It's a girl!

I really thought I was done fostering. We spent all last weekend moving each teen into her own room. Each room was set up with only one bed. All spare beds (I know, only foster homes have spare beds) were taken to the shed for storage.

Wednesday afternoon, my cell rings and it's DCS. I answer thinking it's Deb's worker calling to ask a question about her meds. Nope, it's the placement worker. He's trying to place a 17 year old girl. She's turning 18 in a couple of weeks and has burned through every therapeutic home in the area. They need someone to hold on to her until she turns 18 and signs herself out of custody. I said no, really I did. However, he called back an hour later (it's now 5:30 PM) and he's still at the office with her. He asks if I'll take her just for the night. I say yes but only if he is okay with her sleeping on the couch. He is, of course.

I drove to the office and picked up...let's call her Frannie. She actually has the same first name as Cori, so it's going to be a little confusing, but we'll survive. Her previous foster mom had just dropped her and all her belongings off at the office that morning. She'd sat there most of the day in an unused cubicle surrounded by all her worldly belongings. I took her and one bag of dirty clothes and headed home.

She is a handful. She's borderline IQ and talks nonstop. This is not a good combo, but it's only for one night. She's pleasant enough. You can tell she's a professional foster kid - She just came in and made herself at home. She's not the least bit shy or standoffish. She hops in, takes care of her needs, and moves on. The night went fine. She did sleep on the couch and Alli dropped her at school Thursday morning. After work, I called the worker to see when and where I needed to drop off the things she left at my house. He stammers around a few seconds before admitting they have no place for her to go. He asks if I will consider keeping her a week if he gets me more money. I say no, that the money isn't important. I list all the reasons I don't want to keep her - she's a bad influence on my kids, I have no bedroom for her, I don't have anyway to pick her up after school. He said the couch is fine for the week and would I keep her if DCS picks her up from school and keeps her at the office until I get off work. I agree.

So, it's Saturday morning and as I type this, Frannie is snoring on the couch beside me. She was supposed to get a home pass to see her bio family this weekend but the dad had to work. I feel so bad for this girl. She's been in and out of foster care for 14 years or so. She's not very bright and has almost no high school credits. She's 10 days from turning 18 and being on her own. How in the world will she survive???