Respite care

Wow, I'm AWFUL at this whole blog thing! I guess it's time to fill everyone in. Back in May of 2012, we were called to do respite care for 9 days. Respite care is when the child has a foster home, but that family needs a break. The little guy we got was 17 months old.  Seems simple enough, right? NOPE! We brought him home not really knowing much about him, his foster family had only had him for 2 weeks, and let me tell you, the State doesn't fill you in on much. They had told me he was 14 months old, among other little things that weren't correct. Anyway, he was from a mom that was a meth user, he had been taken from her 4 times in his tiny little life. She thought it would be easier to hold him all the time, or pass him around her wonderful drug circle of friends than it would be to let him down to play because then she would have to watch him. So, needless to say, he had no clue how to play with any toys. He did however carry a handful of fuzz everywhere he went. Wherever he could find fuzz, he collected it...off the floor, carpet, didn't matter. He also was a biter! Nobody told us this helpful piece of info until he bit our daughter. I made a quick call to his caseworker for medical records to make sure he was free of any diseases. He was also a spitter. If he didn't like something, he would spit all over you. My husband and I quickly started wondering what the heck we had gotten ourselves into. All children come to you with behaviors of some degree. But usually the caseworker tells you about them. Then on his second day, the caseworker called saying he needed a visit with his mom. I had told them upon accepting this case, that I only had my car on Thursdays and Fridays. This was a Monday and he HAD to have this visit that day. So, they sent a worker to pick him up and bring him back. The worker came to the door, and he held out his arms to her....how sad is that?  He was so used to being tossed to different people that he just went with her.

Well, we survived our 9 days, he learned how to play, and he stopped carrying fuzz! They were hoping to have him finally find his forever home, but I contacted his foster mom and she said they no longer had him. Just another victim of our broken system.