So have I mentioned that we got our first foster care placement? Probably not. ‘Cause things have been straight up bananas at our house. We got our first “real” foster placement last month. It happened in an absolute whirlwind the first week of May. I’d had that nagging feeling in the back of my mind all day – “I bet they’re gonna call today.” This has happened before, and we did get a call – they just weren’t ones we could say Yes to. In fact, they called at least a dozen times. A few times we said yes, but mostly we had to say no (for various reasons).
This time? I said yes immediately. An hour later, I was driving to pick them up!
I can’t say it has been all sunshine and rainbows. There have been moments where I thought “What have we done?!” but overall it has been great. They are sweet, polite, and just awesome kids. As with most situations in this system, we have NO IDEA how long they will be with us; we’re just loving them as if they’ve been here forever.
However, the amount of “stuff” that was suddenly added to our lives was pretty overwhelming – ha
ving to schedule 4 doctors’ appointments for each girl, therapy appointments (all kids placed through our agency receive therapy), CPS meetings, birth parent visits and phone calls – WHOA. I had to do something to keep it all straight. I’m good, but not that good.
Our family has used Cozi.com, an online family organizer, for over 5 years. We’ve used it for remembering our infrequent appointments, shopping lists, shared To Do lists, and more. But now, we needed it more than ever!
With Cozi‘s tools to organize my life, I’m able to schedule appointments from a desktop, iPad, or my phone and see all the details needed – locations, times, and who is involved. I can set reminders that will notify me on my phone (or Brandon’s phone, if he is driving). There have been days where our family of 6 was running in 3 or more separate directions!
Yes, I could do a paper calendar. I could write it all out. And I do still use a dry erase board on the fridge; two actually, one for notes and one that is a weekly calendar. But Cozi is my brain. Without it, I would have completely lost my foster parenting sanity in those first three weeks!
If you’re a foster parent, have a large family, or just have a lot of appointments and practices to juggle, give Cozi a try! Most of their features are totally free – others require a Gold subscription (which I do not have). See if it can help save your sanity like it did mine!
Disclosure: This is NOT a review post where I was asked to review a product by a company or PR firm. I just really like this service and wanted to give them some love! 
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