Broken Glasses

On Tuesday, Jeff picked up Henry while I waited for Miss R to arrive home. She was dropped off early. Turns out that the sibling visits are only one hour and not two. Jeff made a delicious pasta and vegetable dinner for us. It was a nice, not particularly eventful evening.

On Wednesday, Grammy and Poppy picked up the kids after school. Apparently, Henry had snapped his glasses in half a naptime. Luckily, the shop said that they are under warranty, which is nice. The kids had a good time with Grammy and Poppy. Miss R was happy to see me when I arrived to pick them up. Henry was cordial but didn't want to come home.

On Thursday morning, we had a visit from Miss R's new CPS caseworker who was Carmen's supervisor. Carmen's cases were switched over to a person named Katie. She was nice. She's switching the case over to St. Nicholas. I'm not exactly sure how this works or why the system is set up as it is, but the only agency that handles adoptions in our area is St. Nicholas of Myra, which is a catholic services organization. Basically, we will be assigned a new caseworker who will vet us, I guess. Apparently, they usually go with CPS' recommendation. CPS is recommending us as the permanent home for Miss R. An aunt from another state left one message with the CPS workers, but they have not heard from her since. So she's a big question mark. Katie said that they usually don't get as excited about distant family members who don't seem to have a bond with a child who come into the picture as a last resort option. Miss R's lawyer said something similar the second time that he visited Miss R. He said that when family members come into the picture at the last minute, the impression given is that they are doing it because they "have" to, not because they really "want" to. He wants children going to homes where they are wanted. Things look positive, but we know that things aren't final until the judge says so.

Katie hadn't seen Miss R in a long time. She'd seen her a long time ago during one of the supervised visits at the CPS office. Katie's short observation of the kids was fairly representative of their true relationship. When she arrived, she witnessed Henry taking a card from Miss R's hands, Miss R getting upset, me telling Henry that we don't take objects from others w/o permission and that he had to give it back and apologize. She also saw them laugh and dive into the ball pitt together. As I said, a fairly representative snipet of what their relationship is like.

I took the kids to daycare right before their lunch times. Their time at daycare was relatively short, but gave me some time to get some things done.

We had a visit from Alison, our family specialist from APTCH, in the late afternoon. She's preparing the paperwork for St. Nick's. It will be similar to our foster parent home study, but this one will be particularly tailored for Miss R. Jeff picked up the kids and Henry was pleased to see her when he got home. He walked up to her and said "Let's check the house," which is what she does every visit. Makes sure medicines are locked up and that we have locks on the cabinets.

Alison wanted to know if we wanted to foster other children. Right now, our car situation is a limitation. Jeff really wants a Prius. He thinks that we can fit three cars seats in the back of one. I'm doubtful. Apparently, there was a baby who needed a home. Alison had thought of us, but wasn't sure that we entertaining the idea of more kids yet. It's an open question.

I made pizza tonight. I had Henry help me roll out the premade dough, put sauce on the dough, put cheese on the dough, and then lay out the pepperoni on one side. I had Miss R help me with putting mushrooms on the otherside and then putting the pan in the oven. Jeff made a fire after dinner. The kids loved it. He had to tell Henry to not touch it several times.

Henry wanted to play dress up. He announced that he wanted to be a princess. This probably had something to do with us watching Snow White before and during dinner. At one point, he wanted to be the princess. But then he wanted to kiss the princess.

Both kids did a great job letting us brush their teeth. Henry then wanted to brush our teeth. Henry brushed my teeth, and Miss R brushed Jeff's. They didn't make too much of a mess, but they did almost gag us a couple times. Then it was bedtime.