Silver Lake Adventures....

We took the family to Silver Lake over the weekend. We are so blessed to have the cottage available for us to use. My friend Jess and 3 out of her 4 kids came along. It was a ton of fun, even with Isabelle being sick. She was a super trooper. We climbed the side of a dune, took Jessica's Jeep out on the dunes, got fried in the sun, roasted marshmallows, swam, read, and loved every minute. I wish vacations lasted longer, I never want to come home.

Life seems like it gets crazier and crazier. Whoever said the fostering children is an amazing experience never did it! Sure the children are great....it's the parents that are the problem. They don't show for visits or cancel, they drop dirty, they work crap jobs, live in motels, and the state says maybe we will give them another chance. So three months later they do everything the same and the state says maybe we will give them another chance. When one parent starts dropping clean, but doesn't even show up to court the state says we will give unsupervised visits. After 4 visits when that parent drops dirty again the state says, maybe they just need another chance....REALLY??? so they put that parent back on supervised visits, but they want us to supervise. We finally put our foot down and say no we aren't going to do that. So after two supervised visits the state worker says that parents looks like they are doing fine we will give them their unsupervised visits back. I just don't get it. The goal of foster care is reunification. I know that, but at some point they need to assess the situation and see if reunification is really the best thing for the child. I feel like no one is really looking after the child's best interest, just the courts best interest in trying to do reunification at any cost. I'm really trying to just give it to GOD, I have a very hard time doing that. So that is why I am ranting to you about it. If I don't I think my head might explode.

Sick....

Isabelle has been sick for a week now. Last Friday she started not feeling well, by Saturday she spiked a temp and almost passed out at rib fest. It had been a long day and she had only munched all day long, so I figured her almost passing out episode was due to the combination of heat, not feeling well, and not eating enough. Sunday her temp hit 103 and by Monday I took her to the doctor. They said it was viral, I swear they always say it is viral. By Thursday she still had a high temp, so I took her back to the doctor and demanded that they figure out what was wrong. After doing a chest x-ray the doc said that she had pneumonia. Poor thing is coughing and hacking like crazy. Now that she has been on antibiotics for 2 days she is starting to feel better, I hope her recovery goes more smoothly than her diagnosis.

Our plans to go to Michigan Adventure have been cancelled, but we are still going to the lake to just chill. Hopefully some good chill time will do her some good. I would love to see a happy HEALTHY child by the time school starts on August 24th. Guess we will see.....


"Sick" By Shel Silverstein

'I cannot go to school today,'
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
'I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more-that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut-my eyes are blue-
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke-
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is-what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is...Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play! '