E has moved on

Today E's social worker called. She secured a bed for her in the teen shelter home. It is a good place, as such places go.

I went with her to her previous foster home. I sat with my friend while E packed everything and Mandy filled out the requisite inventory form. E is not just leaving this home. She is leaving her school, where she was doing well. She is leaving the track team and her job. She is leaving whatever friends she has made in the last eighteen months.

She is doing it voluntarily. She left without apparent sadness, regret, or anger. She did not leave in a huff, but she did not say goodbye and she did not look back.

In the car she talked and laughed about how much stuff she had, how difficult it had been to get it all in the van. I am pretty good at noticing when people are covering difficult emotions with humor, but I don't think that was what she was doing.

She has one of the worst cases of attachment disorder I have ever personally had to deal with. She does not get violent or "reactive." She just walks away.

Hubby drove her to the shelter so that I could do the grading I did not get done while I sat with Mandy. I used the time instead to cry for E. I cried for the baby she once was, the baby whose cries were not answered. I cried for the young child whose parents, I imagine, did not act with violence but simply walked away.

Next: A call from the shelter