Respite

Let’s call our respite placement guy EB for Energizer Bunny shall we? Therapeutic foster care is not for the faint at heart. Most of my difficulties lie with the incredibly heart wrenching details of how these children came to need therapeutic care. The abuse, the neglect, is often too hard to think about for any length of time. I often had to give my head a little shake so I didn’t have to dwell on the circumstances that brought EB here for respite care. It was never far from my mind though, as I could clearly see the effects of past trauma in his daily interactions. Hypervigilance is a draining, heartbreaking characteristic to cope with. 

We did have fun though. It was a bit odd at first, as your home is just overwhelmed with 13yr old-ness. And that was a bit of a shock to our system.  We did spend a lot of time laughing, and that was great. I think he had fun, he seemed to adjust well to being here. As is common to many children who have had numerous placements EB has difficulties with personal boundaries and social skills. But what amazed me (and made me immeasurably sad) was how he had normalized yet another home to stay in. He walked in, made himself at home, asked what was for supper, and looked for stuff to do. It is completely normal for him to move from one house to another. All children deserve stability and I’m sad that EB hasn’t had that in his life.

Our first respite was a success. Now that we have shown that we can deal with (challenging) therapeutic care they are looking to place a ten year old girl with us as a long term placement. I will keep you updated to see how that turns out!

Squirt misses her play companion. Apparently he was here solely for her entertainment 🙂

Mara ~ feet wet