Another Call

The school year started and honestly, it was the best freakin' schedule I had ever had.  Life was good.  

I did, however, have terrible back aches, most likely as a result of carrying around an ever-growing Joshua.  Luckily, I was regularly seeing a chiropractor (who just also happened to be a coworker's husband, so yeah).  

One day, I was driving to see Dr. B when the phone rang.  It was Joshua's mother.  Now, while we have regularly texted over the year, we have never talked on the phone.  Maybe it is because of her age (I don't think her generation talks on the phone...ever).

But she was calling.  

I clicked on my Apple Car Play (because I'm fancy like that... and yeah, I got a $175 ticket for talking on my phone in the car, so there's that).  I didn't even get a chance to say hello.

She was hysterical.

"Rebecca, they're here and they want to take my baby!  They want to take Kaylie!"

"Who?"

"The cops!  CPS! They want to take her!  Well, they aren't taking her!"  I could hear her yell to someone, "You aren't taking her!"

I tried to calm her down.  CPS?  What happened?

"I'll call you back!" she screamed.  As she hung up, I could hear her talking to a man, "You're not fucking taking my baby!"

I was shaken.  I didn't know what was going on.  

I had barely caught my breath when the phone rang again.  This time it was The Agency.

"Rebecca?  Hi.  It seems like Joshua's sister is going to be in placement, and we need to know if you would be willing to take her?"

My mind was racing.  

For months when she was pregnant, Darryl and I had wondered whether we were going to have to take in this new baby.  We asked the Case Planner a million times if we should buy another crib.  She kept saying to be prepared.  But then when the baby was born and she went home to mom, we figured that door was closed.  Now they were calling.

You have to know, I couldn't really say no (not that I would have). Had I said no, had I said I wasn't interested in taking a four month old, they would have said okay (you are never forced to take a child when you are fostering) but then within a matter of days, they would have found a foster home that would have taken both Kaylie AND Joshua.  There was no way we were going to let that happen.

"Of course," I said, "but what happened."  

The Agency representative on call said she really didn't know, that she would call me with more details.

So I went to the chiropractor.  I was so tense, it was like adjusting concrete.  During the session, my phone rang and I had to jump off the table and take it (he knows I'm a foster parent and knows the deal... he's also a father of three little ones himself).  

It was The Agency again.  They said to pick up Kaylie at the office around 5.  Shit.

I called Darryl and told him.  He was not as shocked as I was.  He was more... resigned, I guess, like he knew it was a matter of time.

I called Joshua's Case Planner who did NOT know what was going on.  I filled her in with what little info I had.  I told her I was afraid that if Kaylie was taken that Joshua's mother would hurt herself. I really was.

I went on Facebook (not to talk about it but because I guess I'm conditioned) and the first thing that popped up was Joshua's mother LIVE STREAMING THE COPS AND CPS COMING TO TAKE KAYLIE!

WTF!!!

She was screaming and curing and addressing her FB audience, "Guys, they want to take my baby.  You're not taking my fucking baby!  I'm a good mother!"  

She streamed them reading the reason they were taking Kaylie.  She streamed her cursing at them (and her mother).  She streamed her saying, "You better make sure she goes to Rebecca!"

And that is how, one year and six days after we got Joshua, we got his baby sister too.