New Changes for the Family (Private)

[Shy-Diapers]

 

Michelle Albright and her husband had been happily married for over a decade now, having married quite young. After a long battle with infertility, they’d been able to conceive a little girl, Isabelle. Isabelle or Izzy as she was commonly known as was now a spunky and excitable 7 year old. She had a head full of dark brown curls and despite having been born prematurely, was now big for her age, often being mistaken for an 8 or 9 year old. Though her current size wasn’t affected, Izzy did have some complications from being born early. She was born profoundly deaf in both ears. As soon as they could, the couple opted to get their daughter bilateral cochlear implants. Much to her parents’ pleasure, Isabelle lived a perfectly normal life now, her cochlears being a normal thing around their house and they had learned how to navigate the world with them. 
 

The Albrights had always loved kids and knew they wanted more than one child. But Michelle had such a hard time during her pregnancy with Isabella that they decided they wouldn’t have another biological child. Instead, they’d foster. The couple had numerous foster kids throughout the years, having started when Izzy was 3. They’d had all sorts of age and need levels. Today their newest foster child would be arriving, and the family was preparing. 

“When did the social worker say they’d be here?” Michelle asked her husband anxiously. She was tidying up the living room in last minute preparation for their new arrival. It had worked out for the child that Izzy was gone at dance class and would be getting a ride home with a friend. This allowed Michelle and her husband to meet the young child without the excitable seven year old stressing them out. 

[justagirl4fun]

Peter, who had just brought a basket of laundry up from the basement, checked the time on his phone. "Should be here in about ten minutes." He felt bad that they couldn't have taken the girl sooner, as they had been out of town visiting his parents for his mother's birthday, but at least the social worker had been able to secure an emergency placement for a few days. He folded the load of clothes they'd gotten out of storage - they had a few day's worth of clothing and pajamas in every size for the age range they were open to fostering - and had just gone upstairs to put them in the girl's room when the doorbell rang.

[Shy-Diapers]

Michelle was anxiously rearranging the coffee table when the doorbell rang. She sprung up and quickly opened the door. “Hello! Please come in!” She greeted and motioned the social worker and the young girl into the house. “Peter! They’re here!” She called to her husband before motioning the social worker to the couch and sitting herself. “Hi, I’m Michelle.” She said to the young girl in front of her. 

[justagirl4fun]

Four-year-old Rowan looked up at Michelle with wide blue eyes and forced a smile, trying to be brave. She squeaked out a tiny "hi," before averting her gaze to the floor, a single tear running down her pale cheek.

Peter returned and squatted down in front of the girl to introduce himself. "Hi there, Rowan. I'm Peter." The girl offered him the same forced smile but didn't say anything. "So, what do we need to know?" he asked once he had taken a seat next to his wife. Of course they had been given a brief rundown over the phone, but it was always good to double check and make sure they had all the information they needed.

"Well, your file said you're comfortable dealing with complex medical needs, so hopefully you're ready for this. These are her medications," the social worker said, handing over a sizeable insulated cooler bags. "They're all in liquid form and go right in her feeding tube. It says in your file that you've dealt with feeding tubes before, so I won't get into that. Some are once daily, others are two or three times a day. Everything is labeled, but here's a list of what she gets, how much, and when, to make it a little easier." She paused to take a breath and handed over the paper. "There's also a couple day's worth of her enteral feeding formula in there. She can eat and drink, but because of her heart condition she breathes very rapidly, which makes it difficult to coordinate chewing, swallowing, and breathing without aspirating. Plus her heart works a lot harder than normal, which burns a lot of calories so she needs a lot more than the average kid her age. She gets one hundred percent of her caloric needs from the formula, anything she takes by mouth is a bonus so don't stress over getting her to eat. Once she's settled and insurance kicks in she can work with a feeding therapist but right now if she doesn't want to eat don't worry about it." The social worker paused, looking at Peter and Michelle to see if they had any questions before she continued.

[Shy-Diapers]

Michelle’s heart already hurt for the small girl seeing her tear. She followed along wide eyed with the social worker. She looked over the large bag of medication and the list. They’d handled complex medical needs and a feeding tube before, but this was definitely a step up in complexity. 
 

After a moment, Michelle finally thought to ask. “What’s her family relationship like?” She asked having received minimal information over the phone. 

[justagirl4fun]

"Having a medically complex child is...stressful. It can put a huge strain on everyone involved. Dad took off a couple years ago. No contact, no financial support. Mom is struggling financially, overwhelmed, not in a great place, mentally. There are four other children, but a relative agreed to take them in. Getting back to Rowan, the heart defect she has is called hypoplasic left heart syndrome. Basically, the left side of her heart is underdeveloped, and she does have one of the most extreme cases. She's had two reconstructive open heart surgeries already, and should have had a third about a year ago but like I said, mom was just not in a good place to deal with it so that will need to happen sometime in the not so distant future."

[Shy-Diapers]

Michelle nodded. She felt bad for the poor girl. “Alright. I don’t have any more questions.” She said turning to her husband. “Anything you can think of?” She asked. Once the social worker left, she bent down in front of Rowan and smiled. “Hey sweetie, do you want to look around the house a little?” She offered gently. “Or we can get you something to eat or drink or you can just sit down for a while if you’d like. Whatever you want.” She glanced at the time on her phone quickly. It was 3:45 now, Isabelle would probably be home shortly after 4. The girl went to weekly dance classes every Friday and luckily a friend’s mom had agreed to drive her home since Michelle and Peter would be meeting Rowan. 

[justagirl4fun]

Rowan shook her head at the offer of food. She did glance around, curious of her new surroundings, and reached for Michelle's hand. 

When the girl got up and started walking around with Michelle Peter noticed two damp half moons on the back of Rowan's threadbare leggings that did little to hide a well-used diaper. The social worker had mentioned that she wasn't reliably toilet trained so they had picked up a pack of pull ups the night before. He cleared his throat. "Uh, hon, I think someone could use a little freshening up," he suggested, not wanting to embarrass the child, before heading to the kitchen for upholstery cleaner and a roll of paper towels.

[Shy-Diapers]

Michelle took Rowan’s hand and started to lead her out of the living room. Hearing her husband, she glanced down at the girl’s bottom. “Hey sweetie let’s go get you changed and in some dry clothes.” She offered kindly. She picked the girl up and took her to her new bedroom. She opened the pack of pull-ups and grabbed a baby blue dress from the dresser after sizing the girl up. “You’ll feel much better after you’re clean and dry.” She said sweetly. She laid Rowan down on the bed and took off the leggings and wet diaper first. Once she was wiped down she slid the clean pull-up up the girl’s legs and helped her out of the shirt and into the dress. “Do you mind if we wash these for you?” She offered. 

[justagirl4fun]

Rowan shook her head. "You can wash them," she said softly before getting up to check out her new room. "Please," she added, remembering her manners. She wandered over to a basket of toys and reached for a little rag doll, looking to Michelle for approval.

[Shy-Diapers]

Michelle wrapped up the wet diaper and bundled up the dirty clothes. “Go ahead sweetie.” She said with a smile. “This is your room, you can play with anything you want in here and we also have a playroom downstairs.”

Shortly after four Isabelle hopped out of her friend’s car, waving goodbye as she ran inside with her dance bag, her curls tamed into a bun that was starting to come undone. She opened the front door and looked around for her parents. She knew she was getting a new foster sibling today but didn’t know much about her. Finding her father in the living room, she kicked off her shoes, tossed down her bag, and ran up to hug him. “Hi Daddy! I’m home!”

[justagirl4fun]

"Hi baby!" Peter scooped Izzy up for a quick hug. "How was dance? Did you have fun?"

Rowan picked up the doll and reached for Michelle's hand again. 

[Shy-Diapers]

“Yeah!” Izzy squealed happily. “Lots!” She said before retrieving her water bottle from her bag. “I drank my whole water today!” She informed Peter. She always brought a water and a healthy snack to dance but almost never needed to drink the whole thing. 
 

Michelle smiled and held Rowan’s hand. “I think I heard the door. Do you want to go downstairs and meet my daughter?” She asked sweetly, not wanting to overwhelm the small girl. 

[justagirl4fun]

Rowan nodded and followed Michelle, though she was really struggling by the time they were halfway down the stairs. Any kind of exertion was hard on her heart as it worked overtime to pump blood to the rest of her body.

"Good girl! It is starting to get hot, gotta stay hydrated," Peter said, not think much of it. "Are you ready to meet Rowan? She just got here a little while ago," he said when he heard them coming down the stairs. 

[Shy-Diapers]

Michelle decided to lift the girl up and bring her down the rest of the stairs to the living room. She set her down a few feet from Isabelle. 
 

“Yeah!” Izzy said excitedly. She quickly ran up to the smaller girl and smiled. “Hi Rowan! I’m Isabelle, but you can call me Izzy if you want!” She started rambling. She almost went in for a hug but remembered to stop herself. “Can I hug you?”

[justagirl4fun]

Rowan stared wide-eyed at Izzy, a little overwhelmed by the energy the girl exuded, but nodded meekly. 

Peter ruffled Izzy's hair. "Why don't you show her the playroom?" he suggested. "Just be gentle," he added before grabbing Rowan's meds and heading to the kitchen to put them away. He taped the med list to the fridge so it wouldn't get lost and checked it out. "Looks like she's good til after dinner.

[Shy-Diapers]

Izzy excitedly squealed and gave the girl a hug, trying to be gentle. “Okay Daddy!” She said happily before grabbing the girl’s hand. She gently tugged her towards the playroom. “This is the playroom! We have tons of toys in here!” She said cheerfully. She gestured to the different assortments of toys and games before plopping down on a cushion and starting to play with her lite bright. 
 

“That’s good.” Michelle said with a glance towards the playroom. “Hopefully Izzy isn’t too rough with Rowan.” She said a little worried. 

[justagirl4fun]

Rowan was huffing and puffing by the time they got to the playroom, but once she caught her breath she knelt down next to Izzy. She had never seen a Lite Brite and was intrigued. After a few minutes she reached for a peg, wanting to try, and ended up tipping the container over, scattering pegs across the floor. 

"I'll check on them in a few minutes," Peter assured his wife. "I'm sure she'll be fine."

[Shy-Diapers]

“Hey!” Izzy said with a scowl. She was more surprised than mad, but she was upset that she’d have to clean them all up and sort them. “You gotta be careful.” She sighed and started picking up the colored pegs, dropping them into the different sections in the container. “Play with somethin else.” She mumbled, not wanting the girl to mess with it anymore. 
 

Michelle nodded and looked over the medication list, seeing a familiar name or two but not many. Wanting to keep herself busy, she grabbed Izzy’s abandon dance bag and emptied it. She took out the bento box and put it in the dishwasher, surprised her daughter ate all the fruit she packed. Once she had that done she brought her dance clothes down to the basement and tossed them in a hamper before returning to the main floor and setting the bag by the stairs to go up later. 

[justagirl4fun]

Rowan's lip quivered when Izzy told her to play with something else. She looked around the room and found a basket of doll accessories, and selected a bottle that appeared to empty when tipped upside down. She slipped behind a chair and sat down to feed the little doll she'd brought from upstairs.

Peter put Rowan's formula in the fridge and made a note of the name of it in his phone so he could pick up more the next day. Then he went to check on the girls, and found Izzy playing alone. "Hey, kiddo, where's Rowan?" he asked.

[Shy-Diapers]

Izzy shrugged and continued picking up all the little pegs. She looked around where she was for a minute before seeing her behind the chair. “Over there.” She mumbled unhappily. “She spilled all my lite brite pegs!” She whined. Izzy was usually pretty patient but was really upset about the girl messing with one of her favorite toys and causing more work for her. 

[justagirl4fun]

Peter frowned. "I'm sure she didn't mean to, Iz. Maybe if you asked nicely she would help you pick them up."

[Shy-Diapers]

Izzy shook her head and finished cleaning up all the pegs. She lifted the light box and the container onto a shelf, hoping Rowan wouldn’t mess with it again. Deciding to pick a different toy to play with, she grabbed her box of string and sat down with her bracelet maker, measuring and cutting the strings to start a new one. Maybe having such a little kid in the house wasn’t going to be so fun after all. She had been so excited for her to arrive but now that she was already making a mess Izzy had doubts they’d get along. 

[justagirl4fun]

Peter watched sadly as Izzy started on the bracelet. That was definitely not something Rowan could do. He'd had such high hopes that the girls would get along. He peeked at Rowan behind the chair but she she seemed content with her doll, so he decided not to push it at the moment. 

"Well, so much for them getting along," he said when he found Michelle. "Izzy got mad that Rowan spilled the Lite Brite pegs, so they're not even playing together."

[Shy-Diapers]

Izzy sat working on her friendship bracelet, pulling the knots tight as she tried to get her mind off the new girl. She made a note that she’d have to be careful with lots of pieces around Rowan unless she wanted a mess. 
 

Michelle sighed and shook her head. “She’s usually so patient.” She said with furrowed brows. “I wonder why she got so upset. Maybe I should talk to her if it happens again.” Isabelle usually adapted well to new children in the home, so this was out of the ordinary for sure.