Sistah Pat

I only have a few minutes.  Can’t believe I slept until 7:00!

Kim is showing signs of improvement!  My sister got very aggressive with her.  Saying things like “Wake up, Kim!  I know you’re in there and I know you can open your eyes.  You’ve been in here for more than a week and it’s time to wake up!”  Little sister carried on for four or five minutes and then Kim opened her eyes, looked right at her and absolutely glared in anger.  They called the doctor in and Kim began to follow everyone and everything with her eyes, brushed her hair out of her face and moved her arms and legs when the doctor asked her to.  She’s still a long way from recovery and we don’t know how much she’ll be able to do but she’s finally coming around.  She can’t talk because of the ventilator but they’re going to insert a trach tube in the next couple of days and she may be able to be moved to a rehab center close to her home in a few days. 

I broke the law yesterday.  The protective order says no one from my family can contact anyone in DIL’s family.  The judge set me up as the intermediary for visitation and I’m supposed to be in contact with DIL by phone to arrange visitation.  DS talked  with both the caseworker and his supervisor yesterday but they said they can only go to court and order that DIL give him visitation one day a week and they can’t do that for a couple of weeks.  They kept saying they didn’t understand why DS didn’t just call DIL’s mother if he wanted to see the kids and it was like talking to a brick wall.  He finally figured out that they don’t have a copy of the Protective Order in their files and, once that was established, they didn’t want to admit that it existed.  They kept saying, “We don’t have anything like that in our files.  If you want to see the kids, go talk to her mother and ask her mother to have her get in touch with you.”  I tried to talk to them and they told me the same thing. 

DS called his attorney and was assured that neither of us is supposed to call her mother.  I decided that I was going to call her anyway.  The caseworkers told me to and I didn’t talk to the attorney so I don’t see how they can hold me accountable.  I called DIL’s mother and told her DS hadn’t seen the kids in almost a month and had wanted to give DIL her child support via Jake but, since he hasn’t seen Jake, he was going to go downtown and give it to the court and Stacy probably wouldn’t get it for almost a month.  She said she’d call her and see if she could bring the kids over.  I talked with her and we agreed that it would be good if they could stay until late Christmas Eve.

She called back and said DIL would drop off the kids around 8:30.  DS was at a meeting so I decided to surprise him.  He wasn’t due in until 9:00 and DIL dropped the kids off in the driveway at 7:30.  She didn’t come to the door.  Just dropped them off, with no clothes or belongings, and drove away the minute I opened the door.  It was so good to see them and be able to hug and laugh with them.

DS came home at 9:00 and the kids hid and then jumped out and surprised him.  I went to bed shortly afterwards but they’re all snuggled up in the guest room. 

I know I wasn’t supposed to call DIL’s mother but I don’t see how there can be any repercussions.  The caseworkers told me to call her and the judge set me up to keep in contact with DIL so I’m not worried about making the call but it angers me that the only way I can arrange anything is by doing something I’m not supposed to do.  By the way…I asked Jake if his mother had a phone and he looked at me like I was stupid and said, “Yeah.  She’s always has a phone.”

We have the kids and Kim is improving.  Thanks for all the prayers and support, Chicklets.  It truly is the season for miracles.  I’m off to work now and I’m only going to stay until noon.  I want to get back and spend time with the grandkids.