Catching Up

Oh, I have been a bad blogger.  So sorry.  Work has been absolutely crazy, a lot of stress and tension over budgets and thus over whether we have jobs.  Plus I have a new class of prospective foster and adoptive parents beginning their journey, so that has been and will be intense.  We have an awesome class, 15 families are starting out, I am hoping that about 12 will finish and become certified homes.  That would be great, being able to place 12 kids in the first quarter of the year!!

At home things continue apace.  Doug went down to court with Brooke and full guardianship was granted to the state.  We will petition to take over guardianship, at least of the personal not financial aspects, in 6 months.  It has been a long road with her but things are looking a lot brighter.

Annie, on the other hand is a hot mess.  Doug and I traveled to see her over the New Year's weekend and she is not doing well.  Her seizures have increased.  Her weight is ballooning, she gained 11 pounds in a one week period, and it is all from overeating and not moving around.  Her placement is in total jeopardy, her Medicaid was cut off on Dec. 31 and no placement in at all interested in taking her on the long-term Acquired Brain Injury Waiver that we were so es tactic about receiving.  The main reason for their reluctance is how much of a flight risk she is.  So we go around and around, calling this state agency and that ombudsman office and never do the right hands know what the left hands are doing. Frustration, fear, anger, hopelessness, determination and exhaustion would about describe my feelings about all this.

I had one adult son get to experience jail time for his poor choices about what to do before one drives.  I am hoping it was an educational experience and may serve as a wake-up call.  Some folks are terribly hard-headed.

Douglass is off to Texas to see his girlfriend again.  That relationship really worries Doug and myself as the girlfriend is extremely manipulative and uses a lot of emotional blackmail.  Douglass does not really have the capability to handle that well at all.  We also are concerned about how immature and self-centered she is.  But he is what passes for an adult these days so we try to remain supportive and carefully point out issues in ways that hopefully will not alienate him.

More on Kendra and Dancing Baby Girl and anything else interesting later as I must get Kendra off to a dance competition.