Well, for starters, I had to get up at 3 am to go pick 2 kids up in Clinton to get them back here for court at 9. In court, I had to stand in front of the judge in proximity to the SOB who molested these children, and at least one of their younger sisters and keep my mouth shut. Following court, I had to go to CID so these kids could be interviewed by the criminal investigators. I watched the interviews on the monitors. It was upsetting, to say the least, especially what the little girl revealed. After that, I had to make arrangements for one of the younger ones to be brought to meet me at the office and to get the oldest one to school, because the middle two had an appointment in Little Rock with a specialist, which I had to take them to. I had to feed them lunch and get on the road. One of them was car sick and I kept having to stop. The other one kept having to go to the bathroom, etc. Ended up taking me 2 hours to get roughly 60 miles. I called Little Rock to tell them I was running late and they told me I would get there too late for the girls to be seen, so they wanted me to bring all 4 kids on Wednesday morning. So I had to turn around and go back. I got to the office and had to worry at that point, about finding a placement for 3 of the 4 kids, all the time having visions of spending the entire holiday weekend in the office with them (I'm on call this week, so it would fall to me). Then I had to deal with one of my most annoying parents, whose timing is typically the worst for for coming in whining about problems that SHE created. I'm trying to watch these 3 kids and make calls to find some place to put them, not to mention trying to keep all their stuff straight (not an easy task when we are shuffling the belongings of so many children).
Finally, I got one of my foster parents to take the two older kids just for 2 days. I still have to find somewhere to put them. The 3 year old is with another foster parent for 2 more nights, and of course, everybody wants to keep the baby. Then I had to go through getting approval for the 2 older ones to stay at the foster home because of special circumstances. Today, I have to work on that, do all my regular work to try and prepare for the long weekend, coordinate how the h*ll I am going to collect all 4 of these kids in 3 different foster homes, miles apart in different directions, and get them to Little Rock, and how I am going to deal with them when I am there. And then there is the looming question, "what are the chances that I am actually going to get my long weekend, because I am on call through it, and there is always the chance that these kids will be back with no place to go. We are not allowed to take them home under those circumstances.
You asked.
OMG... I am exhausted and now need a nap and Thorazine. Your life is going to kill me, damn it.
I think my daughter is better off dealing with the old folks. They're not easy, especially when their crooked kids are involved, but the kids, that would be too upsetting for me to handle.. even second hand it does a job on you.
Good luck Libby, I don't know how you do it. I know someone has to, but you must burn out quickly in that kind of job.
Yow!