Actually you were not careless and I must apologize.
I am a bit stressed out and suffering from sleep deprivation while trying to find a solution to this problem...
The history is long. In a shorter version.....
Amanda and her brother(I will call him J) were born to a set of parents that loved them dearly. The father died of cancer 1.5 years after J was born. Amanda is 2.5 years older than J. After their father died the mom who had battled drugs and alcohol since she was a child lost it completely. At one point while they had been living with their mother they were living in abandoned houses and amanda would go beg for food for her little brother and herself. They are truly very, very remarkable children. The Aunt and Uncle took custody and looked after them and finally decided that the children would never be in a safe place with the mom and could not go back there. The great Aunt and Uncle who are in their 70's took care of them very well and through the course of lots of counseling and time we all decided that I would legally adopt J and that Amanda would be legally adopted by the other family. We all knew each other. We set about to blend together all of the families involved with these children. We did the adoptions at the same time and the Judge was adament that the children should always be able to see each other. We ALL agreed to that. It worked very well in the beginning. Amanda was definitely in need of more counseling and did not receive it from her new parents. I believe that in the beginning it was probably OK there. However the new mom to Amanda over the course of time would tell me that she was struggling with the girl and that she realy was having a hard time with her. She refused to go to counseling and refused to send Amanda to counseling. Again over time it got to were Amanda was not allowed to go see her great grandmother or her aunt and uncle. J and I got to see her sometimes but never more than 5 times in a year. This last year we saw her 3 times and she was no longer allowed to spend the night with us anymore. Her mother would call me screaming at me that Amanda was nothing but a scumbucket (this was her favorite term for the child) and she didn't stop there. at one time she demanded that I stop calling my extra bedroom Amanda's room and that I had to call it the quest room. I agreed - but Amanda never got to spend the night with us again anyway. She started telling Amanda that she was going to ship her off about 2 years ago. She also told Amanda that she was sorry they had adopted her. The mom also told me that among other things I went to CPS and they said that due to Amanda's age they would do nothing unless it was sexual abuse or physical abuse. The Parents took her out of school shortly after she went to live with them and has never realy gone to school since then. They used her as a maid and a nanny to the other chldren they have and to the private foster care child they took in who was 2 years old. When Amanda rebelled on Nov. 16 of 2003 and said I am not doing this anymore they said we will send you away and so she ran away. On January 14 of 2004 she contacted me and asked if she could come live with us and go to a real school. I said yes. The parents said no. I said I can go pick her up on Monday and the father said no maybe she just needs to stay away. the father asked me if I would adopt her I said yes. The mother said NO!
Amanda was picked up by the police and to make a long story short the parents shipped her off without telling any of us where they were sending her and knowing that she could live with me or the Aunt and Uncle or numerous other family members. The mother told the Deputy Sheriff that she wanted Amanda punished and in jail. HE SAID NO!!!!!
So here we are - Amanda is in Mexico at the Abundant Life Academy in Mexico for the next 4 to 9 months. The parents got what they wanted - her gone, and Amanda punished for wanting a normal life.
There is so much more to the story it is insane.
The parents are big in their church. Sunday School teachers and in church 3 days a week and for 3 or 4 hours on Sunday. You know GOOD CHRISTIANS.
Amanda needed help and she needed to be loved. After talking at length to the parents I think the Deputy Sheriff put it best. When I got to the police station 2 hours before the parents did he said:
"There is a problem here. I have been doing this for a long time and I have 6 children of my own and I know when a child is not loved, She is not loved by her parents. She is not a bad kid. Thank you for coming, I will let you see her."
Amanda will be 17 in July. In the state of Texas at 17 you can choose to live where ever you so choose without legal ramifications. But she won't be here in July she will still be in Mexico and won't be able to get back across the border without any papers which she does not have in her possession.
got any suggestions?




I am open to listening, except to that guy who posts all of that obscene stuff I just don't need that right now.
So again pleae forgive me if I ever sound a bit frazzled or hostile or angry. I am all of that and very sad and heartbroken for Amanda, her brother, the rest of the family and everyone who misses her.
I don't know what or who the Gothards are.
Thanks for listening.
Paige