tales of joy and frustration
When I taught fifth grade, I always thought the last day of school was bitter-sweet. While I looked forward to the conclusion of the school year and the fun of summer (though full time grad school wasn’t the most fun way to spend a summer), I also hated to say good-bye to the students I [...]
When I talk about the fact that I am a foster parent, one of the most common questions I am asked is “how do you let them go?” I’ve only ever done this twice, so I am no expert at this, but I don’t think the letting go part is ever easy. It wasn’t intended [...]
Recently I read the word ‘recalcitrant’ describing some members of the US Congress. I found myself in an SAT word moment and actually had to look up the meaning; now ‘recalcitrant’ is my new favorite word. In case you are in the same boat as me, I will save you the trouble. It means “stubbornly [...]
I can’t allow the entire month of May pass by without mentioning that May is Foster Care Awareness Month. You are obviously at least a little aware of foster care if you ended up on my blog, so maybe you are wanting to become a little more aware…or maybe even involved. There are over 460,000 [...]
Last night, we went over to the home of an awesome family for dinner and swimming in the lake near their house. The kids were very excited to go swimming (whereas I, on the other hand, wouldn’t be caught dead swimming in any body of water in which I can’t see what is below the [...]
I regret to inform you that I have yet to figure out how to live life with no regrets. Regrets don’t help anything for the better, and I would be better off to live life without them, but they are a reality. Often my regrets aren’t things that I have done, but things that are [...]
Last week we had fire trucks on our street, and tonight we had a little brush with the law. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon searching the neighborhood for a missing dog, and tonight I made the same rounds looking for a missing boy. Samuel pulled one of his typical 11-year-old boy stunts and I called [...]
Samuel spoke with his mother on the phone last night, and he insisted on calling her again this morning before he left for school. It makes me almost physically ill to watch him go through this cycle with her again. His mother can’t see him, but she has unlimited phone access to him. When she [...]
Life as a dog walker is grand. Especially when pay day rolls around and you find out that you have earned more money than you receive for your allowance each week. But then, things aren’t so grand when the dog you are caring for runs away. Unless Lassie comes home, it would appear that Samuel [...]
Before I had an active 11-year-old boy come live with me, I scarcely knew my neighbors at all. I pretty much waved and smiled enough so that if something ever happened to me (ranging from tragedy to winning the lottery) and the news cameras showed up to interview my neighbors they would all nod their [...]