Rosie is Isaiah's football "Team Mom". She has it together. I mean, this chick's organized.
I have watched her and noticed that she learned the player names AND all the names of the parents by the first game (while I barely remember the names of my dogs some days!)
I had brushed her amazing talents off as something she can do since she "only has one child." But wait! There soon was another little boy with her. She has TWO kids??? Something was wrong one day when a little boy arrived with her, called her "Mommy", dug through her purse, and later left with her. It wouldn't have been so strange if she hadn't been a completely different skin color from this little boy. Rosie is black; Devin is white. Rosie's son on the football team looks identical to Rosie, so I was left perplexed for a few weeks. Tonight I got the story as I sat with Rosie at our last practice of the season.
Devin is four-years-old. His mother is in prison. Rosie is his foster mother. End of story, right? Well, I'd gotten to be pretty good friends with Devin in the past few weeks; I became his twice-a-week Spiderman playmate. Devin is sweet...I mean, Sweeeeet. His brown hair and big brown eyes are nothing in comparison to his lispy, yet very ar-tic-u-late little voice. On top of that, he is a snuggler. Oh, man I wished my own boys had just snuggled in my lap once like Devin did.
Rosie told me Devin's story tonight. She's had him for a year now and in that time Devin went from being very "all over the place" at preschool to being at the head of his class. In fact, his IEP (Individual Education Plan for Special Ed students) was just deemed not necessary last week. He has made a ton of progress, just by having a consistant schedule and the same bed to sleep in each night for a year. I complimented Rosie on Devin's great snuggling. She pointed out that getting close to strangers is very typical of foster children who have been abused or neglected. It's not the great characteristic I thought it was, as it can lead to sexual abuse and many other issues later on. Oops.
Rosie was told in December that Devin's mom will be out of prison this October or November. She was excited that he'd get even more stability before his mom gets out. Not so much.
Rosie got a call today that she was released 7 days ago. One would think that a mother's first desire when she gets out of prison would be to see her baby. She didn't even contact her social worker. She wanted to get some partying out of the way first.
Rosie isn't sure what will happen now. When the social workers and the mother are ready, Devin will begin visitation with his mother, which will become more frequent as the weeks progress. Rosie doesn't know how much contact she will have with the little boy who calls her "Mommy" after he's goes to live with his mother. She can only do what she has the power to do right now, and that is to love and snuggle with this little boy every minute that she can.
I have watched her and noticed that she learned the player names AND all the names of the parents by the first game (while I barely remember the names of my dogs some days!)
I had brushed her amazing talents off as something she can do since she "only has one child." But wait! There soon was another little boy with her. She has TWO kids??? Something was wrong one day when a little boy arrived with her, called her "Mommy", dug through her purse, and later left with her. It wouldn't have been so strange if she hadn't been a completely different skin color from this little boy. Rosie is black; Devin is white. Rosie's son on the football team looks identical to Rosie, so I was left perplexed for a few weeks. Tonight I got the story as I sat with Rosie at our last practice of the season.
Devin is four-years-old. His mother is in prison. Rosie is his foster mother. End of story, right? Well, I'd gotten to be pretty good friends with Devin in the past few weeks; I became his twice-a-week Spiderman playmate. Devin is sweet...I mean, Sweeeeet. His brown hair and big brown eyes are nothing in comparison to his lispy, yet very ar-tic-u-late little voice. On top of that, he is a snuggler. Oh, man I wished my own boys had just snuggled in my lap once like Devin did.
Rosie told me Devin's story tonight. She's had him for a year now and in that time Devin went from being very "all over the place" at preschool to being at the head of his class. In fact, his IEP (Individual Education Plan for Special Ed students) was just deemed not necessary last week. He has made a ton of progress, just by having a consistant schedule and the same bed to sleep in each night for a year. I complimented Rosie on Devin's great snuggling. She pointed out that getting close to strangers is very typical of foster children who have been abused or neglected. It's not the great characteristic I thought it was, as it can lead to sexual abuse and many other issues later on. Oops.
Rosie was told in December that Devin's mom will be out of prison this October or November. She was excited that he'd get even more stability before his mom gets out. Not so much.
Rosie got a call today that she was released 7 days ago. One would think that a mother's first desire when she gets out of prison would be to see her baby. She didn't even contact her social worker. She wanted to get some partying out of the way first.
Rosie isn't sure what will happen now. When the social workers and the mother are ready, Devin will begin visitation with his mother, which will become more frequent as the weeks progress. Rosie doesn't know how much contact she will have with the little boy who calls her "Mommy" after he's goes to live with his mother. She can only do what she has the power to do right now, and that is to love and snuggle with this little boy every minute that she can.
*Pic: Devin and Jack, with permission to print from Rosie
No comments:
Post a Comment