10:37 p.m. | 2005-03-17 Blast From The Past. I was home again today, darn it. This illness has moved into my ears and throat. I�d be more upset about not working � in any capacity � except that I feel like crap. And, whatever this viral thing is, there seems to be a narcoleptic aspect also. One minute I�m in the shower thinking I�m getting ready for work, and the next minute I�m sleeping in the shower. Obviously, I�m not allowing myself to operate heavy machinery. Or even the can opener at this point. But, I did receive an eye-opening phone call this morning. Here�s some of that. (CI:) Hello? (DearestSister:) Are you okay? You sound terrible. I called your work and they said you�re sick. Are you okay? (CI:) (Eyes wide open; when DS makes two calls to track me down during her rush hour, it�s not normally good news. Hence, my reaction.) I�m fine. Nothing fatal, I mean. What�s up? Well, some rather surprising news was what was up. I accept it as good news, as does DS. But to some, not so good. You decide for yourself. Some of you may remember that a little over a year ago, I declared myself a Great Aunt. That was when EldestNephew ushered in his newborn son. Then, I quite promptly dropped that issue. Like a stone. At the time, I didn�t feel that it was necessary to relay the back story and explain how I soon was not a Great Aunt. (Don�t worry, GreatNephew didn�t die.) But now, I�d like to explain some things. See EldestNephew was dating a young lady who, well, yeah� Not much I can say there other than that we gave EN some very direct and sound advice. What can you do? In the end, we stood by him and his decisions. In a nutshell, his girlfriend became pregnant, declared that the child was his, lived off his support and continued to cheat on him. When GreatNephew (GN) was born, EN was his primary caretaker until they broke up a couple of months later and his girlfriend went to stay with a former boyfriend. However, she didn�t want to take care of this child and she was prepared to hand him over to EN. On the very day that EN was to take full and permanent custody, his paternity test came back and he was absolutely not the father. EN still wanted to take custody but was not willing to lie in court nor deprive the natural father his rights. He stepped back. That act shattered his heart. That was over a year ago. However recently, EN�s ex-girlfriend contacted him and told him to come pick up GN since she was tired of caring for him. EN raced over there, grabbed GN and went straight over to State Children�s Services (SCS). (Sidenote: EN�s ex-girlfriend is receiving some sort of state aid that�s disability-related due to an accident that resulted in a rather severe head injury. That aid is monitored and carefully controlled by her father. What isn�t controlled by anyone is her behavior. In my own mind, I choose to believe most of it is the result of the head injury.) Anyway, SCS has � over the past year � run six different paternity tests to determine the father of GN. All have come back negative. And, they�ve run out of leads, so to speak. The end result is that SCS has severed the mother�s rights, per her request, and have given full and permanent custody to EN who is now able to adopt GN. For those not in the know, EN just turned 23. That�s a humungous responsibility to take on, especially as a single father. He is that kind of person though. Which is why he ended up in this situation. He was drawn to his ex-girlfriend in the first place because he�s so caring. Don�t even think for a second that we haven�t given him some advice about all that. Despite all the drama, it�s a really good result. GN has never been properly cared for or wanted by his mother and no one knows who his father is. Basically, EN�s going to care for a child who has no biological link to him at all. But GN has been embedded in EN�s heart since the first sonogram. So, I�m pretty sure I�m a Great Aunt now. Or thrice again since EldestSister has grandchildren also. Okay, wow. I guess both DS and ES are grandmothers. Heh. They love it and I�m certainly happy to be Great Aunt. I can�t wait to welcome GN to the family. your thoughts? seed flower