We took in a new foster placement today. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or what. He's a 12yo boy with blue eyes and screaming red hair. He's small for his age and although DYFS maintains that he's bipolar, he's on Adderall and Clonadine. The latter is the only thing that applies to bipolar. He came with a thick IEP and an Emotional Disturbance classification--so I need to read. Of course, had I read Amanda's IEP--I'd have never taken her. Seriously. The school said the same thing: it was scary. So I'm not sure what to think.

Carl. Graham is BESIDE himself with excitement, but I think I heard Carl snap on him already. Of course, it was day 1. He was removed from his family about 24 hours ago and is already on his second foster placement. His grandmother died last weekend and he's been separated from his parents and all four of his siblings. If I had a 4yo saying my name EVERY 30 SECONDS, I might snap, too. He didn't touch him, but he uttered a gutteral, angry "STOP" to him. And honestly, I'm not even sure that happened, but I think it's what I heard.

I have no clue why we did this. I know DYFS was desperate because they place the kids in their own county, then the neighboring one before getting to mine. The other kids were already placed. Matt and I worry that we won't have the time to devote to Graham that he needs. But then we know Carl will be in school most of the day and we'll have that time with Graham one-on-one. We felt like we're probably exactly the kind of foster parents this kid needs. Matt and I both struggled with what to do about it. We decided to take him, but we put DYFS on alert that our own bio son was dealing with issues. We said that we fully expect there to be issues with Carl, but if Carl drained us to the point where we couldn't properly address Graham's issues--he would need to leave. They understood. I honestly think they were looking at placing him in a group home if we didn't take him.

Unfortunately, it looks like there may be a leak in the back roof... causing damage to our brand new bedroom and possibly soaking the insulation under the walls. Don't even ask me what that means because I can't even swallow the thought at the moment. At minimum, Petunia will move into our bedroom and Carl will use her room until it's fixed. That's seriously the least of it.

I'm nervous. Especially since it will be easily a week before Carl can get into school. What the heck am I going to do with him? Especially with Graham at his heels? Ugh... Why do we do this?