Employed Officially

After the end of the summer I began looking for work closer to home to be able to accommodate watching foster children. I was hoping to find a family to nanny for that would allow me to bring another child to work, or have their child watched at my house. That did not prove successful! In October I reluctantly decided to pursue other options. I was hired mid October (pending background clearances) for a position as a therapeutic support staff (TSS), and now 2 months later (after the longest hiring process I've experienced) I am now finally an official employee. As a TSS I will be responsible for implementing a behavioral treatment plan for children with special behavioral challenges, cognitive disabilities, and children on the autism spectrum. Which means I will be working one-on-one with kids to teach new skills and shaping behaviors to a desired outcome. I'm really excited about this position, but not about the part that means I will have to put our foster kids in daycare or hire a babysitter. I wanted to give our foster kids as much stability as possible, and putting them in daycare is the furthest thing from what I had envisioned. But this is a job I will really enjoy and will also give me a lot of new skills that will be useful for working with foster children, so it's hard to be too discouraged about it.

On another note, one day I could not find Smokie anywhere. Where did he go? This is what happens when we do not make our bed.