The job that doesn't pay

At least not in money. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I'm in overdraft status now.

I received my first CASA case a little over a month ago. I haven't said much about it because 1. I'm not allowed to talk specifics about my cases 2. I wasn't really sure what had happened to me and wasn't ready to talk about it!

The beginning of a case is just a whirlwind of activity. I've been told it will slow down, but I'm not sure that I believe them. Most of the activity hit during the electric outage which was very poor timing. I was spending a ton of time at work, fitting in visits to the kids, reviewing records and going to court all at the same time and while trying to deal with my own family and lack of electricity. Not the most promising start.

There are three kids 7, 3, and 15 months and they are all wondering what the devil just happened to them. They were removed from their house at 1:30 in the morning, taken to a doctor, asked a blooming million questions all from people they don't know and eventually placed in a foster home with more people they don't know. The mere thought of going through that makes me stressed out and I'm a grown-up. Imagine what it did to them.

The first time I met the kids, the oldest one looked at me screamed and ran away, the middle one just smiled at me no matter what I did, and the little one who should be in the middle of stranger anxiety marched up to me immediately and demanded that I pick him up and hold him. No normal behaviors from any of them. Great...

Now they are all very,very fond of me. The oldest told me, "I didn't know you were so much fun" and he also thinks that I should be a ballerina for halloween (HA!). When it was time for me to leave they wanted to know if I was going to go see my other kids and were confused and then very pleased when I explained they are the only kids that I check on and make sure are safe. They all gave me big hugs, but then got sad when it was time for me to leave, which was pretty hard.

The kids are by far the easiest part of this to deal with. The caseworker doesn't really do anything unless I nag her half to death, after I finally track her down that is. It's no wonder that kids in the system don't do well. The kids couldn't go to the doctor, get medicines they were suppose to have on a regular basis, have food, diapers, or clothes until I drove her nuts and she finally did what I wanted in hopes that I would go away.

So, it's emotionally taxing but I'm still making three kids, whose lives have been pretty crappy to date, a little better off.