Thank Goodness for Praying Hands

The sweet girl I will refer to as Nicole was so worried about the situation, she made herself sick.  Luckily, she could tell me what she remembered around her doctor's office or I would have been calling all over the city trying to figure it out. She knew there were giant gold hands right across the street and anyone from Tulsa knows about the praying hands of Oral Roberts University. You can't miss them!

The child's aunt and co-guardian took her to the doctor to get her checked out and get her medicine refilled. As she hands me bottle after bottle of medicine, I started to ask myself why in the world would a 53-pound child need so much medicine? I needed to find out for myself.

I called to make her an appointment and realized their current system needs some work! In fact, it needs a lot of work. After being transferred to several different people simply to make an appointment I decided to drive up to the doctor's office and talk to somebody that knows what they are are doing.

Within minutes, I had an appointment scheduled along with a piece of paper with her insurance number, social security number, birth date, name and address. Keep in mind, I have never been in this doctors office let alone shown them any type of identification! I brought the letter of guardianship for them to copy, but nobody in the records department was there to accept it so they didn't even look at it or put it in her file.

The doctor's visit didn't go any better! It appears Nicole rarely sees the same doctor twice and this one was a piece of work. She wouldn't let me finish a sentence before suggesting we get a new therapist, attend the school around the corner and come back to see her often because this would be an interesting case to study. Yup...a resident that was more concerned with advancing her career than helping a child cope with major life changes. Then, she asked Nicole in a high pitch baby voice if she could pee pee in a cup. Nicole looked at me with an are-you-kidding-me eye roll and told Dr. Dumb "I think so" in her most sarcastic tone. Priceless.

Nicole has some pretty significant speech impediments so I asked for a referral to a speech therapist to explore the options for correcting it. Dr. Dumb said we would get a call for that soon. I won't hold my breathe that my definition of "soon" matches hers.

It disgusts me that there is not a competent doctor dispensing her medicine. Finding a new doctor is now my first priority tomorrow morning.

Bye bye Dr. Dumb.

Only a Child and a Trashbag

I won't go into detail of how things progressed to this point, but it has been quite a ride. Let's just say I never thought I would be talking with the police at midnight or have the F.B.I on speed dial in order to protect three amazing kids!

One of these children lives with a relative, one in a group home to help with his developmental needs and the other needed a home. After a week of lost sleep, at least a million tears, a pointed sermon in our direction and a rather large glass of wine, I realized we were called to provide a safe home for her. 

In an instant, my husband and I were faced with the very important choice of opening our home to a child. Gulp! At this point, we had been married less than two years and the thought of a child was quite scary! A quick glance at our home revealed a bathroom in shambles as it was undergoing a restoration to bring it out of 1960. The vinyl laminate had been pulled up leaving a naked concrete floor, the toilet was in the bathtub for lack of a better place for it and the paint was barely dry. We can make it work!

I get chills every time I think about being in that courtroom explaining the horrific situation surrounding the children to the judge. The attorney presenting our case was a firecracker! Short and aged, but strong and relentless. In the end, the judge ordered the child to be returned from another state within 24 hours.   

Yes, 24 hours. One day to prepare for a 9-year-old child. Most parents have 9 months to prepare or at least read some parenting books. I grabbed another glass of wine and began preparing our 2-bedroom house for a third person. The office area in the room became an empty area for toys, the computer was taken to the living room and the bathroom got a 5-hour makeover complete with a new shower curtain. Sleep is overrated anyway...

Saturday at 6:00pm came quickly. The mother brought the child to her sister's house and left. The little girl had only a trash bag of soiled clothes and a dirty toothbrush. No medicine, medical card or toys.

Here she was. Scared, confused, and safe.