August 16!!!

It's August 16!

So what, you ask? Well, if you have been reading this blog since April, and have a really good memory, then you know. Of course I barely remember April around here. I can save you some time. Here is a link to the relevant post: Visiting Evan, part III

Or I could save you even more time and just tell you.

It is Evan's Gotcha Day. It is the one-year anniversary from the beginning of his official placement with us.

It is also the one-year anniversary of his being officially accepted into the foster care program for which I work. This is a good thing because it means that he now qualifies for the post-high school funding programs.

It is emotionally significant to me because I thought a lot about this date when he was in rehab and we were thinking about what it would be like when he came back. He was already 18 at that point and if I were to decide that I could not handle having a recovering addict in the house then he would move immediately to transitional services and he would not qualify. I did not want that to happen. I wanted to give him a chance to make it until August 16th.

The cool thing is that the day just snuck up on us. There was no nail-biting, no acting-out, no tension. Evan just did what he was supposed to do, lived here quietly, and made it to the anniversary.

And what did he do today? He saw his counselor at 8:00am, took the final exam for his on-line class (89%), and registered for the last two classes he needs to finish high school (classes start Monday evening).

Wow.

Pretty cool, huh?