Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Some Days Are Hard

I hope to get "the Proposal" story up a little later today. My head is a little fuzzy right now. As I get older, I don't function well with little sleep.

At 12:22 last night, I was awakened. Hilary is standing over my bed, handing me her cell phone. "Elisabeth needs to talk to you." Fumbling in the dark it is difficult to know if I am holding it forwards, backwards, or upright. Finally, I hear a teary voice in my ear.

"There's a drunk guy outside my door. He keeps knocking and trying to get in. Now he is sitting next to my door."

"Call your CA." She reminds me that her CA quit earlier in the week. There had been an incident on Friday. A girl a couple of doors down was found dead in her room, probable overdose. The CA was so shaken, she quit and they hadn't found a replacement yet. I hand the phone to her father, since my mind is just not thinking clearly yet. She retells the story. As he suggests she call a friend, who'd moved out but used to work the front desk, I blurt out, "or call 911." He adds that bit of information and tells her to phone back.

I stumble out of bed. I hand Hilary her cell phone and she heads back to bed. After a few minutes, Michael and I are both up waiting. Several tearful phone calls back and forth, more waiting, Michael making phone calls to try to locate someone in charge, and the situation was somewhat resolved by 1:30a.m. The police escorted this guy off, who did not live in this gated, locked building. Elisabeth was given a number she could call for one of the other CA's. Her dad offered to come get her, but she thought she'd be ok.

But it is hard to settle in and fall back asleep. I found myself lying in bed, continuing to pray for my daughter. Then the CAs who'd helped her, remembering when Christopher was an RA and it wasn't always the most pleasant job. And I prayed for every other person that came to mind during that time. I have no idea when I fell asleep.

3 comments:

Heth said...

Wow. Parenting doesn't get any easier does it.

Anonymous said...

That must have been traumatic to have a floor-mate die a few days ago. And how did that guy get in there? Poor Elisabeth!

His Girl said...

wow. i can't even know what to say. oh, the trust we have to have in Jesus when we are parents, no?

even more so when they're not under our roofs, apparently.