Two weeks of living in a hotel, yuck!!

I have "S", and so far she is doing wonderfully. We arrived at my house Thursday evening with me driving one hellaciously large Uhaul. To be truthful it was not that big but it sure felt like I was driving a mack truck.

The army was wonderful while I was in NC. (NCmilitary gal, her dad was a recruiter stationed in Charlotte. His prior station had been Ft. Bragg, they had her permanent records but they sent them over to the recruiter station via currier/ups/fedex and luckily we did not have to drive several hours to go get them.) Her parents deaths were due to a drunk driver. His third DUI. He will be headed to jail for a significant period of time, lots of charges against him including 2 counts of vehicular homicide. So there was no 'in the line of duty' death benefit for her.

I hired an independent financial advisor for her. Different from my own so he is just handling 'her' money. Her dad did have SGLI as well as an individual life insurance policy that had an AD&D rider on it. Her mother also had two policies, both which had AD&D riders. Their auto insurance and the other drivers policy both have death benefits as well. By the time all of the policies pay out, "S" will have no major financial worries for her adult life so long as she doesn't go nuts when she gets the cash. I am planning on a tiered pay out. Some cash on graduation from HS, more on graduation from college. A lump sum when she turns 30 and a final payout when she turns 40.

SO has been home for awhile (new job plus his kids) but he had her room in my house emptied out. We spent yesterday moving her stuff into her room and setting it up. The rest of the household contents will be delivered via military movers next weekend to a storage facility nearby. The worker from NC DSS was a nice lady, her DCFS worker here in FL is amazing. She arrived yesterday in the middle of unpacking boxes and pitched in, hanging up clothes and admiring nick nacks that S has while doing her part of the intake interview. Additionally the worker was able to recommend a place here in town to get her hair done and wrote me out a list of products to get for her hair and directions of how often to use which product on her hair. DCFS FL already started her paperwork for survivors benefits through her parents Social Security Accounts. According to them until our court date next month she is considered a foster child so she is covered under Medicaid and I will receive a small check each month from the state until her social security kicks in to help care for her. She also has medicaid and food stamps(whether or not we want them). Apparently once a judge signs off that she is mine and SS kicks in the food stamps and state check will go away, but she has Medicaid until age 18 due to being an 'orphan'. I still put her on my insurance. There are way too many restrictions with providers with Medicaid, BCBS is her primary and Medicaid can just be her secondary.

DCFS has approved her to be in my care, DSS also approved it in NC. Her fathers home of record was Orlando Florida so the entire estate court mess moves to Florida which makes it easier for me. I only have to drive to Orlando to deal with estate matters instead of NC.

I did do some bad math. S is currently 13, her bday is in two weeks. She is a Freshman in Highschool so Monday we will head to the school to register her for next school year. I did some research last night on the Highschool in my zone and it appears we lucked out. It is an 'A' rated school and last year more than 40% of their graduating class had a GPA of higher than 4.0. Apparently there is a waiting list of kids from other zones to get into this school. So if there aren't enough kids in the zone to fill it, those on the waiting list get a chance to get in. Since I have never heard of a utterly crappy school having a waiting list I think we lucked out!

Monday she has an appt with a grief councelor, she initally was resistant to counceling but I told her it was a non negotiable item. If/when the councelor states she doesn't need it then she can stop going.

Tuesday I go back to work, tomorrow night she meets SO's kids when his XW returns them, that should be interesting, two teenage girls both used to being the lone princess sizing each other up.