The stressful memories fade faster, don’t they?

So it’s been 3 1/2 weeks since Mark and Nikki left, and I think that’s the longest we’ve gone without a placement since licensing.  This is the least antsy I’ve been awaiting the call ever – I hardly even think about it at all, but then again we have had two major holidays in that time.

Those holidays could also account for why there’s been no calls, or not, I really have no idea how holidays affect these things.  Our agency used to have separate emergency homes for the placements that had to take place during off-hours, and then would move the kiddos to long-term foster homes within a day or two, but that system stinks for the kids, so they recently switched to everyone being ‘on call’ for those emergency placements.  So I’ve been prepared, even on Saturdays, Sundays and sleeping hours, 🙂

But we did tell Lulu that we won’t take any placements after Jan. 31, so the closer we get…well, I don’t know how I feel.  Do I want to have extra kids around while taking care of a newborn?  Well, okay, I may want to, but should I have them?  Should I just take my six months and enjoy it?  And another added complication: a planned out-of-country trip the end of July, just before our six month sabbatical ends.  Lulu has told us it’s not impossible to take foster kids out of the country, but it will involve a lot of paperwork – duh – and may not be able to happen at all, depending on the family circumstances involved for the foster kids.

I just really looo-oove making my life more complicated.

(And I think it’s funny how much I’m analyzing my feelings even though my feelings have nothing to do with when we might get a call.) (But my feelings might convince me to extend our deadline a week, and then another, and then…)

 

In between times

Yep, it has been nice.

We had a nice, relaxing break.  The peace and quiet of just three kids is so profound.

Mark and Nikki’s family called once over break, but then the reception broke up, and we still haven’t called back (we’re awful procrastinators).  I really need to do that, for our kids’ sake and so I can talk to their mom.  She wrote me a really sweet letter thanking us for all we did, and I don’t want her to think we’ve just dropped them out of our lives.

But honestly, our own kids have adjusted very well to the changes.  Daughter complained about missing Nikki a bit, but it was surprisingly easy to settle back into our family-of-five routine.

And getting just two kids ready for school in the morning is SO much easier than four.