This Child

There are three types of plans in foster care, reunification, concurrent, and preadoptive. Reunification plan means that all efforts will be used to improve and support the birth family and the child will be returned to his birth family. Preadoptive planning means parental rights will be terminated because of neglect or abuse and the agency will focus on finding an adoptive family for the child. Concurrent planning means strangely the agency has to do both reunification and preadoptive at the same time. Four weeks ago, our social worker encouraged us to get all of our outstanding paperwork in because an 18-month-old African American boy had come on to her service. The boy had been severely abused and he had been through so much that she really wanted to find a forever family for him. Fast forward to yesterday, our social worker left a message again about this same boy. He needed to be moved from his current foster home (his fourth foster home) and our social worker had Kevin's federal fingerprint clearance form in her hands and all she needed was mine so that we could be placed with this child. I left her a hurried, excited message. I spent the rest of afternoon on pins and needles. Writing my parenting column distractedly, answering stupid emails stupidly. A few hours later the social worker called back. She was dejected. The social worker had been sure that the child's judge would have ordered that a preadoptive plan be implemented due to the severity of the child's injuries, instead the new judge was "family-friendly" and ordered a reunification plan. The social worker apologized for getting our hopes up. We discovered that my fingerprint clearance form had been in her office all along, simply misfiled. She apologized again and rang off. That was it.

It would have been worse if my form had been found earlier and we had had the little boy in our home for a week only to lose him. Maybe God willing (parent willing, really) the reunification will work out and this little boy will be okay.

I hope.

I grieve.

I hope.