annieology

The other night I was watching a program on Niagara Falls.  Why?  Because it was in HD and everything is interesting in HD.

I learned that the first person to survive going over the falls in a barrel was none other than an Annie.

Not only did she do something no man had ever done, she looked sharp doing it.  Now I doubt that this is the dress she wore, but come on….stunning.

We share more than a name.  After her daring stunt she was reported to have said that she would rather stand in front of a cannon and let it blow her to pieces than go over the falls again.  Which is how I feel about foster care.

I used to liken foster care to Chinese Water Torture, and if you saw the Myth Busters episode on water torture you know how quickly in can stress out people, even in a controlled environment.  Now, I’m adding Chinese Water Torture, while simultaneously being eaten by 42 fire ants.  It’s stressful.  It’s annoying.  It hurts.  But it doesn’t kill you.

As if four years and seven months hasn’t been long enough, we were given a window of four to eight additional months.  CPS can complete an adoption in “about four months” but “with Christmas coming…” because as you all know, Christmas is four months long.  Then it’s spring break, and Easter, and then Arbor Day, and “Talk Like a Pirate Day” and before you know it, Christmas is coming again.

Yes, I am with agency that is supposed to help.  Haven’t seen them since May.  They are still raking in the per diem and siphoning off a chunk before forwarding it to me, but I haven’t seen them.  I get annoyed at them asking me how the case is going.

CPS is useless.  Mama signed her rights over to us.  The Department retained their rights they were granted in 2006.  All CPS has to do is sign a waiver of their rights to the children and we’re done.  But they want it “done right”.  Yes, let’s ignore the law for 4.5 years and then in the final hour grow a freakin sense of ethics.

We should totally hire an attorney to help us with this.  Yes, we have and the only thing she has done is cash our checks and add another level of stress to our lives.  We hired this particular attorney because she was willing to travel to the jurisdiction where our case is heard.  Several other attorney’s declined to do so.  So, until we find another attorney willing to take our case we are either stuck with no or poor representation.

I will save you the platitudes about how foster care is a beautiful thing.  How it gave me my family.  How it changed me as a person.  Right now it’s driving me insane.

One.

Drip.

At.

A.

Time.

While simultaneously eating away at my very being.

We are not going to court on Monday.  We are not adopting the children on Monday.  Our case has been moved to a different court.  And thank God Almighty I happened to get a phone call from CPS informing me that they were not allowing us to do so because our freakin’ attorney had no clue.

No clue to case had been kicked to a different court.  No clue that there is a different date already scheduled.  No clue what that date is.  No clue as to whose responsibility it is to sign off on the position the department holds on the children.

I so freakin hope she tries to charge us for all the paperwork that she has filed with the old court on a case that no longer resides there.  To top it off a tiny bit, the County Attorney that was dealing with our attorney on this matter didn’t inform her that she was not longer the attorney assigned to the case, since the case she was working on (the termination) was closed and the adoption is a new case and not her department.

Did I mention that I’ve already booked our Christmas vacation?  Under the childrens “to be known as” names.  Because up until an hour ago, Monday was a done deal.  Did I mention that we don’t have permission to take the kids out of state and that the last time we attempted to get permission to take the kids out of state, it took them seven months to approve our request?

So are we supposed to ever get these kids?  If not, please take them now, this is fucking torture.

Good News….

June is here, menus have been planned.  Lists have been made.  Laundry has been done.  Chores have been assigned.  Activities have been planned. Desks have been cleared. Vacation is booked. Vacation is paid for.

Bad News…..

June is a stick in the mud.  She hates blogging, and in general hates people.

Good News….

Tomorrow is Friday!

Bad News….

Fall Festivals, Trick or Treating, Candy. Candy. Candy.

Good News…..

Fall back.

Bad News….

Spring forward.

Good News….

Payday.  Bills paid. Budget works.

There is no bad to that.

Good News….

If all goes well we will be adopting the kids on Friday.

Bad News…

We have not heard from CPS.  We have not heard from our attorney.  Our paralegal has been trying to get us to commit to a parenting plan with Mama, even though we had a meeting in far far away where this very thing was discussed and our attorney told us not to commit to anything rather work it out amongst ourselves like big girls.  If we go down there and there are particulars regarding the parenting plan that we don’t agree on, it will be a wasted trip, because we won’t adopt kids with a plan that we don’t agree with.  This whole thing sucks.  Sucks much. Instead of celebrating the addition to our family.  We are ironing out particulars and the whole thing just sucks.  And it has sucked the joy out of the whole event.

Good News…

On Monday there might be pictures.  Woot!