24. And Precocious (P) Makes Three!

Mama S here- As of August 2017 we are moms again!  This time to a pre-teen little lady that we will call Precocious (P for short).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTDlXx515zs%5D

P is a pre-teen little lady that lives up to her name. She is inquisitive- sometimes polite, sometimes demanding, she is active, she is vocal about her thoughts and views, and she is spunky. She is the direct opposite of the little lady that stayed with us for a few weeks earlier this year but we are optimistic that if their paths cross at any point that they will get along well.

Pre-teen is a hard age for kiddos and Mama A and I were concerned when we saw her age on the forms, but the minute we met her we knew we would offer her a safe space to live for however long she needed it.

We made the decision to take placement earlier today and immediately our minds started swimming with: summer programs that she can attend while we work, school registration, visit schedules, extracurricular activities, setting up the room to meet her needs- general bedroom set up, toys/activities for her to play with alone/with others, books in her age range (we will take her shopping in a few weeks to decorate the room to her liking), clothes- casual, school, dressy, shoes, PJs, sports wear, etc. (again, we will end up taking her shopping to fill in any gaps with things that she likes), setting the house up with stations for the Poodle to go when he is feeling stressed or when P is hyped up and we can’t monitor both at the same time, case worker/agency worker visits, and food for a pre-teen to eat– to start with. Later we will think about everything else! This is just what we think about for our home… we also have to prep our friends/family that we have a new family member and remind them to treat her as it she has always been there and to reserve any questions to when we are alone.

Most people see us with kiddos and don’t see all the scrambling that happens in hours/days/weeks to welcome these kiddos in our home. We go from zero to 60 when that phone rings and it doesn’t stop for a long time after the kiddo arrives! I’m constantly amazed at the foster parents that take in sibling sets! It is everything we mention above but times 2/3/4/5/etc! If you see us in the next month or so please be patient with the frazzled looks and the fact that we can’t share much of anything with you, we can’t answer the questions you really want to ask- and some of you do ask,  except that we have a new little lady that has stolen our hearts. We are all trying to figure this out the best we can and a warm smile from you may just make our day!