jmh-
Glad to have you here!
Bargoo-prayers always for you situation! And, thanks for praying for ours, as well.
The girls are doing ok. We're finding that this may become a permanent placement or even adoption, if things keep going the way they are. One thing I can say is that our son seems to be trying to get his life straightened out. He's getting his house cleaned up, changed the locks (someone has been going in and messing the place back up after he cleans and it's been witnessed by my MIL & SIL). He's got a long way to go, but at least he's doing something. Plus, he got a permanent job! So, no more traveling to work out of state and a regular schedule. He's trying to quit smoking and drinking as well. But, as I said, still a long way to go. He needs to be convicted that he must remain on his bipolar medication, because he has a habit of going off and then he gets crazy.
On the other front, the mother is still just sitting around, doing nothing to even try to find a job, and just relying on the gov't to support her. But, that will be ending as a report was filed on behalf of the girls about the neglect and potential drug use by the mother. She may face charges of neglect as well as fraud for using the funds that were for the girls after she signed the forms for us to take them. The DHS social worker was just here and she was hinting strongly that we may end up adopting the girls in a year or so. We're still hoping our son can get his act together, so he and the girls can be a family again. They may just have to accept that their mom isn't capable of being a parent and will have to be supervised in her interactions with all 4 of her children.
The older 2 kids, a boy, 16, and a girl, 15, who we've considered our grandchildren since DS1 and their mother were married, are having a harder time adjusting to the families they live with. They are totally unused to having any kind of rules and are complaining a lot. They aren't actually our grandchildren, so, at this time, we don't have any option for caring for them, as they wanted to stay near their mother. Both need to understand that the way they were living wasn't doing them any good, but, the boy may have been caught with drugs at school and they're both being manipulated by their mother. It's very sad. We try to be supportive, but also reinforce that they need to know boundaries and rules are part of life.
I could go on and on, but just know that they all need our prayers very much. We did not know (our son's wife never told us), but, our son has made a couple suicide attempts, one of which was witnessed by their 5 year old daughter. She has nightmares, especially since he tried to hang himself in their home. She saw 'mommy take him down' and then she 'had to go to grandma's house' which would be my husband's ex. NO ONE told us what was going on.
The school has a wonderful staff and a child psychologist who is working with the girls weekly, plus extra help, as we've found they have developmental vision problems and, possibly, dyslexia. So many learning hurdles that could have been addressed if the parents had only been parents instead of trying to stay kids themselves.
Well, must go work on supper, plus there's open house at the school tonight
Take care, my friends, and God bless! I'll try to get here more often. We've been so busy running and getting our house organized with 2 extra little bodies!