what can you say?

My second adopted daughter has been struggling for sometime now. Her involvement with significant drugs has led to an addictive lifestyle which has led to her being estranged from us, refusing all treatment and becoming homeless. She had been drifting about the city, keeping a little contact with us (mostly to ask for money or new clothes) we were never sure where she was but she seemed to be capable of making "friends" who let her crash with them for a little bit.

We had done everything we could, pulled every string we could, called in every favor created over twenty years to try to get her a placement that would work for her, but she wasn't interested in changing her life. We were still trying to assist her in accessing SSI and mental health services, both systems difficult to navigate if you really need them.

Anyway we got a phone call on Wednesday from pre-trial services asking if we would be willing to post a $20,000 bond for her. (the answer was , of course "NO!") After some checking we discovered that she was in jail facing serious charges. When my DH went to the arraignment he found a compassionate judge who is ordering a competency hearing. As much as a lot of our friends seem to think this is a horrible thing, we are sort of saying "at least we know where she is, she is relatively safe and they may even be able to get her back on her meds." I am hoping that the competency hearing gets her out of jail and into a lock-down psychiatric facility. At least there would be some hope for her.

So that's what we have been dealing with. It's always another surprise around here.

DBG and the harvest

Well here is DBG with the harvest she helped me to gather. I have a nice garden this year and we have had plenty of rain. DBG is still coming by about twice a month for weekend visits. She is also going to dance class (driven by me) once a week and her little group will dance at the State Fair at the end of August. Much excitement about the dance class, as we had scheduling problems during the school year and she didn't get to dance then. DBG is pretty busy learning to read and write. We are the proud recipients of lots of cards on which she has written important messages about how much she loves us. She will be going to pre-kindergarten in the Fall, her birthday is well beyond the cut-off but I am sure she is well beyond the pre-kindergarten curriculum. What are you going to do?

KD is teaching dance class this Summer, her first solo teaching assignment. She has her permit but not her license. Still the search for the vehicle is on (she will be buying her own), she wants to get an old, old pickup truck and by old we are talking early to mid 1950s. We will see how realistic that is.

DJ had an opportunity earlier this summer to work on an island off the coast of Maine! And now he is working maintenance for the Children's Home that I work for. It seems to be a good fit. I am trying to either get him back in school to finish or work harder at preparing for the GED. He is not terribly motivated.

Son JM graduated from University of California Santa Cruz this June and has a retail job while he is considering his next move. He is very happy and settled out in Cali, I don't think we will see him home except for short visits from now on. :-(

So there's a little update on the kids.
I am working full time and more. DHubby's business is consulting for Foundations, and he hasn't had much work as all the Foundations portfolios suffered a 30% loss or so and their income was similarly effected. As you can imagine no one is beating down the doors to get help with technology upgrades right this minute. So the financial struggle continues for the family.

it's been awhile

It's been awhile. Life got complicated and busy, mostly I wanted to run from seriousness and responsibility. But hopefully things are on a more even keel now and we can move forward.
I am working full time now at the children's home, doing foster care recruitment and general PR work. Still training new foster and adoptive parents. At home I am gardening to can and freeze, baking sourdough bread and attmepting to live very frugally.
I will update further when I can access my home computer.