My Family Moments: Goodbye Day

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Goodbye Day - Part 1

The kids said their big goodbyes the night before. Before bedtime. Hard to watch but I think I was still a little disconnected from the reality of it all. Erwin went to work in the morning and decided to leave early to help me and then take the next day off to support me, grieve with me, whatever ya want to call it. I still don’t know. We walked out the front door to start what looked like our normal day. Not 10 seconds later we were reminded this is not a normal day. “Little Man” refused to get in the car. Huh? He loved getting the car, most of the time. If he refused, Abby could get him in or a toy/blankie bribe would always get him in. Nope, he was screaming and would not sit in the seat. He knew just as well as we did, something different was happening today. I had to take him out and walk around the yard for about 1 minute to calm him down. I promised him McD’s pancakes and he was good. Abby already started crying before the car was on. By the time we got to drop off circle at school, she was in a full blown ugly-cry meltdown. She kissed him and I went against all the stay-at-mom rules and got out of the car in my xmas pajama pants, shirt with no bra, teeth not brushed, hair in a bun attire and just about carried her to the office. I walked in passing everyone in line that was late and handed her off to my friend the attendance lady. Abby melted in her arms crying on her shoulder. I was crying by now and the rest of the office staff knew what was happening today without a word from me. The secretary mouthed to me that she would be watching her all day and checking in. Thank God for bringing these amazing women into my life. They are my friends and I know my sweet girl will be ok. The rest of the morning was normal. Ethan said goodbye in his mature, teenage boy, can’t be shaken way. I just drove to McD’s and then home looking in the rearview mirror every chance I got. Thinking about how empty my car will feel every morning without him behind me. And let me tell you, two months later, the ride home remains very quiet.

1 comment:

M&N said...: Bawling . . . such a heart breaker for everyone.; Thursday, December 11, 2014

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"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.