The state was happy to give Amanda custody. She was in a stable marriage, lived in a good neighborhood, and had references from Sam, Helen, and half the bar. Plus, they wouldn't have to pay anything.

It threw them for a loop when I asked where her social security money was. No one had filed it. I got a lawyer and he did the paperwork. When it was settled, they had to give all the money she was due for the last eight years to her, to us actually, as guardians. She also got seven hundred a month until she was eighteen.

We put it into a college fund. She...