Latest news on the Children's Home

I finally talked to the caseworker (I called her) and she explained that a "consideration visit" is where the kid spends a week there to see if she is a good fit before they commit to placement. A week will be a good test, but unfortunately, may reveal behaviors that they are not willing to tolerate. :( Hopefully not. Hopefully she will be so excited to have all these new people (what we like to call 'fresh meat') available to her. And sharing the living quarters with seven other girls in the cottage could be like a slumber party! We won't tell her until we are driving there, and I will pitch it like summer camp (which it will be like in the summer, unless she has to go to summer school because of the two classes she's decided to quit doing the work for, and is failing). I will let her know that if she blows it here, her next stop is a residential treatment center---and she knows what that is like.

This place is pretty nice and has a great set-up. While there are no beds available now, they anticipate one or two opening when school lets out. We have a tentative meeting scheduled for June 6th. Hopefully that date will stick. The cottage they intend for her has a house couple that lives there for several weeks in a row, in an attached appartment. Then for one week, they lock their attached door and the respite apartment opens to the cottage and another couple takes it on for a week. The long-term couple have been there almost 30 years, so they know their stuff and apparently run a tight ship. I was told she only needed some clothes, and then a couple of nice outfits for church every Sunday. No expensive electronics or such. Should be interesting.

Since she wears the same 5-7 shirts every week and this week wore her new pair of jeans all five days, having a limited number of outfits in an institution should not be a big deal.

A friend of mine who is about to become a licensed foster respite parent had no plans for the weekend and offered to take DD for Friday night and most of Saturday--sort of a practice session for my friend. I hesitated to say yes, not wanting to jeopardize our relationship, but she insisted. So, over the long weekend, we will get a little break from the drama. Yeah!

Still counting down, but not getting too excited. At a minimum we should get a week long break from DD in June, but we really hope and pray that she sticks, and stays longer. They have a 9-12 month program with some kids staying longer. In that time we will work with LSS to get the state to take back partial custody so they can provide long-term care until she is 18.