Eva is gone. We had just gotten back from a wonderful beach retreat with her and Alice's classmates when I got a phone call saying that Eva's new host family would be picking her up the next morning. Apparently, she was never supposed to be in a house with another Chinese speaking student, and was already enrolled in a school over two hours away.
She cried, I cried, Alice cried... I called the director and begged them to let Eva live with my mom instead of moving hours away, but it was set in stone. I asked if she could at least have the weekend, but the new host family said they couldn't miss church to pick her up, so it was Saturday morning weather I liked it or not.
I never realized how attached I would get to these kids. Still, I would have put that aside if she had wanted to go, but she didn't. She was sobbing as they drove off, and I couldn't do a thing about it.
The house feels so much bigger now. I'm still unbelievably sad, but I'm a little angry too.
I mean, while they were making preparation for this host family to take her, what made them decide not to inform anyone? They claim it was a 'spur of the moment' thing, that they didn't realize she had to leave until right before they told me, but that can't be true. She is enrolled in a school. Her host family has a bedroom for her. They had been expecting her for weeks, while she was becoming happier and happier here. We had plans... annual theme park tickets, a vacation to take, a Halloween party to throw. The timing absolutely kills me: we go on a retreat which was purposed for the building of strong bonds between classmates, and she is forced to leave the next day, without even a chance to say goodbye.
Just writing about it is making me cry.
1 comment:
I'm so sorry! Reading this made my heart hurt for you gys, but it also made me angry. I can't believe they would just dump some life changing info in your lap at the last second!
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