Thursday, August 7th, 2008. I received an email from a friend that said:
"ABC Good Morning America had a segment this morning about a woman in Houston who has been caring, with the help of her church, for 5 children for the last three years since they evacuated New Orleans. The children's 22 year old mother showed up with her boyfriend wanting her children back. The Houston lady took the children on "vacation" around the state of Texas but has agreed to relinquish the children to Child Protective Services."
I answered her back that Randy and I might have been tempted to do the same thing before Mr. Thornton got custody of "our kids".
The kids have been at our house this week and they have been very good and patient while we did our work. Each morning I take advantage of the coolness to work on painting our house until the heat makes the paint glob. The afternoons are spent either in the coolness of the house or we fill the small swimming pool with water so the kids can cool off and wear off some of their vast amount of energy.
Yesterday afternoon we decided to take the kids to Guadalupe State Park, a few miles down the road, where the shallow river is perfect for the kids to play. Driving into the park the speed limit is 20 over numerous speed bumps. The kids laugh and scream if we go a little faster and they are bounced in their seats. Weekday afternoons there are only a few people, and we can relax and enjoy the peace and quiet.
Arriving home, the kids headed for the shower while I made them a quick dinner. Randy made a grocery list and headed out the door to the grocery store. He was a little bit surprised to see a Bulverde police car and a Sheriff pulling into the driveway.
The officers asked who had been driving the silver Sante Fe at Guadalupe State Park.
"I was" Randy said, thinking to himself "I was only going 30 mph in a 20 mph zone!"
"Who was with you?"
"My wife and 4 kids".
"Were the kids black?"
Now it dawned on Randy why they were at our house. There was a bit of panic in Randy's voice as he came in the door and asked me where the custody papers were. My first thought was "how does their mom think she can come for these kids now?"
Not knowing what was going on, I rushed the kids into our bedroom and told them to wait until we came for them. The officers had not heard the news story, and had to call for the names and ages of the missing kids in order to compare their list with the names on the copy of the divorce/custody papers that we showed them.
While we waited for the officers to finish their work, I went to check on the kids. They were sitting silently in a row at the head of the bed, big sister Marquel in the middle, the others huddled tightly by her side. They looked at me with big eyes and their faces showed their relief when I said it was OK for them to come out, that the police were looking for some other kids.
Following me back outside, Charlie made a beeline for the police car, peering in the window. "There is lots of cool stuff in there, lights flashing and all" he said as we herded the kids back into the house.
We sat down with the kids to talk about why the officers had come to our house. Randy explained that was why we had gone to the judge to have her sign papers that said no one could take them away from their Father and that they were always safe with us. "Whew!" Annie sighed, rolling her head and her eyes in her drama queen way.
With the kids off to watch their night time movie, Randy and I called our friend Teresa who had sent us the story and thanked her for the "heads up". We had not given being seen in public with the kids a second thought. Randy and I had not noticed anyone watching us at the river, but obviously someone had been on the lookout.
Today the kids in Houston are back with their mother under the supervision of CPS. As we go run errands we will take our copy of the custody orders with us just in case!
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