Yo Ho!

On Thursday afternoon, we had a visit from Christy, Miss R's caseworker from St. Nick's. Nothing particularly exciting to report. The kids were cute, but that isn't news. She asked if we were going to try to get Baby A's brother. Her brother is with St. Nick's not CPS as the parents' rights were severed November/December, which is why Christy knows about the brother. I said that I'd left several messages with his caseworker, but she hadn't returned my calls and that if I left any more messages, I'd look like a stalker (I'd left about four over a two-week period). She said that one of their former caseworkers had left, so that the brother's caseworker was pretty overwhelmed with work, but she'd mention to her that we are interested.

After Christy left, we let the kids watch Shrek 2, which they really liked. Henry sang a good part of the "Yo Ho!" song from Peter Pan all by himself. When I pulled out the camera, he forgot the words of course.

On Friday, the kids had Water Day at school. They wore their swim suits and had fun outside. I think that the teachers pull out hoses and put on the misters, etc. The kids were in very good moods when we picked them up. We picked them up at 5:15PM...after Jeff and I had gone on a date to see Iron Man 2.

We took them to Costco. Henry told Daddy that's where he got his Buzz Lightyear DVD, which is true. I took him to Costco last month and got him that DVD. Completely surprised that he remembered where we had bought it.

This evening, we bought the DVD of Toy Story and watched it. Henry wanted more TV, but we wouldn't let him watch more than one movie. So he threw a tantrum. But I tickled him and kissed him, and he seemed to forget about the DVD. He and Miss R took showers before bed, which they seem to like. Much easier to shower them than bathe them.

In other news, I received an annoying call from CPS this morning. [NOTE: Rant to follow.]

CPS person: Hello, this is __(caseworker's secretary)__ from CPS. Is this Kate?
KATE: Yes.
CPS person: Are you the foster parent of the __(baby's last name)__ baby?
KATE: Yes.
CPS person: Could you tell us why she isn't at daycare right now so that she can be taken to her visit?
KATE: She had her visitation yesterday.
CPS person: Well, she is going to have two visits per week.
KATE: First of all, we were never informed of the change in the visitation schedule. And second, if that is case, the baby will need to be picked up at our house, just like she is picked up on Thursdays.
CPS person: Oh. Well, I will have to have __(caseworker's name)__ call you back.

Surprise, surprise. The caseworker never called us back. Moreover, our family specialist at A Place to Call Home left several messages for the CPS caseworker last week and this week, but her calls were never returned. If the caseworker actually returned a telephone call (gasp), she could have passed along this information. Yet another example of how screwed up the system is. I know that they are overloaded, but some simple demonstrations in competency could improve their efficiency so that they could handle their caseloads.

Then add to that picture the whole situation with Baby A's brother. It is incredibly hard to find households that are willing to take two siblings. Very hard. Here Jeff and I are, entertaining this possibility, and we can't get a callback. As I said when we were first contacted about the brother before he was disrupted from his previous foster home, we wanted to spend a day with him and just see if it would be possible for us to handle four kids. I don't think that it would take much time for us to make that assessment. And we know it would not be easy. And we aren't anticipating a happy-go-lucky visit day nor do we need a "perfect" visit to make that assessment. But we do need to meet the child and get a feel. I'd say that the probability is high that we'd go for it and try to get both siblings under the same roof. These kind of opportunities do not fall into caseworkers' laps often. But no callback. Add to that the fact that the brother of Baby A does have some attachment issues for which the system will not invest services until he is in a "stable home." So this poor kid is left without support. What's wrong with this picture?

So right now, I'm pretty irked at "the system." We were very fortunate in having Carmen as our CPS caseworker for Miss R's case and then her boss Katie when Carmen left. Both women were really good. We are fortunate to have Christy as Miss R's St. Nick's caseworker. But not all caseworkers are equally good. And it is amazing how many kids get stuck in the system b/c of people don't doing their jobs and judges do not follow the letter or spirit of the law.

Alright, I'd better get off my soapbox and sign off.