Is it Friday yet?

Today, I feel better about my work than I have in a long time. I've been in a funk. Sometimes as Guardian ad litem, you can feel like you are just spinning your wheels. Alternatively, you get so busy trying to keep up that you end up neglecting the kids you are supposed to be advocating for. This week, I feel pretty good about accomplishing things and spending time with the kids.

I had court this morning concerning a young man, the object of a failed adoption, who is rapidly chalking up increasingly serious delinquency charges. His adoptive parents have been trying to reverse the adoption for the past few years. I've been fighting them because he has biological siblings and I haven't wanted him to become a "legal" orphan. When I was first assigned to this case, his head just reached my shoulder. Today, my head just reaches his shoulder. I have always been fond of this child but you can get especially attached when you watch them grow up.

After court, I gave blood for some routine lab work then visited a young lady at her school. I'll call her "Susie" but that is not her name. Susie has incredibly dysfunctional parents but is poised, sensible and an honor roll student. Thank god for her sensible step parent. As a child, I was convinced the good lord would send an angel to protect me when I needed it. Susie also has a hard working guardian angel.

From there, I went to the youth shelter to visit "Betty" (that is not her real name). Betty was an "inactive" case that has rapidly become active. One parent is bipolar, the other is schizophrenic. She is highly intelligent and extremely high functioning. Betty is showing no signs of being bipolar but I am terrified that she will start displaying signs of schizophrenia as she approaches her late teens. So far, so good. She knows that schizophrenia frequently develops in your late teens but has not done much research because she is scared of what she will find out. I told her it was a lot more common in boys. For her sake, I hope that is true. If it eases her mind, I don't CARE if it is true. She is a good soul.

From there, I visited an extremely young boy at the detention center. I'll call him "Elvis" but that is not his name. I can't say that I am optimistic about Elvis. His parents haven't visited him in over a month. He is violent, angry, sexualized and rapidly becoming harder to place. He can't go home. In some ways he is such a little boy. He showed me a copy of a valentine he'd made his mother and told me about how he and his siblings all have cowboy boots and like to dress up like cowboys.

I was hoping he didn't have a six shooter but didn't mention that.

Elvis was keeping up a brave face but as they were escorting him back to his cell, he was calling to me to ask when I was coming back to see him (he was in solitary as a disciplinary measure - and has been in solitary all week for one offense after another).

After I left Elvis I visited the group home because one of my kids (I'll call her "Sophie," but that is not her name) is new to the program and I wanted to see how she did on her first home visit. Sophie looked wary and when I asked her what was on her mind, she said she figured I was there to "yell" at her. Seems on her first visit home she'd stayed out until 4 - 5 am every night. She is 13.

Sophie seemed surprised that no one had informed me of the circumstances since I was the GAL. I wasn't. The probation officers, DSS workers, courts, parents and counselors all think someone else will tell us what is going on. The Judges always assume that whenever something goes wrong the first person called is the GAL. That is crazy thinking! We are the last to be informed on just about anything. Short of calling everyday to ask, "Is Junior on the run, in the hospital or in custody?," we aren't likely to know what is going on except by accident.

I think Sophie was glad I came to see her. I'm happy about that because she was furious when I pressed to get her into the group home. Being a Guardian ad litem is frequently a thankless job and when a child forgives you for doing what you think is right, you can hope that they are developing maturity AND you don't have to feel like such a meanie.

If all this sounds depressing, it isn't. Nearly every one of today's cases were on the uphill swing. These kids amaze me all the time.

Tomorrow is Friday and I might be able to take off early to work on quilt blocks. I am looking forward to the mental break. If I don't get one, soon, I may have a mental break of a different kind.