As most of you recall, I had a talk with my daughter before Christmas.  I
told her then I was giving her to the end of December to decide how she
wanted to live.  If she stayed in our home, she had certain rules to follow.
She has broken all the rules we had that she agreed to about four months
ago.  We have been getting reports from others who have seen Gretchen in
various places and places she should not have been.  She likewise has been
meeting up with a lot of her old drug friends.  Plus, she has been getting
stoned and claiming, when she had to miss work the next day so she could
sleep, that she had the stomach flue.  Anyhow, she claims she will be moving
into an apartment within a block of our house, supposedly, next Friday.
Sandy and I finally wondered, and we aren't the only ones who think this,
that we might be in Gretchen's way, that is, of making a decision on her own
which way she is going to live.  this way, she'll have to decide on her own.
She now will have restrictions as far as seeing her children are concerned.
By that I mean, she won't be allowed to keep either of her boys with her at
her apartment for any reason because she already has taken them to places,
and had them around people, with criminal records and who are druggies, and
the Lord only knows what else they are, in the last few weeks.  Just a week
ago, she has been over at the neighbors and they are big time dopers.
Gretchen still smokes cigarettes and although most Christians don't think
that's a big deal, anyone we have spoken with in drug rehab, Christian drug
rehab I mean to say, says if they won't give up the cigarettes, they will
almost always go back to the drugs.  My friend Keith, who builds houses, has
found that one fact to be true based upon many years of hiring former
druggies and x cons.  Gretchen told her brother that she used to spend 250
dollars a month on smokes before she went into the drug rehab Christian
home.  Anyhow, I haven't mentioned everything because, frankly, it is just
another verse of a very old worn out song.  Remind me to tell you some day
of the demonic activities around our home that seem to be more prevalent
when Gretchen is around.  One more thing, I found out that Gretchen is
telling everybody that we called her today and said she had to be out by
tomorrow.  We told her Wednesday to be out by Friday.  Plus, I told her two
weeks before Christmas that she had to the end of December to make up her
mind or I would make the decision myself.  Then a week or so ago, I reminded
her of the same thing.  Funny how we always want to blame somebody else for
things.

Phil.