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A few years ago my younger brother died from self-abuse (drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc.). His widow (Leslie) is now in the hospital with cranial hemorrhaging, likely the long term result of similar bad habits. She still has the two daughters, both in their teens. It doesn't look good for Leslie. She is vaguely spiritual but not particularly Christian, though perhaps more so than my secularist brother was. Pray as you feel led, but I'm just a bit worried about the girls. I don't think they have anywhere to go that would feel like home to them, so they are likely to end up wards of the state. Leslie has been deeply engaged with the welfare system for years.
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Update: She's at our Integris Hospital (formerly Baptist Hospital). Staff says she may not make it through the night.
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This sounds like a terrible situation all around. I will pray for everyone involved.
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Overnight I learned that Leslie's brother, Lee, is the nominated guardian for the girls. They aren't thrilled with that; he's pretty odd. Here's the problem, as I see it: Those girls were raised by a New Age mom and a secular humanist dad. They are quite different from each other in many ways, so one is very doctrinaire atheist, while the other doesn't seem to have given it much thought due to lack of interest. They are both high school age, so on a human level, they are pretty fixed on their moral paths, and both possess the intellect to pursue their own course. That leaves us hoping for a miracle. I'm in no position to mentor them unless they specifically reach out to me, so I'm praying that somewhere along the way, the Father will lead them to a place where He can do them some good.
No update on Mom's condition so far.
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Update: Leslie is still alive but unresponsive. Medical opinion is that she suffered either an aneurysm or massive stroke, but that the primary symptom is considerable bleeding on the brain. Prognosis remains very bad. Her brother, Lee, does have some sense about him. He has moved the girls from a very questionable private education program back into public school. This reduces the likelihood of interference from our DHS (social services, child protection, etc.). Lee was very unhappy with what he found in Leslie's house (NW OKC not far from Downtown). DHS would call it very neglectful. He's taking some unstated action on all of this, and I assume it will at least look more organized and livable. He resides normally in Muskogee, very far from OKC. I'm not sure how he plans to work all this out, but he is trying to check off the boxes so DHS won't seize the girls.
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Wow! At least it appears that Lee has enough sense and desire to protect the girls from being sucked into the state welfare system in which they would have no real rights to speak of. For that I am grateful. Father will shelter them as He sees fit within His plan. I will continue to include all of them in my prayers.
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Yeah, I haven't had run-ins with DHS but with similar groups, and it wasn't pleasant. Nothing bad came of it but they have odd processes in place that don't have the stated effect. It's a shame some talented people get suckered into working for them.
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Update: Leslie had four different sources of brain bleeding. She is still comatose for the most part.
