I still can't take a deep breath.
Yesterday, Cody's brother brought him back here. God, I almost typed home. You can see where I stand on this already. I am ready for this to be his home. I'm done with the whole teeter-tottering. When I decide to take something on, I don't want to stand at the starting line for three freaking months, I want to go. Accomplish.
Anyway, I don't think his brother would have even driven him to my house if it weren't for the fact that Cody had left his brother's cell phone here and his brother wanted it back. So Cody got here and ran into Amanda's room to search her closet. I was still shamefully in pajamas at noon yesterday and when I saw that his brother was waiting outside my fence for him, I threw on clothes so fast it would make your head spin and went outside to talk to him.
He is eighteen. He came from a shitty family. You can tell just by looking at him. He was super defensive and standoffish with me initially. I could barely get him to answer me. I think he was expecting me to ask him why the hell he was bringing Cody back. Once he understood that I WANT Cody here, he loosened up a bit. I told him that I was making plans for Cody for the summer and that I just wanted to know if there was any period of time over the summer where he was looking to have Cody come and spend some time with him.
I swear you could visibly see the relief wash over this poor kid.
I gave him my cell number and asked him to call me next week and let me know.
When he left here, I knew that the next step is talking to his mom. So I have contacted my teacher from CPS to ask for help. I need some kind of free or very inexpensive resources. I need a pro-bono lawyer. I need for there to be an organization that will be on this kid's side.
I am waiting to hear back from her tomorrow and then I am going to either follow whatever direction she can give me or start cold calling lawyers straight out of the damn phone book until I find someone who will help us. When I go to talk to Cody's mom, I want to be prepared. I want to be able to sit down with her and tell her what the best option for him is and why. And people, if the best option for him is for me to adopt him, then that is what I am going to do.
I am pretty sure I will have to have both his mother and his father sign off on everything but I don't care. I'll do it.
He needs lots and lots of stuff. He has three pairs of clothes in a backpack to his name. He needs PJs, summer clothes, bedroom items, hygiene products, a bed... Lots of things. But I want to make sure I can offer him the thing he needs most first: a family.
Advice would be greatly appreciated on this one ya'll...
Labels: adoption, Being Mommy, my crazy life
