The twins have another scheduled visitation with the former foster parents / cousins tomorrow. I made a phone call to the caseworker to confirm that the visit was definitely happening, and was able to have a brief chat.
She told me there are no court dates scheduled yet for the future, which is a little surprising, since usually the hearings happen every six to eight weeks, in our experience. There are also no other visits planned at this time beyond the one tomorrow afternoon in San Antonio.
The former family who was caring for the five children has requested of course to speed up reunification, and also to have lengthened and extended visits with them. The caseworker didn't mention if that meant just making the visit longer than one hour, or if they are requesting overnight visits. The caseworker said, "Of course we at the department and I as the caseworker are not going to approve that," (meaning extended visitation) "and are going to fight it and discuss our reasons with the judge whenever we have another hearing."
She went on to say, "All of the five children are doing very well at their current placements, and we are so happy with where they are now. We don't want any of them to move." She had told us from the beginning that the intention is for the children to be adopted by their current foster homes, and that they will block any attempt to reinstate the kids into the former home.
As a foster parent, your job is to care for the children, love on them, guide and raise them, until their parents and home situation have been rehabilitated enough to enable a return. The department is very open with the fact that placing children back into their homes of origin is their main priority. As much as you agree or disagree with what's happening in the case, as a foster parent, you have to respect that.
We've of course been saddened with our two situations where children have left our home and we disagreed with the outcomes - Spunky Girl and Preemie Boy were reunified with their birthparents, and Baby Girl was given to her maternal grandparents while her birthmother continued services. I have to admit to a twinge of selfishness that says, "But we're good people! We're good parents! We're the better home!" Yet, as I said, you respect the caseworkers' and the lawyers' decisions regarding what's best for the situation, and continue to pray for the best outcome.
In this case, we definitely, absolutely feel that the children should not be reinstated at the former home - and that's not the selfishness speaking. The more I read and reread the case file notes we have, I can't fathom any judge hearing what happened to these five children and allowing them to return to that environment. I can't and won't share details in this forum, but these are my gut feelings.
It was nice to hear from the caseworker that she's echoing our sentiments. It was also nice to get a chance to chat. My husband and I both agree that we can handle almost anything thrown at us on this crazy journey as long as there's plenty of communication happening on all sides.
The Man of the House is taking off early from school again to drive the girls to San Antonio for their visit tomorrow. I pray that it is a good occasion for the twins to reunite with their siblings. We're also planning a get-together with the siblings later in the month, which we're also looking forward to.
Thanks for reading!
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