MY NEWBIE IS SHOWING

BC: Trouble With a Capital T

Tell me about TROUBLE that resulted because you did a GOOD deed.





Mother's Day last year, trouble knocked on my door, and I had no idea it could be soooo much trouble. I will call him DK. He got in a physical fight with his mother on Mother's Day. My husband and I took him in thinking that it was just a tiff that needed to be worked through.





No good deed goes unpunished, unthanked, unappreciated. We opened our hearts and home to this 17-year-old kid with the idea that we would get the family reunited -- transforming a family that was not working to one that was. Needless to say, it did not work. As soon as we said -- "No we will not adopt you, we signed on to reunite your family, not to make it worse" -- all hell broke loose. We were called every name in the book of the non-complimentary kind, He tried to strong-arm his co-workers and sister in law into funding his get rich quick scheme, he got in more physical fights with his mom, he rode his bike 25 miles to try to hook up with a 15 year old autistic girl, he got expelled from Job Corps because he made sexually explicit comments to a young girl who had gang connections, he got expelled from civil commitment for throwing feces on the wall and trying to end his life. He is now a ward of the state in a state hospital.





I don't know what made me think that I could make a difference with that level of mental illness. I think all we really did was give the parents a reprieve for three months and some decent legal advice on what to do next. My family took a beating (figuratively speaking). We all went through a hailstorm to get that kid set up in a mental health facility that is capable of assisting him. I just wish God picked someone else to help them. My book of Good Deeds is kind of full right now.