I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this as this is my first ever original Reddit post but since I can't sleep then I guess I will do it hereLong story short: me (31) and my wife (27) are two fairly normal people. I, a teacher, she, a nurse. We like to go on vacations and try new restaurants drink fancy drinks, go out with friends, have parties. All in all I would say we were pretty hip and cool (in a nerdy way) up until about 4 hours ago.I mentioned I was a teacher...well about two weeks ago I began hearing of a really bad situation that two of my students were in (brother and sister). The older sibling revealed some things about her home life to us that we had been unaware of. This came up during fifth grade human growth and development (sex education) which typically is a catalyst for kids realizing that they have been through abuse. Anyway, DCF got involved pretty quickly and I mentioned to them that my wife and I (married a year and a half) wouldnt mind having them stay with us if they needed a place to stay.OF COURSE, at the time (2 weeks ago), I thought there was less than 1% chance they would be taken from the family, and even less of a chance that they would go to me if they were taken(I have taught at a high poverty school for 7 years now and only remember one other time they actually placed students in a new home).To abbreviate the story, two weeks later (today) I find out DCF is taking them away from the parents and suddenly I am giving them my number STILL thinking this is never gonna happen. Social worker is very casual and says "oh we will only call you if Mom doesn't give me any relative/friend names that check out okay"Right after work my friend is inviting me to bar. "No, lol, I might be fostering kids there's a small chance I will get a phone call." He thinks I'm kidding of course and I assure him I'm not. Three hours later I text him and say "okay we can go, I still haven't gotten a call so they must have had somewhere for the kids to be." You probably guessed that very soon after that I get a phone call saying they have done a background check on me and that they are bringing the kids to my house.BEFORE I KNOW IT TWO OF MY STUDENTS ARE FUCKING HERE. IN... MY... HOUSE... Reality sinks in. I ask her how long it normally takes to get the kids back to their parents or whatever. She says it always varies and I told her I understand that but what is the AVERAGE. She nonchalantly says "I think it's about a year." A YEAR... A YEAR... A FUCKING YEAR. Within a couple of hours I went from thinking I was gonna go out drinking to realizing I have two kids to take care of for... Possibly forever.And of course I could always give them back to the state or whatever and someone else nice would take them in but I'm too stubborn and I like these kids too much to do that. I just went from being a cool young person to a parent in a day. I mean, I am FREAKING out right now. Come on Reddit. Tell me it's gonna be okay. I was going to go to a bar tonight and maybe get drunk later on this weekend. Instead, I have a court date tomorrow, doctors appointments tomorrow for the kids, fingerprinting for me tomorrow and 3 days to figure out what they are going to do this entire summer.There are two kids sleeping in my house right now and my wife is working night shift so she's not home and hasn't even met them yet SHE is acting cool as a cucumber about it. We just spent too much money on a house too so I WAS worried about our finances BEFORE two kids materialized. My current self wants to lol at my yesterday's self for that. This is the most unplanned, crazy thing I have ever done, but something told me I needed to do it. I don't want everyone to know this is freaking me out except you Reddit. SOOTHE me Reddit. Baby me Reddit. Give me advice, for the love of God, Reddit.Edit: thought of a specific question: phone stuff? Do I let this girl (5th grade) just do whatever she wants to on her phone? Do I take it at night at a certain time? Do I wait awhile before starting to act like a parent? Ajhhhhhhhbhhh what am I doing via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2qAbooc
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