2003, i'm pretty sure i know who you are, actually because of that tombstone, i know that handwriting and birthday. but i'm confused because i thought you were under a different profile name... check your messages. at least you made it past your tombstone date, you were supposed to have died in may, lol sorry i have a twisted sense of humor.
The only things that newcomers were allowed to read were the aa book, na book, the bible (while i was there, there was this mini rebellion about being allowed to read the bible, some of the kids wanted to be allowed all religious books, the staff didn't know how to handle that one), and the signs in the building, which included the rights page. I would actually read that over and over because it was one of the only things i was allowed to see. i used to have to bring out reading up in group, along with rocking out, i'm sure straight had that one too.
No, the parents of the newcomers are not allowed to know where their kids are staying at night. And for some of the kids in my group, that was for over a year. As far as the parent approved kidnapping... that's my entire story to a T.
I might have been at the same home for more than two weeks at a time. There was a period when the group was really small, and I was one of the only oldcomers, so i would go to the same household in cincinnati for extended periods because there were not that many host families. All the money for housing wasn't going to the host homes so it seemed. I heard several of the parents complaining of the financial burden that comes with taking home an extra four kids a night. It's times like these that I wish I had worked on staff so I would know more of the details. I don't want to rag on the actual parents though. The host families were amazing and treated me like their own child, and after all, they were brainwashed too.