what a job

I was in family court yesterday and a law guardian asked me if I was involved in the case of the girl, a dog and a sex act. I won't give you all the wonderful details I had to hear. I left court thinking that we see and hear about the strangest shit; things that most people would be appalled to hear about or know that go on. As caseworkers, we go into the field not knowing what we will face on any given day; especially the CPS workers. At least the police get guns, not us though. I am on call this week. Monday night I had 3 calls. None last night thankfully. Tonight I get to return a child home after 2 years in foster care. I went to the home near the end of July while the child was home on a visit and gave them the news that she is coming home for good. Mom cried, I cried, the child hugged me. I guess this is one of the few rewards you get; to actually see a family put back together. The foster mother is very emotional. I'm sure it is hard to let a child that you have raised go after 2 years. I hope she can make this return home tonight as easy for the child as possible. Funny I have been waiting for this day for a few weeks, but I also dread it. I will be going on vacation in 13 days and I am struggling to get everything done before I go. It seems that the body and mind get to a point where they know vacation is coming and say I can't take anymore. It could also be the fact that I have 32 vacation days and haven't used any yet. I have had some time off but it has been comp time. We don't get paid overtime; we get comp time, and I have about 9 days of that. That is a lot of extra hours working. Vicious cycle though, you take the time off then spend so much extra time getting caught up on what you missed. This coming vacation will be 8 working days off...that is a long time in this business. I need it and am looking forward to it, but dreading going back and I haven't even left yet!