This post NSFW -

[kyburg]

It's Sunday, it's chilly and I've got to get a move on and get ready for tonight.

Bugger. Don't wanna.

Uhhhhh.

Whatever.

We are the proud owners of a GameCube. The means by which this was obtained was a bit wild and wooly (ask unclejimbo about it, it wasn't my idea...) - to do what with, you say?

What do both of us have GameBoys for?

Hint: has a lot to do with a little yellow rat. It's so pathetic.

And perversely entertaining.

I won't go into much detail on the subject, but our file for the foster parent certification just got a six-month extension - we have a huge number of hurdles to jump over. Again.

By the time we finish the process, we will have been fingerprinted three times, have had at least three social workers go through our drawers (both figurative and literal), been through three rounds of coursework...and be asked, time and time again - are you sure you want to go through with this?

Oh, and I'll have that DoJ and FBI file after this, too. Like it or not.

If you keep reading the papers and note who does get through the process, you wonder what they must be thinking of you! (Quick and dirty, kids who end up in the DCFS system get abused/molested/raped by their caregivers four times the national average - yup, you rescue a kid and put him in the system and he has a four times greater risk of it happening again.) With all of the screening. And stuff.

And we've been handed a requirement to do more. Because - oh, I don't know why exactly, bullshit yes I do - we were honest. About everything. *kicks*

But you'll have to excuse me. I have housework to get done.

Comments

[makeitepic.livejournal.com]

Would this little yellow rat be electrfied, too?

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes it would.

[ecstaticlght.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to say good luck with the rest of the insanity, because at this point it won't mean much, but I will say.. and trust me on this... there IS an end to the process. You are going to make kick ass FP's or adoptive parents. Keep going.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

a little yellow rat

You mean like the "pedometer with cartoons" I have on my belt almost every day? I keep claiming it's to remind me I need to get off my butt and walk more. *looks at butt* Nope, not working. ;)

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Dead on, and wish I had one myself.

Hah hah hah hah!

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwww, it's so kyooooot! It thinks it's a doggy penis! Hah hah hah!

Now, THIS is a doggy dildo. OR perhaps you might like a hyena? Something more exotic, perhaps? How about a Dolphin?. If size is your thing, there's always a horse, of course. And if you always wanted to know why dragons were always kidnapping those maidens, perhaps this will explain it. But if you want to get really kinky, you can try a kangaroo.

Imagine an animal, and this site probably has what you need!


As for the rest...

*sighs* I'm not surprised. It seems that every time the government sticks it's nose in something, it only makes things worse. But if you don't do anything...*shrugs helplessly*. It's like a game of Russian Roulette sometimes.

[joggingguy.livejournal.com]

You know, I have never understood why helping people is made to be so hard. We grow up with tales of orphanages, poor houses, food lines, epidemics, you name it. The PC speeches of the late decade exhort people to give to charity, adopt children, care for the elderly, etc. But when you try, you get slapped down by organizations and their bullshit.

Hundreds of thousands of kids that need to be adopted. But to help them, you have to jump through so many bureaucratic hoops and pay half a year of salary just so you can help someone. I can see why many people say "why bother?".

*rant mode off* :-)

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's only been time thus far - and inclination. Outside of some reasonable fees for processing the fingerprints, this whole process has been free to us.

It's legitimate concern that's driving this bus they put us on - but even with all the extra work, the re-abuse rates are incredible, and you get the weirded out feeling that you're under the microscope just that more because you want to do this.

Consider the source, I guess.

[kuangning]

If you keep reading the papers and note who does get through the process, you wonder what they must be thinking of you! (Quick and dirty, kids who end up in the DCFS system get abused/molested/raped by their caregivers four times the national average - yup, you rescue a kid and put him in the system and he has a four times greater risk of it happening again.) With all of the screening. And stuff.

That scares the hell out of me. Except that I know that if my littles have suffered any of that, the people responsible won't be in any position to look at another child, let alone lay a finger on one, by the time we're finished. And after the way the rest of this case has gone? They all know it as well as we do. The caseworkers in my case are no longer caseworkers. The attorney who screwed us over isn't in the legal field anymore -- he's selling real estate. The law guardian? Fired. And I fully expect the judges to get theirs, too. Long LONG prison terms for the foster parents would just about tie things up neatly.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Do you have a clue how much longer you have to wait? It's incredible.

[kuangning]

Not a clue. We've filed for summary judgement against the NC caseworker and DSS, who seem to have finally run out of arguments. (The caseworker here in NC was the one who first decided to deny custody on the grounds of my parents' citizenship. She attempted to deny it, declaring she had never, and Governor Easley's counsel then provided a statement and the evidence that proved she had, so there's not much more she can say.) It goes slowly. But it's going, and eventually it will be finished.

[poetpaladin.livejournal.com]

I seriously hope you get to have a child soon!

[fahkingnut.livejournal.com]

I'll never see my granddaughter's Clifford the Big Red Dog books the same way again.

Love & Hugs,
FahKingNut

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

They literally go through your drawers?

Why? Do they want to know if you use sex toys? Are they checking to see if your underwear is neat, folded, and in proper color order?

Wow. What would they do when they found our sex toys? What would they do when they found my locked guncase, or found out I have a permit?

What would they do with a partially-unfinished basement? Order us to finish it before adopting or fostering a child?

What more are you having to do?

Given that this is something we've been talking about pursuing, I'd really like to know.

BTW, do you read ga_sunshine? She's a foster parent, and may be able to lend some advice, or at least an understanding ear.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

In short; yes.

Oh, dear - you'd be expected to volunteer that information. Have any open bodies of water on your property? That's another one.

(We don't have any sex toys or guns, BTW.) Something tells me the laws might be different in your state, but you can't have guns and foster children in the same place, by licensure in California. Think about it. Once adoption was complete, you could conceivably bring them back in - but a troubled child is a troubled child. A troubled child with a gun (and the assumption is made if they are there, but locked, it's the same as if they weren't locked at all when you're dealing with "their kids") is a felony waiting to happen.

Word to the wise - and your mileage may differ up there - you can mention the guns, they can document them and then say nothing more about it. But you won't get a placement, and by the laws on confidentiality, they can't tell you why unless you ask.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

Can having a pond prevent you from being able to foster or adopt a child? We do, indeed, have a pond, and there's a creek nearby. In fact, we have a tributary of that creek crossing our property and feeding our pond. When we've had a lot of rain, the tributary creek's as much as six inches deep. One visit to the house would show that.

Our property is not "parked out" (that's the realtor's term for manicuring it to within an inch of its life). We live in the woods. The woods are not level; there are walking hazards in places, and I know where most of them are, most of them by falling afoul of them myself (like the time I fell into a hole full of water in the cedar bog and Taz jumped in with me). There are lots of blackberry and other thorny vines here, all of which produce delicious fruit every summer, but the thorns go with having fruiting vines. There are stinging nettles. There's a wetland one property over, and our little tributary creek gets deep and fast on Lawrence's land next door.

We are also in a location where it takes the sheriffs fifteen minutes to show up after they're called, hence the guns. This is a shall-issue state, though, and guns are probably more common here than in California, especially when you compare urban California to rural Washington. We are rural out here; many of my neighbors have livestock.

Is any of this besides the guns going to cause us trouble?

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

That usertag should have been ga_sunshine. Nice woman!

[musicalchaos.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Ok, don't mind me too much here, but going to rant briefly... I may not like abortion, but doesn't this sort of thing shoot down yet another of the arguements against it, the whole carry to term and put up for adoption issue? *sigh* I've got serious issues with most adoption in part because of how much red tape there is, but also because my mother spent years in foster homes and I've seen what can happen in bad homes and orphanages. It's... scary... But what... I can understand why people are so afraid, but many of the clauses that I hear of most of my friends running across in the adoption processes don't have anything to do with whether or not they'd be a good parent, it's more to the issue of paranoia and people wanting to set kids into nice normal conforming homes that might not even fit the child in the first place. *grump* Ok... ranting finished.