Tina's Daily Blog: Everyone is ALMOST in bed...

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Everyone is ALMOST in bed...

Sigh... almost the end to a pretty good day. We have a new rule in the house (with regards to homework) - planners and homework on the dining room table, and if it's not (they've lost many planners so far this 9 weeks) - they have to sit in their rooms until bedtime and do nothing - no TV, radio -- nothing. So far that's really working. They need help to be focused regularly, but we can usually help them with that. For example, I got home from work and planners were on the table, kids were playing - but three of them (Jono, Justin and Kayte) hadn't finished homework. So I told them sit until it was done. Then Chris and I went to choir practice - came home and one had gotten up before it was done and needed to sit down (till a few min ago) and finish again. (Refocus) But at least it's done.

Justin got a stupid zero today. He had an assignment which he had to write a game, make a puzzle and write 100 sentences (using vocab words). He did the whole thing. But - He gave a friend of his the 100 words to turn in for a grade who had the same teacher a period before his. Then he didn't get the pages back in time to turn it in for his own grade. (We explained the teacher would certainly notice both were identical and that he should not allow his friend to cheat off of him like that - plus, LOOK who got the zero!) Then the other portion of the grade was the game and puzzle - which he did, but he didn't turn it in inside a 3 prong folder. He turned it in with a folder with no prongs. I mean... teacher here... give us a break on that one! But no, got a zero. ARGHH

So the visit yesterday with Kayla's new counselor went very well. She's a very nice woman and I think Kayla is going to like her a LOT. Her office is beautiful, decorations, fabrics, and even lit candles throughout the office. Very pretty. I explained the whole story of the kids and Julie (I also printed the blog for her to read at her leisure, although I can't imagine she will read it all). We didn't go to much into 'therapy' or anything like that. She did give me one piece of advice - to follow my gut all the time. She also told me that - although I didn't feel Julie had 'abused' the kids, I felt she 'neglected' them - she strongly felt that neglect WAS abuse. I suppose I know she's right, but I just don't like thinking of it that way.

Oh, and while I was in with this doctor, I come out to the parking lot and someone has hit my car and left. They didn't 'ram' my car... but rather maybe they were backing out and turned the wheel too hard. They knocked off the mirror and put a small dent in the door. But it was very disheartening to see. Damn good thing Chris can fix all this stuff.

One last thing that happened today. Julie went to a court hearing where the judge ordered that she have a psyc evaluation. This is going to be an evaluation to see whether the doctor feels she'll ever be able to handle the kids, mentally. I talked to Karen today about it because Julie is going to Dr. Vijapuri (who wrote her a wonderful letter to take to court today about how well she is doing), and she was going to see Dr. Vijapuri for her court ordered evaluation. I didn't understand, I mean, why bother if he wrote her a nice letter already. Karen said that the letter addressed the fact that she's been good lately, but didn't address her overall mental situation or long term possibilities. So we'll see. Pray for Julie about this please. She'll just lose it - I think - if she loses hope about getting her kids back.

So - the bathroom is still a work in progress. Chris is going to practice tomorrow 'sweating pipes'. That's right folks... he's going to attempt to do this on his own. What a guy!

Speaking of guys... Brian - if you are reading this - I'll be thinking of you tonight. (You know what I mean!) LOL **evil grin**

Oh, and Evie and Jimmie, if you are reading this as well - you guys are true angels for getting the bathroom fixtures for us. It really means a lot to us.

Speaking of meaning a lot to us and doing things for people. At Church this last week (when they played our video - EEK!) They also discussed helping people when you are 'called' to do so. You know, that gut feeling you get that tells you that you should roll down your window and give the guy a buck, or that tells you to check on your neighbor or friend who just had surgery... that gut feeling to just do something? Well, our pastor pointed out to us Sunday that - THIS WEEK, in other countries across the globe, people (Christians) are being killed because of their religion. Not way back in Jesus's time, but rather - here - now - today. He said, imagine it for a second, you are in a third-world country where you know that God is telling you to practice your religion, spread the word, whatever. And you are well aware that you may be killed for doing this, but you do it anyway because God is telling you to do so. He then went on to say that we, as Americans, are so torn because God wants us to help plan a spaghetti dinner with the Church, but we really don't want to because we have other things to do. That we know we could cook a meal for an elderly person who can't get around like they used to but we're too busy ourselves. Those little nagging things God tells us to do. How blessed are we that we are not the ones living in a country where we could be killed for being Christians - and - we should be jumping at the chance to answer God, do good things, and practice our religion openly and often. But we just don't - not nearly as much as we should. Shame on us... and that's something I've really tried to change lately. I hope that my family and friends can at least see a little more Christian in me. That I'm really trying to listen to God and do what He wants me to do. Not to the point of being obsurdly religious - but rather - that I am well aware that God's fingerprints are all over me as he's working on my life. I can see them, and I hope and pray that others can as well. I mean, I use this forum to voice my frustrations to 'get it out' so I don't bottle it up inside... but really... how blessed we are!!

Well, I guess I better go check in on the kids. Goodnight to all.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: you are A good person. the children are trying to tell you something. they are not lying, they are letting you know that they don't care what or how you feel about anything. the more damage they can do the sooner they will get what they want.they have learned what is important to you so lets just hit her from all sides, like lie, have boys over, pick fights with Jonathan, don't do home work, use Grandma to see the people they know are bad for them, she loves and cares for us so lets just mess with her head, steal things at the mall when she gives me money to buy anything I want, plug the tolet, lets see what I can do to the food when it's my time to cook,oh............yes, we can be angels at church so people will think they are abusive, mom will tell us how to stick it to them etc. the list goes on. get out while you can, or get total controll so you can work on these things as you would your own children.

love Mom Evelyn
forgive the spelling; 9:21 AM

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In A Nutshell:

Here is a letter I sent to Dr. Phil which really sums everything up:
I am married to my high-school sweetheart (20 years this August), with two wonderful children (Amanda who is 20 and Jonathan who is 13). I have two sisters, both younger – I call them “my good sister” and “my bad sister”. My good sister is – well, good! Normal in every way. The bad one, Julie, has been in trouble since she was a kid. As a baby she cried all of the time. As a teenager she was in trouble all of the time. At the age of 14 or so I remember that she had run away from home to live with a grown man in Atlanta. This was one of many run a ways. As a teenager, she provided sexual favors to boys in school, as well as teachers. As a young adult she was arrested for prostitution. She’s done drugs ranging from marijuana to crack. She was diagnosed early on as bi-polar with personality disorder. She’s also a serious cutter to the point where she no longer hid the cuts. She’s cut things like “Ronald Cecchinni” into her arm… and “Fuck you Dr. XXX” on her stomach, in large letters. Julie is also a diagnosed sex-addict. She’s also recently (in the past year) begun ‘huffing’. (I honestly believe that this huffing has caused some permanent damage) She is currently 36yo.
Julie lost her husband Ron a year and a half ago as a result of Leukemia and Kidney Disease which the military attributed to his serving in the Gulf War. He left behind three children – Kayla who is now 15, Justin who is now 14 and Kayte who is now 13. Even when Julie was married, her psychiatric problems persisted. She has been hospitalized literally hundreds of times over the years. However, when her husband was alive, he would take care of the kids when Julie was mentally out of control. After Ron died, Julie lost control of the kids and her life. She began to spiral out of control, having pot parties at her home (to the point where the kids said a door would open and a cloud of smoke would come bellowing out of the room), smoking weed with her own kids, having sex all over the house with different men all the time, allowing young men (19 yo) to sleep over with her oldest daughter (only 14 at the time), and allowing Gang members to live in her home (she said she felt ‘safe’ with them there). In addition, she was attempting suicide daily, overdosing on medications hoping to not wake up the next morning. Mind you all of this while she was seeing her Psychologist every week and Psychiatrist once a month. Both of these Doctors knew what was going on at home, neither of them reported it to the proper authorities. I have even been told by one of them that he was told, by Julie, that she ‘heard voices telling her to hurt the children’ but that she was proud that she could ignore the voices. Still, these Doctors reported nothing.
I should add here that it was at some point in this period of time in Julie’s life when her children began suicide watches over their mom… each one taking turns to sit in a room with her at all hours (night and day) because their mom was less-likely to hurt herself while they were here. However, it didn’t always work – Julie constantly took pills in front of them trying to either dope herself up or overdose, and she would even cut herself in front of the kids.
Finally one day, she woke up furious that her last suicide attempt didn’t work. She got violent with her oldest daughter, police were called, and finally DCF was called. (I would like to add that we (other family members) had called DCF in the past to report things, but some of the cases were ‘unfounded’ and one other time the fled the state knowing CF only had jurisdiction in Florida.) DCF removed the children from the home in November 2005 and I gained custody of the Children shortly thereafter.
There are lots of things I could add here about my sister, DCF, and the horrible Foster Care or Custodial Care program we are involved with. However, that is not my main reason for writing to you.
Kayte, the youngest, seems to be adjusting pretty well. She has a tendency to trivialize what her mom has done and the seriousness of it, but I think that is normal given that it is her mom. Kayte was in counseling, but she feels it’s ‘a waste of time’.
Justin, the middle child, is okay. As a young boy I'm told he was a terror. He used to hit his mother and at one point (only 6yo) tried to jump off a building to kill himself. Since then, his anger has turned in to an endless smothering of love and caring. He does everything for his mom… from getting her whatever she needs to rubbing her feet and back. Justin has seen a psychiatrist since moving in with me who felt that his issues were brought on by trauma. It was also at that visit with the psychiatrist that he confided in myself and the Doctor that he had suicidal thoughts often while living at home with his mom in her ‘state of being’ after his dad died. However, since he moved in with me he has done so much better (and continues to improve daily) that she didn’t feel he even needed counseling at this time. He would, however, need counseling before he was reunited with his mom.
Kayla, the oldest, has serious issues. She is also currently in counseling but feels that it is ‘a waste of time’. Kayla has always lied and stolen things. Family members feel sorry for her because you can tell that she doesn’t really mean any ill will by it, but it’s been ‘the way she is’ for a very long time. By far her biggest problems are lying and her need for approval by men (young and old).
Since the kids have moved in with us, my husband and I have set up rules. The kids already had myspace accounts, so we set ground rules for it. 1) We needed the login names and passwords. 2) Profiles must be set to private. 3) The only people they were allowed to have on their friends list was people that they actually knew. When Kayla’s list climbed over 300, and she was found to have inappropriate conversations (wanting to sneak out and ‘hook up’ with young men), we made everyone cut their list down to 30 friends, which included myself. 4) All vulgar language and inappropriate photos would come off immediately and would be monitored by myself at any given time. At times, they try to put up ‘sexy’ pictures which immediately need to come down.
However recently I have found that she has multiple website things going on in an attempt to pick up young men. I'll outline a few here so that you understand the gravity of the situation: 1) I found her 'normal' myspace account set to 'public view'. She has over 11,000 profile views(meaning people looking at her pictures and wanting to know more about her). I had reset it to private many times, but she keeps going back and resetting it to public. 2) I have found another myspace account which she went by the name 'Shannon' and used it to pick up young men, tease them, then later tell them that she was 'taken' but refer them to her 'cousin, Kayla'. She'd then give them all of Kayla's information. Of course thiswas also set to public. 3) I have found another social network website that was like myspace in which she had ONLY men (mostly from other states) as her 'friends' whom she corresponded with. The emails back and forth basically said the same thing as all of the others... more on that in #4 - only these were guys that not only did she not know, but they were not even in the area! 4) All accounts that I have found had basically the same thing... her emailing guys wanting to know if she was pretty, if they wanted to 'hook up', talking about going to their 'crib' or meeting up with them somewhere, and constantly seeking approval and affirmation from these guys.
I believe she gets this from her mom. And the sad thing is, if you met her, you would love her. She is truly a GREAT kid… but she has serious issues. I’ve described to you Julie’s behavior and Kayla’s seems to be the same way. Neither can make decisions on their own that are ‘the right thing to do’, and both lack the understanding of simple values, morals and ethics. I could go into so many examples. How do I describe the utterly amazing difference between Julie’s parenting style and my own?
I know... Both Julie and I have myspace accounts set up to ‘monitor’ the kids. To illustrate the difference between Julie and myself, here is something that Julie and I both put on our myspace accounts. You are supposed to put something 'about yourself' by your picture. Here is mine: "I'm 38 years old. I have two amazing kids, Amanda who is 20 and Jonathan who is 13. I have great husband, Chris. I love to sing - and have been singing in Toast of Tampa Show Chorus for 10 years. I'm raising my nieces and nephew (12, 13 and 14). I love God and my family."And here is Julie's: "I am who I am and if you dont like me for me........FUCK YOU........ Plus if you dont like me for me....... Im gunna tell my kids and there gunna kick yer ass!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Here’s the other dilemma we are having; the two girls are in counseling that is costing me $25 EACH in co-payments every time they go. The State of Florida provides NO financial support to me as a relative caregiver, other than providing the three kids with Medicaid. They received small SSI checks because of their dad’s death, but it barely covers the food they consume. The DCF worker, having spoke with the girls and being told that therapy is ‘a waste of time’, has referred me to a clinic that DCF uses for cases such as this to seek mental care for Kayla (aswell as the others). However, the kids have TriCare as their primary insurance because their dad died from Military causes. TriCare requires the co-payment, regardless of the Medicaid secondary. Having said that, please understand that I worked in referrals in a primary care physician’s office for 16 years… I totally ‘get’ what is required for primary and secondary insurances and all the red tape. But because of the uniqueness of this situation, the kids are suffering!
I should also point out here that I have the kids for an indefinite period of time. Right now Julie is doing things that she has been told to do to get the kids back. However, she is still awaiting a court ordered detailed Psychiatric exam to determine if she can EVER parent again. Even if that Psychiatrist feels she can parent again, she’ll most likely need to be ‘clean’ and ‘episode-free’ for 6 months to a year minimum. In addition, Julie is only allowed supervised visits and one phone call a day. This came about because of her inappropriate behavior when she was with the kids and because when she was allowed to call any time she’d call 10 + times a day.
The other problem with Julie ever getting her children back is that… she doesn’t understand what she did wrong. She parents as if she were 15-years old herself. If anyone has ever done something bad and been able to ‘keep’ their kids, she sees no reason she can’t do it. She brought her daughter at the age of 13 in for a HUGE tattoo on the small of her back. It’s Tigger flipping ‘the bird’ with her gang name under it. She was also planning on getting a large tattoo on her 12yo before the kids were taken. Again, she sees nothing wrong with any of her past behavior.
So, you see, I could have these children for the rest of their teenage years. I honestly don’t know where to turn to get them the help they need.
I feel as if I am in a psychiatric nightmare and I just can’t wake up. Eight months ago I was at home, my biggest ‘kid worry’ was if my son was going to get good grades on his report card. Now I find myself in a crux worried about whether or not the lessons I teach them, this late in their young life, are going to be enough to turn these kids around and help them to be productive adults in the near future.

Tina's Daily Blog

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Everyone is ALMOST in bed...

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