One Chapter Ends

Matt had went to court on a day that we didn't know if much would happen. The ruling had been postponed so many times and so many times we thought Sissy was leaving and then she wasn't. He called me to tell me the news, she was leaving but the grandparents didn't have their home ready to take her so we had to keep her until they were done. We didn't understand it. Why hadn't they been working on that all along? We had had enough. Now we had to keep her and look at her everyday knowing that she was leaving.

I think it being dragged out helped me in wanting a final resolution...whatever it was going to be. We started to tell Ivy a couple of times that she was leaving but she was too young to get it. Finally the day came. I cried as I packed up all of her things. Part of me wanted to keep her up from her nap to spend as much time as I could with her but I decided to give her what she needed and that was a nap. Matt stayed home from work, Hollie came to get Ivy so that she wouldn't be here. I packed up all of her things with her little black baby doll and toys. I wrote a letter to the grandparnets telling them how much we loved her, telling them when she liked to sleep with her baby and what music she listened to as she went to sleep. We had told Ivy that she wouldn't see Sissy again but she was so excited to get to spend the day with Hollie that she barely said goodbye. Matt and I sat alone in the living room, praying together. Asking God to give us comfort and peace, asking Him to take care of Ivy, and praying that He would save Sissy one day and bring her to heaven.

The social worker came and gave us a gospel CD because she knew we were Christians and that we were musical. She kept saying that she was sorry, that she could see this family going back to the system. I told her to let us know if she was ever put in foster care again. Then I handed her over and she left. We went and got Ivy and( I think) we took her swimming. We took a break from foster care to have a care free month or two void of social workers and that kind of responsibility. Going from two kids (and a baby at that) back to one made me feel like I was on vacation. Ivy and I did alot of fun stuff. She was handling Sissy leaving really well (so we thought). I had given her a rag doll that looked like Sissy that she still sleeps with to this day. We named it Sissy babes. Whenever she missed Sissy she could hug her Sissy babes.

Everything was going fine until one day I got a little glimpse into what was in Ivy's pretty little head.....