It has been a long time since I blogged about my children and I's involuntary involvement with San Bernardino County Child Protective Services. I originally chose not to blog for a while because of the fear I had of retribution but while I can't go into names and details, what I have decided is to share the knowledge that I have gathered through this process. Once our case is closed, then I will get into more specifics and tell the real story behind the victimization of our family.
I did get my 3 children back on February 24, 2011. My children were forced to submit to a medical examination and an interrogation at the forensic center in our county in order to verify that they had never been abused in any way. We were scheduled to go to court on the 24th for yet another hearing and frankly, we didn't have much hope of our children being returned to us. My husband and I were at the CPS office for our scheduled supervised visitation with our youngest son when we got the news that our children were coming home. Our caseworker came out into the parking lot to let us know that we were not only getting our children back but that the case against us was being dropped and Keith could move back home. The emotions that ran through me were so intense that I thought I was going to faint. We could barely sleep that night knowing that the following day was going to be the end of the nightmare we were dealing with. Then we went to court.
Our caseworker had full intention of returning our children and dropping the case. Unfortunately, her attorney, whom had almost no knowledge of the case felt that he was the resident expert and refused to allow the case to be dropped. Not only did he refuse to let the case be dropped, he was standing in the courthouse hallway yelling at our caseworker within inches of her face and in front of everyone sitting there. Obviously professionalism isn't his strong suit. After hours of negotiations, the final judgement was that my children were returned to me with the understanding that Keith cannot live in our home with us and could only be around the children if he was supervised by either myself or my inlaws. We left the courthouse disappointed that the case wasn't dropped but with renewed hope since we were on our way to pick up our children!
We picked up our children at the CPS office at 4 p.m. Our babies immediately ran straight to their Dad whom they hadn't been allowed to see since they were taken on January 31st. When Matthew, our toddler, was brought in, my heart fell. The entire side of his face was bruised and we were told that he had been attacked by a dog. My 23 month old baby was attacked by a dog while in foster care!!!!!!! Not only had he been attacked by an animal, apparently nobody thought that an infant taking enough of a hit to the head to cause that kind of bruising, should be taken to get medical treatment. I was furious that my baby had been hurt but relieved to put him in my car and leave. Matthew was still just as sick as he had been when they had taken them nearly a month before. A few days after he came home, we took him to the doctor and found out that he had developed pnemonia from lack of medical care while in foster care. His lungs are most likely permanently scarred.
We chose to contest the charges against us for obvious reasons. Neither of us are guilty of anything and we refuse to just accept that the social workers and courts are right in what they have done to us. We were victimized by a jealous ex and her mentally ill kids and we refuse to allow their lies to take us down without a fight. Our trial date is set for Wednesday. We had to go to court last Thursday for a final hearing before the trial and found out that the county is paying to fly the ex and her kids out here to testify against us. Well, testify against Keith really. The irony in this is they lied to harm us and now they get yet ANOTHER free trip to California to see their family out here. We were given a whopping 6 days to prepare for this and while I still gag at the thought of looking at those disgusting losers, I look forward to dealing with this and facing it down. I am not one to cower when attacked. I am ready to hold my head high and handle this for the sake of my children, my husband, and for everyone else who has ever been falsely accused of abuse by psychopaths.
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