"Consideration Visit" begins

She's in. Well, for a one week trial period, to see if she is a good match.

We took her on Tuesday afternoon. She was very comfortable--a familiar environment for her. We spent a couple of hours talking to the house parents and getting a little tour, then took off. Not two blocks from the house, my phone rang. DD approached the house-mom and said she needed to go to a choir concert in a hour. We had to go back to the house and explain that the concert would not be happening. She lived here now, and no longer attended that school or belonged to that choir. She was fine with that, so we left again.

Then at 9:00 at night I got a call from a girl looking for DD. No one ever really calls for her, so the timing was awkward. I explained that DD was not home, but I could take a message. The girl seemed stressed and frustrated, but eventually said good bye.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again. It was the girl's father, and he was definitely frustrated and angry.

He said there was an incident at school between his daughter and DD and he was trying to get to the bottom of it. Said his daughter wanted a yearbook, so he gave her $40. The school said she couldn't order a book without a form. She shared this story with DD. DD convinced the girl to the money to her and she would use the form that she had to buy the book for the girl. Two class periods later, DD told the girl that the money was stolen from her.

Ugh! Told the man I would call the school in the morning and try to get to the bottom of it. Well, the teacher in charge of final yearbook orders wanted nothing to do with this. She just wanted to be done, so she handed a book to the girl, without question and without researching if DD actually bought a book. So no resolution on that end.

We are not to contact DD for one week, so can't ask her either--not that she would give us the truth anyway. Just knowing her, I believe she either has the cash or has a new yearbook. She would not sit still if she really was a the victim of a theft. I guess it doesn't matter now, but it felt like one last parting shot at our serenity. Makes it easier to let go.

Nothing is final yet. She could easily wind up back in our home, but at that point we pursue other avenues. For now, we can all just breathe a little easier in the house, and in our lives in general.