Heidi's goodbye went as planned. She spent all day yesterday with her new caregiver and this actually worked out well for me as Noah had an eye appointment at the hospital which I was able to take him too without any little children - just as well as they ran an hour late - we were there from 10.30 till 12.30 - he had drops put in to dilate his pupils and while we waited 30 minutes for them to work Paul came down and had coffee with us . Noah doesn't need glasses yet, but will be reviewed in four months.
When Heidi returned around 5 pm she was exhausted and grouchy and even vomited a small amount twice (behaviour we haven;t seen since she first came to us) we went through the usual bath routine which calmed her a little and put her favourite mainly music dancing songs on for her to dance to. She was really hungry downing two bottles and then falling deeply asleep by 6.30. I guess she was quite disturbed by the change in routine and people and hadn't been able to eat or sleep much.
This morning we dressed her in the new dress I'd bought her while we were in Sydney and all took her to the holiday park where her caregiver was staying. I managed not to cry until then but it was sad letting her go knowing what she'd been through before she came to us and hoping she'll be safe now.
This evening we're all going to go out to Pompeii Pizza together to celebrate being our usual smaller family again - I'm trying to make this a family ritual for the day foster children leave. The plan is for it to be positive but Hannah says "When people die you don't celebrate being a new smaller family" I argue that fostering is a bit different to bereavement - this loss marks the completion of our role so is a cause for celebration.
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