Rick called this morning to tell us about their meeting yesterday with the Department of Social Services. He said he’d like to tell everyone about the meeting and asked if I’d do a post for him to “tag-on” to. I told him I had a “Hair ‘n bones” post put together and I’d put it up today. Hey… what could possibly be wrong with a bunch of dudes with hair and boners?
David

Hey, guys. It’s Rick. I want to tell you about our meeting with the Dept. of Social Services yesterday. I’ll keep it short. Keon and I met with them at their offices yesterday afternoon. The deal is they have this 6-year old boy “Mateo” who needs a home and they said we were their first choice to foster him. Keon said “I thought you were having trouble placing him” and they said “Well, not really. You are our preferred placement because of the excellent job you’ve done with Travon. It’s complicated.” Keon said “How so?” Here’s the story. About two weeks ago, someone (probably his mother?) dropped him off at a local Catholic Church – with just a backpack holding a change of clothes and an envelope with “Help Needed” written on the outside. In the envelope was a hand-written note, and his birth certificate. He was born in San Antonio, Texas. His birth mother is listed and his father is shown as “unknown.” The Social Services people said the mother is well known to the Department of Homeland Security, and that they’ve been trying to locate her so she can be returned to Guatemala. She and Mateo have been “on the run” for the last two years. Apparently she finally just gave up and dropped Mateo off at a Catholic Church. The Church has been caring for him but wants him placed in foster care.
Anyway, we talked for a long time and told them with our schedules and work loads, we just couldn’t take on another child at this point. I asked them if they had considered my brother “Chad” and his partner for placement. They said they had reviewed their application and felt Keon and I would be better foster parents because of our experience. We told them Chad and Raef really want to be parents and since they’ve already completed the State’s training program for foster parents, we thought they’d be perfect.
We haven’t met Mateo but they showed us pictures of him and he’s an adorable little dude. I called Chad from the Social Services office and he was so excited he could barely speak. Anyway, we got a meeting set up for Chad, Raef, Keon and I with Social Services next Friday. The bureaucrats said they weren’t making any commitments but at least they agreed to a meeting. We showed Mateo’s pictures to Chad and Raef yesterday evening and you can’t imagine how excited they are. We’ll give you a report after the meeting on Friday.
xoxo Rick and Keon