Thank you smile. That is ver helpful. I took her to my family dentist yesterday, who cleaned her teeth and took xrays for free. She needs about $8000-$10,000 worth of work. He is looking into what I can do and who will do the work. I definitely need temporary guardianship to authorize the work. She says she has MediCal, so I need to look in to that as well.

We were watching something on TV the other day and she said she would like to do after school sports and never has. We talked about what she likes to do and I am going to get her involved with gymnastics to start and continue even after the dad takes her back. I need guardianship to sign her up for sports as well. She was worried about how she will get to her sports when she goes back with her dad. I said I will still take her and pick her up. It wouldn't be fair to her dad to sign her up for something he may not be able to do. She was so relieved.

She is a blessing in our lives. So sweet and so receptive to a " normal" loving home with routines. We bought her lots of stuff to do, puzzles, coloring books, reading books, art stuff etc. She loves it all.

My daughter thanked me yesterday and said, in a sad voice, I never realized what a perfect childhood I had, and never appreciated it. Now I need to make my daughter realize, there is a reason for everything and this path lead us to helping Samantha. I don't want my daughter dwelling on the sadness of what could have been. This would not be emotionally healthy for her. I will just simply tell her, thank you for bringing this child into our lives and we will take care of Smantha together, while she is with us and after.

Now that my daughter is living a "normal" life, she can't believe what the dad is doing. She is shocked! She said when she knew him, his daughter always came first. So sad. He was clean then. Samantha loves her dad and is so angry with him right now. I told her when he is able, he will get another home for them, but right now he is trying to find one. In the mean time she can stay with us as long as she wants and she will always be safe.

I looked online and found there is legal aid in my town to help with filing paperwork. I need to find the dad. He dropped by the other day. Samantha came back in with a losing lotto ticket the girlfriend had given her and said excitedly, we can enter it for a second chance drawing. He said he was coming back with more presents and we haven't heard from him since. I called my daughter to tell him he can't just keep dropping by unannounced. No one is answering the last phone number she had. I will be checking the jail to see if he is there. I know he has pending cases, didn't show up for one so far. He and his girlfriend are living in his car with expired registration and I think he has a suspended license.

If anyone has any other advice, it would be greatly appreciated.