Weekend Update

Sigh. The bad news for Atlanta police just doesn't stop. Shot by a Buford cop!

BUFORD, Georgia (AP) -- Two off-duty officers from different police departments wounded each other in a gunfight in the middle of a road in an Atlanta suburb, authorities said.

Neither officer's wounds were life-threatening, police said. Their conditions were not immediately known on Saturday.

Officer Jay Daily, a five-year veteran of the Duluth Police Department, exchanged multiple gunshots Friday afternoon with Fulton County Officer Paul Phillips, police said.

Daily was in custody Saturday, charged with aggravated assault, Cpl. Illana Spellman of the Gwinnett County, Georgia, police said.

[...]


"It's been baffling to us why this situation even occurred," said Duluth Police Chief Randy Belcher. "It's an embarrassment to this agency."

We did some very productive school research today, and then went shopping for furniture. It's so difficult because we still know so little at this point. We were looking for a sturdy bed and found a great one for $99 at Ikea. It's simple and made out of coated metal. But then we started vacillating.

"What if he has a bed he's already really attached to?"
"You can't ship kid's beds anyway, they're usually poor quality and just fall apart."
"What if he's used to a really firm mattress and the mattress we get is too soft?"
"Um, we'd better hold off on buying the mattress."
"We're buying a metal bed, OH MY GOD WHAT IF HE'S ALLERGIC TO METAL OR SOMETHING"

... and so on.

We decided to buy the bed but not put it together yet, since it has a 90-day return policy.

Still no word on timeline. Our companion from the agency, Mr. Ridiculously Competent Single Dad, adopted from the same county, and his timeline from match to placement was about three and a half months. We might go quicker because he was the first, and now the paperwork route is clearer. Our next step is a "formal presentation." There's also subsidy negotiation and visitation planning. We need to be mentally prepared for long, frustrating and even terrifying delays.

By the way, I'm in touch with Mr. Single Dad. It turns out Sunny and his son don't have any prior connection, though. His son had alphabet soup diagnoses and was on numerous medications, but Mr. Single Dad thinks much of this was due to needs overstatement... he got his son off all of the drugs except for one daytime ADHD med, and says he hasn't seen even a single sign supporting a RAD diagnosis.

So many of these kids have problems and behaviors that no one tells you about... or else the people involved do know, and they'll just lie to you. But the other side of the coin is that maybe things look worse than they actually are.