Our first foster child is arriving any minute.

13 hours in. No one has died and/or cried yet. So this is good. She is safe at school and all is fine.

Why I didn’t RP tonight:

If some internet person changes and doesn’t do the problematic shit so well that I can’t tell they are the same person, then congrats, I’ll never know.

I have so many positive feels about Norwood’s end. I’m really happy now it wasn’t RPed out, because I’m not sure it could have been done as gracefully as the action result came out.

Norwood was such a big part of my soul that even after I came to admit I didn’t have room to actively RP any more, I couldn’t let him go. I would sign on every few days to check on him.

Everyone who was involved gets .

May I share my foster kittens with y’all here? Even if I can never find here because it doesn’t show up on Google Results. (I have it bookmarked finally.)

We got a verdict.

Termination of parental rights.

We tell the child Friday, and goodbye visit is the 24th.

I’m slowly trying to build the girl up to it by dropping hints like “Caseworker doesn’t want to see us at home.”

“Caseworker wants me to come home for the visit this time so both of us are there.” (Often just one of us is home for them because the other is at work.)

“It feels like this visit is going to be different.”

“I can’t wait for you to come to my middle school!!”

My foster fail Calypso is a HUGE cuddle bug. She loves to cuddle up with other cats.

My senior baby Kiva is not a cuddler, but she doesn’t mind Calypso much, and basically raised her.

So they’ve come to a compromise. Calypso is allowed to lay NEAR Kiva and Kiva will not complain. Calypso tests this sometimes to see how much cuddling she can get away with. Today it was being curled into Kiva’s tail with one Calypso aw on Kiva’s butt. It makes my heart melt.

He sees more ghosts.

Yeah - Until the very end they had me CONVINCED I was the bad person in the interactions. I fell over myself apologizing for hurting them and making them uncomfortable. It wasn’t until I found myself sobbing with my laptop on my lap at the top of a staircase that I finally realized - this wasn’t okay. It WASN’T ooc personal my female alt didn’t like their PC. It WASN’T my fault I didn’t want to RP some things. All of those were perfectly good boundaries and I was being emotionally manipulated by someone who knew exactly what to say and when to say it.

Now, do I think the person behind the screen is some kind of cartoon villain twirling their mustache, petting a white cat, and itching to press the destroy button? Nah. I think they found a way of behaving that typically results in them getting attention (often it doesn’t matter if it is positive or negative) and so they repeat the behavior because it fills a need.

If they are reading this, I hope they know that it is possible to get attention for doing the right things. This doesn’t have to be your entire internet legacy.

We got a verdict.

Termination of parental rights.

We tell the child Friday, and goodbye visit is the 24th.

I’m slowly trying to build the girl up to it by dropping hints like “Caseworker doesn’t want to see us at home.”

“Caseworker wants me to come home for the visit this time so both of us are there.” (Often just one of us is home for them because the other is at work.)

“It feels like this visit is going to be different.”

“I can’t wait for you to come to my middle school!!”

My first game was called Ansible Moo. It was based off Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game books. Every character was under the age of 12, though there were a few staff played teacher characters.

My best friend at the time who got me on it dropped off less than six months later because her parents didn’t like it. I hung on, got addicted, and it became a core part of me.

I’ve run the FB page for the game for… a long time. In the last year I reconnected with another player who brought me into the discord server run by the last admins of the game. (First serious online boyfriend played there and I went to their wedding as a plus 1.) It has been awesome reconnecting.

@sao

I think about this reply and insane amount for a forum post.

Because, see, even though we started the trial in April, added days in June, then again July, and had witten closing submitted the 13th of August… we still are sitting in limbo.

Today is October 5th. I have no doubt that we will hit 60 days in this case of the Judge working on her decision.

In that time the department fired the company contracted with for mom visits because they allowed mom to question the girls about a sexual disclosure from the youngest. Now they are providing visits on a shoestring basis - when the director of family time/caseworker and another worker with a therapudic license. It was suppose to be a stopgap for a week or two. We are moving into visit 8 with this.

The youngest has lost her foster placement and been moved.

Three of the 4 kids have had birthdays.

Bio-mom has gotten and lost 3 jobs.

Eldest foster mom is on FMLA from stress (not only the case, but after the Evergreen shooting a kid brought a gun to the school she is a nurse at and the administration didn’t act promptly.)

I feel like nothing will ever change, and since we know parents will appeal I can realistically see it just… continuing.

@Tez

Tez is faasssttt

@helvetica

I wish I had the time or energy alas.

Written closing arguments are all submitted and now it is literally in the Judge’s hands. All we do is wait now.

@Snackness

I would come out of retirement for this.

@bear_necessities

Things I didn’t know. Rockets are red because they go vroom fast.

Running from a game that involves some kind of play you have tried before and don’t enjoy is a rational thing to do.

@sao No, they won’t be final. But the general rule of thumb is that VISITS stop as soon as termination goes through, even with appeals to come. (The bio-mom rants on FB about appealing constantly). The pause will give the girls time in therapy and stable homes to keep processing their trauma and building skills. If appeals restart visits then they will just be that much stronger to face them.

I’m really proud of oldest sister. Shit went down again Monday with mom. She had decided to come back to the visits upon deciding that staying mad at mom for not believing her about her assault wasn’t helping her heal. Mom decided to be a prat and badger her and kiddo about why they hadn’t done calls with grandmother the previous night. When the girls both told bio-mom they didn’t walk to talk about it she got sarcastic-angry. Sister walked out of visit, had some hysterics, then told the supervisor and her foster mom what upset her. Mom got told to knock it off or visit would end, then sister went back in and finished the visit. She STOOD UP for herself.