The Hit Parade

The other night, Mama and I were chatting about the 8 year old who will be joining us this week.  Behaviors, of course, were at the top of our list of wonders--along with favorite foods, clothing size, will the school transportation be set up (he attends a school that specializes in behavior challenges 3 towns away), and how will he be with our pets. 

I commented that after 26 kids through our house, it can't be any worse!  Different, maybe, but after what we've seen, come on.

I mentioned something one of our older girls did back in the day when we were new, naive foster parents.

Mama had completely forgotten about it! 

HAH!  Lucky her 'cause it's all there in my memory bank, swirling around like a mini-tornado, kicking up dust.

Here's what happened:  Every once in a while, "E" would stop taking her anti-depression meds because she "liked the rush."  And what a rush it was for the rest of us!  She wasn't particularly easy to be around on a good day with all her meds on board.  Without her meds, she made bi-polar look like an amusement park ride.

This particular time, her behavior was particularly erratic--she was fighting with EVERYONE--no one was safe.  Not her boyfriend, not our other foster daughter, not our son, not us. 

So, I guess I wasn't totally surprised when I received a phone call at work from the high school vice principal telling me that the School Resource Officer had had to escort E from school grounds for, are you ready for this......

PAINTING ANOTHER STUDENT IN ART CLASS!

Yes, you read that right.  Painting another student with, if memory serves, green paint. This is a HIGH SCHOOL student we're talking about.

Sigh.  What's a mother to do?  Ask if she gets credit for creating performance art? 

We all know that asking E for some sort of explanation would be an exercise in futility, but hey, we can dream can't we?  So, I asked E what that was all about.  Her response, in full and complete sincerity was, "He was bothering me!  What was I supposed to do?"

There you have it.

It's a good sign that we can chuckle belly laugh now.  Back then, not so much.

So, over the next few blog posts, I thought I'd share some of our kids' most memorable moments--our version of the Hit Parade.