The Tricks And Treats of It All.....

When we last left off, we had finished our first full weekend with the kids and were exhausted. Prior to that weekend, we’d talked to the kids about Halloween, and Angel said she wanted to be a Cheetah. She had a Cheetah print hoodie, and she was going to wear that.

Mark and I checked our finances, and looked for a Cheetah costume on-line. I found one that was reasonable, but of course it didn’t arrive until the kids had left us the weekend before Halloween. I’d not mentioned to Angel that we’d gotten a costume for her, I wanted it to be a surprise. Imagine our surprise the weekend before Halloween, when she suddenly announced she wanted to be a Princess. The Cheetah costume was already on our way to us, and shelling our $ for another costume wasn’t in the budget.

I think I had accidentally put the Princess notion in her little head when I showed her my tiara collection, and let her try some on. Yes, believe it or not, I actually have a Tiara collection! Several years ago, I was able to travel to London and Paris with my friend Terry. We arrived several days after the Tiara exhibit was at the Victoria and Albert museum. We were bummed that we’d missed it, and for whatever reason, I’d gotten a burr in my saddle and came home with about 10 different tiaras that I’d bought around London. I guess I’m just a princess at heart…

Anyway, the Tuesday before Halloween, her costume arrived. I wanted to drive it out to her in Antioch and explain why it wasn’t a Princess costume, and hope she’d like it anyway. I also wanted to try on some costume options for the little ones that our neighbors were letting us borrow.

Now, the current Foster Parent had told our social worker the week before that she would prefer that we don’t see the kids during the school week, as they are too wound up when we drop them off. I can understand that, and she has to live with getting them settled after we leave, but we are trying to transition here.

I had talked to the social worker and told her that we wanted to come out and just meet with the kids briefly, explain to Angel about her costume, and be on our way. We also needed to get her costume to her before Friday, as I had called her school and they were having a costume parade in the morning. In addition, I knew the kids were having a visit with their bio dad on Friday afternoon, and thought he might want to see them in costume as well. I expected to be at the house 30 minutes tops, because I didn’t want to disrupt anything…

Anyway, the social worker called me back about 30 minutes later, and appeared as frustrated as we were. She said the foster parent said that I was to leave the costume on the porch, not to ring the doorbell or anything, and she would make sure Angel got the costume. So…I was left to drive out to Antioch, and left to costume on the porch….

I had taken Friday off because her school was allowing Mark and I to come to her parade at school. We actually ended up finding her classroom before the parade, and she saw us through the window in her little costume. She was so cute and so excited that we were there to see her. Even her teacher told us that she was talking about us… We stayed for the parade, and took lots of pictures.

Friday evening I was picking the kids up from social services as they were having a visit with their dad. He had made them each a nice treat bag, and they were very excited to show me their goodies. We then headed back home, to start the trick or treating…

Mark was going to stay and pass out candy, and I was going to take the kids out. One of our wonderful neighbors had loaned us a stroller, and we packed Bobby in that, and then headed out. We stopped first next door, where our neighbors had special treats for the kids…a giant Hershey Bar! The rest of the kids in the neighborhood were gathering to do a mass trick or treat run with a couple of the parents, so we joined in. Everytime we stopped at a neighbors house, they really made our kids feel VERY SPECIAL. Each had a special treat for them, be it a glow necklace, a treat basket, or a giant candy bar. Very generous!

Jenna is a dasher, and it’s pitch black outside. I’ve not mastered the ‘mommy juggle’ yet, and was not able to hold onto her, and push the stroller at the same time. One of the other parents volunteered to push the stroller, while I took Jenna by the hand, and Angel ran off with the other kids. We started weaving our way through the neighborhood, and tended to get stopped at almost every house with people asking questions about the kids. Imagine my surprise when we stepped off the curb at the last house on the court, and there were no kids in sight. The group of neighbors and kids we were with had all but disappeared and were no where to be found. That meant Bobby and Angel were not with us, and it was just me and Jenna. At first I started to somewhat freak, and then realized that the kids were with responsible parents, and I just needed to take a chill pill. My bigger fear is that they would realize that I wasn’t with them, and freak out on the parents that were there. Thankfully, that didn’t happen…

Awhile later, the troops came marching back up the court with all of their loot. The kids had a great time, and I was told by the other parents that they were very polite. We got the kids back into the house, and off to bed to start another day.

The troops rose as normal at 5am, and we were off. Bobby has managed to figure out how to climb out of his porta crib, so that’s been a joy. Mark and I took turns ‘listening’ for him to climb out and put him back to bed.

That particular weekend, we were taking the kids back on Saturday evening. We had put Sunday aside to do some kid proofing, so Saturday we headed them back to Antioch. They are getting better about being dropped off as they know that eventually we will have them with us full time. Still, Jenna has a little crying fit that I feel bad for the other family for having to endure…

After dropping the kids off, Mark and I headed back home. We got in and let the dogs in. Biscuit immediately found a poopy diaper (I’m not sure from where), and proceeded to dive under our bed with it. Mark and I were exhausted, and were chasing her trying to get it away from her. It made our bedroom stink to high heaven, and all I could think of was “Please God, do not get poop on the carpet under the bed!” You see…we have about 4” of clearance under the bed, so we cannot fit under there. In addition, the bed weighs close to 1,000 lbs…it’s heavy. If poop got on the carpet under there, then there’s really no easy way to clean it. We’d have to disassemble the bed, and go from there….

In any event, the Lord was hearing our prayer, and for whatever reason, I was able to extend my arm far enough to pull the diaper out from under the bed. There was no poo on the carpet, but Biscuit’s face was another story. We gave her a quick bath and collapsed into bed wondering how our next adventure would turn out…..