Foster Care: The Journey Continues

Editor’s Note: Several weeks ago, we shared with you the story of Kelley Rose Waller, a Foster mom and contributor to Hope 4 Hurting Kids in an article titled The Winding Road of Foster Care and Adoption as Kelley and her family prepared for and attended what they hoped would be the final court date for their foster son of the last two years whom they’d like to adopt. This past week, Kelley wrote the next installment in that story which we share with you now. 

We have presented excerpts from each of Kelley’s three articles below and encourage you to click-through to her blog to read the rest of the story.

Part 4: Waiting for Tomorrow

I can’t handle another emotional adrenaline rush, so I’m just enjoying today. Tomorrow we go to court. Again.

I’m not thinking about tomorrow and yesterday and the irony of Mother’s Day and court falling a day apart.

I’m thinking about a giant pile of dirty dishes and who’s going to fold all this laundry. I went to the gym and did a normal work-out (as opposed to the angry work-outs where I set personal bests). I went to the grocery store. I need to get gas in the van at some point.

Normal Monday. Actually, better: fun Monday!

Because life is real, and time is moving forward. And tomorrow is coming…

Part 5: Yesterday’s Gone

After court yesterday, I didn’t want to go home. Not in a dramatic way, but I wanted to be out in nature and surrounded by people. So first we walked in a park, then we went shopping. My husband had our two youngest in the cart, and something distracted me, so I wandered off.

My littlest didn’t, of course, understand that his life had been dramatically altered by a man’s word just hours before. He doesn’t know that in a few days, he’s leaving forever the only home he’s ever known in his 29 months of life: 872 days and counting. I guess it’s a countdown now…

Part 6: It Isn’t Like Packing for College

I think when you pack up your kid’s room, you should be packing university sweatshirts, not onesies.  Maybe if you’re moving your whole house, then you can pack someone’s tiny socks along with everything else. But it’s weird to pack up someone’s entire belongings and have it only be three boxes.

But that’s what happens when everything is small. Small pants. Small PJs with dinosaurs on them. Small dress shirts with only four buttons.

This is crappy…

Read the conclusion of this installment of Kelly’s story here