What a Day!

So, as I wrote, we have a date for Thorn's committee - the 1st of December. Barbara had told me that the first day, chronologically, that had been tossed around for Thorn's committee was the 28th of November. I didn't think much when she said it was on the 1st instead, as things seem to always be in flux. Today, though, something happened that makes me think that she was confusing children and committee dates.

I got a call from Judea's case worker this morning. She'd tried to call Barbara, but Barbara wasn't in the office today. This is because Mondays are Barbara's day off. Thus, she called me directly to ask if we were still interested in Judea.

She asked, "Has Barbara told you that committee is tentatively scheduled for the 28th of November?" No, she hadn't. Judea's case worker said that she was concerned because after having sent Judea's updated homestudy, she hadn't heard anything back. She and Barbara had emailed back and forth about what days would work and Barbara had said that the 28th would work for presenting us at committee. Okay, well, we're going to committee for another little boy on the 1st of December, but we are interested in Judea and have been for a long time.

Then Judea's case worker dropped the bomb. We're the only family scheduled to go to committee for Judea on the 28th. Wow. How could this happen, you may ask. Well, Judea has been waiting long enough that it's possible to skirt around the 3 family for committee rule. It's not due to any adverse thing about Judea, it's just because they put recruitment on hold while checking out the biological family member that didn't work out. Rather than take the time to put out a fresh bulletin and find more families, his case worker decided to just go to committee with only us. She says she thinks we're a great match for Judea. Wow.

I asked for 15 minutes to regroup before we spoke again. I called Anthony at work and talked with him. The dilemma is that we feel like we're in pretty deep with Thorn and sort of feel like we're leaving him in the lurch. They waited for us to go to committee for him. However, there are no guarantees that we'll be chosen for Thorn. Committee could very well go a different way than expected. It doesn't make sense for us to not try for Judea, whom we've actually been interested in for longer.

Plus, truth be told, Judea does seem to have fewer issues than Thorn. It's a tough thing, but we've decided to go for it with Judea. It should be an interesting conversation I have with Barbara in the morning.

Just to be clear, even though we're the only family going to committee for Judea, that's not a guarantee that we'll get him, either. It's possible that the committee could say, "No, we don't think this family is a good match. Recruit more families and try again." That would be a blow to our self esteem as a family, but it could happen.

I spoke with Judea's foster mom today, after hearing about committee next week, and she spoke as if this is a done deal. We discussed what Judea would be bringing with him, what transition might look like, what he wants for Christmas...

Wow. It's been an intense day and tomorrow might well be, as well. I wonder what Barbara will say.