Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Day One.

So after the new little guy stopped crying our night went pretty well. I just found out that today the little girl was diagnosed with the same thing her brother has...Fragile X Mutation. I got that straight from the lab work. The worker kept telling me it "mirrors autism" (you know, because I have some much experience with autism and should be totally prepared to deal with it at a moment's notice. Sigh.)

The two year old boy has facial features that you can tell are signs of things being "not right". His sister looks fine, but we noticed tonight that she appears to be involuntarily screaming-it just comes out all the time and I think sometimes she means to and sometimes she doesn't. Most of the time she just appears excited.

I am concerned that there may be an issue with Lizzy and the little boy. He is already biting her and touching her just a little too much. We'll see...I'll be keeping an eye on that. For right now I don't know if this will work or not, but I told the worker that from the beginning when I hesitantly accepted the placement.

Right now the kids have 3 day unsupervised visits with mom. I drop them off Monday morning and pick them up Wednesday evening. If you want to know how crass foster care can be let me share this with you. The placement worker (who I like by the way) was trying to "sell" me the kids by saying "You will only have them 4 days a week, but you will get paid for all 7." He needed a place for these kids to go, but that is never going to be the reason we say yes to anything. I only said yes because I felt like I should. I may have been right and I may have been wrong...but it wasn't because I was going to get "paid" for 3 days that I didn't have to take care of them.

Anyway, the kids have court on the 27th and they might go home...I hope that is the case. But, we all know how foster care goes.

3 comments:

Kateri said...

I've worked with Fragile X kids in years past. It's my understanding, unless things have changed, that girls are carriers but the boys are affected both physically and mentally. The last two boys that I had on my caseload where born to a mother who was counseled for years that she shouldn't have biological children because her two brothers were severally affected by the the disorder. That being said, mom was intellectually low but able to get a job and have a family.
The description of them being autistic-like is pretty accurate in my experience. Their repetitive, ritualistic behaviors can actually be worse than autistic children. They can be very loving, though quite stubborn.
I will be praying for you and your family! You are adding to your list of experiences and broadening your scope of expertise, that's for sure :) You rock, girly!!!

Kateri said...

Please excuse my spelling errors! SHEESH!!!!

Cherub Mamma said...

Wow! You are quite brave my friend.