If we were really happy, we wouldn’t be so sad. We’ve both already cried today and it just about made it impossible to put on a happy face for Boy.
At 4pm, I got a call from his case manager that his parents were cleared for reunification with him this weekend. We are glad that he gets to leave “the system” now and have spent some quality time with his parents recently, so we know more of what he’s going back home to – rather than reports, hearsay, and a butt-load of “he said, she said” from various parties.
They absolutely want us to continue to be a part of his life because they feel that to never see us again after 6 months of constant care and attention would only further damage him. We whole-heartedly agree. We’ll definitely need wisdom to know when and how much, but they have (more than once) suggested weekends or vacations.
Future possibilities
How cool would that be?! We foster a boy from 2 1/2 to just past his 3rd birthday, take him from pointing and saying one word to ABCs, 1-10, Jesus Loves Me, using his imagination to play with his tractors (John Deere, of course), and climbing our stairs like a pro… let him fly away like a dove, but then get to watch him grow up.
I’m beyond words and I will be for a long time about how he’s changed us and how we’ve changed him. When it’s bedtime and he’s not ready to sleep yet, we can hear him singing and counting and then – wait for it – cheering himself on when he gets to the end!
Almost all of the food issues, separation issues, peace and safety issues and hitting, kicking, and biting have stopped. He’ll occasionally regress to a scary place in his mind and get quiet as he tries to make sense of where we’re going or why Jesse yelled “OUCH” as the wooden fire truck corner scrapes away a layer of skin off his shin.
Our last week
We took him out to dinner as a family tonight for the first time since we’ve had him. He really liked it! I’m taking the rest of the week off to be devoted to ensure that his transition home is as smooth as it can be.
I’d be proud to call him “son.” Man, I’m glad this isn’t on video… I’m a wreck writing this. He is so smart and nurturing with a memory far exceeding either of ours. But we both know from training that it won’t take much for him to fail in life.
We’re going to take a several week or several month break after this. We aren’t like normal foster parents who run their house like a dormitory or a puppy mill for foster kids. He was our only child for 6 whole months. Our daily activities revolved around him. We will never be the same.
Truly blessed. Lots of lessons learned for later posts.
