There is a metaphorical cliff edge that I have been trying to keep my daughter away from for 8 years now, since she was twelve years old and we realized that she was stealing…prison. I see the cliff edge looming now just up ahead. It’s an abyss; it’s dark, there are ugly sharp rocks below that promise harm. All of my talking, lecturing, yelling, prayers, and worry over her future have failed to turn her the slightest amount from that straight line trajectory. She is at the edge now with one foot on firm ground and one foot in the air over a gaping black void. Her weight is shifted towards the open space and I know that it is too late…I can only watch as in slow motion, she falls. How far, I do not know. How sharp the drop, I do not know.

I have only known for a few days and until now it has been intellectual knowledge only. Only now, as I write this, are my emotions catching up with my head and I feel my cheeks wet with tears for the first time since I heard the news.

As I have written in other blogs and the My Story link, earlier this year, my daughter abandoned her 7 week old daughter and started life over in a small college town in another state. In the 8 months since she has been there, she has charmed her way into a number of different college groups on campus and befriended students from whom she then stole. She has been implicated in at least a half dozen thefts against students, from stolen computer to cash to identity theft to credit card theft. Three of the families have decided to press charges.

As hard as it is to say, my daughter needs to face legal consequences. For the sake of past victims and those in the future…who perhaps do not even know my daughter yet, but will be harmed, it is time to say, “Stop. No more”. Perhaps alone in a jail cell, she will finally confront her lifestyle and choose a different path.