There’s always a first...

Out of our 7 foster care placements we have gone out-of-state with 5 of the 7. We have never had anything happen while we have been gone. No sick kids, no accidents, nothing wrong at all. Getting permission to take Braxdon out-of-state (my parents live in a different state is why we go so much) was like pulling teeth. Right after we got him we needed to go out-of-state for my cousin’s funeral. Kim gave verbal permission, but didn’t show up to sign the actual form. Our caseworker told me, I know she is okay with it, but if something happens she can deny she gave permission because nothing is in writing. After some deliberation we decided to have my husband stay home with Braxdon while Emma and I went down to the funeral. We tried to get permission again over a month later to go visit family, again, didn’t happen. We tried one more time and gave up on the idea of ever taking Braxdon out-of-state before we finalized.

Then my best friend got married, luckily in our same state! She had a reception in our home town and we tried one more time to get permission. Long story short, we got the judge’s permissions! We went down there, had a great time and then it happened. We were within an hour of heading home and my mom finally told me, “You need to take him to the InstaCare!” Braxdon had been coughing all day, but was starting to have a harder time breathing.

We left Emma with my parents and took Braxdon to the InstaCare, which was closed. We headed to the ER figuring they will give him an antibiotic, breathing treatment or something and send up on our way. At 11 PM I sent our “cluster group leader” a message asking what I needed to do because we would not be home in time. We were transported to a different hospital and Braxdon was admitted. He had a horrible case of croup! Our CGL told me that since Brax was admitted to the hospital I need to notify a caseworker... on a holiday! She gave a number to call, they gave me other numbers to call, I called every person with DCFS in my phone, and no one answered. I called the number again and the lady said she e-mailed our caseworker’s supervisor and would have the on-call worker call us in a few minutes. An hour later I called our caseworker and left her a message just to make sure I personally left a message with someone about what was going on.

A little while later the on-call caseworker called me. Not long after that our case worker’s supervisor called me (on her day off!) because she saw the e-mail. As we talked she said, “You got the judge’s permission to go out of state so you’re fine. That’s why you get permission, so if something like this happens you’re covered.”

48 hours later we were finally headed home!

I’ve heard of people having kids removed from their home because they took kids out-of-state without permission. When we were trying to get permission earlier to go out-of-state another foster mom told me, “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness then permission.” I would never take a kid out of state without permission; you never know what might happen!