in a net that's supposed to hold balls not boys. He required my help getting out. I took a picture first.

We had a visit with Alison, our family specialist, from A Place To Call Home. Apparently, the agency is cutting back a lot, which is why Alison hasn't been attending Miss R's various meetings. She apologized but figured that we could handle it. We understood. We updated her on the case. She says that what she "thinks" will happen at the Court hearing, if the Court decides to switch plans to a "concurrent" one, is that the bio parents will be given 30 days to either contest the decision to proceed toward severance of rights OR decide to sign away their rights to Miss R. At the following hearing, they would enter their plea: to contest or not to contest. If they contest, then the case goes to a trial, which usually lasts about 3 days (I think Carmen told us that). If they do not contest, then the next hearing would officially "sever" the parents' rights to Miss R. At that point, her case would transfer from CPS to St. Nick's, an organization that handles adoptions in our city. I'm guessing that the parents won't sign away their rights to her. I think that they will fight it. Alison says that if the case goes to trial and they lose, the Court would officially declare them "unfit" and could potentially take away any future babies. So the bio parents have to weigh that in their decision to contest or not to contest. If the case moves toward adoption, there is a separate adoption home study that has to be done. But Alison can use a lot of material from our foster care home study and just put it in a different format. There are some additional questions that we'll be asked, such as what would happen to the kids in the event of our deaths (we have that solution worked out) and would we want R to have contact with the bio family (it depends in part on the circumstance; our guts say that it would be wrong to prevent siblings from seeing each other).

Alison also asked us if we wanted to foster other children. This is something that Jeff and I need to think about and discuss further. The general answer is "yes," but we want to be a bit further along in the process with Miss R before committing to anyone else. Plus, our cars only seat four people. A requirement for taking another child would be having a vehicle that seats as many people as there are in the family. While we want more kids, we've finally established a good routine of sorts. Frankly, that's not something we've had since Henry's birth. We are enjoying having the occasional predictable week. It's nice.

Henry was irked that he had to eat dinner while Alison and I continued talking. I did the house check with Alison. As we went into the kitchen, Henry said, "I want to check the house." He didn't like Alison's answer that she had already checked it.

Henry was great about his teeth earning him a red star, which he decided to put on his big toe. Miss R didn't earn a star, but Henry gave his star to her after about 4 minutes.

It is Wednesday morning. Henry is officially 29 months old (actual)!