The thing I am having a hard time with is the way she was ripped from her loving aunt's care. This was not gradual transition from what I have read, but a quick change without all of her familiar belongings and visits and phone calls. I have gone a week without my children and they have missed me terribly. Three weeks must have left this child feeling very abandoned and homesick for her familiar surroundings, even if the placement had been ideal..which we know it wasn't. This troubled me before any of the interviews with the kids, or FIL or the alleged burns, or other things started surfacing.
I just can not understand why the father would have suddenly decided her bio mother was fit to raise her and why the aunt was under the impression that this was just a weekend visit. But even so, why was this the best thing to do to Shaniya? I think the reason others have said they offered to have SHaniya live with them is because they knew BL wanted her to live away from her aunt for some reason and they were offering an alternative to going to her mom's.
In the interview with Bryon he made a comment that his father thought it was time for the mother to raise her or something like that. He didn't say it was a visit. I think the father intended it to be a long term living arrangement, but for some reason the poor aunt was not in on this plan.
I am finding myself wondering if the aunt had raised concerns to BL about him needing to be more involved in Shaniya's life, or if she suspected something with the burns or something else. There is an obvious tension between the two. Aunt has said she felt differently about Antoinette than BL. I think the key to sending Shaniya to live with her mother lies in the details of what was going on between dad and his sister.
