Paranoia Isn't Always a Bad Thing

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I can't believe it has been so long since I wrote here. I haven't dropped out of the world, though I am still working out of state and don't get home as often as I like. I am home this weekend though.

It is great to be home this weekend. I have been able to play with (S) a lot. We had been told that her biological mom and dad are back in town and to keep an eye out. We know where they are living so when we are in that area, we certainly keep our eyes open and....

This morning I saw them. They were walking down the street and bio-dad was pushing a bicycle. It is important to us to know this because the people are DHS have some reason to believe they may try to snatch the children and go. That's all I need....one more thing to worry about.

We have no idea where the appeal is. Apparently these things are not addressed as quickly as we would like. Not that we can relax once all is done and (S) is adopted, but at least we can feel comfortable knowing that she is ours and we will have some legal standing if anything happens.

The bad part is that they know our name, and they know where we live. They have not been getting any services and since (S) hasn't seen them but once in the last 14 months we have no idea what their frame of mind is. If we were seeing them on occasion we might be able to make some kind of an assessment. Or maybe DHS could if they were seeing them. I dont know what either of them are doing to survive.

Oh, did I mention that they live about a 1/2 mile away from where (S) is going to pre-school. Just something else for us to worry about. We have given the school pictures so they have an idea what they look like. they also know that if they go for a walk down the street, (S) can not be holding the hand of another child, but has to be held onto by an adult. They have no idea she is there, but you never know when they might see her. When I saw them today they were maybe 1000 feet from the school.

We do everything we can to make sure that (S) is safe, but how can you know if you are doing everything you can do? She will start kindergarten at a different school in a different town, but like I said, they know where we live. Keeping one eye out everytime we drop (S) off or pick her up at school is now SOP. Thagt is the only time she is out of our sight, and we never let her more than a few feet away from us.

At somepoint (S) is going to want to know why we are so paranoid about her safety, but until she is, we will just continue to maintain our paranoia. It is an absolute necessity given the circumstances.
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