Foster/Adopt Land Update

So I haven't really mentioned Foster/Adopt Land lately, and there's a pretty good reason for it... 

I haven't heard from them in a month!!!

I haven't been the happiest of campers when it comes to my agency lately.  Up until March 9th, it had been going pretty well.  I'd been receiving potential placement calls several times a week.  On March 9th, my Program Director submitted my homestudy for a potential adoption.  And then...  NOTHING!!!

I let the next week go without contacting them.  It's not totally unusual to go one week without a potential placement call.  But when another week passed without a word, I decided to send a friendly little "Hey!  Don't forget about me!  :-)" email to my PD.  I was less than thrilled about what I got back...

"Glad to hear from you.  Can you give me an idea of who you would like to foster, age and sex, please?   I will begin a search for some children for you.  I am trying to make sure I know what children our foster parents want to serve."

You're kidding me, right?  Not only was the reply from a person based out of a city four hours away, but she wants "to begin" searching for children for me?!?  So I reply with another message asking if the PM is no longer there, saying that I guess that would explain why I hadn't heard from anyone in weeks, and I tell her what my requirements are.  She copies some woman I don't know on the message and replies with:

"PM has left our agency.  We are very sorry for the loss, but have to keep moving.  I will keep in mind you want a younger child and need CCMS.  Thanks for checking."

Again, I am very kind in my reply with an "I was just wondering because it's really unusual for me not to hear from you guys..." tone.  Although what I really wanted to say was, "It sure would have been nice two weeks ago to know what was going on!"

So then I emailed my Family Specialist just to say hi and see how she was holding up with the PM gone.  I never got a response.  Not good.

Two more weeks go by, and nothing!  Not a word from the agency!  So on Friday, I emailed the faraway lady and my FS again.  This time, I notice that the FS's message was also forwarded to the faraway lady's address.  Faraway lady assured me that she is on the lookout for me, and didn't mention a word about the fact that FS is apparently no longer with the agency.  I am less than thrilled.

There are only three employees in my local office as it is!  The PM, the FS, and a receptionist.  This office is the agency's foster care office.  The location four hours away manages group homes.  Call me crazy, but I would think that if the two people who are single-handedly responsible for managing the foster care side of the agency are no longer with the agency, someone should have notified the foster parents!!!  I only found out because I tend to hound the crap out of them when I'm between placements.  What about the poor "newbies" who are afraid to bother them?  They probably have no clue what's going on!

Fast forward to last night around 9:00pm, and I get a phone call from a number that I didn't recognize.  I decided to go ahead and pick up because I figured bill collectors wouldn't be calling that late, and it turned out to be the new chick from the local office...  The one who had been copied on all of the emails for the past few weeks and who I still hadn't heard from to that point...  "Hi, New Lady!  What do you have for me?!?" (thinking she finally had a potential placement... Why else would she be calling at 9:00 at night?!?)

Oh, no...  She wasn't calling about a potential placement.  She was calling to schedule a time to come to the house to do my 2nd quarter inspection.  Yep...  An INSPECTION!!!  When I've had no kids in the house since THANKSGIVING!!!  I told her that I'd cut her a little slack seeing as how we'd never met and all, but that the next time she asks to come to my house, she'd sure as heck better have a baby with her!

I guess I'll give the agency another month as the new staff tries to get acclimated, but if I don't start getting potential placement calls soon, I'm going to highly consider going straight through DFPS and not an affiliated agency.  You can't convince me that there have been no babies coming into care in the past month...  Not when there are nearly 1,000 children in foster care in my county alone right now (and 3,000 in my region)!  I'm only being nice because by the end of this week, I will have three new babies to love and spoil rotten on top of Booger, Buddy, and Ka-Diva!  My honorary "grandbaby" 2-month-old Banana who I love like crazy, and my new niece and nephew who will be joining us on Thursday (if Christy doesn't go into labor before then).  :-)

They have one month.  Then Bipolar Girl will rear her ugly head.  I want a baby at my house, thank you very much!  I'm not putting up with all of the CPS red tape for the fun of it, you know!