[x] I'm almost afraid to write something out for fear it will disintegrate before my very eyes. But hope is back. At least a little bit.

Today, Sunshine's foster mom/step-grandma, S. (I absolutely LOVE her), sent me an email saying how disappointed she is with the placement debacle. What I didn't blog last time was that shortly after it all fell apart, it almost looked like we could, in a minute sense, attempt to resurrect it. So baaaaasically, I found out from S. that the tiny glimmer of hope was squashed. Over and out.

Aside from going back to being crushed, I.was.pissed that I didn't hear this information from Sunshine's worker. Of course, I immediately left a voicemail on her office phone and another on her cell phone. I seethed while I waited, I emailed S., I called K. at work. Sunshine's worker called back and we had a good long talk about placement problems, DCFS dilemmas, and the like. Never content to wait around for anything, I proceeded to go over all possible steps, possible holdups, and possible outcomes. Basically, PRIDE training was holding us up since--by state law--we need to foster before we can move to adopt. In most cases, I understand this law. In this case? I don't. But whatever. I don't make the laws, but I'm certainly not one to sit by without questioning them. The PRIDE training is wait-listed for-freaking-ever (no, really--it's ridiculous) everywhere around us. I did a bit of my own investigative research and found one that starts really, really, really soon. Almost on a lark, I sent an email, asking our intake coordinator if she could please call--even though I recognized it was highly unlikely--to see if there were any cancellations and we could just sneak in.

Guess who is already enrolled and starting PRIDE training incredibly soon?

THIS GUY RIGHT HERE, THAT'S WHO.

I know, I know...I'll give you a minute to pick your jaw up off the floor.

I almost hung up. I mean, I pretty much forgot to breathe at that moment.

Did...dare I say it...something actually seem to fall into place?

Sooooooo...our training will be finished by the end of the first week of June.

As it stands now (read as also: until something fucks it all up dramatically again), this lack of training is/was the only element that canceled out our placement. Both the local branch and the downstate branch have agreed that their required (non-PRIDE) training could wait until she was placed. The licensing issue is certain to be a hot mess, but the biggest hang up for the state was the lack of PRIDE training.

There's a staffing meeting set for Tuesday. At that point, we'll receive more information. I'm guessing there will be more hoops to jump with the license issue, but at least for now, there's back to some glimmer of hope. The wait list for PRIDE almost destroyed any possibility of placement entirely. No, really. It was pretty much insanity.

So. Now we wait (and wait and wait). Hope and wait. Hope and wait. Rinse and repeat.

<3