Disrupted routine

It has been a little nutty 24 hours! It sometimes amazes me how things can change so fast and your life turned upside down for a few moments.

Yesterday afternoon my daycare lady called me while I was at school and stated that I needed to pick up Ellie and Lydia (my neighbor's kid) from daycare. She had said other things but all I heard and was "pick up the girls" and then I went into 'mother rescue mode'. I figured that girls had push Ms. C to the edge and she needed them to be picked up! Those two can be a handful on their bad days.

I pulled up in front of the house and there was another parent picking up her kid and I knew that this was not her normal pick up time. I walked in the door and the girls are sitting on the steps getting their shoes on and Ms. C and her assistant are putting all the girls clothes from cubbie in bags. I am thinking to myself that the girls must have went too far today or something. Then the state childcare licenser came up to me and explained that there had been a serious accusation and that Ms. C was no longer able to provide childcare and gave me her card and the number for the Child Care Resource and Referral line.

I stood there dumfounded, paralyzed almost and couldn't think of anything to say but, "Okay". I started getting Ellie's stuff together. Ms. C asked if I had called Lydia's parents to see if it was okay fro me to pick her up and I said I hadn't but it wouldn't be a big deal and the licenser made sure I was on Lydia's approved pick up list. Ms. C wouldn't really look at me.

As I left and I was trying to get the the girls in the car while bribing them with a visit to 7-Eleven to get a Slurpee... all the questions that I should have asked came to mind... What kind of serious accusation? Was it abuse? Child endangerment? What?!? About a hour later Heather and I had process through the 'shock' phase and now were on the 'doing' stage and I called the state licenser to get more information. For confidentiality reason she couldn't give me a lot of info but it was regarding the background of an individual that lived in the house and had access to the children. The only person besides Ms. C that lives in the house is her boyfriend, Mr. F. I had told the licenser, "OH, Mr. F?" and then she asked questions about him and I told her what I knew, which wasn't much.

Ms. C was very particular about rules and followed them to the 'T' so I had assumed that Mr. F had passed the appropriate background check but apparently not. Then I started thinking. Ms. C knew he needed a background check for her to be licensed and she knew the convictions that would limit/exclude a person from getting a child care license. Maybe she knew that he wouldn't pass and that is the reason why she told the state that he didn't live there. After looking up the particular WAC codes there are some convictions that could suspend your license for 5 years and other are permanent. If you were convicted for racketering... you would have to wait five before you get a child care license but felony count of drug trafficing would be permanent offense.

I considered Ms. C a friend and I feel betrayed and saddened. Ellie loves her and they had a close bond. It is going to be hard for her to transition. Lydia and Ellie will go to a new daycare together and hopefully the transition won't be so bad. Pray that we find a good daycare.