I barely made it through Friday. Nicole said 'Monday' we would find out about visitations with the kids. I had to call people to let them know of the change in circumstances. The first place I called was Unity Christian School, Haley's school.
"Good morning. Unity Christian School. This is Carmen." One of the secretaries answered.
"Good morning. I wanted to call the school and...." I choked. " Well....." I choked again. I could feel that Carmen was being patient with me, and I knew that the school already knew about the situation. Haley made this call at school. "I'm sorry." I whispered. Tears fell from my eyes.
"NO!" Carmen exclaimed. "You take your time, Samantha! It's alright."
I swallowed hard and tried to control my emotions. "As you may already know...." I blurted as politely as possible. "A call had gone into the Ministry and the RCMP."
"Yes." Carmen answered quietly. She exhaled.
"Well, the kids were placed in my step-mother's home, Haley included. I don't know, exactly, what's going on or how any of this works. But I'm going to try to figure this out. As far as I know, I am still 'Mom'! So I still need to know whats going on. But I will give you Deborah's number in case the school needs to contact her."
"Okay." Carmen said. I could hear her moving around. I figured she must've been getting a pen and paper.
I rattled off Deborah's home phone number and her cell phone number.
"Thank you, Samantha. And we will be notifying you of things, too. I am so sorry that your family is going through this. And I hope that everything works out for you." Carmen said. "I wish there was something we could do." She sighed. "You have our support, Samantha. Anything you need. We will do our best to help you." I heard her smile.
A whimper escaped my lips. I nodded. "Thank you." I whispered. "I would really like them to come home."
"Yes. Me too."
"Thank you, Carmen. I'll let you get back to work. Otherwise, I might start crying in your ear."
"That's okay." Carmen laughed. "If you need someone to listen, I can do that, too. I wish you luck, Samantha. And I'm sure they will be home soon."
"Thank you." I was hugging my cell to my ear. I nodded and said, "see you. Thanks again."
"Bye Samantha. Thanks for letting us know."
We hung up. I let my hand drop to my side. I cried for a few minutes and had to get myself together. I had to make another call. This time to Kent Elementary school.
"Good morning. Kent Elementary. This is Sally." A voice bounced on the phone.
"Hi, Sally. How are you?" I asked.
"Oh, hi, Samantha. I'm good. Thank you. How are you?"
"I could be better. Thank you." I said. I sniffled. "I wanted to call the school and inform you that we are going through a really difficult time, right now." I bit back a sob.
"Oh." Sally's voice softened. She became an uncomfortable silence.
"Yeah. My oldest, Haley, had made a complaint about my husband. She let her school know and the Ministry and the RCMP are now involved." I explained. I tried to be quick about it, but my crying was getting in the way. I did my best to keep it quiet. "The kids had been placed with my step-mother, Deborah."
"Yeah, yeah, that's why she was here, then." Sally sounded like she discovered something. "A lady was in here looking for Eve. She came in with Nicole from the Ministry. They were here yesterday looking for her. But I told them Eve was on a field trip. So they left." She explained. "I'm sorry, Samantha. I thought I couldn't tell you because Nicole was here. And you usually call us to let us know if someone else is coming to get her. So I was a little confused and SO busy."
