Crash course in parenting - Life as a foster mom

So, I called D today. I wanted to ask him about Jolene's mom.  I wanted to ask if he knew that the person who everyone said was her mom was actually her mom, if he knew...I thought hey, maybe it's not actually her mom, and I'm the only person who doesn't know? He said...she's crazy, of course it's her mom and it makes no sense that it wouldn't be.  She has one older biological full sister.  He said he refuses to speak with her anymore, and that she told him about a year ago that the government was spying on her and that she went to try to send him money and they were asking way too many personal questions so she couldn't send him money. She then told him to be careful and that they were going to start spying on him as well, due to his connections with her.  He hadn't told anybody about it except for me. He said Jolene's (who he also doesn't talk too) is abusive, and was abusive even to him as a child. Anyway, that's all I'm gonn...

I told the big kids' bio mom about therapy. I was just, you know, trying to provide some information about what was going on with the kids. I thought I should mention it, in case it came up later. Also to show we are being proactive with mental health issues, as her family (and her) have a lot of mental health issues.  I told her we are going to get all the kids in therapy, but right now the therapist only has room for 1 and so it is Y. But the other kids will go as she has room. She asked why Y was going first. Well, it's because he has some problems with getting angry and acting out.  Pretty, I would say, normal, especially for a child who was neglected as a baby. I didn't mention that part to her as I'm not trying to offend anyone.  She was on drugs at the time; any memory she has from that time period will thusly be distorted. And again, I'm not trying to offend anyone, the past is the past. The best we can do is try to recover and move on.  Well. She comes ...

So just a quick little update. Big kids' bio mom is wanting to see the kids more.  She hadn't asked in a while, I haven't really hardly talked to her.  But she did ask a few days ago. I talked about it with the kids' therapist, and with hubby of course.  We all feel like things are just really...strange right now, and it is not in the best interest of the kids to increase visits. And that if we did, it would be very difficult for everyone to reduce them (if we needed to, for some reason).  I know she won't be happy with that. It was very helpful for the therapist to point out that we already are being more open than we agreed to be (with her baking a cake for the kids' birthdays, and the ability to send letters even though the kids really don't write to her).  I think about this daily and wonder if we are doing the right thing. This is nothing we take lightly. I think bio mom has a lot of guilt about the things she did (and didn't do) in the past, an...

I picked up Miss M's cake today. I also picked up the letter her bio mom write. It was pretty innocuous, nothing weird at all in the contents. It looks like the reason it was so expensive to mail was because there were rocks in the envelope.  I know that bio mom believes that rocks have powers.  She didn't mention the "powers" of said rocks in the letter. I am just not sure how to handle this! I think that the "properties" of these rocks meant something, and this is why she sent these particular ones. Specifically, she sent black tourmaline, which isn't even a cool looking rock...but it is supposed to do all kinds of things (thanks, Google!). Included also were crystal quartz, which is supposed to pair with black tourmaline to do something, and pyrite.  Also I know she's studying this in school (or was, not sure if she still attends) so I'm not just pulling this out of my butt! So now I'm trying to figure out - do we explain to Miss M t...

So, this blog has almost turned into just a place to vent, and to work things out. I am sort of sorry but, then again, this is my blog and I guess if it's not the one place I can share my feelings and what is going on then there isn't any place! Big kids' bio mom wanted to make Miss M a cake for her birthday. Now I don't know if you remember, several months ago Miss M wrote her a letter. I guess she moved, so it didn't get to her, but it also never came back to us. About a month ago bio mom asked me for our address so she could write back.  I gave it to her but we never got anything in the mail. I figured she forgot, or didn't have money for stamps, or something. She sent me an email last night saying that she sent one big envelope in the mail for Miss M, since M wrote her a letter, but that she sent all the other kids letters too, in a different envelope. She sent me a picture of the envelope for Miss M because it came back to her. She had written the wrong...

A few random bits of info: 1. Claire is basically potty trained!  Yay!  It was rough going there for a while, and she still poops in her pants more often than I'd like to admit. But #1 is going pretty well, for the most part.  I gave up on Peanut. He pees on the potty when you put him on (or when he puts himself on it, which he still does from time to time!) it's just that he pees a lot of other times too.  So maybe we will try again in a few months.  One out of 2 ain't bad, and he's pretty young yet! 2.  Peanut's bio mom...I'm a little bit worried about her. She is posting stuff on FB like she still has him. She was having a public conversation with someone and then she said "I have to go, my son is tired and crying". Yeah...he was at home, OUR home, sound asleep in his bed.  She's posted other things about how he misses his dad, and she is so thankful she has him.  I want to call her out on it but feel like it might not be wise.  I real...