Enough is enough
Well, in my last update, we were making some slow and steady progress. We have had several more weeks of therapy and shorter durations of chaotic events. Things have went down hill since then.
Last Thursday, our daughter manipulated her brother into letting her use his phone to call a friend that we have forbid her to call. When confronted, she blew up and began arguing with my wife. After the argument had settled down, my daughter seemed to have calmed down. A short while later around 8:00pm, she asked my permission to go outside and get her bag of color pencils. It seemed like a reasonable request because she always leaves her things outside. I told her that she could go get it. About the time she walked out the door, I got a strange feeling. I went outside to check on her and she was gone!
We called law enforcement and filed a missing person report, as we have done so many times. We looked around the property and surrounding areas and she was nowhere to be found. My wife was crying and very upset, I was mad and didn't even want to go out looking for her. In my opinion, this was a game and I had no desire to be her pawn. We went to bed and waited for a call from the police.
The following morning, a deputy brought our daughter home around 7:30am. She walked in the house and said that she was done being nice, done trying to do right, done trying to do good at schoolwork and done with her therapy. She said she was going to her room. She spent all day in her room, but never went to sleep, despite the fact that she had been up all night wandering the streets. She acted as if she had done no wrong and as if the entire incident never happened.
Fast forward to this weekend. Saturday, we allowed her to go spend the day with our friends from church and their kids. We didn't want it to seem like we were rewarding her, but I needed to spend the day working on my property and I didn't want my wife to be home alone with her all day fighting. The day went well, I got my work done and my wife got a day of rest at home without any stress.
Today, we went to church and had a great morning. After church, we planned to have our family over for lunch, along with our friends from church that our daughter spent the day with yesterday. The day went very well, the kids swam and we cooked on the grill, all was well. After everyone left, our daughter went next door to to play with the kids. We called over and asked for her to come home to pick up some of her mess. She came home, picked up the mess and said she was going to run back over to the neighbor's house for a bit. As it began to get dark, my wife called over to the neighbor's house to have him send our daughter home. The neighbor said "she isn't here". She had done it again, she ran away. There was no conflict or argument this time, just her desire to control us and cause chaos and stress in our home. We called law enforcement to file yet another report, but this time, we refused to run around in panic trying to find her, we have reached our limit. After the deputies left, I began searching for a residential care facility. This game of controlling our family has come to an end, we can no longer go on like this. We have done our very best to give her every opportunity to succeed. We love her, but enough is enough.
Lord, as our daughter wanders the streets for another night, keep her safe. Wrap your arms around her and shield her from dark thoughts and confusion. Let her know that you love her. Lord, open her eyes to the truth and snuff out the lies that the enemy has fed her. in Jesus name, Amen.