Parallels...

Wow!  I was curious to see what I was doing two years ago today, and I realized that my life is kind of paralleling what was happening then!  Two years ago today, the Booger Bear had been with me for one week.  This year, Chunky Monkey has been with me about the same amount of time, and I am pleasantly surprised at how much I seem to have learned in the past two years when it comes to Foster/Adopt Land and how things work.

2009 - Getting into a good daily routine and frantically studying "Baby's 1st Year" books in a desperate attempt to figure out what the heck I was doing.
2011 - Getting into a good dailiy routine.  Surprisingly calm and confident.  I think I'm actually starting to know what I'm doing!  :-)

2009 - Still hadn't worked out daycare and had no clue what I was going to do.
2011 - Have an AWESOME daycare on "standby" and Monkey was in his class on day two!

2009 - Booger had a cold.  I caught the cold.
2011 - Monkey has a cold.  I am catching the cold.

2009 - Freaked out because there was a big problem with Booger's Medicaid and I couldn't get a straight answer or any help.  Frustrated because according to CPS Minimum Standards, I needed to get him to the pediatrician within 14 days of placement, but no one would see him.
2011 - I have a Medicaid number, but no card for Monkey.  I don't care though because I'll just have them send a voucher to the pediatrician if I don't get it before his appointment.

2009 - Spent an entire day trying to track down a pediatrician that accepted Medicaid and new patients to no avail.  Had a panic attack because I was certain they were going to take my license away if I didn't get the baby in to the doctor within the 14 day timeframe.
2011 - Had a couple of pediatricians in mind, but neither was accepting newborns.  Luckily, my daycare director (have a mentioned how AWESOME this lady is) knew of one, called them to see if they were taking new patients, and let me know.  I called and had Monkey scheduled for his checkup within 10 minutes!  The entire process only took about 45 minutes!

2009 - Booger had been with me for a week, and I still hadn't met or even heard from his caseworker.  I was panicking and hounding my agency like crazy.
2011 - Monkey has been with me for a week, and I just found out the name of his caseworker last night...  Still no contact from her, and I really don't care.  It keeps things simple.  Maybe they'll just forget that I have him and leave us alone.  :-)

2009 - CPS tells me that they can't locate the Booger's mom and that he will likely be available for adoption.  I go into his placement thinking that there's a good chance he will be my son permanently.  I believe them, and spend the next 10 months on pins and needles only to be completely devastated when I lost him.
2011 - CPS tells me that they can't locate Monkey's mom and that he will likely be available for adoption.  I think they are full of doggie poo and are just trying to tell me what they think I want to hear.  (You can tell that I've been slightly jaded by the system over the past couple of years. ;-)  I don't believe a word of it, other than the fact that they can't seem to locate his mom.  I'm more curious than anything to see how his case develops.

2009 - I DVR'd American Idol
2011 - I DVR'd American Idol  (I guess some things never change! ;-)