A loss.

We had a foster child.  The key word being had.

At my parents business they would get calls from the local homeless shelter asking if any of their homeless people could get a job.  Sometimes my parents would need some help so they would hire someone.  Some of the people wanted a job and wanted to work, some didn't.  Most of the people they hired from the shelter didn't.  After awhile they stopped hiring people from the shelter because why should you hire someone and spend time and money training them if they weren't going stick around longer than a week or two.

I'm starting to understand their frustration.

In the clubs, I worked with quite a few people that you think just weren't raised right.  In a business environment you have some tools that a parent doesn't.  At work if you don't work you don't get paid, no money equals no food.  A parent can't stop feeding their children.  The other major difference is that in a home situation you should have more time and a more receptive person, hopefully.

We tried.  We really did.  Then she started doing the things that she used to do.  Drugs, theft and fighting.  We were talking to counselors and psychologists asking what we should do to get her on the straight and narrow.  We explained her background and our background and skills.  Three mental health professionals said she is out of our league.  Two of them suggested a residential treatment center with 24 hour surveillance.  These places are called level 6 lock-downs.  I have no idea what that means except, privacy is nonexistent.  I have experience with drug issues and sexual abuse issues (it's amazing what you learn in a topless bar) and she didn't show any of them.  I won't describe the issues I did notice because that could be normal for a teenage girl, plus those things I don't know anywhere near as much about.

After dinner we went to the park, as the little ones are getting ready for bed two officers knock on the door. A stolen iPhone was pinged to our house.  Really?  We finally found the phone, but this stepped up our time line to find her a new home.  She has run away from home before, we had hoped that it would be different living with us.  We can't take that risk, she needs help NOW.

We tried to help someone and they didn't want to be helped.  It still seems like we failed her, but what else could we have done?