Troubling Conversations

This morning I had a couple of conversations about John. They are planning to move him back to our town on January 2nd, put him in foster care, and send him back to the school where Salinda is attending.

I had a better plan, but I needed more time to work out the details. Now if I try to stop this plan, there will be so much anger on John's part that it might not be worth it. So I will save my plan for when Plan A fails.

Now, you may suggest to me that my "when Plan A fails" attitude. And let me be clear . . . if Plan A does not fail, I will be thrilled. I will be so happy if he proves me wrong. But in my experience, regular foster care and public school have never been a good plan for John. His therapist doesn't think so, the people at the ranch where he is don't think so, we don't think so. But that is the plan, and nobody is going to listen to our opinions. That was proven a year ago. So I"m going to let it play itself out.

So this morning, as I was talking to the therapist, I learned that John has been refusing to take his medication. We had agreed, before this, to allow him to spend a couple days here at Christmas time, but knowing that he is not taking meds reminds us too much of the last time he lived with us and what happened when he stopped taking his medication.

So, I had to call the social worker and say that he can't come home for Christmas.

And he won't be happy. And to be honest, neither will we.

But we'll be safe. And sometimes safe is more important than happy.