In the last four weeks, we have had four calls, for different teenage girls, all different ages, different personal issues, in foster care for different reasons. Apparently, since we survived nearly two years with our last teenage foster daughter, we’ve been pegged an official teen home.

We were committed to sticking with her, through thick and thin, until she graduated from high school and turned 18, and we did, by the skin of our teeth. Even though we originally took her into our home for 10 days, until DHS could find a permanent placement for her, as she put us over our licensing limit. That’s why they having licensing variances you know, they never found another home to take her.

Some months the police were at our house every few days. They still greet her by name when they see her. Some months she was just wonderful, helpful, and a joy to be around. Bipolar disorder tends to be cyclical, and once I got used to her, I could see a blowout starting to build, sometimes several days in advance.

The National Institute of Mental Health has some interesting statistics on bipolar disorder. It indicates that 2.6 percent of the United States population of adults has bipolar disorder or a total of about 5.7 million.

Bipolar disorder is also known as manic-depressive illness and usually develops in late adolescence or early adulthood. It is a brain disorder that causes unusual or unexpected changes in a person’s ability to function, energy level, and mood. Moods range from overly "high" and irritable to sad and hopeless, and then back again, with episodes of normal moods in between.

While everyone has their ups and downs, the symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe and can result in poor job or school performance and damaged relationships. This was all true for our daughter. She usually “burned out” her friends within a couple of months and her jobs as well. We were her eighth placement, with her average placement lasting about three months before coming to our home.

Super Dad and I had not intended to renew our foster care license. We had to renew, because the adoption of our nine-year-old daughter is not completed yet after two and one-half years, and we wanted our other foster daughter to turn 18 with us. Super Dad continues to say, “NO MORE CHILDREN!”

Since we finally got our baby girl, through private adoption, I have no reason to argue with him. You may remember, a little over four months ago, I accepted another placement from DHS, and then had to tell Super Dad about it over the phone.

I got away with that one, because she had previously lived with us for nearly a year and during that time, she wrapped Super Dad around her pinky. She is still here as well, so eight children at home are enough, especially when the grandchildren visit several times a week.

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