Ewe and lamb are doing well this morning :-), and foster parent training

I was up at 5:30 checking. Kivu seemed a little off last night; she was eating so she wasn't emergency status but she seemed subdued and depressed. I figured she needed some calcium; do you think I could find the brand new unopened bottle of injectable calcium anywhere? I had it in my hand at one point yesterday. It has vanished. Welcome to our house ;-). (Quick, give me something else to look for so I can find it!) Instead we've taken the free choice mineral mix out every visit and she's been happily chowing down on that. She perked up within 20 minutes or so of her first "dose". The ladies-in-waiting are still waiting.

Tonight I will be going to a foster parents training meeting. Pretty much everyone who reads this will be surprised, I'm sure. We've talked about this possibility off and on for many years (since New Jersey). One thing holding us back has been Kevin's insane schedule, and now the CAS's new requirement that both parents attend training. I went to an open house prior to Christmas, and they called last week to let us know that the last training until September was to start tonight! I told them about Kev's play ... he's down to the wire and he will have practices every Thursday in April (not to mention Wednesdays and Tuesdays, and by the end pretty much every night!) They have excused him from all April meetings; he'll have to to the reading and the homework, then commit to all five May meetings.

I don't know if we'll foster. They were clear that in many cases, the training points out that the family is NOT suitable to do care. I do know that last year, a family I know asked us to do respite care for their children, and we couldn't because of the new requirements for full training. It would have been a blast; our children all did homeschool swim lessons together, got along famously, and it would have been like a fun weekend sleepover. These kids were treatment kids, so the remittance would have been substantial as well. At this point, we are mostly open to doing respite care. I had a great chat with two tenth-graders at "Maple in the County" on the weekend who had spent most of their lives in care, asking them "What makes a good foster family?" Food for thought. They didn't think very highly of the local CAS :-). I'd like to make some comment about "Ah, the cynicism of youth" but since I haven't lived their lives I think I'll stay quiet instead. Tough road to walk. Anyway, EYES WIDE OPEN, we will dabble our toes in this!