Saturday’s Fostering Blog
After what has been a very long week we were all very much looking forward to a couple of hours break while Alice went to her Saturday Club. We decided to go into town so Lauren and Annie could spend their remaining Christmas money. Lauren has been collecting novelty erasers from the shop Paperchase and was very keen to add some more to her collection. Annie though this was a great idea and decided to do the same.
We tried to make our time together fun, and decided on a pot-luck lunch. The rule was simple – we all had a pound and could buy whatever we wanted in the supermarket for lunch. We could use any food from the cupboard and fridge at home to add to what we could get with our money. We may have over spent a little but we did have fun trying to keep to our pound, and not double up on food items! We ended up with breaded chicken, baguette, broccoli soup and coronation chicken. It certainly made for an interesting lunch!
We collected Alice from her club and had the most amusing conversation on the journey home. She said “I’ve been playing with the phone and now I smell like men”. We got her to repeat it. What on earth was she going on about? Well it turned out she was playing with shaving foam – which of course smells like men! We were all in stitches. Poor Alice had no idea why we were laughing and no matter how much we tried to explain, the penny was simply not dropping. So we quickly moved on.
In the afternoon we went to visit some friends who live on the other side of the city. It was a reality check for us all. Our friends adopted two children from China a number of years ago, both are blind and one has a physical disability too. They certainly have their hands full. They are amazing people, so kind and generous, and we are very grateful for their friendship. Having one child with additional needs is hard work, but having two children with such complex needs is another story.
We have a lot we can learn from them – kindness, patience, and self control to name but a few.
We know that we are all works in progress. Sometimes it is easy to see the flaws in others. We know that Alice’s flaws are often right in our faces. But we all have flaws and all have things we need to improve on.
A Less Ordinary Family Foster Care Blog
