Today, in about 30 minutes, we're going to probate court to sign the successor guardianship papers and get the ball rolling to move "the red-head" into our house. :)
After I called the Department of Family and Children Services, they made a home visit to investigate and found that everything was OK there. His aunt did tell them that she wants to resign as his guardian and appoint me as the successor guardian; they were pleased to hear that. It's amazingly easy (eerily easy) to take guardianship of a teenager, it would seem. As the folks at DFCS have assured me, "no one wants teenagers."
It seems that this amazing child is going to be ours. You would not believe how smart, compassionate, and well-adjusted he is, all things considered. Did I mention he was born in a meth lab? As all of this unfolds, I will tell you more about him and what he's gone through.
I no longer want to run his aunt over with my truck. Now, I'm just grateful that she was able to honestly admit her limitations and put this child in a better situation. She's been very depressed lately and says that she feels like a failure; as I have told her, if she pulled herself together long enough to do what was best for the kiddo, then how can she be a failure?
And now, the phone is ringing and it's time to go. More to follow!
Now that this is actually happening, his aunt was very teary today. She says she feels like a failure, she let him down, etc. She was close to having a full-blown anxiety attack, but as I told her, if she honestly searched her soul and decided that she wasn't capable of taking care of him, then she's not letting him down -- she's doing the best thing for him. We sat together at her table and filled out the paperwork, where she was shaking the entire time. We went to the court together, they checked over all the paperwork, and I swore under oath to do what was right for the child. Officially, he's mine temporarily. The parents have two weeks to come forward and object, but that seems very unlikely; after two weeks, if there are no objections, he's mine until he turns 18. Technically, he could move in right now. She wanted to take him to get a haircut and get his things together, but we will make the move soon. Surreal, how easy it was to make this happen.



