Happy New Year to all of you wonderful people, too!

It HAS to be better than 2012, right? HAHAHA!

Please, Please let 2013 be a better year for all. My my GC continue to be protected and grow into a good Christian being, please let this new year bring me and my husband the strength to continue on the fight to ensure these things so that she is gauranteed a good future and as much a normal childhood as possible. My all my friends here on this site have the joy of raising their Grand Children in peace and may the child also receive some peace through the trial and tribulations that they have to go through in their early years. I do believe that all things are possible and I will continue try to perseverve through all that comes to stand in my way. My love for my Grand Child is never ending and it will always be there even through eternity and beyond my life.

To a New Year I hope all your New Years are wonderful and great. I continue to look forward to comunicating with you all. The support and understanding is and has been a life line in my time of need.

Love to all Nana

Personally, I'm nervous about 2013 & I shouldn't have to be. I finally was blessed to adopt my 5 yo, afterall. However, I still have 2 adult kids who are opiate addicts and their behavior stressed me out and causes me anxiety every single day of my life. I worry that one, or even both of them, could end up losing the battle. So many people are dying from heroin overdoses, it's definitely an epidemic. And then there's my younger GS to worry about, too. His dad is in jail right now, which has given me a bit less drama to deal with, but he'll probably be out in a month or two. Sometimes, I wish my own son would go to jail - but addicts don't get any help in jail and I don't think it really helps much in the long run - just keeps them off the streets and safe for the period of time they are incarcerated. And then being incarcerated just adds issues to their lives once they do get back out (like being able to find/keep a job). Addiction SUX. It has made my life a living Hell in so many ways and I see it all around me doing the same thing to family after family after family.

I am also very nervous about this new year, we are facing an upcoming court date and it has me really rattled. I am so worried that we will lose our GC to her Bio mom who has allowed her to be sexually abused and neglected. I feel so unsure of things to come I almost wish it were 5 years from now and all this would be somewhat behind us. Thats probably not the answer either, I just don't know what is anymore...

Nana

GMA, I know you have been through so much. I wish I had the words to give you peace but any words I think of seem so insignificant. Try and remember ntsandbots sayings, especially the one on hope. My gs at age 16 said he was not going to go to church with us anymore. His reasoning was that if his mother (our daughter) could die such a terrible death and sadden us, there could be no god. What could I say? Life is not fair. We continue to attend church, though not as often as we used to. My gs knows we believe and we have told him that while we do not know the reason why he took his mother, there is a reason but we may never know it until we are joined with her in heaven.

We are definitely looking forward to a better year in 2013. At least we have all the CPS visits and home checks and such done. We got legal custody in May and that was one big worry we don't have to deal with. Of course I know there will be ongoing problems with bios but I think things are settling down and getting better. Saying prayers for all of you who are still facing so many problems. And like Nutsandbolts it is my faith that keeps me going. So wishing you all a better New Year than the one we left behind.

I don't express it often enough and shame on me for that, but my faith does keep me going as well. I know God is ultimately in control, but it's just hard when the trials just keep pounding away at me and I beg for His help and it doesn't come in the form of healing my kids' addictions. I'm sure it comes in other ways (they're still alive afterall), and I know He has watched over my GSs, too.

So glad I found this post this morning. Happy New Year to everyone also! I am positive by nature and this is what keeps me going.

GMA, there is a book: Addiction is a Choice by Jeff Schaler. I noted this in another post but had it wrong. His theory is that addiction is a behavior so therefore it is a choice. I think more are leaning towards it being a disease but I think it helps to learn all sides.