These people who are supposed to watch out for innocent lives. To serve and protect those who cannot protect themselves. I'm tired of seeing the "bad" of this system.

We had our home visit today. Our cw said that just today the DCFS worker who was looking into Sis' situation finally came in to talk to her. After repeated unreturned phone calls. He said that since "you (the cw) are her caseworker and mom seems to be doing what she needs to, we're going to close the case." She then re-told him that no she is not mom's caseworker, that her other two children's cases are terminated which means her case was terminated, and that mom has not been seen by the agency since January, so who says that she is doing what she needs to do???? He just kind of said - Oh. She told him something needs to be done to assure that this baby is being taken care of, even if it's just to open the case intact for 6 months, which we already thought had been done. He said he'll talk to his supervisor. OH MY GOSH! So no one has even been checking on her!!!???!!! Are You Kidding!? Here it has been over four weeks since I've found out there was a baby, over three weeks since the case was hotlined, and really nothing has been done. Nothing has been done. A couple checks, which were bad at first and now "seem" ok he said. So you're just assuming she's doing things and you want to close the case!? AHHH!!!! My cw said that if they do not open the case she is calling the state's attorney herself.

Pray, please, please pray for this innocent caught in the middle of - excuse me - IDIOCY!!!! (Can you tell I'm frustrated?????) :0)

Here's the latest on the baby. They are currently putting them on "intact family" status. One wrong step and they will be "pulling" the baby. What I found out that that means is someone will be in the home two to three times per week checking up on them. They will look at everything from medications to drug testing, etc. One thing and I am told that "sis" will be taken into the system.

I completely understand trying to keep the family together. I really do, don't get me wrong. But a person who has already had two children taken, did absolutely not one thing to even try to have them returned, and then the state had to step in and terminate rights, exactly one week after this innocent life entered the world, and that newborn, unable to protect herself or speak up for herself is left in those same hands - that I just don't understand. She is now the guinea pig in this thing called family reuinification? How does that, how can that, make sense? I just have to believe that this is completely in God's hands. Technically, through a coincidental and most likely right-violating way, I came to know about this baby. If not, no one else would be involved. No one would even be looking in on this family to see if the child was ok. No one would have searched for fun to see if a baby had been born, because no one knew she was even pregnant. God has a plan and I have done my part to make people aware who need to be. I just pray that IF it is in His plan to remove her from the situation, that it be done sooner, not later. These are important important months in a child's development. Who will her biggest influence be???

Finally, we finally, finally, finally have an adoption date! Braeden will become "officially mine", a forever part of my family, on

On our front, still no news about "sis." Still having horrible relations with Olivia's brother's agency regarding visits (have not seen him since May). Still no date for Braeden's adoption. Still trying to get a couple days ahead on lesson plans for school. And, still trying to completely figure out planning for a regular education class.

My prayers continually are with sis. I think of her constantly, as if she is already mine. Setting myself up for a let down? Maybe. Linked to her already through my own wonderful daughter? Maybe. Wanting her out of what is most likely not the best situation for her? Definately. All I know is that DCFS is "still investigating."

Olivia's brother's cw called a few days ago wanting to set up a visit for September. "Call me back right away," the message said. Amazing. Like I'm the one who hasn't been working on getting these visits together. Right. We had two visits in May, and two were scheduled for June. When it was almost the first, with 5 days to go, I still didn't know a meeting time, place, nothing. Only the date. As it was summer and my vacation time, I had many people wanting to make plans, and things we wanted to do too. I could not set aside a whole day without knowing a meeting time for a visit. I called and left a message about wanting to know a time, etc. and that if I didn't know within the next two days I would assume there was no visit and would make other plans. Nothing. The day before the visit, the transporter calls. I explained the situation and that we had other plans. She then set up the time, etc for the other planned visit, an overnight later in June. The day before that one, of course, I was deathly ill. Sick like I am only once a year or so. Horribly sick. So I called to explain we wouldn't be able to have the visit and could we possibly reschedule for next weekend? She said she would have to wait and see, that the transporters already had their schedules for July. Which must mean that we weren't scheduling a visit for July because it had never been brought up. Not a word since that phone call that I made.

Anyway, back to a couple days ago when his cw had called me. On my way home for lunch, I called my house (I know, I'm weird, but it saves a couple minutes on a 30 min lunch) and there was a message from our cw. She said his cw called her too and said that they had called me last month and I had not returned their call. Are you kidding? She had told them that they must have that wrong because I always returned calls. You go! Thank you for sticking up for me!

Anyway, I called her brother's cw back after school. She said they wanted to set up a visit for Sept, and I said, well, first I want to discuss what you had told my cw. I was told you said that you called me last month and I didn't return the call. She said "Mmmmm Hmmmm... " like, yessss... I said, I never received a call from you. She said, it wasn't me it was the transporter who called. I said, they never called me either. There was no message and nothing even on caller ID for either my cell or home phone. She just said oh. I told her I was very unhappy that they were making me out to be the bad guy when I have done nothing but try to get these visits worked out. So, nothing, we just set visits for Sept and Oct, that's it. No apology, nothing. I don't say this often, but I HATE them! Isn't your job to serve and protect children, not make innocent people look bad.

Besides all of this, she then said that basically they were going to tell her brother about the new baby and wasn't sure what I was going to do with Olivia. Why on earth would you tell him about her? There are no legal connections, rights are terminated. You can't do visits, nothing. Plus, now, if the baby hasn't been taken into custody by our next visit, he may tell Olivia. We still have 3 weeks until then, so I'm just hoping we have more news by then. I just don't want to decide to tell her only because he may. I want it to be because it's the right time. I guess, like everything else, it may be out of my hands. We wait and see.

No date for Braeden's adoption, but we are closer. Two days ago I signed the petition to adopt. It's at the courthouse now, so we wait for a date. I've been told by a couple people that it could be within the next two weeks!

And work, well work is work. It's going well, no major issues or behaviors, just the usual yucky stuff and attitudes. (of staff that is!) I'm just trying to get ahead in my lesson plans, which I usually am by now, especially so that if a placement does happen I already have some organization on that front! :)

Hope you are well... God bless...