The Past Year

It's over. A whole year of heartache. Not a calendar year but a year that began a little bit over a year ago. You all probably remember the issues with my daughter right before she left for England. July - September, she was full of all kinds of antics which broke my heart. What I never finished posting was the about the time when she was away and when she came home.
Missy pretty much went off of our radar when she started school in England. I would send her messages asking her to contact us and we would get no reply. When she did contact us, the messages were short and really had left us with more questions than answers.
Around Thanksgiving, we were alerted to some of the issues that were going on with her. Missy had told the school a bunch of lies, and the ones about Ty and me were preventing the school from calling us. The school was talking to the woman who flew Missy over to England, who was also one of the people who was a reference/sponsor. Missy had told the school that her dad was dying, her mother was an alcoholic, that we didn't believe that she needed her prescription drugs so we wouldn't help her get them from home, and so on. I really hope that I don't have to explain this nonsense to you. She was using these excuses to explain her way out of trouble for not doing her homework and getting caught breaking rules. By the time we got involved, it was pretty much too late to help her. And Missy losing about fifty pounds since arriving at school was probably the final straw.
Missy spent Christmas break in Germany with friends/missionaries from our home church. Again she burned her bridges there. And the school had told her that she better gain some weight over break, which of course she didn't. I won't even go into the details of me playing detective after she didn't return home one night. But find her, I did.
Flying her back to England was another major problem. She never signed up for the shuttle that would bring the students from the airport back to the school so we had no feasible way to get her there after she flew back from Germany to England. STOP THE PRESSES!!!
A BIG THANKS TO DEL FONTE!! Del Fonte, who I have never met in person, was willing to pick my daughter up and bring her from the airport to her school. Can you imagine anyone being so kind as to do this for someone that you have never met. Del, your kindness and generosity was probably the best thing that happened to me the entire time Missy was overseas. I will never forget this and you have a friend for life.
It turns out I was able to get her to the airport, had to purchase another ticket. And we got her onto the shuttle, so she made it back to school.
No, she had not gained weight but actually lost a couple of pounds over break. She returned to the same problems even though she trued to apologize to the school for lying. So about two weeks later, the school thought it was best for Missy to come home. They used the weight as the main issue, and she had lost about 50+ pounds since starting school.
Why does my momma bear still come out even when my child made this mess. I told the school what I thought of them and I made sure that they drover her to the airport, I made sure that they let her say her good-byes (they wanted to have her leave quietly) and I did all that I could to change their minds.
But home she came, with no eating disorder. Believe me, that girl can put down a meal. But not in England..... We did take her to personal physician, psychologist, and psychiatrist.
The selfishness of my daughter has just amazed me. I was brought up so properly and I really thought that I taught my children these same good manners. She never mailed off her thank yous. She misbehaved, causing drama with out friends in Germany, and she hid from all the people that loved and supported her when she came home.
We, well mostly me, the enablers, bought her new bedding and helped redecorate her room. We tried to find things to keep her mind off of being kicked out of school. And I argued with her, till I was blue in the face, that she was okay and she needed to pick up the pieces and move forward. Both Ty and I were trying to find her things to do. But she laid around, needing a shower, wearing sweats, and texting all her friends in England.
Unfortunately, my heartache with her didn't end there. More about her later.
I still had four boys and a husband to take care of. Ty's still has health problems that has really slowed him down and he just hurts - his feet, hands, muscles. And he has been tested for everything and seen about a dozen doctors. At times he can get down but usually he is too busy to think about his pain until he has to stop because of exhaustion. My oldest son refuses to grow up. He is living on the couch, working at a retail store, getting high and playing video games. And this is the kid who is points away from genius level but can't stay in school. My other three boys just have their normal issues for their age. About 90% of the time I have no worries but about 10% of the time my hair turns even grayer (or whiter in my case).