the eugene bean

Here’s a recap for those of you who’ve missed me. And yes, I know you’re out there, even though you’re afraid the computer Will Explode In Your Face if you dare to leave a comment. And yes, as long as you continue to call me on the phone to comment on my blog, I will continue to harp and call you out. So there.

Friday:
Last day of school before a 2 week break! Yahoo! Yippee! I love my job but it is hard and demanding and I am so happy to have a great, big, long break.

I run into one of the therapists, let’s call him Bill, and we have a discussion about respite care for foster children. He noticed that Ty and I signed up for this program (in hopes to learn more about the Treatment Foster Care program to see if it’s something we want to do in the future) and he has a 14 year old boy with absolutely no place to go until Monday after school. Can this child, let’s call him Ted, come live with us over the weekend?

Whoa, hold up. I just signed up for the respite program and I’m not certified nor have we gone through the necessary background/criminal checks. Not to mention I haven’t talked to Ty, so I tell Bill to call me later that evening. He says he’ll take the steps to clear this with the department of human services and give me a call.

I talk to Ty, Bill calls with a go ahead from the state, we agree to provide a temporary home for Ted until Monday. We clean the house, blow up Ted’s air mattress, remove all the knives and password protect the computer that’s in the room he’ll be sleeping in. We prep our children and brace ourselves for Saturday evening.

Saturday:
I wake up bright and early to get ready for a scrapbook convention in Portland. I’m excited about this convention for many reasons. First, I get to spend time with my friend Jen, I really enjoy her and we have fun together. I looked forward to getting to know her better on the 4 hours of driving we’d be doing that day. I also looked forward to sharing my love of scrapbooking with a live and in person friend. I knew it would be fun to ooh and aah with Jen. Finally, I looked forward to shopping. I had Ty’s blessing to spend $100 and I knew I could make that money go a long way!

We wound up having a great day. I enjoyed the drive, the classes, the company. The only bummer of the day was canceling on Connie, we had hoped to get together with her for dinner to celebrate the fact that she’s going to be a mommy!

Jen came with me to pick up Ted from Stepping Stones and I was very grateful to her for that. Jen’s worked with abused and neglected children for many years, and I knew that she and Ted would know a lot of the same people because of JMC. We liked Ted immediately, he was polite and sweet and he seemed pretty comfortable with us.

Sunday:
By Sunday morning, Ted was obviously enjoying his time with us. E latched on to him right away, and Ted was very patient with him. J was a bit more reserved, but he liked Ted and we all had a really great day.

We hung around in the morning and then picked up Subway for lunch. We brought our lunch to Hendrick’s Park and had a picnic. We played Frisbee, and then took a little walk to look at the flowers. That night we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Monday:
Monday morning I dropped Ted off at school. On the 30 minute drive there, Ted talked about how much he had enjoyed his weekend. He was very honest and open, he told me that he really liked Ty and me, and that he hoped he would be able to spend some more time with our family. He expressed concern over where he’d be living, and my heart broke for the uncertainty and fear he obviously feels. I do know that he’ll be finishing out the school year at Bill’s home, and I told Bill later that day that we would love to do respite for Ted again.

Jen and I spent the rest of Monday together running errands. Who knew a trip to Costco and the grocery store could be so fun?

Monday evening Ty and I sat down for a heart to heart. We agreed to become TFC parents in the future- December at the earliest, next summer more likely- and we agreed to continue to do respite so that we could ease our family into the idea of having a troubled child live with us. I know that we will be an awesome family for the teens that I teach and love, and I’m looking forward to preparing my family for this next step.

Tuesday:
I spent all morning making some albums to sell on eBay. They came out super cute, and I hate to see them go for next to nothing on eBay. I wish I had another place to sell my creations and this desire led to some more brainstorming with Ty on Tuesday afternoon. I have a few ideas I’m going to research and discuss with Jen, maybe we can be business partners! I’ll keep you informed as our ideas develop.

So that’s the recap. That’s where we are. That’s what’s been going on. Peace out.