State of the House ~ Summer Edition

We're just going to go ahead and lump the latest "State of" together into one post, entitled the State of the House ~Summer Edition. :) I really do miss writing and blogging. The reasons for my lack of writing are varied...some legitimate, most excuses, but still I feel the void. 

June was spent wrapping up school and spring activities until the middle of the month. At the last minute I decided to shirk all my adult and household responsibilities and join Shaun in Las Vegas for his business conference. I'm so glad I did! We desperately needed to connect and just get away. And thanks to family stepping in, the kids were alive and the house was standing when we returned.

In July the teens girls worked at day camps and H and the younger three attended overnight camps (Aiden's first year!). Shaun worked in ernest on the other house, trying to have it ready to rent for August. The projects were major and time-consuming and taxing on us all. 

To greatly add to the stress, we began to have serious talks about whether H was going to be able to stay in our home. Around the first of the year his behavior, already tenuous, began to decline and we noticed a significant shift. Worse, it seemed like the more we invested in him, the more we loved on him, the more he pulled away and made poor decisions. After much prayer, talking it out, input from social workers, we made the very painful decision that our home was no longer a good fit for him. So we started making a thoughtful plan of transitioning him to a new place at the end of August, just before school.

But that all changed when I got a call from the camp director. H was on an excursion trip to Cape Cod, something he really wanted to do, and after many intervention attempts by camp staff, he was getting kicked off the trip. So on August 1, with just hours notice, I drove him to his new place and said goodbye.

Shaun and I worked really hard with him and have clear consciouses that we did all we could to salvage the placement. But it still hurt badly and we mourned the loss. We trust that what H learned and experienced here in 18 months will stay with him and that he will continue to seek out and yield himself to his Good Father.

Foster care is a difficult, sometimes lonely road. It is refining, it is sacred, it is unorthodox blessings.

I'm thankful for summer and extra time with the kids. Its fun to be with them, even if we're working together and I'm grateful for that flexibility.