John is leaving us

I went to John's reunification staffing today and it was decided that John would be going home tomorrow evening. He could have gone home tonight but Don has a union meeting tonight and it would probably be best for him to be a part of it. I am honestly (not proudly) looking forward to John going home. I need some peace and quiet and time to work on some of Oliver's less than pleasant learned behaviours. The worst one is "don't say that" with his hand up over and over again every time you say something to him that he doesn't want to hear.....

Angelo is doing good. He was adjudicated a dependent of the State of Florida today and became a long term foster child. His mom's drug screen from last week came back positive today too. The judge ordered that unsupervised visits be worked on and eventually allowed but he didn't know about the positive drug screen. Not really sure how it works from here. Also Mom has no real place to live for them to do a homestudy. So, I am not sure where this will lead for all of us.

Next week should be fun as Oliver, Angelo and I are all off to Orlando for 3 days to visit my dear friend Donna and her Kirov cutie, Daniel! Cannot wait. We are then home for about 24 hours and then off to Omaha for a visit. Angelo is staying with my good friend, Amy while we are gone.....crazy times ahead!

Quick Update

Baby Angelo is still with us, had his one month well baby visit yesterday and is thriving at 10lbs. 14oz. and 22.5" long! He is growing like a weed. Oliver and the rest of us are slowly falling in love with the little sweetie. Things are not going well for his mom at this point. She was evicted from her place yesterday and has a long way to go now before she would be able to get Angelo back. Yes, his name is growing on me. He is still a great sleeper and just wakes once or twice each night to eat. We have had probably four or five rough nights in the last weeks. I am not complaining one drop.

John was supposed to be going home in a few weeks but we have had a major hiccup in the plans. His mom up and decided to take off to Indiana because of a friend's relative's impending death but it never happened. She missed one weekday visit and last weekend's overnight visit. After the fact we were told that the relative has had cancer for many years and mom had only met her a couple of times. Well Mom is finally back and John is seeing her today for the first time in a week and a half. Hopefully things will now be back on track. He has been devastated by this all. So sad!

We have done some great stuff with him in the last weeks. He has a bucket list that we are working on. This poor kid had never been to a swimming pool, the beach, a baseball game, zoo or much else. I honestly think he believed Walmart was the only store in town. On his bucket list there were five things left and we are slowly checking them off. We went to the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota, a petting zoo in the Orlando area with some dear friends (hoping for the Naples Zoo too) he has dinner at the fire station scheduled for next week (2nights as the A and B shifts both want the opportunity), have to find a train for him to ride yet and there is one more that escapes me right now. My mind is going!

Oliver is having a language explosion and is blowing us away. He still has some frustrating times when really important stuff gets repeated over and over and we cannot figure out what he has to say. Brynn is counting down the days till she moves away to Stetson. There are days I am sad and other days I cannot wait. I think God makes teens so challenging so it is easier to see them leave the nest. Steph is doing good and Michelle passed her boards a couple weeks ago and is licensed RN now!