Hey, y'all! I hope all is well with you. It's been a while since my last Foster Friday post. To be honest, we had an empty nest from December to May so I didn't have much to chat about. After our first placement was reunified with their parents, we took some time off to let our hearts heal up a bit. We kept ourselves busy by purchasing and setting up our new home, and by spending some time relaxing in The Bahamas.
We had told ourselves that we'd open up our home again in February, but everything in the foster world moves at a snail's pace. You see, not only do you have to be licensed to foster children, but your home must be licensed as well. When we moved into our new place, we had to go through to process of having our home inspected and re-licensed.
We spent some time getting the children's room all set up and we anxiously awaited the licensing process to be finalized. In mid-March, we received our new license and our first call for a new placement.
Unfortunately, I had pneumonia at the time and our car was not capable of fitting the 3 infant car seats that would be required to take on the three little ones. We had to pass on the placement.
It was an entire month and a half before our phone rang again. At the very beginning of May, we finally got a call for another sibling set. A set of 1 1/2-year-old twin boys and their 5-year-old sister needed a safe place to stay. We went back and forth as to whether this would be too much for us to take on. You see, my emotions were a hot damn mess when we got our first placement. I was completely overwhelmed and I had a mini-breakdown. I was terrified that it might happen again.
As a teacher, May is a super stressful month for me. We had our state testing ahead of us and I needed to close out the school year (which is exhausting). I decided that I needed to get my shit together; these kids needed me. Whatever anxieties and thoughts that might come about would just have to be dealt with.
It all came down to whether or not we could fit 2 infant car seats and a booster seat in the back of our car. With a bit of finagling, some minor cussing and a ridiculous amount of sweat, we made it work.
On May 3rd, we casually strolled into a daycare and informed the front desk that we were there to pick up our new foster children. The secretary introduced us to our new foster daughter and foster sons and the rest, as they say, was history.
Nearly 6 weeks later, we've all settled in. When we first got the twins, one of them was not walking and was not able to chew solid foods. The only word he knew was "Mama". Fast forward 2 weeks and the little guy was not only walking but running, all over our house without assistance. He also has a super healthy appetite and now eats everything in sight. He now has about 10 words that he uses reguarly. He has grown so much in such a short time!
His brother came to us walking and able to eat. He knew how to say, "What's that" and "Mama". He hasn't picked up nearly as many words or skills as his brother but he is happy and much healthier than he was when we got him.
Let me tell you, the older sister (5) was a hot damn mess when we first got her. Don't get me wrong, she's still a mess but she's come a long way in a short period of time. Her speech and speech patterns make it very difficult to understand. With lots of coaching (and patience on all of our parts), she is becoming easier to understand...slightly. She's learning manners, and boundaries and growing more and more each day.
She's extremely hyperactive so we have to keep her busy so she stays out of trouble. Ya'll, it has been an adventure so far!
I'll share some more details of our endeavor next Friday. I hope to see you then!