Shadow's gone

While I know it wasn't a good fit and I know she was a risk to the other members of our household, it still seems so bizarre that she is gone. Just like that. I still can't wrap my mind around why her worker switched gears so suddenly.

I asked her worker today if we were being accused of anything and she said no. She denies having called the counselor about any concerns. Said we aren't being investigated or anything. But then when she came to pick her up this afternoon, she left her vehicle running and didn't want to come inside to help load everything up. The Husband thought it was odd that she left her vehicle running while Shadow ate dinner and everything.

While I was packing up Shadow's things, and somewhat looking for our missing forks*, I ran across a letter dated Jan 19th 2010 from a female friend of Shadow's and it was asking where Shadow was moving to. I found that odd since it wasn't until Jan 21st 2010 that anything came up about her moving. So I thought maybe Shadow has been lying and manipulating in order to get moved back. I also found enlarged photos of the former foster dad (not the mom or kids though). They had said before that Shadow was telling everyone she and former foster dad would hold hands and she acted inappropriate about their relationship. Odd though that now they want her back.

And Shadow came home telling me that The Cheerleader was telling everyone that she knew the placement wouldn't last. She said that The Cheerleader was bad mouthing me and when Shadow's friend stood up to The Cheerleader, and accused her of being the reason Shadow is moving, The Cheerleader got embarrassed. Seems someone told the counselor that they thought Shadow was in danger in our house. The SW claims the counselor never told her this. I can't tell who is telling the truth and who is lying and who is doing a little of both.

Amongst all the chaos and drama, BirthDad text'd to say this was too hard for him and so he was stepping away but to let BirthMom continue to see the kids. He doesn't want to live anymore. He is too stressed. If only they had a car so they could get to find a job. And then BirthMom calls crying because they are fighting and she doesn't know what to do. If only she had some money to get groceries. Or if they could just get their electricity turned on and water pipes repaired.

I have been assured that we are still foster parents. We aren't in any trouble. We didn't do anything wrong. I'm trying to figure out whether to call and confront The Cheerleader and my childhood frienemy or to just let it go. I don't think I'll rest well until after court next week. And then I won't relax completely until after the adoption is finalized the week after that.

*Ever since Shadow moved in, our forks have been slowly dwindling. We've had the same two sets of silverware for 9 years now. Then one night as we sat down to dinner, The Husband asked where the other forks were. They weren't dirty. Weren't in the dishwasher or the sink or the drawer or anywhere else that we could see. We only had two forks and there were 5 people eating dinner, so The Husband drove to the store and bought two more sets of silverware. Later at the homevisit the SW said Shadow did similar things in previous homes, stealing odd items and hiding them under her mattress. I looked under her mattress and found nothing. Today I looked through the top layer of many of her boxes and bags of stuff, but didn't have enough time to go through them all. We're just grateful she wasn't stealing knives. Now that would have been scary.