The Battle

It was a Thursday and the very last day of school on June 24,2021. Kids were spending the day with their grandmother who they had not seen in over 6years and had come to visit from Washington State for a few days. Little did we know, that on this particular day, would be the day our lives changed for the worst.

It started with a CPS report in April earlier in the year, reporting that my 10 year old daughter was not being given her medication from the school saying my husband and I were refusing to give it to her. That however was not the case. My daughter has ADHD and takes medication for it but sometimes she refuses to take it because it taste yucky. Understandable.

So on the days my daughter would procrastinate and refuse to take it, she would still end up going to school without it. Well the school counselor, made a report saying that we refused to give it to her, even after our daughter had tried to explain that she didn't like taking it.

So....Cps comes in we explain the real situation and my daughter, being her smart little self, even tells the CPS worker that she had refused to take it and why. The lady was very kind and very understanding and did help us tell our daughter that she did need to take it. Even if it taste yucky, she still needed to take it.

That worked for a couple weeks with still some refusing from her but did end up taking it after some convincing. Another week goes by and we enter into the month of May and the CPS report that was made the month prier, was almost closed.

Before the case could close, the counselor had the idea to then interrogate my daughter at school about her past trauma of being molested in kindergarten at 5-6years old and decided to use that to her advantage and then accused my daughter, telling her, that she thinks she is touching her little brother. My daughter looked at her with confusion and disgust, said "No I'm not, why would I touch him, that is my little brother. That is gross." The counselor then proceeded over the next couple days, calling my daughter into her office and kept saying that she was touching her little brother to the point that my daughter had had enough and said "ok fine whatever, I'm touching him, since you won't believe what I'm saying, believe what you want." Not knowing what was to come next, the counselor then said she had to let CPS know. My daughter freaked out and said "No don't do that!" counselor responded "I have to, you just told me you were touching your brother" My daughter says "that's because you wouldn't believe me when I told you I wasn't. I was getting upset that you keep asking me all these questions so I said I was! Please don't call them!"

After this day, CPS shows up again with this added report and my husband and I look at each other just as confused and asked her who told her that. Of course she couldn't disclose that information so we asked our daughter why CPS has a report saying that she "admitted" to something like this and my daughter says "that was why the counselor called me in every other day to "talk" to her", using her fingers as quotations, "and ask me a whole bunch of questions if I was touching my brother and I told her I wasn't but she kept saying that I was so I blew up and said "'fine whatever, you win I am touching him'" My daughter started crying saying she was sorry, "I didn't know what else to say mom, I got mad because she wouldn't believe me."

My husband and I were furious that is had happened at her school. And for the counselor to have done such a thing to a child to where that child has to tell a lie about touching her younger sibling after repeatedly saying that they were not was beyond questionable, as a counselor, as to what her intentions were and the outcome it would have on everyone involved.

From then on, my husband and I had formed a safety plan with everyone that was involved in and knew about, they were very accepting that we were taking this seriously. If it really was happening, we were determined to stop it. We explained to the children that they were not to play in each other's rooms anymore and that their room was only for them to go in (besides me and daddy when we clean) we set up cameras in each of the children's rooms, had door alarms put on each of their doors, set up to each their own sound to tell who was going in and out of their rooms, we put a baby gate up on our daughter's door to prevent her brother from going in her room ( he would go in there during the night to sleep with her because I was trying to get him to stop having me sleep with him every night due to separation anxiety), we would supervise the children at all times they were together regardless of what we were doing if there was a confrontation while they were playing, (obviously there was because they are siblings and rivalry comes along with it) and last, put the children in counseling.

For our daughter, it was easy to get her in because she had been in the counseling system before and could get a referral for her, her bother on the other had, was a little more complicated. We were not able to get a referral for him because he had never been to counseling before so he had to go though the intake process that took almost a month. The first intake appointment we were told to wait 2 weeks and if we did not get a phone call to call them back and schedule the second intake appointment because that will be the one that sets him up with a counselor.

Unfortunately, we never made it to that second appointment that was scheduled the first week of July 2021. Both kids were taken before our son could even have a chance at getting a counselor. and the excuse for taking the children is: Not following the safety plan, Not supervising the children properly, Not getting them into counseling, Taking too long to get one child into counseling.

That one child being our son who did not have a referral so it took longer then planned and when trying to explain that, we were shot down and the blame was put on us for not having our son seeing a counselor soon enough.

We had everything in place and plus another plan for the summer where our daughter would be going to summer camp and our son to summer school. WE DID:

1: Follow the Safety Plan and was in effect

2: Children were ALWAYS being watched

AND

3:Children were in counseling, one still in the process.

That didn't matter the this CPS worker who was not the same one from the first visit and also had a past case with a family member a couple years prior and she made it her goal to get our children taken because she didn't succeed with our family members kids and lied to her supervisor about everything we were working hard to achieve by saying our children were at risk.

After they enter Foster Care, our children tried to run away. They knew where home was and tried to come back. This however, sent my daughter into a mental hospital claiming she was suicidal because she ran into traffic trying to get back home and my son into a second foster home where 2 little boys held a knife his throat and threatened to kill him, he is currently in a children's home (orphanaream) where he has lost a lot of body fat. Gained 2 pounds in the 5 months he was taken.

My daughter, after she was released from the mental hospital a few weeks later, enter her 3rd placement with a woman who was deemed unsafe in the coming weeks spent with her. The foster mom put her hands on my daughter and because of that, my daughter told me exactly where she was, what floor and across from what building in case something serious happened. Later she was moved to her 4th placement that she is currently in. She says the family is a lot nicer and buys her things she needs ( which I truly appreciate them for taking such good care of her)

My husband and I are still fighting to get them back but the courts are being ridiculously stubborn saying that even returning one child home with be a risk to their health but yet my children have moved around from place to place since the day they were taken, my daughter missed 2 doctors appointments for her controlled medication and my son was never enrolled in counseling until the second week of November 2021. Everything that was said to be done with my children and the promises of them being taken care of was not and is not being fulfilled.

We will continue to fight until both children are home safe and sound! Even my daughter told the CPS worker the day she was taken, that she was safe and that they were taking her from her safe place, that they were taking her from her home. The CPS worker just shrugged her shoulders and said "I am just making sure that you are safe." my daughter replies " I am safe! Why don't you get that?!" the CPS worker just shrugged again, smiling as if she had not a care in the world. No remorse that this was traumatizing the children. Just "doing her job" as she put it.

The fight still continues into January 2022 that the next court date will happen. I will never agree to the neglect charges placed upon us because our children had everything they needed, a roof over their head, clothes on their backs and food in their tummies. We are very loving parents that were targeted, had our amendments violated and all our rights were violated as parents and never once given a talk about a family being able to take the children to prevent going into foster care.

Once this case is closed and both children are home safe and sound, I will post the said the report that was reworded by the CPS worker who took my precious children and explain along the way on what was really said and done....until next time....Thank you.