Fiona called tonight as planned. Very happy, very animated. It is always amazing to me the mix of true memories she has of the times we did things together and then there will be this event inserted that she is sure we experienced that never happened--or at least never happened with us. I have been sort of wiggling out of those false memories (and they are perhaps only false in that they did not happen here or with us) by saying "gee I don't really remember that." Then the next day I email Jane and fill her in on how it didn't happen here but something similar might have happened somewhere else. But a lot of what she remembers is surprisingly accurate, which is amazing when you consider how many years it has been since she was here (9) and that after she was removed she was pretty much drugged out of her mind for years.
Back in December I shared with the therapist Jane, the story of how Fiona had wanted an Easy Bake oven the year we met her. She didn't get it and another foster child in the home did. (she was not at our home that Christmas) We got her an Easy Bake oven when she moved to our house. By my recollection she got to use it maybe three times. She actually lived here only 5 weeks before she was a serious physical danger to herself and to others. After it was clear she wasn't coming home, I packed all her things in boxes into the attic. I kept thinking she would need them someday. I was able to bring a few things to her RTC placements. Her bike went with her to the one close by us. Clothing went. But a lot of toys didn't because such facilities have a lot of safety restrictions for obvious reasons. The easy bake oven is somewhere in my attic still. Tonight KC was telling Fiona about the giant cupcake pan he asked for and which Santa brought. Fiona immediately asked if I remembered her Easy Bake Oven. I said of course I did, and I remembered baking with her. She sighed and said I had probably thrown it out. I said of course not, it was in the attic somewhere. The big question was where in the attic and as it is bitterly cold here I couldn't spend much time in my unheated attic. She wants me to send it to her and it actually sounds like Jane might let this happen. I have to email her the specs on the oven so she can review it. I hope she can have it. It about brought me to my knees hearing the longing in her voice for it. She is 18 now but still searching for the childhood she never really had. On the other hand, I bet I have increased my cred with Jane since I told her how important it was for Fiona to have gifts she really wanted at Christmas and her birthday.
Watching Rob talk with Fiona on the phone, I think his body posture is looking more relaxed. I am hoping this is starting to feel normal and safe to him.
We have decided we will not visit Greece for New Years this year! Rob is bummed but I have to work till 3 on New Years Eve and K is not able to handle a lot of new recipes on her own. She is getting more into the amount of celebrating that our family does, but I am sort of party central and she is on board the train but not the engineer! LOL Especially with helping to develop the decorations and games, she was quickly feeling overwhelmed. So when KC said Mexico would have been a lot of fun I said why not "travel" there this year and do Greece next year, when I will probably not have to work the day before New Years. (my co worker and I have a swap system on the holiday weeks) So today I visited Recipe Zaar (which I adore) and picked out some fun recipes to try. We will have a Mexican squash dish (calabacitas), taquitos con pollo y queso (taquitos w/ chicken and cheese, except it will be analogue chicken as we are vegetarian!), we'll have a tostado set up area where people can make their own tostado. I have a recipe for a Mexican fruitcake which isn't anything like English fruitcake and looks delicious (I"m going to make that tomorrow night) and I have a recipe for Horchata which is a mexican drink that sounds neat and easy to make. (non alcoholic drink) I'll start that tomorrow night too mostly cause the rice you use sits overnight! I'd love to make guacamole but I'm the only one who would ever eat it so that would be a waste! We will also have nachos and KC's beloved arroz con gandules even though that is more Puerto Rican than Mexican. I know he'll eat it and he has promised he'll try a bite of things if we will have what he calls "spanish rice." I did up some trivia questions today and hope tomorrow on my lunch break to create a simple picture bingo game of Mexico by printing off some pictures from the computer. I'm going to find some mariachi music and bring out my pottery from my trip to Mexico low those many MANY years ago to use as a decoration. We have a lot of glow sticks and we will think of something fun to do with those as well. And we always toast the New Year with sparkling cider and my net research today indicated that surprisingly, this is one of the toasting beverages in Mexico!
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