Getting Back Into the Swing:
It’s been a while since I last set fingers to type here but with our two Littles (the DCYF lingo – very young children, 2 & 4 for us, that are placed with Foster Parents) now having been reunited with their Mom (a VERY good thing as she worked her butt off to get back onto the Straight and Narrow), TMEW (The Most Esteemed Wife) and I have sworn to take at least two to three months off before even considering taking another (TMEW adds “unless it is a baby; we WILL take a baby!”), I can now slow down out of second overdrive and back to fourth gear.
But, this ought to be fun – relearning how to set up a blogpost again.
Some Background:
After our previous last 10 yr old male Foster Child left, we were determined to take a break of a few months. However, a month into that choice, we got a call from our “Care Coordinator” who told us that she had an “opportunity” for us – not an older child as the previous two had been but much younger than the Grandson (still living with us). We were told “They are CUTE!”.
Indeed they were with the youngest having a smile that could light up a stadium. We were also told “They are NORMAL!”. This after we had two very difficult Foster kids right in a row that had a lot of issues. Looking better and better!
We thought we were getting a bit of a break from “difficult.” We also thought this would be short term. Heh! It ended up being a year and a half. And it turned out that both had real issues so I ended up driving to Dartmouth-Hitchcock/Lebanon on a regular basis in addition to the normal, more local, “health providers”. And we both had to deal with some difficult situations.
Ah yes, back to the grind.
Oopsies – Not So Easy:
Turns out they had had a very hard upbringing and the effects of having very sparse attention given to them by their caregivers, and it showed. When they came to us, both were diagnosed with VERY late development problems. Both had vocabulary difficulties (she, at two, had a vocabulary of only 5 words when normal should have been 50; he had severe pronunciation problems to the point of hardly being understandable). IMHO, both conditions stemmed from VERY little interaction with their kinship sets of previous caregivers (two of which were later arrested for Abuse & Neglect; one has already been convicted and the other is still awaiting trial after several postponements). Nothing was done to help these two Littles by them except to have DCYF move them again.
Well, TMEW and I have personal experience with both of these issues (our Eldest and the Grandson) and IMMEDIATELY got DCYF moving a couple weeks after receiving them (a year ago this past April). They did after a couple of weeks but we were to find out that this endeavor was going to be a months-long exercise simply to get to the starting line for the boy.
I ended up getting a referral from their pediatrician to Dartmouth-Hitchcock / Lebanon (“DH”) to have both of them evaluated. We chose it, even as it is a longish hike from our home, as we know the Pediatric staff from working with the Grandson’s issues and they are GOOD at what they do! Right away, the older was formally diagnosed as needing Special Education (Speech problems, late development, and ADHD) and the younger with possible brain injuries (she had tremors et al).
With all that said, the rest of this recounting will deal with the older brother and how the Barnstead School District tried to manipulate [loser] Dad even though they were legally on the hook to provide yet another needed service. It seemed like this Special Ed department, like a few others in NH (NOT all but a few who have made “names” for themselves) .
I’m pretty sure they weren’t counting on me being present. Nor the Judge asking me to speak, at every Hearing on this case, as to how I thought things were going. Ayup, giving a political blogger an open mic. Who doesn’t care who he embarrasses.
To be Continued…
Steve said “800 words, please” even as I almost always used to “write long” but he’s done a great job. I MUST try to follow the rules. So 763 it is – but it will require more posts to tell the tale.
Mostly. Really mostly. And I am hoping that this will not be “flash in the pan like my previous attempts to return to writing”.
