Wednesday, October 15, 2008

And now to continue with the story.....

February 16, 2007, was like any other day, we were busy as usual, I was fixing dinner (pork tenderloin) and I had it on the stove frying when the call came. It was about 4:00 pm and our family caseworker called me and said that Gianna had come back into care and that they thought we would like to have her back, but it is up to us to make that decision. I completely lost it. I called Richard and shared the shocking news with him and yes, you guessed it, we were so elated and thrilled to be getting back our little girl. I turned off the tenderloin and we headed for Washington. She was at the welfare office and we were to pick her up there. They did warn us that she was fully infested with lice and that they would have to be dealt with. When we walked in the office I remember looking for her and when I saw her my mind immediately went back to when we had her. I had waited and dreamed of this day for 18 months and now it was reality. She didn't know me right away, but she did come to me. So I like to think that she knew there was something familiar about me. Much to my disappointment my little girl was not the same in personality as to when she had left us. She came very dirty, lice in her hair, looking tired with red puffy eyes, miss matched clothing, and looking very sad. I cradled her in my arms and wanted so badly to make things better.
From there the welfare sent us to walmart with a clothing voucher to get clothes for her and then we needed some other things also. While at Walmart the director called and told us since Gianna had so many dog scratches on her that we needed to take her to the ER to have her checked. Well I think we were there for 3 hours. They took pics and gave her antibiotics for the scratches. We got home and all that were along shucked our clothes in the garage and headed for the bathroom. It took about 2 weeks to completely get rid of all the lice and nits and I don't want them ever again. Gianna is the only one that had them, we are thankful we didn't pick them up.
It has now been 20 months tomorrow since she has been with us the second time and things are hopefully coming to an end. She has had a lot of visitation with her bio parents and we are anticipating an end to that also. We have a court date on Oct. 29th to terminate parental rights and for fact finding.
Gianna regressed while in her parents care for 18 months and she is now developmentally behind. She is however making steady but sure progress. She started preschool last year and is now in her 2nd year of preschool. She has a lot of anxiety, outbursts, trouble controlling her anger, screaming, kicking, hitting, etc. We have tried to help her with all of these issues and it is coming around but we still have a long way to go. God is in control and He is helping us through this. Sometimes I just wish that His timing was a little quicker.
So now we are waiting for Oct. 29th to come and see what the judge rules. If he terminates the parents then we will move on to the adoption process, if not then I don't know what he will do.
Please pray for us as we go through this valley that we would always remain in the Lord's will and that whatever the outcome we can still keep believing that our God is in control.

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