Do we want a teenager?

This past week has been a little crazy. Last August, we tried to adopt a teenage girl, but they placed her with her foster family. Her adoption disrupted (didn't go through), and she moved to another foster home. This last week, I got a call at 1:59 pm asking if we wanted her. The state wanted to just sign over legal guardianship to us. "Oh, and the meeting to make a decision is at 2:30 pm, (that day), so if you could please let us know by then."

Hello, I spend more than 30 minutes deciding whether to put the kids in swim lessons or not. And you want me to decide if I want a teenage daughter in 30 minutes. We hadn't heard anything from her or the caseworker since last August, so this totally came out of the blue. And the timing just seems really bad where we just got matched with the little boy in Texas.

We had a 20 minute phone conference with her, the caseworker, and the school counselor where we talked about our rules and expectations. I wanted her to really think about what she would be getting into. We also researched guardianship and learned it is NOT a good option. It is not good for us, it is not good for her. The only people it is good for is the state because it basically moves her off of their rolls, like she aged out of the system. We told them we would not do that, but that we would consider having us live with us under the foster care guidelines on a trial basis. We have only spent 2 hours with her, last August, and had 2 caseworkers there redirecting the conversation. So we want time to get to know her better, and for her to get to know us better and see if this is REALLY what she wants and is willing to commit to making it work. So we are spending this next Sunday with her and then taking the foster care classes in May and then she will come live with us for 2 weeks the end of May. And we'll see what happens after that. She may decide that a family with 5 kids is more than she bargained for. Or it may be a great fit and we'll end up adding a teenage girl and a 6 year old boy this summer. I just keep telling myself it will all work out how it is supposed to.