At 10 pm, the phone rings. It’s the placement supervisor from our foster care agency.
“Hey Cory. Are you up to taking an emergency placement tonight?”
My husband and I had gotten our two bio daughters to sleep and we were lying in bed, watching some TV. Our placement supervisor’s call honestly startles me. Could this be our first placement?
I always knew that, as a foster parent, these types of calls could happen. Since we became licensed for foster care about a month ago, most of our potential placement calls had been for kiddos that needed to be moved to a different home for one reason or another and weren’t “urgent” in nature. All of those potential calls had fallen through, but I sort of just felt like the first placement to actually come into our home would be from one of those less-urgent calls.
Emergency Placement
“We’ve got a brother and sister needing a placement tonight,” our supervisor tells me. “I don’t know much about them, but they need an emergency placement. Can you take them?”
I, of course, say yes. But then, a million things start running through my head: “Are the kiddos ok? Will they be hungry when they get here? I need to go to Walmart tomorrow to get them things!”
But then I remind myself to slow down. To remember that right now, these kiddos are going to need a lot of love. No matter what they’ve been through, they’re going to be traumatized to some degree. Yes, they’re going to need clothes, and a doctor’s appointment, and all sorts of paperwork completed.
But tonight? Tonight they simply need to be safe.
As I sit here, typing this, I’m waiting for their caseworker to call me to let me know they’re on their way. I’m nervous and anxious, but I know these kids are going to need my love. That is what I’m going to focus on.
