Things went along fine after I returned from my TDY. I was happy to be back, and to straighten out my troops that chiprj had managed to corrupt while I was gone. During this time, I spent a lot of time flying at night and sleeping during the day. This would define the next 3 years of my life, to this day I have trouble sleeping when it is dark! Often I would get home around four in the morning, and once when I got home I found Chong Mi in tears. This was highly unusual to say the least. I have only seen her cry twice, but this was the first and frankly it scared me. She didn't want to talk about what was bothering her, and I had learned not to push her on things like that. If I thought she was angry with me I could ask once, but if she said "Nothing!" then I had learned to back off and wait for her to eventually tell me what was wrong.
     She eventually told me that she had gotten a phone call from her ex-father-in-law. It seemed that her ex-husband was in jail, and had been for nearly a year. While this in itself wasn't particularly surprising, nor unwarranted, she went on to explain that her daughter (K) was in Foster care, and had been for the entire time. She was livid! Why hadn't anyone told her? What the hell was her ex-father-in-law thinking? As it turned out, he had expected to get custody of K if his son was convicted, and also he did not believe his son was guilty. It also turned out that the State of Ohio did not want to give him custody.  Personally I think he is a sack of boiled shit, but I've only met him once. He should have told K's mom what was going on. We worked hard with the Ohio Child Protective Services, who coordinated with an agency here in Korea to do an interview and home inspection. One of the ladies who worked for CPS, Kim Carmen, was absolutely incredible! One of the most difficult issues to overcome was that the judge wanted Chong Mi to go to court in Ohio. This was a problem. While I had been gone TDY Chong Mi had relinquished her U.S. Citizenship. Because she had been a U.S. citizen, her visa was only good for 90 days at a time, and she had gotten sick of traveling to Japan every three months to renew her visa.  I learned what a pain this could be first hand after I got out of the Army.  She still hadn't been repatriated as a ROK citizen, so she couldn't travel anywhere. With help from the local agency and Kim Carmen we were able to convince the judge to do a telephonic interview.  This on top of the favorable inspection was enough to get granted temporary custody.  I have learned recently that the word temporary has a more permanent meaning as a legal term than what I expected.
     K was eight years old when she came to live with us, and I can truly say I understand when parents say "They grow up sooo fast!"  That is not an exaggeration!  It has now been more than six years, and it is amazing how much she has changed.  I am proud to call her my daughter and I love her with all of the little shards of my heart that are left.  She has been through so much in her short life, I can only hope that her future is as bright as her spirit.  K, I love you!