The need for speed...

So... how fast can I post this before 3 out of 4 girls come back, making it impossible to string two thoughts together again! LOL

We've how had our two new additions to our family living with us for about a week and a half.  Eldest and Youngest have gone above and beyond to make them welcome and keeping them busy.  As I write this, Eldest has gone out for a walk with both of them.  Youngest is waiting for Dh to wake from a nap and, hopefully, go for some driving practise.

Things have been truly interesting, and not all in a good way, with the girls.  Their father should be in Egypt by now.  We got a phone call from him at 8am on Monday morning, asking to talk to his daughters.  In passing, I asked where he was, and he told me he was at the airport.

The number he was calling from was from Toronto.  He's actually been out of the province since at least the 31st, and I only know that because I had to talk to his old building manager.  A building manager that is quite unhappy with the stuff and mess left behind, as it's going to cost them a lot of haul it away and fix the apartment.

There are going to be legal issues to deal with, but our biggest concern is going to be dealing with the fallout of their situation.  Their dad may have been talking to me about being away for a year or two (while also saying he might come back in months), but the girls are under the impression he'll be back before the end of the year.  He'd promised them a whole day together before he left, which turned out to be just a couple of hours on Thursday, saying he'd be leaving on Sunday.  I now am thinking he had told them he'd see them one last time before he left, to say goodbye.  As if that wasn't bad enough, as I was trying to comfort one of them after the phone call, along with her sister (who was pretty blasé about the whole thing), she mentioned wanting to be on the plane and going to Egypt with him, only to have her sister say "yeah, but Mom wouldn't let us."

Yeah.  Nothing to do with him being gone for months or years or who knows how long.  Nothing to do with the travel advisory against Canadians traveling to Egypt that's in effect right now.  Nothing to do with the uprisings and violence going on there.  Nope.  It was Mom's fault.

*sigh*

Thankfully, the girls were able to see their mom later that day, and she could talk to them about it.

So far, they seem to be quite happy with us, and have told their mother as much, which is nice to hear.  They're great kids, and we're happy to have them with us.  It's still going to have its challenges, as we discover more and more that we will have to address carefully.  The last thing we want to do is seem like we are attacking their father or trying to turn them against him (which he has been doing with them against their mother for about 2 years now), yet the reality is he's mislead them, lied to them and taught them behaviours and attitudes that are not appropriate (though some go a long way to explaining why he was never able to get a job).  I will never lie to the girls, but how to I explain to them the reality of earning money, and what a privilege it is that Dh earns enough to support all of us, when their father was essentially scamming the welfare system and too proud to take jobs that were all but handed to him on a platter (actually, at least one job *was* handed to him on a platter, and he refused it.  It was beneath him, you see)?  How do I explain to them that they really are allowed to see their mother whenever they want, and that his keeping from her in the last while was not only completely his fault (he told them it was hers), but illegal?  We're still working on basic manners and social behaviour right now, and it's only been a short while, so there will be time.  It's a fine line to walk!

On top of all this, he left without passing on to me any of their important ID, from birth certificates and citizenship papers, to health care and SIN cards.  The only thing I got was their library cards, and we couldn't even use those, as there was a note on their file that nothing could be taken out without his signature on it.  Their mom ended up having to get completely new cards from them.

It's all details, though.  As long as they're safe, healthy and reasonably happy (as much as can be expected, under the circumstances!), the rest will be dealt with in time.

Meanwhile, we had our scheduled facilitator visit, and he was able to do the girls at the same time.  It went rather well, and they were actually pleased to be able to show him their stuff (I had some concerns, as they had been taught to fear/be rude to strangers, and that men/boys are bad).  He'd come late, so they had just enough time to do that before heading to bed.  Thankfully, he was able to stay for quite some time after that and we had a great visit as well.

Eldest is now officially completed her schooling, so only Youngest is registered for next year with us.  We can't register the girls, but their mother will be able to take care of that, thankfully.  It's pretty loosey-goosey with Youngest these days, since she's pretty much in charge of her own direction now.  Recently, she's started on a script for one of her stories that Eldest has promised to illustrate for her.  With Youngest's background in mythology, particularly Norse, she's come up with some very unusual and creative story lines.  At least one of them is something she'd like to see animated.

This spring, we were able to get a plot in the new raised bed gardens assigned to us, and last night we finally planted.  On one side, we've got lettuces, onions and peppers (Eldest *really* wanted us to have veggies in there!) while the other has groups of flowers that Youngest and the girls picked themselves.  We've also got our balcony garden, which is all Youngest's this year.  The girls have a large pot where they've planted some beans they had and we just added a couple of strawberries, too.  Youngest planted dill, lettuces, carrots and spinach, as well as her Forget Me Nots that she got from the veterinary hospital after we had to put down her cat, planted in a decorated pot.  Those are all coming up nicely. There's also some avocados that she'd started indoors over a month ago, and a couple of flowers she'd picked up in the last while.  She does love her flowers!

Well, the kids aren't back yet, but Dh is up - though his back is not up to taking Youngest driving after all - and the TV is on behind me.  Very distracting!  Time to say goodnight.