Turned down a respite placement

When you do foster care, they have this progran called respite. Basically, it is used when the current foster family has either an emergency, or a vacation and they need short term placement for their foster children.

In this case, the current foster family is going on vacation starting tomorrow - and yes, DCF is mad that they gave such short notice.

Anyway, it would be for 2 kids - 19 month girl and 4 yr old boy. The placement would be for one week and would come tomorrow.

If we had more notice, we would have said yes in a second. But, I have several doctor's/dentist/other appointments this week and easter is on Sunday.

I would have to rearrage all the appointments, cancel some of the other things (playdates, egg hunts, etc) because I can not bring 3 kids to a doctor's appointment and 3 kids would be too much for a playdate. Also, Easter is on Sunday, so of course we would be making baskets, etc for them.

My husband said it was really up to me, since I would be home with all these kids all week. But, he did say that it looks bad if we ask for respite in the future and turned down this one.

Plus, we would have to assemble the other twin bed, which would have to be done tonight.
They would be coming with a week's worth of their stuff, so it is not like I would really have to go out and buy stuff.

I really hated saying no - especially since they are in my age range. I just hated saying no to these kids. I did tell them that if they do not find a respite home by the end of the day, to call me back. This will give me the rest of the day to think about it.

Heck, at least now I have the van, so if they did come, I would be ready lol