I am probably making this longer than it needs to be...

...but that is part of the fun I suppose.

Wednesday I was up at our agency to take S to a visit with her mom there. (yea! for no weekend visit!)

I ran into the man who had called me and asked me if I would take this little girl. We started chatting, he said the meeting was Thursday at 2 pm for sure. I asked what would happen after that and when we would get her. He said, "I plan on doing it then, at the 2 pm meeting, they will be bringing her."

So, Thursday I went to the meeting by myself, I had found babysitters :). I walked into the agency and saw 2 people in the waiting area. I assumed it was bio mom and her worker. I was right. Mom looked young but is 29. She is little but dresses like a boy gangster. Lots of tattoos, glasses, tons of freckles, white looking mixed with some type of hispanic - just plain rough. She reminded me of S's mom, just worse. She is 29 and S's mom is 23. Give her a few years...

Anyway, they didn't know who I was so I just sat and listened. She bad mouthed her baby's legal father (yes, she has two. A legal father and a biological father who has no rights to her. She was born while mom was married to some one other than the bio dad but because they were married she is legally his).

Anyway, the new worker came out and she asked who was who and that is when she found out that I was the foster mom. She was nice, I asked questions, she answered. Then the relatives got their will "Lizzy" - our new foster daughter.

One of the aunts was crying as she brought her in and I paid a lot more attention to the family than I was to "Lizzy". But, I was cracking up as a watched this chubby little girl run around the waiting area. She had very short dark hair that has started to curl in the back. She was wearing a long sleeve shirt that was too small (later I saw it was a 12 mo. shirt) and gray sweat pants that had a big hole ripped in the leg. She was also wearing shoes that were a tiny bit too small that they had smashed her chubby foot into. This little girl was friendly and busy!

Eventually we all went back into a meeting room. "Lizzy" was running around like a mad woman - she was into everything, touching everything and didn't appear to be a very good listener. Very verbal as well. About a third of the way through the meeting I scooped her up (while ALL her family was there letting her act nuts) and sat her on my lap and let her play with my phone. She spent almost the entire rest of the meeting there and the family and mom kept watching me and her and said "Looks like she's already taken to you."

So, we went over everything:

What is the goal? Reunification

What does mom have to do to get her back? Insert huge list here

What kind of visits does she have? 1 hour supervised

Does she have any behavioral issues? Throws fitting, bangs head and pulls her own hair

Ect.

Anyway, I probably will need to shorten this up.

So, meeting ends, mom puts her in my car, family says good bye, I take her home. She didn't cry but was a little edgy. She met the kids and they all decided that they liked the new "baby". She isn't little, she is normal height for an 18 month old but she is thick! :)

Her first day/night here went well, all except for bedtime, which I will post about another time. During the day though she has been great. She fits right in, isn't whiney at all unless she is tired, plays with the other kids and by herself, she just seems to be pretty easy for right now.

I will post pictures soon on my other blog and also some more details about why she is in care and things like that.

Thanks for being patient with me! As much as I like to torture you all I really just didn't have time to type it all out in one sitting :)

And, I finally posted pictures over here