What we have been doing lately.

About 2 months ago we were driving back from Boston. My mom had been hospitalized in their winter home state and their flight home had to be changed. My sister arranged for a direct flight to Boston, which is several states away from home. On the drive home my cell phone rang. It was a caseworker calling us to see if we would take an emergency placement of 2 sisters. 2 young sisters. The caseworker drove for many hours that day to find the girls. Their mother hid them, in an obvious place, and ran. She was not following her safety plan, and leaving them with bad people while she spent time with someone who was violent with her. We thought the girls were 6 months and 2, but they were 4 months and 21 months. They arrived to us in the middle of the night. The first week was an exhausting blur. The last 2 months have been also. We have also been accused of abuse by the birth mom, and experience the ups and downs of 2 young, growing, demanding children. They have visitation twice a week, to be increased by a third day. They attend daycare while we each work 40 plus hours a week. Evenings fly by and we are screwed if we are not in bed by 10 p.m. (9 is better). We sometimes say, "we are too old for this shit." But, the girls are growing and we have good days with the challenging ones. Even if the mom gets the kids back we can at least say that we made some impact on their lives, even if the girls may not remember us.