Okay, I think it's best that I start at the beginning of this year. It was in March and I got to meet my new niece. I didn't just get to meet her, I had to help raise her. I didn't have to, but it was something that I was more than happy to do. My niece brought me such great joy in my life.
Now, her mother has epilepsy and some sort of mental retardation (I mean this as no insult, it's just the truth) we are unsure what but, once you speak with her it is very apparent. Which, has kept her from beat the mom that she wants to be.
When my niece and her mother came into my life, they came into my life with nothing. I couldn't stay in there and know that my niece and her mother had nothing. So I've made it my goal to be sure that they had everything they needed. Her and my brother had just moved and they were scraping by.
Eventually her and my brother broke things off but, my family took them in. We weren't going to allow them to go back to their previous life ( it was terrible).
Well, here as of recent....the mother of my niece took her (without packing anything for her) and without telling anyone where she was going, she left. I called her once I received the news to try and figure out what to it was that was going on but, she kept pushing me to voicemail. All that she would send me and my family is "I'm safe. My daughter's safe."
Once I had found out where it was that she ran off to, I learned that her mother had been telling everyone that she had no idea who me or my SO even was(despite me spending well over $2k to be sure they had everything they needed). But, that my brother had been beating her ( which is also false) and she ran off to a woman's refuge shelter who are looking to escape domestic abuse.
I've attempted to call the police and CPS because I'm scared for my niece. Her mother was asking complete strangers at the shelter to watch her(she's not from this state!!! She doesn't know these people)... And they said they couldn't do anything.
TL;DR version?
I'm broken. I don't know what to do. I can't open my photo album without bursting into tears. Hearing her name causes whatever ping of happiness I was feeling, to vanish. I can't pack her last few remaining items that I have, away.
She wasn't just my niece but, she felt like my own with how much I had taken her on. And just days ago my SO looked at me and said "I can't wait to see ______ in a few days." She was in my life one second, and then the next I realized I was never going to see my niece again. In all honesty, it feels as though she has died in a way...
I really wish to go and see my therapist, but I don't currently have INS.
I know this post was everywhere, I am quite frantic at this moment. HOWEVER, if anyone has any coping skills they could recommend... I'd appreciate it.
I stopped seeing my therapist
I am never beating my kids
I never thought I would be going through this.
Never had opportunity
