Unexpected

As Bill and I edge closer to fostering/adopting, I find myself doing the most unusual things:

• Researching karate and Tae-Kwan-Do afterschool programs in our neighborhood. There are THREE programs that will pick kids up from our local elementary school, transport them to the dojo, and work with them all afternoon (snacks, homework, martial arts, and "life lessons"). I suspect that this would/could be a great alternative to the usual afterschool babysitter and/or daycare.
• Cursing at the local elementary school's website, which has broken links to the "new student enrollment" forms, a page that is supposed to link to each of the past months' newsletters (but without a single link), a calendar of events that was last updated in September, and lots of references to a mysterious "Students Right and Responsibilities Handbook" that can't actually be tracked down on the web. They need an intern, stat.
• Researching traditional food from Ghana.
• Looking into what it takes to own a snake, and trying to figure out how we would add yet another pet to our menagerie.
• Pricing out youth football uniforms, and wondering if I would really let my child play football after all the evidence about long-term injuries.

Tonight, I'm hoping to put a little brake on my hysterical attempts to plan for the unexpected. Instead, my goal is to wrap up our holiday cards, address them, and get them into the mailbox. I may also make some chocolate chip cookies--something adults and foster children love. A good skill to keep sharp, I think.