Today

A little about my job before I get into my story...

I started working at a shelter for foster care kids about a year and a half ago, at the beginning of my sophomore year in college. I have many crazy stories I could share, but for now, I am just going to talk about my day at work.

Today has been a rough day at work - not in a "someone went AWAL" way, but just in a crazy, exhausting kind of way. Ten minutes into my shift, our little 9yr old boy called for me to come down to the bathroom and I got to witness the water *just* beginning to spill over the sides, and him staring at me with shock an horror. Before I had a chance to deal with that, our 9yr old girl came to the stairs cry/whining as she wasn't feeling well and couldn't understand why we couldn't do things NOW. She needed her meds, he needed new pants, then dinner. After cleaning up dinner, I thought I might be able to take a few minutes to myself behind the desk, but both kids were begging for loving attention. Right when I think I might have time to go to the bathroom and clean up toilet water, our 14yr old boy walks in, goes down to his room and slams the door. An hour later, things have been resolved and I wave goodbye to his worker. I start our grumpy not-feeling-well little girl in the shower, thinking now I must get the meds done when 14yr old now tells me he didn't get dinner. So I start dinner for him. On the way to the med room, I realize little boy's eyes are red-rimmed and watery which is concerning to me because he is known to have seizures and the only give away is his eyes. So then I spend 20 minutes trying to make sure he's not about to have a seizure, then I quickly get the meds. At this point, though I have been checking up on little girl, continually reminding her to finish and get out, I am suddenly aware of the time, realizing she has been playing around in the shower for TWO HOURS. I quickly get up and hurry her out of the shower and wait to get her clothes on so I can get the bathroom because I forgot I needed to go at the beginning of the shift. After I got out of the bathroom it took another hour to get everyone in bed, leaving everyone but our 14yr old going to bed 30 minutes- an hour later than planned. All in all, it was an insane day... but I'm not sure I would trade it for the world. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find some gloves to clean up some toilet water.

... Then memorize a skit and write two papers. It's fine.

#ItsApril #MonthOfDeath

Until next time,

CG