Catching Up!

My week at work was amazingly hectic.  I worked 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day.  I usually work 8 to 4.  Since I never take lunch it was flat out busy to say the least.  My co-worker is in sunny Florida for two weeks and our new manager does not start till the 17th so for most of the week I was doing alone what 3 people usually do.  At one point I had a call on the land line and a work call on my cell at the same time and it was totally surreal--seemed like a bad movie or something.  On the plus side, the days sure flew by.  And I got a ton of stuff done, though not nearly as much as I needed to, naturally.

The down side was I was home with the kids much less than usual and we all missed that.  We made up for it today with lots of fun together doing our usual Saturday things and ending our day with "dinner and a movie."  In our case, veggie burgers and fries while watching Mr. Poppers Penguins!  It was a great movie for all of us to enjoy.  Even Chet came down and shared in the fun with us. KC is going to be just like I was though--he gets very angry when  a movie deviates from what he read in a book.  He liked the movie but was really annoyed about the changes.

Tomorrow we have all day together too as my wife has her runaway day.  She was feeling her own levels of stress heighten from being alone with the kids more so she has Sunday all to herself.  And Monday night I have purchased her a spa treatment at a small local establishment. So hopefully that will keep her sane in the coming week which promises to be more of the same.

I also got a great email from Amazing Jane. It was a forwarded thread of conversation that Jane has had with Fiona's social worker regarding first family contact and future placement when at age 22 she ages out of the Great School in the City.  Jane has been very active and supportive of first family contact and has tried to facilitate a lot of positive things.  Unfortunately they often fall through because the family do not understand the need to keep their commitments to Fiona.  At this point the way things stand, the social worker is in agreement that should there be no significant change in the first family involvement and reliability she will advocate for Fiona to be placed in an adult setting as close as possible to us. 

I feel glad and sad about this.  Glad for us and the relationship that I have with my daughter. Sad because it is once again more proof that for whatever reason, a wide variety of people are not able to be there for someone who needs them.  The first family is huge--not like me who has only one sister and a couple of cousins.  There are legions of people and most of them live in the same general area.  I don't know their circumstances and I really really try not to judge.  But I know that as much as Fiona loves us, our constancy and presence also has the effect of reminding her that her blood  kin can't be counted on. That they say they will come and don't.  That they disappear without notice and without sharing why.  I know how this hurts her and I grieve for that.  But, that being said, at least if she can be nearer, she can be here on holidays, she can come for dinner she can hang out with us when we do our goofy family things.  It isn't all that she wants but it is love and support that she does value.