"I've never been in a foster home before"

*a few definitions (as best we can tell)
   CA/N ~ short for child abuse & neglect
   CA/N workers ~ the folks who investigate reports of child abuse or neglect and do the "dirty work" of removing children from homes, etc
   SW ~ short for social worker, each foster family has one. each child that comes into care has one as well.


'this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'


Princess Petunia is back with us, and her next court date is August 30th. This means we'll have her for the summer, at least, and she'll start school here as well. We're excited, thankful, nervous, overwhelmed --- pretty much every other emotion you want to throw in there, we're feeling it. 


The kids are thrilled, and we had another banner play day at the house. Princess Petunia hasn't skipped a beat. We've had no tears still; she told me that she cried all her tears out at the hearing this morning, which as Mimi said is both sweet and sad at the same time. She also told me that she had never been in a foster home before. I told her that she was in luck b/c we had never been a foster home before either, so we'll just figure this thing out together. She gave me one of her huge grins at that. 


As far as visits with mom go, we don't have a gameplan yet. Matthew (the CA/N worker) told us that there wasn't one ready and that as soon as Princess Petunia had been assigned to a new SW, we'd be getting a phone call. All mom wanted to know about us was whether or not we go to church. 


Jared & I took the whole crew to wal*mart tonight after supper. And yes, you do wish you could have been a fly on the wall to witness that. The looks of horror and amusement on our fellow shoppers' faces were classic. Princess Petunia came to us with nothing except the clothes she was wearing and a stuffed animal named Jingle.  I remember from our classes that this is pretty normal. So anyway, we headed to the store, loaded up on groceries and new clothes. And because Princess Petunia had mentioned doughnuts as one of her favorite foods, we made a Krispy Kreme run on the way back. Nothing like Krispy Kreme & chocolate milk before bed. 


Not sure what our plans are for the rest of the wk. Jared is hoping to take off work some so we can do some family things. Princess Petunia is very impressed by the Summit and is interested in checking it out. :) I'm thinking the splash pad, the zoo, the gardens, McWane Center may all be in our very near future. Hope our friends & family are up for playdates!


Please be in prayer for our sweet little friend....