UPDATE: Foster kid who wanted a kiss and where we are almost a year later.

Remember this thread from ten months ago?https://ift.tt/2y9uw1M got a PM the other day from a person asking for an update. I haven’t used this account since I posted that thread for a number of reasons. But anyway, here we go.Lillian (not her real name) is seven now. We had a nice party, just me, her, her expanding collection of teddy bears, and a few people from her school and her caseworker. She blew out her candles. Her birthday wish was for her daddy to get better.On that topic her crappy parents are out of rehab/jail but they are a very very long way from ever getting custody of her considering the deplorable conditions she was found in. They do not have contact with her. This is because on top of the huge neglect her mother was abusive in other ways.Lillian is still a pretty messed up little kid. She swears like a sailor and hasn’t overcome her extreme paranoia of other females. Her teacher is male, her foster dad (me) is male, her caseworker, etc because she becomes hostile and withdrawn when forced to interact with members of her own gender.Her therapy is proceeding slowly but progress is being made.Developmentally she’s remarkably normal considering the nature of her prior upbringing.She had zero concept of hygiene when I got her and at first bath time was a screaming, splashy, chaotic mess. In this regard there’s been progress as she can now do bath time and other daily hygiene tasks unsupervised.She’s kind of a nudist and likes to run about in the buff, which is cute in an innocent sort of way. The amazon delivery person when she answered the door in this way did not agree. We’ve established clear rules on when it is and is not okay to do things like that.She’s become very clingy and affectionate, which is a good sign. She lives to snuggle up on the couch before bed and watch TV with me.Conversely when dealing with other kids we’ve had to deal with some bullying issues, she’s the one doing it. She’s an adorable cuddle bug one second and a mean little harpie the next.We take it one day at a time. Some days are better than others: with each passing month it looks more and more likely that I might be her forever dad. I would not complain if I am. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2MdvVwQ