Taking Back the Reins

I had an epiphany over the weekend, and it looked something like this: My family was fast becoming something out of my control, and it was time for me to take back the reins. The feeling began back in December when Cheyann had the episode that brought her to her needed first residential stay. We had already been working with many professionals and agencies, and this only brought in more. I think we have this idea in our society that if one "helper" is good, then more must be better, but I have come to discover personally that this just isn't so, and for Cheyann, it was a disaster and directly resulted in January being a month of high chaos. I could share so many details but I really don't want to re-live it all. Suffice it to say that if the Department of Children and Families is called in and they tell you directly to protect yourself from the Agency personnel in your life.. it's a good sign that things are out-of-whack. I re-evaluated. I prayed. I studied a bit more and I re-wrote Cheyann's plan - cutting out a great many services and strategies that I believe were, in the end, just making things worse. It was liberating, and for now, it is working. I think that for this child who is flashing us some Borderline Personality tendencies - the overall message that she so needed to hear from us right now was: "we are your parents and we are in control."  Everyone else can either be on board with the plan, or not. I am ok with either right now.