Crash course in parenting - Life as a foster mom

We found out that Peanut's TPR hearing is coming right up, on August 14.  Today would have been his dad's 45th birthday. I'm very sad for him, that he will not have any memories of his dad. We are still waiting on our home study. They haven't gotten my fingerprints back yet. They've gotten hubby's back, and we got fingerprinted on the same day. This makes no sense but we are talking about the government here, it doesn't have to make sense! We also started going to family therapy. Our therapist is really awesome. Whenever D was in therapy it was just him and the therapist talking; I had to beg borrow and steal to get any information at all it seemed.  This therapist is really focused on building our relationship with our kids, and I'm very happy about that! The kids actually have little to no one-on-one time with her; sessions always have me or hubby present along with the kiddo. Nothing too strange or crazy is going on, I just feel like with the re-a

This weekend we went to visit hubby's mom's family to celebrate her brother's (I think?) 50th wedding anniversary. It was a surprise!  We left Saturday, drove the 5-ish hours, went to the thing (which was at a park), then went to the hotel and crashed. Sunday morning we were woken by Miss Claire saying oh-so-sweetly from her crib "Hi, Ben!"  We were (all 7 of us) in a single hotel room. It was a really nice one, but falling asleep was a little hard.  Anyway. Sunday, we went to an amusement park!  The kids all had a good time. Claire finally, after 3 days of no naps, took a nap in the stroller which was very much needed. We got home that night at nearly 11 p.m.  Claire, Ben, and Miss M all fell asleep in the car on the way home and started SCREAMING hysterically once we arrived home and they had to wake up and go inside.  Ah, the joy of being up late too many nights in a row! I got Claire's diaper changed, and she refused to let me change her clothes so she

As is sometimes typical with foster care, it seemed we were waiting...waiting...waiting...and waiting. And nothing was happening. Then suddenly things are happening fast, and we're trying to figure out what the heck is going on! Last week the state called to set up a time for us to do a homestudy. We are in a different state from Peanut, but within a 30 minute drive. However, those state lines are a huge pain in the butt! We had our homestudy (part 1, anyway) scheduled for today.  Yesterday, we got a text from hubby's mom (Peanut's current foster placement) that the caseworker told her the next court date will be a TPR hearing. Bio mom didn't show up to her court date last week, which isn't surprising since the Department has no way to get ahold of her.  He also said she has had this happen with other children as well, which I was not aware of. I knew she had other kids, but wasn't sure what their story was. The Adoptions and Safe Families Act requires t