5 days in

*I'm going to refer to the girls as H (13 year old) and A (10 year old) on the blog from now on*

We're all still alive and well! It has been quite the roller coaster ride going from a single girl to an instant mom of a teen and preteen.

The biggest challenge has been figuring out the foster care system. Here are a few lessons I've learned:

1. Don't trust your worker to get things done. The girls would have started school on Tuesday if I had handled enrolling them from the get go. Because I relied on the word of the worker that she would "take care of it" they missed a day of school and my mom had to come to our rescue and stayed with them all day Tuesday. After that fail, I took over the process myself and they had their first day on Wednesday. They both have already made friends and we found out that the neighbor girl next door is the exact age of H and they share the same bus. She has already come over for an hour tonight to hang out with us and I see a great friendship blooming. H is a year behind in school so they aren't in the same grade but I imagine this won't be an issue. A already brought home the names/numbers of three girls in her class who are her "best friends" so I would say all in all, their transition to school has been positive.

2. Be persistent. I've left two voice mails and sent two emails to the girls worker. None of which were acknowledged or returned. I ended up texting her late last night with "A is going on a field trip on Friday unless you tell me its a problem" and miraculously, she answered that one. Their worker is very nice but probably overwhelmed so I'm trying to remember that the system moves in its own time and to just text if there is an immediate issue I need a response for.

3. Dentist are not working mothers. If they were, they would be open on Saturday's and stay open past 5pm.

4. Lice kits should always be kept on hand for any new placements. This is a story for another time though.

As a side note: My parents are amazing. When I picked up A from school today the first thing she wanted to know was if she could call my mom and invite her to come on the Friday field trip. Those two have instantly bonded and it makes me glad they had that extra day together on Tuesday, even if I couldn't see it at the time, that one day was a huge blessing since it solidified their relationship with my mom in a great way for both the girls.

On Monday we have our team meeting, which doesn't involve any family members (which is rare) since they are either incarcerated or missing. So I imagine it won't be too complicated. I still have to find time to call and set up appointments for the doctor, dentist and an eye exam. And of course there is that pesky problem of finding time to actually go to those places...

My bank account is waving the white flag as in the past 5 days it has been kept busy trying to build two whole wardrobes and keeping 2 extra stomachs full but I just keep going to work and tell myself that this is the whole point of having a job.