It's Over

The last four months have been a real learning experience. We had a breath of fresh air brought into our home. For that I am thankful. I think it made a lot of positive changes in our lives.

What I didn't anticipate was the bottom falling out. Taylor has been staying with us 5 nights a week for the past couple of months. Now it is over.

Carla (the grandma) told me she wanted him for Thanksgiving last week. She picked him up on Tuesday. We called that night and she said he was throwing a fit and didn't even suggest he come to the phone. On Wednesday, she called and asked me to bring a few items to her before we went out of town. (These were things she had sent over for him that were not used on a regular basis, but of some value to her.) I thought the request was odd, but we dropped them off on our way out of town.

We accidentally ran into them and got to see Taylor for a minute. He acted differently. I don't know how to put my finger on it, but it was definitely odd.

We called again on Thanksgiving evening. Carla has caller ID and was somewhat taken back when she found out it was Ken on the phone. She immediately said Taylor had gone to bed already. It was still early for Taylor.

The following morning I called her office and found out she had the day off. I called her at home and left a message, telling her I wanted to talk to Taylor. She never called us back that weekend.

Monday morning rolled by and Carla called late that afternoon. She told me she was going to pick up the baby and she had some things to work out. I asked her, "Carla, what does that mean?" She told me she didn't think she could give him up. I told her I won't put my family through this anymore and I would pack up some of his things.

That was the end.

Just a couple of weeks ago, we sat down in a neutral territory to discuss visitation during the adoption and after. We asked her to take him for a week at that time. She immediately said no. She didn't want to have him for a week. She said her nerves couldn't handle him. I'm just not sure what changed in a short period of time. Her health couldn't have miraculously improved.

I'm just so angry. I feel for Taylor if she plans on raising him. I've had daycare providers ask me how we put up with him because Taylor is a brat (putting it mildly). He has a lot of problems to work out. Most of those problems stem from Carla not instilling discipline in him as a toddler. We've seen some great changes in Taylor. He has been responding well to the structure and discipline in our home. Even if it's not us, he needs to have a family. Please pray for this little boy.