Cruising along

Nothing major has happened over the past couple weeks.

We are adjusting to being a family of 6 after being a family of 7 for the past six months.   Who would have thought that it would be easier having 4 kids vs 5? ;)  Z has asked a few times where his brother is.  He is satisfied with my answer when I tell him G went to live with his dad.  He has seen G twice during visits with the mom, and I think that has helped.

As far as behaviors with Z, we are still seeing them for a few days after the visits.  I know all 2 year olds have temper tantrums, but these are constant and mostly only on the days following a visit.  The next court date for the termination hearing is June 14th -that will be the initial hearing- then the fact finding hearing will be August 3rd.  I'm not totally sure what all can/will happen during those hearings but we will find out soon.  Hopefully all of this will be coming to an end--and with the results we are hoping for.  I'm not sure what I would do if Z had to go back to his mom. I am 99.99% sure that would never happen, but with foster care, nothing is 100%.  I know she doesn't want him, she has said that many times.  And I believe he would be in danger if he was with her without supervision.  And, I am not the only one who feels this way so I believe that is something we will never have to worry about.   

As far as W, his mom has basically gotten to the point that she isn't going to be able to get W back into her care.  She has failed most of the drug screens she has been given.  She has been released from her drug counseling program because she missed too many appointments.  She is supposed to be calling to get into an inpatient program, but to my knowledge has not made that call yet.  I hope she hasn't given up because she doesn't think she can do this, but I believe that's probably what has happened.  The caseworker told me last week that she is going to talk to everyone involved about placing W with his paternal aunt.  This particular aunt has expressed several times that she wants W and she has been pretty upset that she hasn't gotten the chance to have him yet.  The main reason she doesn't have him is the first two times she asked, the judge said he "wasn't comfortable placing W with any part of that family".  At that point, the caseworker felt there was no point in pursuing that road.  But that wasn't necessarily because they felt like the aunt was a bad choice, but because its impossible to get something accomplished once the judge has made up his mind.   But now that so much time has passed and this aunt still wants W, and its looking like he won't be going home, the aunt might start looking a little better.

Another reason they are looking at the aunt again is because the caseworker believes a guardianship arrangement can be worked out.  We were asked if we would consider guardianship, but we said no.  Its not to the point that we would have been able to do that now, the caseworker just wanted to know if we would consider it if the situation came to that.  We said no for several reasons.  A guardianship is not a permanent arrangement.  At any point, the mom could get herself clean and go back to court and regain custody of W.  Not that we wouldn't want W to have the opportunity to go back to his mom, but if his mom kept her parental rights, it would feel like this case was never closed.  W would never have that sense of permanency that I think is important.   It just isn't a stress we are willing to volunteer for.  The aunt taking guardianship is a different story. It would be simpler for her.  So, we should know more about that in the next few weeks.  Its possible she would be granted placement in a few weeks. 

What would we do as a family of 5?!

Here is a picture of everyone helping with the installation of our new septic tanks.  Exciting huh?