FRW: Hey Kelly! How are you?
ME: Good. Just finishing up work and heading over to pick up LD.
FRW: Hey, when's #2 coming?
ME: She's coming for an overnight the 3rd-4th, and then she's being dropped off on the 6th.
FRW: So you're free this weekend?
- Let's stop to take a minute to see how not having a 2nd foster child for the long weekend meant I was "free." -
ME: Why? What's Up?
FRW: I have a little girl that needs a placement for the weekend. It's an emergency.
And that is how a beautiful little 4-year-old ended up sleeping in the toddler bed in the kids' room.
The drop-off was eye-opening. I told my FRW that I'd be home around 4:30. At about 4:45 a car pulled into the driveway and a woman and little girl started making their way up my driveway. Before we even got through the door the social worker was asking me how long I could keep her on Monday. I ignored her and turned to the little girl and introduced myself and LD. I asked her what her name was and how old she was and said 4 was a really great age. After actually acknowledging this little human (who will be referred to as BG 'big girl'), I turned to the social worker and said I would be home all day on the 3rd because I'd taken the day off, but that our second foster child was coming in the morning for an overnight. The social worker said something to the effect of "Okay so someone will be here to pick her up in the afternoon." It dawned on me that Monday was the 3rd and I knew the DCF offices would be closed on the 4th. I asked where BG was going to be on the 4th and the social worker said, "I don't know." I automatically said, "We will keep her if we're allowed to have 3 under 4 years old in one room." The social worker told me to call my FRW because she didn't know the answer to that question.
At that point we made our way inside. BG had a small brown backpack with her and the social worker was carrying a purple duffel bag. The duffel bag was placed on the floor and BG held on to her backpack as the social worker waited for me to call my FRW. I called her and asked if BG stayed with us until the morning of the 5th would it be okay to have two 1-year-olds and a 4-year-old sleeping in the same room. DCF has guidelines around ages and genders staying in the same room. My FRW said it was fine so I confirmed with her that BG would be with us throughout the long weekend.
I hung up and let the social worker know it was all set. The social worker, who wanted made it more than 3 feet into my kitchen, said "Okay great. She's all set then." and turned to walk out the door.
Let's stop again to reflect on this. This sweet girl was standing in my kitchen and had no idea who I was or where she was. Her social worker was about to walk out the door and I didn't even know BG's last name.
I noticed a medicine bottle sticking out of BG's duffel bag so I asked the social worker if BG had any allergies or medical issues I should know about (fairly important right?). The social worker said "No." so I asked about the medicine and I was told it was fluoride. I attempted to ask BG if she had already taken it that day, but being 4 and possibly in shock/overwhelmed she wasn't exactly the best source of information. The social worker said she didn't think this little girl's previous foster mom wouldn't have given it to her. The assumption was made that I would wait and give BG her fluoride the next morning. I'm just glad it wasn't an actual prescription for anything significant.
At about 5:05pm the social worker walked out and it was me, LD, and BG. The three of us against the weekend!
The night went fine and so did today. BG is sweet, imaginative, polite, funny, and everything a 4-year-old should be. She's great with our little dude. She is also wise in ways that she shouldn't be. She walked around Walmart pretending to be a DCF worker - as if these people are in everyone's lives. She talked about how this was her first time being a foster-kid. She wanted to know if she could talk to her previous foster mom. She talked about stealing and being safe. She asked me when I would scream at her and gave examples of things she thought I would scream at her for doing. She told me she wanted to go home. She misses her Mom a lot and told me that every house she saw was her Moms. At bedtime tonight we talked about meeting her Mom in her dreams to ride on unicorns as they danced on rainbows.
Tomorrow will be another day.
ps. I never found out her name until this morning when I read it on the bottle of fluoride.
No comments:
Post a Comment