"Thanks for Visiting - You Made My Day"
This afternoon I visited Fosterboy at his residence.
He was supposed to have come to us for the day. While he is no longer permitted to stay with us (or anyone else) for Shabbos, he is generally permitted day visits. In anticipation of his coming, we'd bought tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters game at Nassau Colliseum for this afternoon. Since basketball is very popular among the kids in the residence, we thought he would really get a kick out of it. (Luckily, he did not know that we were planning to take him; he did, however, know that he was supposed to be coming for the day). When MHW called the residence in the morning to confirm that he was coming, they told us he was grounded. In fact, they told us he'd been grounded (for behavior reasons) since Thursday.
This made no sense. MHW had been on the phone with Fosterboy's case supervisor on Friday and was told that he could come. His supervisor was even aware that we were planning to take him to the game. The person on duty called the weekend supervisor but she was not aware of any arrangement that would permit him to come.
MHW spoke to Fosterboy after they told us he could not come. He was very sad but would not discuss why he was grounded.
We decided that I would drive to the residence instead. We called and I got permission to come. On the way I picked up some pizza, fries and soda for both of us. Fosterboy was very happy to see me and happy to see the food. He reminded me that the food at the residence was, as he put it, "nasty". He also mentioned approvingly that his "big brother", who also visits him ocassionally, always picks up kosher Chinese. Duly noted.
After eating, he grabbed a football and we played catch for about 20 minutes. (He has gotten to be much better athletically than I remember. He caught just about anything I threw to him and was able to throw a decent spiral.)
After the catch we went back inside and he brought his Sports Illustrated For Kids from his room. He wanted to read to me. He was very proud of the tremendous progress he'd made in reading this year and wanted to show me. Indeed, it was remarkable.
After about an hour and a quarter, I had to go. He gave me a big hug and said, "thanks for visiting, you made my day".
I cried as I left the building. I don't know what the Master of the Universe wants from this poor kid.
This afternoon I visited Fosterboy at his residence.
He was supposed to have come to us for the day. While he is no longer permitted to stay with us (or anyone else) for Shabbos, he is generally permitted day visits. In anticipation of his coming, we'd bought tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters game at Nassau Colliseum for this afternoon. Since basketball is very popular among the kids in the residence, we thought he would really get a kick out of it. (Luckily, he did not know that we were planning to take him; he did, however, know that he was supposed to be coming for the day). When MHW called the residence in the morning to confirm that he was coming, they told us he was grounded. In fact, they told us he'd been grounded (for behavior reasons) since Thursday.
This made no sense. MHW had been on the phone with Fosterboy's case supervisor on Friday and was told that he could come. His supervisor was even aware that we were planning to take him to the game. The person on duty called the weekend supervisor but she was not aware of any arrangement that would permit him to come.
MHW spoke to Fosterboy after they told us he could not come. He was very sad but would not discuss why he was grounded.
We decided that I would drive to the residence instead. We called and I got permission to come. On the way I picked up some pizza, fries and soda for both of us. Fosterboy was very happy to see me and happy to see the food. He reminded me that the food at the residence was, as he put it, "nasty". He also mentioned approvingly that his "big brother", who also visits him ocassionally, always picks up kosher Chinese. Duly noted.
After eating, he grabbed a football and we played catch for about 20 minutes. (He has gotten to be much better athletically than I remember. He caught just about anything I threw to him and was able to throw a decent spiral.)
After the catch we went back inside and he brought his Sports Illustrated For Kids from his room. He wanted to read to me. He was very proud of the tremendous progress he'd made in reading this year and wanted to show me. Indeed, it was remarkable.
After about an hour and a quarter, I had to go. He gave me a big hug and said, "thanks for visiting, you made my day".
I cried as I left the building. I don't know what the Master of the Universe wants from this poor kid.
Labels: Fostering
posted by MoChassid @ 6:14 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home