Hello Again

Hello. Good to see you again! It has been a while since my last post. A couple weeks ago the first new addition to our house moved in! No, not a foster child if that is what you are thinking, but a roommate. My job proved to be a greater financial strain than an asset so we had to find a new solution if we wanted to be able to do foster care (which we definitely do). We decided the best way for me to be able to provide as much attention and emotional healing for our foster kids would be for me to be home as much as possible, so we started considering a roommate as opposed to me working an outside job. We are beyond blessed to have found an absolutely wonderful roommate! She is a nursing student at a local college, loves kids, loves Smokie, and has a great personality. Now we're just waiting on two more pieces of paperwork and a meeting before we will be open for full time foster care.

It's such a relief to be done working in that now we can start foster care, but I really miss my little guys. The part I love most about working with kids is watching them grow and change. I really wish that I could be present to watch how their little futures unfold. I already got to witness a drastic change in my 7 year old client. When I started I was told he was lower functioning, he likes to scratch people, and is mostly nonverbal. My first few weeks/months it was a constant battle to get him to focus on anything other than stimming off the TV. Very seldom would he even put the remote from the TV down without becoming upset. I was scratched many times over. He avoided tasks more often than not, either running away into the kitchen, shifting his focus to the TV, or perseverating on things and being unable to move forward.  By the time I left he was sitting for 2 hours at a time engaging in work tasks. He would choose doing more work when given the choice between TV and work! AND to everybody's surprise, including his parents, he can read and spell! He is such a smart little guy! By the end he was also able to calmly ask for items that he wanted instead of getting upset. One of his favorite activities was cutting and pasting worksheets. In his world things have to be exact and if he cut off the lines even a fraction of an inch it was enough to send him into near hysterics. One day he was having an off day and he cut off the lines ever so slightly, I had my coolest 'no big deal' attitude ready and mentally prepared to prompt him. I could see a nervousness in his eyes as he realized he cut off the lines. He started to let out an agitated cry when all of a sudden something switched and he calmly turned to me and said "tape please". I can not tell you how excited I was!!! What a skill for him to be able to stop himself from getting worked up AND be able to reason through what he needs to ask for!!!!!  He had so much potential hidden away that he wasn't able to express without some one on one guidance.
My other 3 year old guy was the cutest little bundle of joy. Always in a good mood. Whenever Justin and I would share our favorite parts of the day mine was usually something cute that this little guy did. I can tell that he is a clever little guy and very affectionate and I'm sad I won't get to see his progress.