Back to the East Coast

What a day! I started out driving to the mountains (about an hour and a half) to visit a darling little girl at her school. Her parents are squabbling and she is caught in the middle. What a little sweetie – articulate and hopeful. We talked about how much she likes spring and loves her family and how math is fun. All the time, wringing her little hands until I thought water would drip out.

From there, I headed back down the road another hour to visit a young man at the youth shelter. He really wants to go home. Last week, he called me to ask me to come visit him. What a shock that was because previously, he wouldn’t even look at me.

I left the shelter and headed to court to file a motion. The court made an exception on setting the motion next week instead of in two weeks because I insisted it was an emergency. I do think it is an emergency and just hope I can prove it (read more about the emergency, below).

From there, I darted over to the Juvenile Detention Center to see a young lady who was SUPPOSED to be at the shelter but ran off. They put a detention order out of her which means that when they caught up with her (which they did), she had to go to detention instead of the shelter. A big difference between the two is that the detention center is a locked facility and much more restrictive. I’d never met this young lady, before, and by the time I left, I felt a deep sense of sadness – probably because SHE is sad.

After visiting with her, I met one of my other kids and he has been doing very well. He is looking forward to going home and I am going to recommend that the court make that ruling. All smiles when I left.

No time for lunch. I headed over for a home visit with an older single parent who has had a couple of strokes and simply can’t care for that parent’s young, special needs child. The child was clearly very bonded to the parent and vice versa. However, the place was absolutely filthy. The child was sharing a bed with the parent and the bed smelled of urine – and worse. I could barely breathe from the smell of cigarette smoke. The child has a trach tube and has no business around smoke. The parent could not remember if the child took medicine (the child takes 4 regular prescriptions). The child has multiple disabilities and allegedly has a nurse who comes everyday from 2:30 until 8:00. The nurse never showed up. The parent had not taken the child to the doctor in months. At two years old, the child weighs 21 pounds. Both the child’s parents are average size, each carrying a little extra weight. After a bit, the little darling crawled up in my lap to cuddle. No bigger than a minute! There was a ghastly smell in the apartment and I was later told that the catfish in the tank had died a few weeks ago but the parent hadn't removed them.

The child protective services representative met me at the house and I was glad he did. Police wandered in and out of the complex (a known drug den) and it was not the kind of place I’d want to go by myself. The parent’s room mate was in jail on a drug charge. This parent served time earlier this year on a drug felony reduced to a misdemeanor. A grandparent met us at the door and announced that he has a long criminal record, was an addict and has hepatitis. His hair was wild and thin and he had a twinkle in his eye. I liked him! He said he’d like to have a little catfish (referring to the dead fish in the tank). I THINK he was teasing (about the catfish - I've no doubt the rest is true).

Blessedly, the other parent seemed to have it all together.

Came home (never got lunch) and scrubbed my hands. Note to self - scrub the steering wheel, keys, purse and door handles - and mouse and keyboard... I then drafted a letter to the attorneys in a custody case; made some calls; discussed a case with a probation officer (the sad girl – see above), and now I am going to sit here and collapse. Too tired to eat.

Maybe I should have stayed in Oklahoma…