A day in the life of a foster mom

Today was an insanely busy day.

First, I helped train for an Arbonne conference call.

Then it was a social worker appointment and guardian ad litem visit.

Then it was a physical therapy appointment (in my home, of course.) 

Then it was carpool time. And then "clean like crazy for two hours" time, since we had our re-licensing home inspection today. 

You guys, can I be so honest right now about how my day REALLY went?

First, Leyla woke up and woke the baby up at 6:30 am. It was an early start after a rough night. Even with the extra "get everyone ready" time, I still managed to stay unshowered. I'm telling you, this trying to get a shower in business is not for the faint of heart.

(Btw... Leyla totally watched Frozen in it's entirety before we even got Maddy off to school.)

I dropped Maddy off at school wearing my pajama top (covered by a coat.) It's fleece. And really warm. Hard to let go. :)

When we got home, I hurriedly strapped Z to my back, and got to vacuuming all the pine needles left on our floor from last night's Christmas tree slaughtering.

Then I did the conference call looking like this:

Well, mostly like this. 

Z had fallen asleep and I was having a hard time fastening the head support on my own. So his head kept flopping back and forth. 

So I paced the house, stooped over like the Hunchback of Notre Dame so his head stayed resting on my back. I trained on strategies for growing my Arbonne business. My unseemly look seemed quite ironic given the nature of the training.

Leyla, at this point, had entirely given up on me putting her down for an early nap. So she grabbed a blanket, curled up in her elephant chair, and made her nap happen on her own. Way to go little girl!

Thank goodness, she was an excellent napper today. Actually, she was excellent all day.

Try as I might today, I was unable to pick up the folded piles of laundry overtaking my floor like a virus overtakes its host. 

The laundry. It multiplies so quickly. Please tell me if there is a vaccine I can take to prevent this from happening again.

So, everyone who came over today was privvy to my dirty clean laundry.

The social worker came for his last visit. We are getting a new Social Worker. As we were chatting at the dining table (did you SEE my couches?), the GAL drops a bit of a surprise on us.

"So, mom is due soon. And if we decide to take the baby into care, your home would be our first choice. Are you open to that?"

Well, we knew mom was due. That was not new news. But since we were only licensed for one child, I didn't think us taking the baby would even be a possibility. 

But it turns out that we can add a child to our license. And since our licensor was coming over in the evening, I could find out then.

So, the rest of the GAL/SW visit goes well. I'm embarrassed by my home (naturally), but they always assure me that they like to see real life. And laundry is real life. (Actually, it's a very big part of my real life.) :)

So, now it's time for the physical therapist to come. I did not get my floor picked up, so she graciously sat on a blanket with Z on the rock floor. 

Z took a step for her, and he passed her eval with flying colors. Z has officially graduated from OT! 

After a quick run to the school, I'm in GO mode. 2 hours to get all the dishes cleaned from the day, clean two bathrooms, put away my laundry, and vaccuum the living room and the office office. 

Except our licensor comes 1 hour EARLY for the home inspection. 

Guess what she also sees?

Yep. A floor covered in laundry. 

And dirty dishes. And an unvaccuumed floor. 

She too tells me she prefers to see "real life" instead of the "perfect" home. I think it's just social worker code for: "your house could sure use a cleaning. But don't worry, we won't report you to CPS ... This time." lol.

So now, my brain is preoccupied with the thought of having 4 kids live here ... 3 of them aged 3 and under. 

So yeah. If you want to pray for us as we decide... That be great.

I'm leaning more toward no, Ryan is leaning more toward yes. So we are at a bit of a standstill, but we do have time to decide. Hopefully, Z's mom is doing well enough at that point that the new baby is safe to stay with her.

So that's it. A day in the life of me, a foster momma. Dirty floors, clean laundry and all. :)