Adding one kid.

My 16 year old niece is coming to live with us. She originally came to live with us in December of 2005 because she had several issues (stole car, failing every class, drugs... etc) and her mom couldn't handle her.

In six months, we managed to turn her into a church going, straight "A" student. This summer when she went home to stay, her mom (my sister) and us got into a "spat" over our parenting style (strict), so her mom decided to send her to Los Angeles to live with her grandma (my mom). We told everyone that this was a horrible idea, because my mom's is just to easily fooled and not that involved, but everyone said that she was "fixed" and gave the credit to the medication that she had been put on.

After less than 6 weeks after starting school she was slipping into the same old patterns. so she is coming to live with us again.

I know, I know... this means we will now have 6 kids but she is family and she needs us.

Me and Shannon know we can get her back on track. She just requires some parents who are involved with her school (we get weekly updates on class progress), and some parents that sent reasonable expectations and limits.

Our results speak for themselves. When she came to live with us last December she was literally failing Every class. We advocated for her at the local school and got her into the college prep curriculum. The results... Straight "A's for her last semester and "B's" and "C's" for the year. Our goal was to get her through 9th grade, and we did it.

What does this mean to my loyal occasional readers? Well 6 kids gives me even more creditablity and a high schooler means that now I get to criticize the upper grades as well as K-8. (sic)

So... I am off to Los Angeles later today and will return Saturday. I managed to get a next day round-trip flight for $250 to pick her up. Priceline rocks!