Busy I Was!

Wow time flies ...

It seems only a short time ago I was raising a houseful of grandchildren. No they did not all suddenly grow up and move away they still have a few more years of school left.  But they did return to their mother. I do miss them and it was not a light hearted decision to send them back to her by any means.  She lived near them and interacted with them for more than three years before I went before the judge and told him I thought both she and they were ready. It was a bit rocky at first I'll admit because as much as she loves them it is a daunting responsibility to go from a house of four to a house of eight yes I said eight. She had two other younger children than the four I had been raising for seven plus years and now she suddenly had six all under 12 years old. 
Shortly after they went home things started to go nuts it seemed she couldn't catch a break having 5 boys and 1 girl can get a bit rough and by this I mean the rough housing... boys will be boys.  First was rushing to the hospital due to this very thing, boys being boys someone was eventually going to get hurt. Not her youngest but the youngest which had just been returned to her fell and hit a window ledge while rough housing with the oldest. He ended up with staples in his head I of course was worried. Was this to be the first of many mishaps after all when they were with me I didn't allow the rough housing but the injured child assured me that it was just as much his fault as it was the older ones.  The next phone call I received was of much greater urgency one of the boys was on the way to the ER via ambulance due to grand Mal Seizures, I couldn't get to the hospital fast enough this child had only ever had febrile seizures. I arrived to see my grandchild in full Grand Mal Seizures one after another after another. Scared doesn't begin to describe what I was feeling. They eventually gave him medication which brought the seizures to a stop he was transferred to ICU where he was tested and tested over and over with no clue as to what had brought this on.  It has now been nearly 18 months on anti seizure medication with no new seizure activity.  They say he must be seizure free for a period of 2 full years before they can try to wean him off of the medication. Yes I am worried the seizures will return. But again this was not something which happened because they were with their mother she handled it like a champ doing everything she was supposed to do.  This child had barely returned home from the hospital when her house flooded due to backed up sewer lines or so we thought at first what started out relatively small was exacerbated by the landlord trying to fix the issue only to make it worse. They ended up moving back in with me not 4 but all eight of them so for almost 3 months we had 12 people living in my 4 bedroom house. the landlord couldn't or wouldn't fix the issue.  We were still trying to figure out what had caused the seizure and it was presented to us that it could have been an environmental issue so while we were waiting for the landlord to not fix the issue we ran tests on the air quality and the water. Then another child developed a high fever and we ended up at the hospital again leukopenia which is a very high white cell count due to the body trying hard to fight an attack which we found out after blood work came back was a virus stemming from feces in the drinking water which was confirmed just a couple weeks later when we received the tests back from the board of health on the water she had been drinking from the house we had just moved them from.  The landlord up until we received the tests was trying to keep her security deposit I told him of the test results and he reluctantly let her out of her lease and returned her deposit. Fast forward to a year later now and they have all been on their own for one year this month with no more mishaps. She has managed to get all of the children into private Christian based schools except the baby of course.  They live an hour and a half from me and I see them as often as I can. I still have one grandchild here with her father but I hope that in the near future my husband and I will have the house to ourselves.



Do I recommend all children need to be reunited with their natural parents? No I think it should be on a case by case basis and always with supervision and support provided both before and after the transition. These children have had a rough road children should not have to wonder where they are going to lay their head down at night they should just be allowed to be children.

Do I miss them, yes I do however I feel it was best for them to be reunited with their mother she is doing an amazing job of learning to coordinate and juggle school and work schedules along with Dr. and dentists appointments.

I am now free to visit my other grandchildren when I have the money and to pursue building my candle and soap business and most importantly to just be a GRANDPARENT!

What is GRANDPARENTING? ... The ability to spoil the children and send them home