Like a stay at home mom, but a stay in bed mom... Well you get the idea. One of those is why I am a SM. I am going to use this blog to tell my story. I met my DH and knew that he had 3 children who lived with their BM. Being madly in love and unencumbered we decided to do something crazy.. Learn to be truck drivers and travel the US while making a killing. I was 23 and adventurous. What a blast we had. Didn't keep a house or apartment, just stayed in hotels while in town. DH called his kids every night, and tried to visit. BM would refuse to put them on the phone, and only let him visit sporadically. Then came THE call. Police had removed kids from BM due to abuse and neglect. Because we were on the road, they placed them in foster care. Oh my poor DH! He knew she was nuts, but had no idea. We were 3000 miles from home! We told the company we needed to take a leave of absence and rolled into town 3 days later. We met with social services and were told that they were trying to reunify with the mother and that was that. We were allowed to visit with the kids in a supervised area. Only after I had been fingerprinted and background checked. I had met the SKs a handful of times before, and wanted to support my honey. Talk about intimidating! Kids were returned to BM. We switched to a more local company so DH could be closer to kids. Kids were taken AGAIN from BM after only a month or two. DH decided that enough was enough, and that he needed to get custody. During a very teary conversation he told me that he didn't expect me to take this on, that he loved me enough to let me go. So thinking with my heart and not my head I said I was all in. Crazy and probably not the smartest idea but I don't regret it all these years later. What a nightmare! We had no home, furniture and jobs that required constant travel. We also had to take parenting classes and jump through a great many hoops. They do NOT like to give custody to Dads, but since BM was tried and convicted of felony child abuse they didn't have many options. Because youngest child was a few days under 3 when they were removed if neither parent stepped up all kids would be adopted out.
We rented a house and had the kids visit us at home for 6mos to get comfortable. The plan was for DH and I to switch our driving shifts so we'd each be gone for a week at a time. I'd never even babysat, and what an awakening this was! I was terrified, but by now these kids had grown pretty close to me and I'd already fallen for them. Then ages 3,5 and 6. Now ages 10,12 and my oldest turns 14 on Sunday! That's how it started, but I certainly believe in happy endings. Even when I want to consider indentured servitude as a disciplinary option.:)