The Baby Front...What to do? What to do?

I feel so confused right now. I attended a training at our agency last night. The purpose of the meeting was to explain a new health program going into effect on April 1 for all children in custody of CPS. However, the first 2/3 of the meeting was actually led by the owners of the agency, a married couple, and had nothing to do with healthcare. They gave us a ton of information related to CPS trends, changes within the agency, MORE rules to follow (as if there aren't enough to follow already!), etc. A couple of times during the training I was on the verge of tears. Hearing the current stats on removals and removals of infants was so not in our favor. We have a very slim profile which means we can expect a wait. But after last night I feel like our wait could literally be years. There are 25 agencies in our region...all going after the same children. Additionally, CPS is really focusing on leaving children in their homes and putting the family through counseling and rehabilitation. A couple of years ago the number of kids removed was 5200 in a year and in the last 6 months there have only been 750 removals. So, do the math...not many infants. And to add insult to injury, children are placed in their county of origin and I would imagine Rockwall County doesn't have I high percentage of removals.



I immediately came to the realization last night that if we are to have any chance at receiving a child we are going to have to increase our age range (currently 0-3 months). I think Waylan agrees. I wrote the owner of our agency an email asking him what his suggestions were and what percentage of removals came from our county.



He had not replied to my email as of 6pm tonight BUT I did receive two placement calls today. Yes, TWO! The first one was for a 3 year old boy. I had to say no because I don't want to disturb birth order. The second call came in at 5:20 pm tonight. My phone was downstairs and I was upstairs giving Justine a bath. No, we don't typically do bathtime at 5:00 in the evening but we had a little incident...I will leave that to your imagination! So I didn't even hear the phone ring. About 10 after 6:00 I checked my voicemail and it was a call for a 3 1/2 month old boy. Yes, 3 1/2 months old! That's in our range!!! BUT then the kicker. He is Hispanic. Now I would consider Hispanic but Waylan says no. So I initially passed on this one too. It just breaks my heart! How can I desire a child so much then continue to say No? Well, technically I didn't pass. Too much time had passed from when she left the message and I'm sure he was taken anyway.

I did just leave a message with her to discuss it. {Long pause...phone is ringing} It was the agency calling back. I received more information about this boy. He is still available. This is not your typical placement as this call did not come through the central processing area. A caseworker at CPS in Wichita Falls emailed 6 agencies that he likes personally for this boy. He is 3 1/2 months old as I mentioned. His father is not in the picture. His mother (a teenager) is incarcerated until at least April. After she is released she will be required to continue in an outpatient rehab program. All other family has already been contacted and this little boy has no one stepping up for him. The only drawback we see is his race. I feel shallow saying that but I won't lie. Medically he is fine and he is on target developmentally. She said he is a smiley little boy who loves to coo. So Waylan finally said okay and our home study is being submitted for him. Our agency is also sending 3 other home studies in addition to ours. The other agencies will probably send some too. She said it will take around 2 weeks before a family is chosen.

So join with me in prayer for this situation. The baby's name is Joseph. My prayer is that if God wants Joseph to be a Langford then we will be chosen. If not, we won't.

It's been a crazy day. I suppose emailing the owner may have played a role in us receiving calls today. If not, strange things are happening.