Our temporary placement that I mentioned in my last post was supposed to last for three days. At first it seemed that the agencies involved wanted the existing foster home to reconsider, but when that wasn't possible, they frittered around long enough to make us wonder if they were trying to persuade us to take her permanently. For a variety of reasons, that just wasn't possible. They did finally find a more permanent solution but only after they were closing in on three weeks (instead of three days) and only after my wife made it very clear that our schedule made it impossible for us to keep her any longer.
Then a little more than a week ago, we heard that another placement was possible and asked if we might be interested. This time a school aged boy a bit younger than our kids. We didn't get a lot of information at first because he was not a part of our agency but to one of the local county agencies. As we learned more about his background we became more willing to consider it and so, starting with a one-day "trial", last week we began a new long-term placement. Things are going reasonably well so far, but that is not to say that there has not been some friction. Another person in the house changes many things and not all of us deal with change in the same way. There are loner lines for the bathroom in the morning, our schedules are different, there is one more person for whom to organize care, doctor visits, prescriptions, etc. I am certain that his stress is spiking as well as he moves to a new foster home and a new school and tries to learn new rules and adapt to new family customs and values. All in all, none of this was unexpected but, at the same time, is a source of stress for many family members. For this to happen in the middle of the Christmas season hasn't made things any easier. I hope (and I believe) that things will settle down in a few weeks as we grow accustomed to one another and to our new routines.
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