2 steps forward, 1 step back

 

No hands in that video above!!! I'm pretty pumped that J is starting to walk on his own. If you've met him you know that it is quite the task to carry him around all day!

I do feel like our time with him has been 2 steps forward, 1 step back lately though. We will have a couple really good days and then a couple really horrible days. Overall we are seeing improvement in his obedience which is SOOOO helpful when I've got 3 other kids under 6 running around too. But then he will have a day that is one long tantrum that never ends. And I'm not over exaggerating. On those days we usually get about an hour of calm time out of him, but the rest is screaming.

And that is how I talk people out of fostering:) I joked with Ian the other day that no one we know is going to want to foster now because we are way too honest with how it's going. I can say that despite how hard it's been we can (and will) do it again. We are doing this because we love kids. Not fake gooey love that you can "fall" in and out of. But the love that is choice and obedience and sacrifice and sometimes feelings too.

Before all the workers went on strike, which you can read about here, we had a really good meeting with J's worker.  She said there is one family member interested in getting custody of him until his mom can get him back. But that family member is VERY young and has two kids of her own...so who knows if that home study will be approved. And with the strike who really knows how long it will take to get a home study completed anyway. So we are planning to have him for at least 2 more months if not another year. His mom has made no progress toward getting him back, but we have met her and we both really believe that she cares deeply for her kids. She lights up when she sees them. I hope and pray she can get things together.

On a side note: I wrote a letter to the editor of Journal News in Hamilton about the strike and I got a call that it will be printed. Unfortunately we don't get that newspaper! So if anyone out there gets it and sees my letter I'd love to have a copy! It will probably just say Megan from Fairfield.