Reality Sets In....

After our weekend of Halloween, we started getting ourselves ready for having the kids full time. We were going to transition over the next weekend. Unfortunately that wasn’t going to happen….

I had started to get school schedules, and research day care options for the kids. Imagine my surprise when we figured out we need $571 per week worth of day care…. Mark and I had the best of intentions, but the cost of childcare didn’t even enter my mind. I think I’d slipped back 20 years when my friends and family had there kids, and day care was $100 a week or so… After checking our outstanding lottery tickets to see if we’d won the big jackpot, I sent a note to the social workers and told them we had a problem. Mark and I were not in a position to absorb this cost as much as we would have liked to. Plus, the stipend for the kids was not enough to cover this. So unless they could assist us with this problem, we were not going to be able to take custody.

In addition, I was being stonewalled in the set up of schooling for Jenna. Because I didn’t have custody papers, they wouldn’t set anything up for her. It was a very depressing week.

I sent a note to the social workers, and they started working on some options. 3 weeks later, we’re not much closer, but I’m told there is stuff ‘in the mail’ for me that will take care of the childcare etc. We’ll see… We are now scheduled to take custody the day before Thanksgiving….but we will have to see. We do not want to take full custody unless all these details are worked out. I cannot risk my job, as much as I’d like to. We need it to keep a roof over our heads…and I don’t relish the idea of living in my 2000 Toyota Camry…

Also, that week, we received another message from the social worker. We’d been told that Dad’s parental rights were going to be terminated the week before. The SW sent us a note and told us that did not happen, that Dad is apparently working very hard at getting his act together, and had letters from his counselors and therapists attesting to such.

We were a bit taken aback as we were told that it was a 99% done deal. However, our thoughts have always been the best interest of the children. And if Dad gets his act together and takes custody, more power to them. If nothing else, Mark and I have learned a lot about each other. Apparently Dad’s situation is going to be reviewed again in a few months, and a final ruling will take place: reunification, or terminating of his rights…

One of the biggest mistakes that we’ve made was placing the two girls in a bedroom with a TV. As much as we try and enforce limits, they are watching TV all night long. The TV will conveniently be broken this weekend, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m sure it won’t go over well…

This past week, we had the kids once again. Mark gets nominated for sainthood based on what transpired.

On the weekend, I typically go and pick the kids up at about 9am and bring them back to the house. In the meantime, Mark takes the dogs for a walk, or in general gets things settled. Our plan this weekend was to take the kids to the Jelly Belly Factory. We are trying to find things that don’t cost a lot that we think the kids will enjoy.

So, I picked the kids up, and brought them home. We are getting ready to go, and all of sudden, I am overwhelmed with nausea, and run to the bathroom. My face is hot, and I’m throwing up…. Not sure what the deal was, but I was running 101 fever, and couldn’t stop heaving.

I had some old compazine that I found, and took that. Mark bravely said he’d take the kids without me. What an ordeal. I went back to bed, and he tackled entertaining the kids on his own. He was irritated and exhausted by the time he came home, but everyone was all in one piece.

Unfortunately, Jenna and Bobby both wanted to be held at the factory, so he did that at the expense of his rotator cuff. Hopefully, he won’t have to have surgery, but I do think he did some damage.

The kids had an absolute blast and came back with the Jelly Belly paper hats…We had dinner, and put them to bed (with the all night TV marathon), and went to sleep…

Prior to picking up the kids on Saturday morning, we had some other stuff to deal with….

The weekend before, Angel had lost a tooth, and forgotten to put it under her pillow. When she came home on Saturday morning, we told her that Biscuit had been in her room, and had come running down the hallway covered with Fairy Dust! She ran into the bedroom, and there next to the panda that she likes to sleep with was a note from the tooth fairy and some money. Everything was covered in Fairy Dust. The note talked about how she came by and played with Biscuit who was one of her best friends, and that she took the tooth and left the $$. We’d been working on the dog/kid relationship, and Biscuit is now one of their best friends. If only we could say the same for Beau….

On the way back to Antioch on Sunday, Angel kept asking Mark to tell the Fairy story over and over, and over again… We dropped the kids off with the understanding that we would see them the following Saturday….