What is Wrong with People?!?

I may have convinced myself that people actually want to know about my life. So forgive this self-indulgent post of recent news and feelings.

The other day at school, I was walking down the hall and a handful of my kids from last year were sitting outside the teacher's lounge with the rest of their class waiting for their teacher to finish popping popcorn for a reward party they had earned. This particular group of kids from last year were some of my sweetest, most fabulous kids... Anyway, they told me that R from last year had moved. So I stepped into the teacher's lounge to talk to the teacher and share the sadness of her leaving because she was also one of the sweetest, most loving kiddos ever.

That is when Mrs. D shared the news. R's dad was put in jail for meth. And she was sent to live with real mom. That is sad enough as it is. Even worse: mom abused R as a child. WHY WOULD THEY SEND HER TO LIVE WITH SOMEBODY WHO ABUSED HER?!? Because real mom has supposedly been clean and doesn't have any warrants or anything against her right now. Oh sure. That makes it all okay. Son of a bitch. Pardon my language but this has gotten me really fired up. Last year, when R was in my class, dad was married to R's stepmom. This lady did everything for R and truly loved her as one of her own kids. But because dad is kind of a scumball, stepmom left him. She still tried to be involved in R's life but thought it was too hard on R and gracefully backed out. One of the sad things about this whole situation is if there was some way she could take R, she would. There is no reason R should be with real mom. There were weekends last year when R would have to go visit real mom (somehow supervised). And the girl would cry and cling to me, not wanting to go. And real mom doesn't live in the district... So all I can do is pray for her and hope that mom truly has cleaned up her act and that R will remain the sweet, happy, loving girl she is.