August 29, 2013
At her 20-week sonogram, Ari finds out she’s going to have a daughter. Afterward, she texts the news to the baby’s father. She doesn’t really have an ongoing relationship with him, she said, but he wants to be present for the baby’s birth. She’s not sure that’s okay with her. The baby is due Jan. 11.
Ari says she got pregnant during a three-month relationship she had before she moved back home. The baby’s father, she says, has not been involved with the pregnancy. He questioned whether the baby was his, she says. She doesn’t expect he’ll be present for the birth.
After her sonogram, Ari had a checkup with a nurse midwife. Her last appointment of the day is her first appointment to begin outpatient treatment for her addiction to methamphetamine.
August 27, 2013
Simone calls friends to socialize. She lost her job, Carol says, because she stopped showing up. Simone says that’s because she changed her mind about working and decided school is more important. She is enrolled in classes to get her high school diploma at Nine Star Education & Employment Services in Anchorage. Carol says Simone’s behavior becomes more manic and social just before a relapse in her addiction to methamphetamine. A few months earlier, Simone made an agreement with a counselor; she said she would enter a residential treatment program if she relapsed again.
Originally published May 3, 2014 by Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage Daily News.