Meeting the Gang

Well, it is after everyone's bedtime and I am having a hard time winding down for the night. So, I'll tell a little more of my story.

As I had said the children were younger and greater in number than we were expecting. That fact meant that we had to buy beds, car seats and an array of supplies. I began to scour the classified ads. I had to have 3 toddler car seats, an infant car seat, and a booster seat that was rated for larger children. Once I found all the car seats, I had to find beds. We had a twin bed, but we definitely didn't have baby beds. I bought 5 different cribs before I got 2 that would work. We actually ended up with an extra toddler bed. Total bed count is 1 twin, 3 toddler, and 2 cribs. We are storing the extra toddler bed for N. The list of supplies seemed endless. I bought, begged and bartered until I thought I had everything.


We got the children's sizes, but were told that they might not be right. I didn't want to spend money on something that might not fit. So, we waited.

The presentation meeting wasn't until after Christmas. We had to drive 2 1/2 hours for the meeting. The dynamics of the meeting is hard to describe. Four different groups were represented. Of course, the prospective parents were there, D and I. The other 3 were part of DSS. We live in one region of our state and the children were from a different region, so case workers from both regions were there. Since they were in foster care the foster care case workers showed as well. Regardless of what we had been told. We were not all wanting the same thing. The CWs from our region were jealous and very negative about everything. The foster CWs were evasive and of little help. They wanted to place the children back with their bio mom. The only ones trying to get us to accept the children were the CWs for their region. The 3 groups growled and postured the entire meeting. We went into the meeting knowing that unless we found out something horrible about the kids, we were taking them. We left with a bad taste in our mouths: not from the kids, from DSS.

We gave them our answer the next morning. Even though they didn't make a good presentation, we felt the children were the ones we had been called to take. Strange, they didn't fit what we thought we wanted. They weren't even free to be adopted. That was a big issue. In the end, we realized that God send these children to us for how ever long they need us. I hope that they can stay forever, but I can't see God's plan so I have to trust that He is in control. We plan to love them while they are here.

The foster CW, Vanessa, and the permanent placement CW, Toyia, couldn't get together on when we got to see the children. Finally, I convinced Toyia to let us see at least the 3 that were in the same foster home. On Tuesday, Jan. 20th we,D, C, Tf, and I, drove 4 hours to visit for 2 hours with only 2 of our 5 children. The foster mom was having problems releasing N. She falsified info to make it appear that he wasn't able to leave her home to come visit with us at the library. We played in a dull, boring meeting room of the county library. They were gorgeous. T immediately called us Momma and Daddy. F smiled and slept. She won our hearts. We went to McD for lunch, no playground, anyway it was snowing and cold, not weather for outside play.

We went home excited and a little sad. We left T crying. She wanted to go with us. The time was too short. Most importantly, we only got to see 2 of the 5 children.

Friday, Jan. 23rd, we drove back again to a different McD. with a playground. There we met B and K. They were as beautiful as their sisters. Both were a bit shy, but C and Tf broke the ice by suggesting they go together to the playground. A short time later, Toyia brought T, N and F. N took to D. N would snuggle into D's shoulder and grin. All 4 of the older girls laughed and played. Too soon our visit was over. There were more tears. This time it was almost impossible to leave them. I worried about how we would manage until we saw them again. I also worried that N's foster mom would try to prevent us from taking him. She could make waves. Enough waves to be a problem. So I prayed for peace.