Things have been crazy around here the last several months and we haven't had the time or energy to write. For that, we apologize. We will make up for it now, with this super long post.
When we left off, we had told you that the date was set for our little girl's adoption. It went off without a hitch, mostly, and she has legally been our daughter since October 27th. I say mostly because she was crying when we tried to take pictures after the ceremony.
Everything has been great with her since day one. She is such an amazing little girl. She still makes me laugh every day and has a huge heart. She really is the sweetest little girl I've ever seen.
Her vocabulary continues to grow and, as it does, so does her desire to talk. So she does. Constantly. Seriously though, we love that she continues to absorb words and information. She is memorizing song lyrics from the radio now and will sing along from her car seat. We recently moved her to a big girl bed and she stays in bed every night. The only thing we are struggling with is potty training. If you want to follow her adorable journey through life, you can search #KJSharp on a variety of social media sites.
Now for our baby boy. I call him baby boy because he just turned one a couple months ago, but he's a hulk of a child. He weighs a healthy 26 lbs and is almost as tall as his sister. His feet are wide so finding shoes is difficult and his head is almost big enough to wear my gigantic hats. Not really, but it is the 99th percentile.
Like his sister, he is very smart and has an ever-expanding vocabulary. He is really a younger, male version of her. They can run around and play together all day. "Sissy" makes him food in her play kitchen then feeds it to him. They "tackle" each other and roll around on the floor laughing. Neither of them has an issue sharing toys, drinks or food with the other.
"Buddy" does have a medical issue though. It's nothing major and doesn't hurt him but it is a big nuisance. For all of us. I won't bore you with all the medical jargon but he basically has a group of blood vessels on his scalp that will rupture and bleed profusely. We were finally able to get him in to see a dermatologist at UCSF this week and found out it has to be removed by a plastic surgeon. So now we just have to wait for them to call us and then we have to get a court order to have the procedure done. It's an outpatient procedure so no hospital stay will be required but since he's a foster child we still have to wait for the court order. The only things that bother little man are us cleaning him up and him having to wear band aids or dressing on his head.
As far as the status of his permanent placement goes, that's an even bigger mess. When we were asked if we would take him into our home, we immediately said yes. Bio mom was being offered reunification services and we took him in while she went to rehab and tried to get her life straight. With her track record, we didn't think she'd be able to stay clean. She has now been drug free for over a year and is really trying to get him back. While Ash and I are proud of her and her ability to stay clean for this long, she is really still not in a position, nor does she have any idea what it takes, to raise a child.
We were told by the social worker that she is doing "enough" to get him back. She is living in a homeless shelter and is basically unemployable. That's "enough."
We went to court last week for what we expected to be the day they decided to reunify. However, we have learned that she was taking him around people he's not supposed to be around. The attorney for CPS has also learned of some issues she has and decisions she's made that he and the judge deemed serious enough to continue the case for ten more weeks. Unfortunately, since the case is open we can't go into too much detail, but we can tell you that we will do whatever we can to make sure that the outcome is in the best interest of this child. Sometimes it feels like we're the only ones looking out for him. We got into fostering to help children in any way we can. We will continue to do so. Even if that means fighting to get laws changed.
So the super update is done. Now you just have to wait a few months until the next post. Or a few minutes...
