So I talked to some people at Home of Hope and they have assured me that while there was some confusion at first, Lona is going into a foster home within her community...so with a family. Which is good I guess. Eleanor has told me that it's definitely better for the kids to be in a family setting than a group home setting, which I know is true, I just hope it's a good family. You know? Eleanor also said they can still check in on the families. I'm still sad. But I guess this is a step in the right direction. So that's that.
Going back to work has been good. I stayed in the same school district (first time for me!) but they gave me all new schools and a new supervisor. On the one hand I totally miss my supervisor because I liked her and we worked really well together, and I loved my kids & the teachers I worked with. But you know I like change. So I'm enjoying getting to meet new kids, teachers & schools. It will keep me from getting bored, at least for awhile. And my new supervisor is cool too. She's young but has a few years experience and I think we'll get along great. This week was just organizing our treatment rooms and setting up our schedules. Kinda fun. Next week we start seeing kids. I think I'm going to have a more challenging year than I had last year, which is fine. Just from first view, it looks like I have some lower level kids than I had previously--but I've had super low kids in California so it's nothing I can't handle. Just different than last year.
I'm on a break from my classes because my computer is broke, hopefully getting that fixed in the next couple weeks, because I need to be busy! I have all this free time I'm not completely used to having and frankly it's driving me crazy. Me & Nan (my coworker) always talk about how people need to enjoy just "being"....but I had a revelation: you have to have the doing part to appreciate the being! As with everything, it's about balance. So anyway, in the next few weeks I should start the "American Friend" volunteering I've been talking about for a year. Apparently my name got lost off the list of people who wanted to volunteer! That ended up being ok since I was gone for the summer but I've been in touch and now that I'm back it should be kicking off soon. Refresher: that's where I will be paired with a refugee family and teaching them about America and living with modern conveniences they may not know anything about. And I am going to be starting another volunteer thing too. It's a lot like being a Big Brother/Big Sister, but it's called the "Special Friend" program and you are paired with foster children. One thing is that I need to occupy my time, I enjoy volunteering, and after working with my kids in Africa I feel a little bit more connected to the cause of helping foster kids. Nan actually introduced me to this program. She & her husband volunteered with them for like 15 years. I wanted to find something Ivan & I could do together. He would rather do something with an organization than a specific child--such as volunteering in group homes or something. I'm hoping I'll get more information about group homes and what we can do there through this program, but also, now that he's started his Masters program he's a bit busier as well and won't have the time to volunteer like I hoped. He's also on a softball team and looking into a basketball team. So we'll have to save the volunteering together for another time I think. Oh speaking of teams, we're not bowling this year. We had fun but we all agreed we didn't really miss it that much either. We might try to find a shorter season to participate in. Sometimes they have seasons that are for just 10-12 weeks, which would be so much better than the 37 week one we were in!! Plus, my school district has intramural sports going on here & there. In fact in a couple weeks they are having a one-day bowling competition that I got a team together for. Should be fun :)
Anyway, gotta go. We're going to go rent a movie I think. Earlier we went and saw, "Tropic Thunder." Very funny!!
