My Family Moments: July 2008

Sunday, July 20, 2008

My kids are amazing!

We woke up at 530am and were on the water at 615am. It was freezing cold but the water was glass. Er got some time on the board and then the kids were chompin at the bit to get in the water. It was just the 4 of us today. As usually I wasn't keen on going in today so I chilled on the boat while the kids and E played in the water. The boat was barely anchored and Abby was in the water shortly followed by Ethan. The water was warmer than the air today at 730am. When the sun came out Abby and Ethan finally decided they could do the tube by themselves. Ethan has always been the scared one. We were excited that he was okay with going. As we started to tow, Abby got this petrified look at her face. We stopped, fixed the tube a little and the smile came on Abby and Ethan's face. All was well! Er stepped it up a bit and they were getting soaked going up and down the wakes, cracking up. But I was watching them off the back of the boat thinking..."Abby is freakin' 4! She is tubing at 4 years old!" hilarious! I can't believe that "MY" kids are doing this. I didn't learn how to swim till I was 11 or 12. Abby has absolutely NO FEAR. We anchored for awhile and Er hooked the tube up close to the back so they could just go from the boat to the tube and jump off. Well, Abby decides to stand on the back of the boat and do a diving somersault onto the tube into the water. Then next I told her to go backwards. She stood on the edge of the tube backwards and deadman falls stiff as a board into the water. Yep, no camera this time. I'm sure this isn't the last time she will do this. Just too much fun watching them today. We were home and napping by 1230!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Internet Kills ME!

Who has ever spent an hour and a half on the internet working on something that requires decision making only to find out that when you are ready to check-out the fabulous computer tells you "please return to the homepage...there as been error"! AHHHH! Umm...ya....I have!!

Night Night!

"Foster Family" Terminology

SW: Social Worker = This is a professionally trained (at times I feel from a YouTube video) individual who works for any County or private organization. My foster baby will have a SW and I will have a SW who is also known as a CCW. (see below)

CCW: Clinical Case Worker = This is a professionally trained individual, also known as a Social Worker who works for Angel’s Foster Family Network. They are assigned to a maximum of 12 families at one time and lead them through the fostering system. They are our right hand gal. (no males as of yet) This person does all the legal pushing and pulling on our behalf so we can focus solely on loving and caring for our foster babies. I would not and will not ever do my job as a foster mom without these people.

Supervised Visit = The bioparent has rights to see their child no matter the circumstances. Most often the visits begin as 1 to 2 hours, 1 to 2 times a week. An adult that is approved must watch the parent with the child at all times. (sometimes a lot of work and sometimes boring as heck)

Unsupervised Visit = The bioparent has rights to see their child no matter the circumstances before. If they are improving their situation then they will eventually get the right to have visits without supervision. The foster parent must drop off the child at an approved location and pick them up later. Most often the visit is for 2-6 hours 1 to 2 times a week. And these will only increase in length as the situation improves. (super hard for the foster parent to move to this step)

Foster Baby/Child = A child that has been removed from their biological family due to many different reasons affecting the welfare of the child. They are then placed in protective custody under the County and State.