Saturday, June 20, 2009
Stuff... good... bad... ugly...
Liam woke today with a temp of 103! He has been on Motrin and Tylenol off and on all day! :( Poor guy! No clue what's going on with him, but other times when we've gone swimming and he's ingested a bunch of chlorine from the pool he has been irritable, cranky, not sleeping well, etc. To an extreme. The last few days he has been swimming like a fish! Which is great, but I'm wondering if the chlorine is affecting him again????
In other news, Olivia, Braeden, Grandma and I went to a special place for lunch today. It's called BD's Mongolian Grill. I LOVE it! And it's SO healthy! Online you can "build your bowl" and see the calories as you add, it's great! It's basically a line up of three "bars" - one with meats, one with veggies, and one with spices and sauces. You choose your raw meat and add it to your bowl, then whatever veggies you can stack to fill that bowl up. Finally you choose a sauce and/or spices and put them in a small ramekin and take your goodies to the grill area. Some grill-sters are there to cook it up, and even do a little flipping per chance for fun. There is also a salad and soup bar. The kids had not been before and had fun. Braeden got mostly shrimp, but I did get him to try a little calamari! :)
And of course how can you say no to these adorable mini desserts! (Especially when they bring them right to your table and ask if you want some with them staring you in the face!) :) They LOVED the peanut butter cup one!
I also found out some rather unsettling news about Illinois today. It seems that as of July 1 they are cutting foster care board rates from about $390 per month to $150 per month. Not only that, but day care funding is getting nixed and I'm assuming that means day care for foster children as well. The state used to pay that if you worked full time. Next will most likely be adoption subsidies, and other subsidy items such as counseling have already been cut. A friend took her child to counseling the other day to be told that even though it's in her subsidy that the state would cover these costs, they won't pay it anymore. That's how Olivia was about to get her counseling paid for.
How on earth can people be foster parents anymore if this is what it comes to??? Why would you willingly take on a child you know NOTHING about, to pay to care for them, to not get support such as counseling, to have a caseworker who is now going to have 50-75 cases as if they weren't overworked for no money already, and who may have many serious issues, to be told by birth parents how horrible you are, to then potentially have the child you've worked so hard for and paid so much to help, to then go back home???
I don't know that I could or would. Certainly not if they are under the age of 5 and would need day care, possibly diapers, I couldn't afford it. It would be different if it was an outright adoption. Foster care is SO not the same!
What will happen to the children in the system whose foster parents are going to start saying they can't afford them? The children not even taken into custody yet but NEED to be, because there aren't homes for them? The children who will be hurt in horrible foster situations because workers CAN'T meet their needs and check up on them with all the cases they have???
What will happen to these children???
I know we'll be fine. Yes, we may not be doing dance or vacations or buying clothes, etc, but we'll get by just fine. How many other well-meaning, good intentioned people, won't be fine. Won't be able to "do it." What about those adopted whose parents NEED that subsidy. I'm lucky Olivia's issues we were going into counseling for really aren't THAT great, but what about those whose ARE??? Wow, I can only imagine, and it's not a pretty picture!
My prayers are with these children...
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Olivia - 14
Braeden - 11
Liam - 9
Macy - 5
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4 years ago
5 comments:
DOC rates have already been cut in our state and in the last week, 4 very difficult children were returned to the agency by foster parents that were already at their wits end. So these children have had yet another move within the system, because of the system. Very sad.
Hope Liam feels better.
Peace
Insane..I could not imagine caring for our little guy for $150 a month. I miss so much unpaid time off for his apts, and negative behiavors that we would not be able to keep him for $150 dollars a month. No daycare assistance? Its $110 a week, which is thankfully covered by the state. What about going with a private agency?
In the end the children are going to be the ones that loose out.
I am shocked at what you wrote about all the cuts in foster care subsidies. Who makes these cuts? Is there a way people can petition against them? That is unbelievable.
Believe me, I know... and I keep hearing about more and more. Karen - I am with a private agency! The problem is that the kids are state kids no matter if you're with a state or private agency and the money is garnered through the state. In addition to all this, IF this budget is passed this way, there will be no preschool for 100,000 children, meaning my friend's foster girls won't have preschool, meaning not only would she have to pay half day day care, but now it would be full day day care. Also, over 9300 teachers losing jobs, closing state museums and parks, firing over 1000 state police (half the force), and it goes on and on. I guess there's a big rally Tues in Springfield. I don't get it. I'm praying hard!
I hope your little fella feels better soon!