The latest latest

From LawyerFriend:
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Peggy's sentencing was today. Judge Brown sentenced her to two
years of probation in which she must pay: $68 in state fees,
$60 victim's fund fees, $960 court supervision fees, $728 in
court costs, and $650 in attorney's fees. She must continue
her employment. She was sentenced to 1 year in the
Washtenaw County Jail (credit one day served). She may serve
the sentence over a period of thirty weekends and if she does
so, the balance of her sentence will be suspended. She must
also serve either 80 or 180 hours of community service (I am
not sure which number the judge said) which will entail her
telling various groups about what she did and the repercussions
of her actions. If she violates any term of the probation she
could face prison time.
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For the first time since I have been following this case, I actually
heard Peggy speak. She said that her parental rights had been
terminated (the way she described it, the termination of her
parental rights had been an "unselfish act of love" for her
children--as if it had been her idea). She said she had ended
her relationship from AJ's father. She is taking parenting/anger
management classes and volunteers at the Hope Center . She
cried openly when describing what she had done to AJ and to
the relationship with her children generally. I gathered that
there was, on her part, some expectation of no jail time. She
explained to the judge that if she were jailed, she would lose
her job as (I think) assistant manager at White Castle and
"she would be right back in the same bad situation as before."
Apparently Peggy’s attorney stated that jail time was not
warranted because there were no “serious or permanent
injuries” involved. The prosecutor then rebutted this with a
reading of AJ's injuries aloud in court: acute and chronic subdural
hematomas consistent with shaking, broken ribs ([the injuries]
2 weeks old at the time of treatment), pelvic fracture ([the
injuries] about 10 days old at the time of treatment), a broken
arm--a total of 8 broken bones altogether which a doctor
described as being like "torture". A couple of people in the
courtroom actually gasped when the list of injuries was read.
I think this played a big part in the judge's decision NOT to
waive jail time. The prosecutor said that AJ was in therapy
and didn’t want to talk about his mommy.
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This matter seems over for a while—I am not sure if Peggy
will ever be able to have her parental rights reinstated. I
think it’s safe to say that if she screws up probation, she
probably won’t. I am sorry you guys didn’t get AJ, but
let’s just hope Peggy’s mother stays healthy long enough
to raise the kids.

I asked specifically if grandma stated she was going to adopt them, but haven't heard back yet.

What little I know now

All I've heard so far is from Court Woman:
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"I heard she released her parental rights as well. She said her mother was going to adopt the kids…I hope you can file a competing party petition if that’s the case."
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But she didn't say "as well" to what!
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Grandma is taking the kids to South Carolina on a vacation/family reunion tomorrow so that should give us time to figure out the competing party petition thing--if that's what we want to do.
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I just wish there was some resolution to this whole thing already. I'm tired.

Hmmmmm

CourtWoman said, in response to a question, "that won't be an issue...since [Peggy] isn't going to have the kids." (italics mine)
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Well, they're going somewhere safe, anyway. That in itself is a relief.

Whew! ONE thing settled

As of 8:30 tonight, the Supreme Court has declined to hear the case against Chrysler's sale to Fiat.
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At least ONE thing in our lives is settled! My tummy is unknotting just the weensiest bit. Of course, that is no promise of continued employment, but at least the company won't get pieced out.
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Now, only one more major thing to be settled. Next Wednesday. I hope. I hope something happens either way. I know how I'd like it to end, with AJ coming home to us, but any closure will be welcome at this point. I'm getting a little frayed around the edges and Rescue Remedy just ain't taking the edge off anymore.

Holding Steady

Our paperwork is in, we've taken the classes, and our CPS worker is grinding through her part of the licensing process. Maybe a month, she said.
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Peggy's sentencing is June 17, and I still don't know any more details on to what she made her plea.
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The CPS worker said, based on a meeting she was in yesterday, that she thinks the grandma is going to keep AJ. Sigh.

Guilty plea!

Peggy plead guilty yesterday, sentencing will be on June 17th. I don't know what that means, for sure, but I'm feeling hopeful for the first time in a while. Can't let the hopeful feeling stick around too long, though, because that only makes it worse when my hoped-for outcome doesn't happen. It's a very tricky balance.
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LawyerFriend wasn't able to hear anything yesterday in court since it was all at the judge's bench and they had the sound machine on. He did learn that Peggy is to be in Family Court tomorrow on the paternity issue.
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Thank you for all your good thoughts, prayers, and support.

Oy vey

Peggy's brother was just arrested for posession of marihuana (as it's spelled in our county's court records), and grandma is in court with her ex-husband. At least maybe this "upstanding" family would be seen as less of a good home for AJ, should it all come to that, and regular-old mildly-dysfunctional us would seem like a really nice place for him. I have my fingers crossed, anyway.
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Postponed. Again.

Looks like it's rescheduled for Wednesday, May 6, according to the county court's website.
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Peggy's Facebook for the first postponement day was, "Is Saying God Thank You 4 All You Did 4 Me 2Day.."
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Grandma's was, "is very sad today.... :(" followed by "and it just keeps getting better..." the next day--she has a wonderful capacity for irony and that's how I read this second update.
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We've been out of town and I haven't heard from LawyerFriend on what actually went down.
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Whatever is going to happen, those babies need stability to know they are in their forever homes--either Grandma's or ours. This is getting more and more awful as each month grinds on. As more time passes, Peggy has more time to "demonstrate" that she's making improvements in her life; unfortunately, she's making the same "improvements" she said she was going to make at the time we lost AJ. I half have it in mind to just call the prosecutor's office and tell them just where I stand, but I don't know if that would be helpful for the babies or for us. I'll have to ask LawyerFriend his opinion on that idea...

Felony Pretrial Postponement

Yup. Another week. Next Wednesday now.
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LawyerFriend said Peggy was represented by a law student (?) who immediately asked for an adjournment until next week.
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Sheesh.

Felony Pretrial

Peggy's pretrial hearing is scheduled for this afternoon at 1:30.
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I'm asking--begging--for any and all prayers/karma/blessing/good thoughts go to the prosecutor's office that they have sufficient evidence to mount a solid case against her, that they conduct themselves with integrity, and that they follow both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution.

Happy Birthday, AJ

You're four today! How can that be? How can you be four already? We never stopped celebrating your birth, the fact that you ARE.
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I was remembering watching you be born, the slow-pokey doctors not coming even though we'd told them a number of times that you were on your way. How my bff, a nurse-midwife, had pulled on her gloves and was getting ready to catch you because you were coming whether or not the doctors were. I remember feeling small and vulnerable witnessing the miracle of your birth. I remember all that beautiful black hair and your incredible set of lungs as you took your first breath and let out your first yell.
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I remember the honor of having a sleep-over with you at the hospital since Peggy didn't want to stay and I didn't want you to have to be alone. We wore our Family Jammies--these goofy South African/Keedo flannel jammies with wild animals all over them. Mr. Handsome and BabyGirl were wearing theirs at home while we wore ours at the hospital that night. I didn't sleep much because I kept waking to check on you.
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In the morning, the rest of the family came to collect us and take us home. You didn't have to move into our house to move into our hearts. You were always there and you will always be.
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Happy Birthday, Little Man. We love you and we miss you.
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XXX,
Mommy

Postponement

Since AJ's father is not the man Peggy always said he was, Peggy has been compelled by the juvenile court to provide a list of potential names of the father. She was scheduled to return to juvenile court last Friday (3/27) to divulge those names.
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Unfortunately, the judge was out that day and it has been postponed until May.
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Next Wednesday, 4/8, she's scheduled to return to civil court for a pretrial hearing on the felony child abuse charges. My LawyerFriend has volunteered to attend for us.
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LawyerFriend, using his keen sense of snorting things out, also discovered that Peggy was in court on ANOTHER issue on 3/15, responding to a charge of driving with a suspended license. Turns out that event was in January 2008 and were finally coming to trial. $150 fine and she's back on the street. Well, she apparently never got off the street despite having a suspended license. What irks me is that she was driving illegally when she had custody of the kids.
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And, lastly, I learned that while AJ will turn four on 4/6, the little brother will turn one on 4/11. Her felony pretrial trial is snuggled right between their birthdays.

Go figure

Grandma just friended me on Facebook. I never would have seen that one coming. I'm not sure what to think.
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***UPDATE***
After accepting it, I got to thinking. I sent an email yesterday, not via FB, asking if she intended to do that and to please let me know since the Grandma I friended didn't have a photo or any other details beyond the most basics.
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When I hadn't heard anything by this morning, I sent another email saying that there was another Grandma out there with a photo and wall posts and evidence of activity that led me to know this other person was really her. I de-friended (un-friended?) the photo-less Grandma. If it turns out the photo-less Grandma is her also, we can look at re-friending.

Pretrial hearing date

Peggy has a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, April 8, at 1:30.
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According to my trusty google search, a pretrial hearing is "a meeting with the judge that happens before trial, if the parties have not come to an agreement by that point. Usually, the judge tries to get a sense of how the trial will come out and nudge the parties to compromise along those lines." Another site says, "Your lawyer and the DA are trying to see if this case should go to trial or plea bargain out."
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While I hope my lawyer/friend/spy finds a job of his own as quickly as possible, I sure hope he's free that day. It would be interesting to be there, just staring her down and giving her the evil eye.
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AJ turns 4 on April 6th, three days after BabyGirl turns 8, and three days before his own mother faces the judge for beating the living daylights out of him. BabyGirl's birthday will always be intertwined with AJ's, since we just scored a perfect parking space at Zingerman's for a post-preschool celebratory 4th birthday lunch with Grandma and Grandpa when Peggy called to say she was at the hospital in labor.

Catch up

Wow, did we have a great week in San Diego! We got to spend lovely time with our Dearhearts, got to meet their newest daughter, provide distraction when Mrs. Dearheart had to return to work, visited the ocean one afternoon, and squeezed in a trip to Disneyland, too. It was a very nice distraction.

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Until I got the email from the grandma expressing her "very upset" feelings at me. In the past, I'd asked her to share her social workers' names with me. She said she wasn't comfortable with that at that point. Ok, I'm good with that. I also told her that we feared, should he/they need an out-of-family placement, they could end up in the System and then we'd lose them, so I was going to find out what we needed to do to not let that happen. So, we got the foster care paperwork rolling.

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The hitch was how to reply and be conciliatory while still standing firm in the decisions we've made.

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Oh Grandma, I'm so sorry for such a big misunderstanding. No, we are not trying to "swoop and snatch" and I did contact CPS, but certainly not to "inquire" about the case. I have respected your wish for privacy. I hope I also made it clear to you, though, that we were going to do what we had to do to let CPS know that we were interested in adopting him/them IF Peggy's rights were terminated and IF you opted not to parent. I think I've explained our fear that he/they could be thrown into the System and we'd never have the opportunity to bring him/them home, if that was what was needed.

I called the general CPS number and was passed to FosterCareWorker; whether or not she is working with you, I don't know nor did she indicate either way. I gave a general explanation of the situation--asking no questions about the case, only what
we should do if an out-of-family placement became necessary. I did not use
your names and, as far as I knew, she didn't know of the case. She said that to present anyone's name to the court, they need to be licensed foster parents because IF parental rights are terminated and IF "the grandma" chooses not parent, he/they will be placed immediately with other foster parents from the pool and it would be very, very difficult--if not impossible--to move him/them here at a later point. I don't know why she would have said that I was inquiring about the situation because that is absolutely not the case.

I am doing my best to respect your privacy as much as possible. I'm not going to the public hearings. I'm not questioning friends who work in the court system. I'm not emailing you everyday. I do understand that this is difficult for your family, but please understand that this is difficult for my family, too. We have never stopped loving AJ, we have never stopped considering him the missing part of our family--as BabyGirl said, "since he left, there's been a hole in our hearts." When you told me that Peggy had been beating him to the point of potential brain damage, neural hematomas, and multiple broken bones, it was nearly as painful as when the judge initially found Peggy to not be an "imminent threat" and ordered him returned. No, my family may not be facing potential jail time, but we have our own kind of hell over all this, too.

I am on your side on this, whether or not it feels like it right now. I absolutely defer to you when it comes to this situation, something I've tried to make clear to our CPS contact. But I was also not going to miss the opportunity to potentially bring our little boy home simply because I didn't make a phone call to ask for some general information. Again, I am sorry for the misunderstanding.

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I haven't heard anything back from her yet.

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And then there's the matter of Peggy's most recent court date, the pretrial hearing in criminal court on February 24. Much to my surprise, Peggy opted not to admit and plead guilty to the charges, she's opted to have a jury trial. Apparently, she thinks she can beat the charges (awful pun intended). I have not heard if that trial has a start-date yet; nonetheless, she has a return to juvenile court to divulge AJ's real father's name or provide a list of potential fathers on March 27.

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In the meantime, reference requests have gone out (thank you!) and we've begun our largest mountain of paperwork. We're going to schedule our classes for May--the next available dates.

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This may all be for naught, but, again, we'll know that we've done what we can for our little guy.

Foster Parent paperwork

The meeting last night wasn't too bad, mostly a list of how to be nice to foster kids. And the start of the paperwork.

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Paperwork Part 1 won't be too bad, easily knocked out by the weekend. Mr. Handsome is getting his fingerprints taken tonight, I get mine on Friday. Once those, and some other paperwork are turned in, THEN we get the Big Packet of Paperwork to complete.

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No worries about our San Diego trip getting in the way!

Morning in court

Here's what we know:

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Not knowing AJ's paternity is an issue (no surprise). The court will compel Peggy to reveal his identity or provide a list of possibilities at another juvenile court pretrial on March 27.

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Child Protective Services has opted to let the criminal charges play themselves out before they go forward with terminating her parental rights.

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Peggy has to deal with two courts: juvenile court at which CPS presents their evidence, makes recommendations as to the children's "best interest," and can request termination of parental rights; and criminal court at which she has to respond to the felony child abuse allegations and can end up in jail.

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She has her criminal pretrial hearing on Feb 24. She is facing two counts of felony child abuse: 1st degree (...if the person knowingly or intentionally causes serious physical or serious mental harm to a child,...punishable by imprisonment for not more than 15 years), and 2nd degree (...omission or reckless act causing serious physical harm, knowingly or unintentionally commit an act likely to cause serious harm regardless of whether harm results, or knowingly or intentionally commit an act that is cruel regardless of whether harm results; punishable by no less than 4 years). Our attorney friend has graciously offered to observe that trial also.

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Peggy didn't show at the trial this morning because she was "in custody" at the criminal court.

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The guardian ad litem (GAL) said AJ's doing well, is gaining weight, is wearing a foot brace, and that he recommends a psychological evaluation for Peggy.

Tomorrow

Well. There's a court date tomorrow at 9:30. I don't think it's the criminal abuse case, I think it's the juvenile abuse case--two separate issues. I believe tomorrow the court will begin the process of terminating Peggy's parental rights to one or all three of the children. A friend will be attending and taking notes for us. Despite how much I'd like to be there just to totally piss her off, it's just not the right thing to do. So I'll have my cell phone at the ready, waiting for the moment he calls.

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Don't know if she actually did turn herself in on Friday on the criminal charge, but I do know that she was out and updating her Facebook page by Friday night.

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My tummy's in knots.

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We have BabyGirl coverage for tomorrow from after school to after-karate-and-into-bed. We will begin the next mountain of paperwork and red tape. Thing is, after so many adoption placements, I'm not really too torqued up about yet another homestudy. That's good, I guess.

the Latest

I learned from CourtWoman last week that on Friday at 10am, Peggy was to have turned herself in to the police on a criminal child abuse warrant. I don't know if she did or didn't but I'm watching the local newspaper closely to see if they say anything about it.
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A friend will be attending Peggy's preliminary trial on Tuesday to take notes and report back.
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I also learned that the man she identified as AJ's father, has been proven by DNA to not be the father. This is the man who told her she "owed" him another baby because she "gave away this one." This is the man who denied paternity all along. This is the man who had an infant daughter with another woman the same time AJ was born. Well, at least that's one piece of the puzzle that we won't have to deal with.
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We begin our foster care licensing procedures on Tuesday night. We're both really mixed-up as to what we want to have the end result to be. Is the older daughter--the one who is abusive to AJ after watching it happen for so long and the one, frankly, I never liked from Day One--a deal-breaker if the kids are kept as a package? What about the father of the little one? He says he wants him, but does he or is he posturing? What if Chrysler goes bankrupt on Tuesday when they have to talk to the government again, and what if Mr. Handsome loses our only source of income? What then? What if AJ is damaged beyond repair? Are we really willing to take on that challenge? Are we really willing to take on both boys? A damaged 3.75-year-old and an infant? At our ages? What are we, nuts?
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What we do know is that we won't be allowed to make any choices or get any more information unless we've jumped through the foster care hoops. So we fill out the paperwork, get fingerprinted, and submit all kinds of legal documents, and we jump.

Roller Coaster

After speaking with the prosecutor last week, I was in despair because her recommendation was to get started with foster care licensing muy pronto since she couldn't even present our names to the court until we were licensed. All the places I called about getting licensed were not holding orientation meetings until March and state law prohibits letting them even give out applications prior to attending an orientation. I figured we were out of luck, once again this little boy's life screwed by The System.

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Today, though, I finally spoke with a Department of Public Health foster care licensing worker who told me she was holding an orientation on, you guessed it, Tuesday February 17, the day on which Peggy goes back to court. We will be at the orientation, get our paperwork that night, then start filling it out the next day. With luck and hard work, I can get it done by Thursday and the worker can come inspect the house on Friday so BabyGirl and I can fly to San Diego to be Nannies to our dearheart's Super Children. Wish us luck on surmounting the mountain of paperwork.

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Before I managed to talk to LicensingWorker, we started to update our old adoption paperwork, just in case that would be sufficient state approval for the prosecutor. Today, I learned it wouldn't be sufficient, so that's at least one mountain we don't have to climb.

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LicensingWorker said that expediency would be important, but that it didn't sound urgent; nonetheless, we're feeling pressure to do right by this little boy even if The System doesn't.

A glimmer

I emailed our old social worker (who no longer works at that agency) last week about the AJ situation. She suggested we get a transcript of the trial from four years ago and share it with the current prosecutor, so I spent some time on the phone trying to figure out how to do that.

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On my second phone call to the court system, after I introduced myself, the woman replied, "Oh, I hoped I'd hear from you!" Not only was CourtWoman familiar with the current issues, but she was also involved with our trial before. She'd kept track of Peggy since Peggy was involved in the juvenile court system herself as a young person. CourtWoman's disgusted with Peggy, and told me that any sane person who temporarily lost custody of her children would be out doing whatever she had to do to ensure the return of those children. But not Peggy. Nope, Peggy is out going to bars, hanging with various men, and possibly losing one of her two part-time jobs.

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Anyway, when I first got on the phone with CourtWoman and heard how she responded to my name, I started to cry and I got the shakes. I'm still shakey. It just seemed so nice to have her be glad that we were involved. She also said she and the head of our old agency did a little happy-dance together when AgencyLady reported to her that we'd been in contact with her.

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The CourtWoman was able to give me the names of the Child Protective Services caseworker AND the name of the prosecuting attorney, since the grandma wasn't comfortable with sharing any names. I have a message in to CPS, and am gearing up my courage to call the prosecuting attorney.

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CourtWoman told me that the people working the system are so fed up with Peggy that they're going to ask for her parental rights to be terminated at the first hearing on February 17.

Holding steady

No news on the meetings with Child Protective Services and the foster care social workers yesterday. It's hard not having information when that's all I crave right now. I hate not knowing.

I hate not knowing what's going on. I hate not knowing the extent of his injuries. I hate not knowing if we'll even have the opportunity to say "yes" to our Little Man again. I hate not knowing if that's what we'd say if it were a possibility. I hate not knowing. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

All these questions

This morning, Mr. Handsome and I both woke up after sleeping fitfully.
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We agreed to consider considering adopting our son should he become available for adoption. There are so many questions about how much damage has been done to him. The grandma told me it was a borderline torture situation. I'm 45, my husband is about to be 48. Are we able to take on a potentially severely damaged little boy? My husband--the only income earner--works for Chrysler and who knows how long that will be around? Is it fair to our daughter to take on this challenge? I'm sure, if a child were born to us with all these potential complications, we'd love him and raise him to the best of our abilities--but he wasn't born to us. We do have a choice. I don't know if voicing my concerns and hesitency is politically correct or not, but they're mine and they're valid.
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Heck. I'm just getting my own life back again now that BabyGirl is almost 8. I'm on a museum board, I'm working on a book of local architecture, I'm loving being a room mom at her school. Am I nuts to even think about taking this on? Our life is pretty good, the three of us, why would we even think of adding this huge complication? We always said that if we had to parent a screwed up kid, that at least we wanted to be the ones doing the screwing up, not having to clean up someone else's mess. And here's a mighty big mess that needs attention.

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But part of me also thinks that I really don't have a choice, either. He was my little boy for 124 days. What's a mom to do?

The worst came true

Almost four years ago, when we were in court on our last day with AJ, we read a six-page statement to the judge. One small sentence stands out, "We worry about the end-results for AJ if it turns out that she decides [parenting] is too much."

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It was too much. For the last 3+ years, Peggy has been physically abusing my precious and perfect little boy, and only him. After he "fell down the stairs" and had a seizure, he was taken to the ER then sent home a few hours later. A few weeks later, he had another seizure and was taken back to the ER. They got suspicious. Aside from the two bleeding neural hematomas, there was evidence of 7 or 8 rib fractures, an arm fracture, and a pelvis fracture. His little body was covered in bruises. He spent four days in Pediatric ICU during which he slept most of the time. He has delayed speech, is very thin, has a slight limp, and can't walk any great distance.

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Peggy has been charged with child abuse, and all three of her children have been removed from her custody. They are living with, and in the legal custody of their grandmother, for the last three weeks.

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Peggy said that he got the brunt of her anger because she couldn't connect with him. The grandmother had suggested over the years that she return him to us. She adamently refused every suggestion that had anything to do with us.

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The 9-month old's baby-daddy says he wants custody of him, but he has no job, no place to live other than Peggy's, and no means to support a child. The older daughter, who witnessed the abuse now mimics the abuse she saw her mother dole out on AJ and has since become abusive to him.

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"We worry about the end-results for AJ if it turns out that she decides [parenting] is too much."

Sinking heart

A couple times a year, AJ's grandmom and I email each other. No biggie, it's just part of that scab I can't stop picking.

She'd been on my mind and heart lately so I emailed a very generic message: "You've been on my mind, I hope all is well with you and yours."

She wrote back today that she now has custody of my AJ, his older sister, and his less-than-a-year-old brother. She said I should call her.

I'm feeling too much to actually do anything. Of course, my mind immediately goes right to we-can-get-our-son-back, then crashes into the reality of him being 3.75 years and not our son. He's got these two siblings, would I even want to contemplate taking on the 3 of them? Hell, I don't even know what the situation is with them, why they're with their grandmother, or anything. Part of me says to just stop picking that damn scab. What's done is done.

But I can't stop my heart from loving that little boy I rocked to sleep every night for more than 120 nights.

My bff Pam says she doesn't think I should call. Then she said that if I really felt calling was the best thing for me to do, she'd sit with me quiet as a mouse while I did. (How cool is that for a friend?)

Our Mighty Dream

Langston Hughes wrote, in part:

"Let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again."


Our mighty dream is back. My brown child can see other brown children playing with their puppy on the White House lawn. America's children will see a black man as president and it'll be no big deal. Our children will remember being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night because this is That Important; when they're older they'll understand its importance.

Breathing again

It's 10am and Mr. Handsome is still employed! Unfortunately, three of his direct-reports aren't. One of them was called at home last night so he wouldn't have to come in at all today. Everyone is breathing easier over that fact.

I, of course, had a major nightmare last night in which the employee came to our house and held me hostage all day. Mr. Handsome suggested I not be at home at all today, which would be fine except for the fact that the painters are beginning this morning and I need to be here for them. Maybe it's best the house is crawling with men today!

Nonethless, my husband still has a job, for which I'm thankful. We can breath again. For today, anyway.

***Update***

The engineer of concern left a voicemail on Mr. Handsome's machine at work promising not to do "anything stupid." It's all been quiet over there, and he was good about calling me every once in a while to let me know everything was ok.

Stretching

I'm pretty tightly wound in a lot of ways. I'm a perfectionist. I'll research any subject within an inch of its life. I relish the minutiae of the obscure . If there's an odd fact to be recalled, I'm your girl. I read a lot and I know a lot of weird stuff.

My daughter, on the other hand, ain't. I've been practicing my deep cleansing mommy breaths lately as BabyGirl worked on her presentation poster for Careers Day tomorrow. I've done my very best to let her lead, with my direction, and she produced a lovely poster on being a meteorologist.

But the pictures were crooked! But a word was misspelled! But she did a drawing that she didn't like in the end so she just scribbled it out! But, but, but!

(Deep cleansing mommy breath.)

But she was happy with it. But she was pleased with her effort and the final result. But she's proud of her work.

And I have to learn better how to be happy with it, too. And to be pleased with her 2nd grade effort and her final result. And to be proud of her work.

It's a real struggle sometimes, as a parent and as a parent by adoption, for me to remember that I am not her and she is not me. I struggle sometimes with letting go of my own expectations appropriate for a 40+ year old professional geek and expectations appropriate for a 7-year old 2nd grader. I'm humbled by the huge growth this little person requires of me. It's good to grow and stretch.

I hope I just don't hyperventilate in the process.

Holding my Breath

On Friday, Big Changes are coming to Mr. Handsome's company, namely, a 12% cut of salaried staff. As of now, his job appears to be relatively safe, thankfully, but I know that at least one of his direct-reports is getting cut.

Mr. Handsome has been very stressed about this, understandably, and last night I found out why his anxiety was so high: if a particular engineer gets cut, there are real concerns about whether or not he'll be able to keep it together or if he'll go postal. He's been known to behave erratically and he has lots of guns.

I was stressed about the potential life-changing events before, but knowing Mr. Handsome's additional concerns has me even more in knots. I told him that he owes it to everyone to make sure the local police are notified that there may be an issue; he couldn't live with himself if he didn't contact the police and something terrible did happen. Mr. Handsome and this particular engineer have worked together for years, most of them with the engineer as my husband's direct report. I'm afraid for him. I'm afraid for the engineer. I'm afraid.

Cyber Stalker

I’ve become a cyber stalker. Not the scary kind, but the kind who just keeps tabs on someone who wouldn’t want tabs kept on them. Not very often, once a month or so.

I’ve sunk so low that I have created a fake Facebook account and say I’m in the same network as AJ’s mom so I can see her rather open Facebook pages. Some questions have been answered for me, like from where Peggy came up with is unusual middle name (one of her FB “sexy friends” has the same name).

Other than that, though, I’ve learned she has had a third child and is possibly pregnant with a fourth (status: “BOY O BOY.... Wat Have I Done!?”) and she refers to AJ as “my stupid ass lil man,” she’s cut off his incredible curls, and considers a bottle of Jim Beam an appropriate de-stresser after a day with her kids. She also has an entire online album of herself flipping the bird. Lovely.

I do get to see photos of him, though. The fact that he smiles in some of them gives me hope that his life isn’t as bad as his grandmother has led me to believe.

Kind of pathetic, I know. Like a scab I can’t stop picking and making it bleed all over again.

Oh my!

My friend the BabyCatcher has me inspired to begin writing again. Well, her and the fact that BabyGirl is back in school and I have some time again.

Riding to school yesterday, my 2nd grader piped up and said wistfully, "I wish we could see Mitzie more." Me too, Sweet Pea, me too.

After writing last year about considering a change in our wills to remove her from the line of guardianship, then her magically appearing (well, dropping off a birthday gift when, unbeknownst to her, we were out for the evening), we haven't seen nor heard from her again. Sitting at the traffic light, I could check BabyGirl's face in the rearview mirror to see if I could get a clue as to her inner thoughts. All I saw was sadness.

"Do you think she's working all the time and that's why she can't see me?"

No, Sweetie, I don't think she's working that much right now, I could answer truthfully since Mitzie's dad told me she'd quit another job. Know what I think it is?

"What?"

I think it still hurts her heart so much that she wasn't able to be your everyday mom that she's afraid of feeling that kind of pain, so she just kind of avoids putting herself into a situation where she won't be able to ignore how much it hurts.

"Huh?"

Remember after we lost AJ and how sad I was for so long? Remember how some days I just cried all the time?

"Yeah. You were really sad. I'm glad that's over!"

It's not really over, though, I've just learned how to live with the loss better. Sometimes, it hurts as much as it did the day he left, sometimes I even forget he was part of our family, sometimes it's just like I've got a little splinter someplace that's a little annoying but not too bad.

"Really?"

And I'm absolutely terrified that we'll run into AJ sometime like we ran into Audrey's dad that day at the grocery market. I'm afraid seeing him would hurt my heart just as much as it did back then. I can understand how Mitzie would be afraid of feeling her pain, and it's got to be much worse since you grew in her and everything. Any of this make sense? It's kind of grown-up stuff...

"Sort of. No."

The important thing, BabyGirl, is to know that she loves you with her whole heart, she loves you and misses you. It's just too hard on her heart right now for her to see you right now. I know this because she's your mother and that's how mom's feel about their babies. We can only pray that in time, she'll find her way to see more of you.

"Uh huh. It's sure a good thing that we have Raoul, isn't it?"

Oh yes, my Love.

Didn't see that one coming

So BabyGirl and I are at the grocery store, picking up a few things for our trip to Baltimore and DC. She's lazing in the main part of the cart and I've got a few things in the childseat. We come around a corner, and a gentleman about my age pulls his cart out of the middle of the aisle. I say not to worry because there's plenty of room in the aisle.

He, an African-American man, then notices BabyGirl's Sisterlocks (http://www.locks4life.com/ that's her on their home page), the amazing solution to all our hair woes, and strikes up a conversation. That he'd ask about them is not unusual because Sisterlocks are relatively new in the midwest and they're gor-ge-ous.

After a second or two, he asks, "Don't I know you?"

Well, yes he knows me. He sat in my living room and asked me to raise his daughter. He held my hand as she was being delivered. He told us he and her mother thought Mr. Handsome and I were the best ones to parent Audrey at this point in their lives, and they really wanted Audrey to have a sister like BabyGirl.

So I answered, "William, it's Mommela." If a really dark man can blanche, he did. BabyGirl wanted to know what was up and I could only say that this was Baby Audrey's daddy. "No, she's Naida."

BabyGirl and I then zoomed for the next aisle whereupon I hauled her out, abandoned the cart, and had a good long cry in the car. I can never go back to that grocery story again. After three and a half years, it still hurts as much as it did the night he called and said they wanted her back.

BIG DISCLAIMER: I fully support his right to parent his own child! I'd never deny him that right and I actively work to safeguard firstparent's rights.

But it still hurts like hell.

Cancer sucks.

Childhood cancer sucks. Cancer sucks. Period.

Our friend Superhero Ari is in the second year of his three-year chemo treatment for acute lymphoblastic lymphoma. He's doing well, although the recent death of an age-mate has shaken him and his family. Please watch the video and do what you can to help. I sure wish I knew how to embed it, but, well, I don't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGS4yE5v9rM