These two are both much more like what I was expecting when we started fostering --
They came to our house with literally nothing but the clothes on their backs.
They had watched Mommy get arrested.
They were talking freely and calmly about how Mommy is in jail right right now.
And what I was under the impression "wasn't done", at least in my state --
They are not related. At all.
Their cases are distinct and separate, which means...
Separate visits and....
One could go home (or to a family placement) and the other stay.
We'd forgotten how rough the first few days can be, especially at bedtime, when scared little children are trying to go to sleep in a strange bedroom, without any familiar people or things to make it easier.
I also had to take them to court the day after they came....because they are from a different county than the last set, and this one requires them to attend court hearings. They aren't allowed in the courtroom, however. They just have to be there. In a little tiny "playroom" which has some toys (half of which are broken) and a TV (which I could not get to work). We saw several extended family members -- some of whom are potential placements -- when we first arrived. Some of them were...not pleasant .... about the fact that the children were wearing clothes that were not their own. Because somehow it was wrong of me that I gave them something clean to wear. (When it was pointed out to said relative that they had only one outfit and had worn it for two days, she demanded to know why I hadn't washed it. When? While they were not-sleeping?) The caseworker had me and the children escorted out "the back way" by a deputy when court was over.
They are supposed to only wear the one outfit that they arrived it?! I know the bio families take this fostering stuff hard - but that line is pathetic!
ReplyDeleteAnd how sad that the "siblings" will most likely be split up.