Quarantining... and then...

One of the sort of cool things about having lived all over the country is that I'll get Facebook friend requests from colleagues and students from many, many years ago.  If it weren't for reconnecting on ol' social media, Darryl and I wouldn't have reconnected.  Yup, I am old school and like my Facebook.

Here I was, in the throws of quarantine, taking care of Joshua and Kaylie while teaching 12+ hours a day (because all the daycares were closed) when I got a friend request I was not expecting.  It was my student... the one who disappeared after I fostered her daughter for three months in early 2019.

I accepted her friend request, asked for pictures of the now very-big Baby N., and figured that would be that.  But no.

Apparently, my student -- you remember, the one who dropped out of school the week after she got the baby back -- had ANOTHER baby with Mr. Wonderful.  

Mom (still a minor) was IN FOSTER CARE with the two kids.  She wanted to know if I would take the girls (Baby N. and Baby S., ages 17 months and 2 months).  

Why?

Because she wanted to leave foster care and a program that would give her and her children housing, get her a GED, and get her job skills.  She wanted to be with Mr. Wonderful who physically abused the baby at two weeks old. You read correctly:  Two.  WEEKS.  Old. 

When I tell you that I literally begged, begged her to stay with her children, I am not exaggerating.  I begged.  I reasoned.  I made lists of why she should stay with them.

But she didn't. 

The day after she turned 18, she told the foster system she was ELECTING to leave her girls in care so she could be with her boyfriend.

Five days later, they were in our home.