Pull Up A Chair

A Roller-Coaster, Zero to Sixty!

That's what it feels like has happened to our lives over the past 2 weeks...we went from lazy evenings at home together to evenings filled with homework, appointments, bio family visits, video games, phone calls with case workers & therapists, hour-long tantrums, cartoons, and laughter.

The first day that Joc moved in was chaotic. I picked him up after work at the county facility, and boy was he energetic! He told me how excited he was to be discharged from his residential treatment facility and come to live with us. We saw new energy from him that night, most likely from all the excitement of the transition. When we got home we had 3 visitors within the first hour - Joc's caseworker, our agency case manager, and Joc's guardian ad litem. We signed a bunch of paperwork, received a bunch of documents & instructions, and finally they were all on their way out the door. We spent the rest of the evening having fun together.

The next few days we spent getting him ready for school - going clothes shopping, supply shopping, getting him used to our family schedule, introducing a chore/behavior chart, etc. In addition to school, Joc started at Latchkey before school and did great at both for the first 2 weeks...we got nothing but good reports. He was good for us at home for the first week too...then the honeymoon ended.

I'll write some future posts about behaviors we have seen and how we have used our social-worker brains to come up with interventions and solutions, but for now all I will say is that we have been struggling. Everything culminated on Friday when I got a phone call from his school saying that I had to come get him. After some intense interventions on our part, the part of our foster care agency, and the police...we have had a very peaceful couple of days! I'm praying as we head into another school week that God continues to provide us with supernatural patience, wisdom, and love for this amazing and hurting child he has placed in our lives. Will you partner in prayer with us?