Preparations

I'm sitting here watching Fuzzy crawl around with one of his blocks happily playing on the floor with his daddy. I just finished feeding him and packing his diaper bag. And in about 2 hours I have to put my son in the lions den aka leave him with his birthmom for an overnight visit. My heart is racing and breaking at the same time, but I'm being strong for him. I don't want Fuzzy to know that I'm upset, and he can usually tell pretty easily. I've planned several cleaning up and rearranging my house projects for today to keep myself busy. I've asked everyone to pray for Fuzzy's safety on this unsupervised visit, so if you're the praying type please pray for him. Thanks

Coming out of hiding

... kind of. I can't believe it's been so long since I blogged. I've been so busy with work and the kids and traveling. There have been some changes in Fuzzy's case plan and not for the better. The judge decided that Fuzzy's BM was not getting enough time to bond with him since the case plan was left as reunification so she ordered him to start overnight visits every other weekend. WTF? This dumb bitch completely ignored the CW and CASA's recommendation that the BM get longer SUPERVISED visits and work from there. Nope, the judge decided to throw an 11 month old into a place he's never been before, without anything that will give him a sense of security, alone with his BM that per the CASA volunteer "thinks that he is like a baby doll not a real human being." So this Saturday, I have to hand over my son to an idiot that will probably do God knows what to him because she doesn't like to follow directions from anyone. I won't know how he's doing until I get him back the next day. She has my cell phone number in case of emergency, but WTF am I supposed to do when she's 50 minutes away from me? I don't understand anyone with a brain thinking this is a good idea. The judge actually decided this after the BM threw a temper tantrum in court because she thought that since they were going to court she was getting him back that day. Even though the CW has talked to her 2 times before telling her that they were recommending that she work her plan for another 6 months. On top of all that, it came out that she has a history of drug abuse and has not been tested to see if she's using now or not! I was literally sick when the CW called me with this news, and I'm getting worse as the day draws near. Fuzzy has been sick for the last week and is very moody and high maintenance right now. I pray that he will be safe with her, but I'm not sure that he will be.

On a happier note, my brother and his girlfriend got married this weekend. It was a lovely small wedding with just family and some close friends. I got to be the photographer, and use my bro's new Ca*non EOS R*ebel T 1i. I'm in love with that bad boy. I can't wait to see the printed pictures. I was the 1st person to take pictures with it :) We took both kids with us to TX, and that was something I don't ever plan to do again. L had a screaming fit for about 10 minutes the 1st night in the hotel out of no where. And Fuzzy refused to sleep more than an hour or so at a time the whole 2nd night. I was exhausted. I'm still tired. For the most part, we all enjoyed the trip. And I'm just thrilled to have Janet as my sister-in-law and her son, Alex, as my nephew. I didn't take too many pictures with my camera since I was using the big daddy camera, but I'll share pictures when I can.

The day after the wedding, Avianna, was dedicated in church. It was nice being there for that, and she looked angelic in her little poofy ivory dress. We were supposed to go to my bro's house afterwards and to celebrate, but I didn't get much celebrating done. We were there about 30 minutes and realized that Rob packed Fuzzy's bottles in the wrong bag. So we had a hungry baby with no formula. I tried to feed him some solid food, but he didn't really want it. So I made the 20+ minute drive back to the hotel alone. I missed a turn and got kind of lost, but I found my way back. I was upset that I had to go back for the bottles and then I got lost and then on top of that my mom called my cell phone complaining about how long I was taking to get back. This is from the woman that made a 5 hour drive an 8+ hour drive because they got lost on the way to TX! Then my bro called me a couple of times because my mom was bothering him about it. And I just lost it. All of the pent up anger and frustration from the last few weeks at work and the issues with Fuzzy just came to a head. And I went off on my mom when I got back to the house. I know I said somethings I shouldn't have, but her nagging just set me off. I was hoping this weekend would be a nice time where I wouldn't feel like I was being berated for one thing or another, but her comments ruined the rest of my day. She's not really talking to me that much right now, and I know I will apologize just because it's my mom. Next time I will just have to avoid her.

I'm currently planning Fuzzy's birthday party which is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. We've decided to have it in the gym at our church since my house is not set up for a party of this size. Also this will allow everyone to get in the air conditioning if they are not on the playground with the kids. I still can't believe that my little man will be 1 in a matter of weeks. Time really has flown by.

I'm in a state of anger, confusion, fear, and just plain pissed off right now. Fuzzy's permanency meeting was supposed to be tomorrow morninng. But at noon today I found out that they moved it to this morning and I fucking missed it. Yep, they fucking moved a meeting that was supposed to have 4 lawyers and several other people in an hour. This is what the CW said on her message she left on my cell phone. She called my damn cell phone while I was at work even though I've told her over and over to call my office during work hours. I don't keep my cell phone on my desk because everyone with a brain calls me at work! So I didn't know that she called me at 8:05 and 8:39 to tell me about a meeting at 9. That bitch will get hers one of these days. I hate her! She has screwed us over too much. Rob is under the impression that the BM and the CW are friends that's why shit like this happens. I know that I do feel like it was done on purpose to keep me from being able to be there and voicing my opinion on the case. It doesn't help that a couple of weeks ago she sat in our living room and told us that they were not going to give the BM extension because there was no reason why she couldn't have worked her plan. But then a week later she was talking about recommending the BM get another 6 months. So guess fucking what....the BM gets another 6 months. Yep, Fuzzy will be a year and half by then. We're all the family he knows, but that doesn't matter to anyone. Just because BM squeezed him out does not make her the best option to raise him. But like I've learned over these months no one cares what kind of life she can give him. They just care that she's BM. And we don't matter because we're just foster parents.

Permanency

This Wednesday is Fuzzy's permanency meeting. I'm getting nervous. This point has always been so far away and now it's looming in front of me. I'm going alone due to work constraints for Rob. I'm not even sure what I'm walking into. I know that the BM will not be there. I know that Fuzzy's lawyer, BM's lawyer, Dad's lawyer, CW, her supervisor, and an adoptions unit worker should be there. But that's about it. I've had some people tell me that it will be just like the family team conferences, but I'm not sure. The CW had said 2 different things to me about the meeting. One day she told me that they were not going to recommend that the BM get any additional time to work her case plan and recommend TPR for a court date in August. But about a week later she said that they will probably recommend for her to get another 6 months. WTF? How can things change in a week? I don't trust them to do things in Fuzzy's best interest even though they claim that they will. She's had a year to work her plan and they've been helping her along the way yet she has been going against them and doing things "her way". I would do anything for Fuzzy so why is it so hard for her to follow directions for him? Why keep giving her chances? Will you let him spend the years and years in foster care just to keep giving her chances to do what she needs to do for him?

Today sucks, well actually work has sucked for a while. We're working on a big filing and right now we're doing a lot of keying in of data and other boring mind-numbing stuff. But to top that off I can't stop worrying about Fuzzy. They took him again today out of town for a visit. I hate this. This crap throws off his whole day, and then he doesn't have me or Rob there to help him cope. The CW doesn't even bother to tell us. They told the daycare yesterday that they would come get him today. This is how I found out. I hate the system.

What's Happenin'

Well, let's see what's happened since my last post:

I think L had a good birthday. She loved all of her gifts especially the cheap little baby bottles for her dolls. She loves her playhouse and her new doll. We met her grandmother and mom at the park the afternoon of her birthday so they could spend some time with her. It was nice seeing her happy, relaxed, and smiling.



On Friday, we had L's Family Team Conference and my department was having an out of the office fun day at the lake. I had planned to go to the FTC, but I've missed too much work lately. And in order to make sure I could get the time away from the office I will need in a couple of weeks approved I had to miss the meeting. So Rob took off Friday to go to the FTC for us. I had already spoken to L's mom several times about giving her another little party that day with her siblings. L's mom told me that the only thing she needed us to bring was the cake. I should have known better than that. Rob took the cake and an extra set of plates (just in case) with him. The family had a bunch of junk food and that's all. They didn't even have plates or a damn knife for the cake. Thank goodness I picked out a cake/cupcake combo so all they ate were the cupcakes since they couldn't cut the cake.

During the FTC, Rob learned a lot more about L's mom and all her issues and let me tell you that there are a ton of them. He also learned that L is lactose intolerant. WTF? Really...you're just know mentioning this. This child has been with us 2 months and has been having the foulest, nastiest diapers I have ever seen. I have almost thrown up several times. So now I've switched her to soy milk and I'm praying that things will get better.

L is still crying at the drop of a hat for almost anything. I keep talking to her about why she shouldn't be crying the way she does. She's also still screaming bloody murder when it's time to leave daycare or the church nursery or just leave someone that she just met in the hallway for a minute.

Wednesday evening , we're meeting with the therapist to have L evaluated. I'm hoping that she's eligible for as much help as they can give her because she really needs it. People joke about it, but I really believe that if she doesn't get professional help that Fuzzy will start really talking before she does.

Speaking of Fuzzy, he's cruising everywhere. He's not too interested in standing without holding on to something, but he's pulling up and walking all the time. I've started planning his birthday party and trying to figure out where we will have it. Right now I have about 50 people on the invite list so it's starting to look more and more like we will not have it at our house simply due to space and cost. Renting a tent and tables and chairs is pretty $$$. We will have his permanency meeting next week. I'm praying that they don't extend his BM's time. CW mentioned that her supervisor told her to talk to BM about surrendering her rights, but we all know that BM won't do that. She will drag things out until the end because she's not thinking about Fuzzy and what's in his best interest. I truly believe that she's had plenty of time and opportunities to do what they ordered her to do. But instead she's trying to make things appear to be good enough to hopefully fool people into just sending him home. The CW sees what she's doing, but will that help things I don't know.

Here's a couple of pictures of my son.


Well, my hair is almost dry so I can go to sleep soon. I'll try to update more often, but this week will be hella busy with Vacation Bible School each night after work until 8:15. Thank goodness it's only a week.

I saw this song on another adoption blog, and it's so beautiful. I've loved Mark Schultz songs for quite a while, but for some reason today was the first time I heard this one. Mark was adopted and wrote this song after speaking with an adoptive parent at an event. That parent explained to him that his BM had 3 choices for his life: abortion, keeping him even though she knew she couldn't give him the life he deserved, or giving him up to have a better life.