School and Taxes

The lice are gone and we do not intend on extending another invitation. Wash, wash, wash is all I have done and will continue to do for the next few days.

Ella loves her new class and teacher. Her favorite part today was when the teacher laid down beside her at nap time. I guess my kids refused to sleep which is highly unusual for her. Every time she gets in a car or sits on the sofa she is out. Her twin has decided (at least for today) that she wants to change her name to Ava. She wrote it all over her paper today but can't recall the name if asked so I have no idea how she will adjust if that is what she really chooses to do.

My agency has offered to pay for a second weekend away for us to attend another really cool training thing. We have to pay for it upfront and they will reimburse us for mileage, lodging, and food in addition to the cost of the training. I am pretty sure we will accept it and go. We will be way over in training hours this year, too. I sure wish they would roll over to the next year, LOL.

I took the kids for a DNA test yesterday b/c the father is denying paternity so he does not have to pay child support until they prove he is the father. This is just a way to slow things down and really ticks me off I had to check out all my kids and drive for 2.5 hours each way. Then we stopped of at the DFCS office to save their worker a long ride here. I swear to you we were not there 10 minutes and that was her quarterly visit. She could not get us out of there fast enough and the kids were good. They got their presents from their birth family and sobbed all the way home wondering what was in the packages. Then they cried all evening and half the night missing them. It is so hard watching them suffer and there is not a thing I can do to make it better. They are ready to move forward, though, I can see so many ways they are changing and the first thing they anted to know from my worker was when will they be adopted. I am trying down play the conversations about it for now but they are very focused so I guess they need to talk about it.

I spoke briefly to their aunt today and she told me the parents were going to claim the kids on their taxes again. They are going to get in trouble this time b/c I know for a fact the foster mother is planning on claiming them, too. We actually had them in our home longer this year but technically they were placed here just after the needed time to claim. The foster families received a per diem and I had physical custody of them just not legal custody. What a crock.