Finally A Visit
Yesterday we had our first CPS visit to the house in almost a month. Our initial social worker dropped by to tell us that he had closed out his investigation and was transferring our case over to another department. When the new social worker is assigned, they will call us and set up a meeting with us to go over our case and discuss what steps we will need to take in order to have this situation finished and closed out and our kids back home with us.
So now we wait. We wait for the next meeting. We wait to find out what kind of "services"we will "need to take advantage of" in order to get our kids back. This basically means we will need to take parenting classes and protective parenting classes so that we can be taught how not to injure our kids. We will most likely have to get a psychological evaluation before this is all said and done.
I'm not really sure how to react to all of this news. Weldon and I will do whatever it takes to get our kids back. Even if it means being humiliated and belittled by the very agency that has ignored us up until now. They were so concerned about the safety of our kids that they never checked up on us. Never interviewed anyone close to us. They basically formed an opinion based on 1, yes 1, doctor's opinion after a 10 minute exam of Sebastian that did not include any kind of medical history other than his current injury.
In the meantime, Weldon and I are still not allowed to be alone with our kids. We still have to find somewhere else to sleep at night. My parents have to remain here in Austin with us indefinitely at this point. (They love being able to spend time with the kids but the not knowing is really beginning to get to them. ) Weldon's parents give up their weekends to come down and help my parents out, so that they can get out and take a break. Then of our parents are taking care of an aging parent, so my family has to make sure my 92 year old grandfather has someone at home to take care of him and Weldon's parents have to make sure that his 86 year old grandmother is getting the medical care she needs. We are thankful for their continued Love and support and help. We have the most amazing families.
We have no idea how long this next phase will take but hopefully we will get some of these restrictions removed very quickly. I don't have any real hope that it will be a quick resolution. Nothing CPS does is quick, unless of course it's taking your kids away. Then they are moving at lightning speed. They say that they are an agency devoted to keeping families together but I just don't see how that is possible. They are overworked. Understaffed and inadequately trained. They also don't have any motivation to return kids to their families. Their main motivation as far as I've seen is to take kids out of situations, not get them back to a normal existence.
The system is broken and I don't think that there is any hope to being able to fix it. The problem is a National issue and the only time people care about this issue is at election time or when some poor unfortunate kids is killed or lost while in the system.
My heart breaks for every family that is having to go through this nightmare. It's more common than anyone thinks and none of us are really safe. All it takes is 1 doctor saying that an injury was caused by abuse or neglect and you find yourself lost in the same system that is supposed to help keep families together.
So now we wait. We wait for the next meeting. We wait to find out what kind of "services"we will "need to take advantage of" in order to get our kids back. This basically means we will need to take parenting classes and protective parenting classes so that we can be taught how not to injure our kids. We will most likely have to get a psychological evaluation before this is all said and done.
I'm not really sure how to react to all of this news. Weldon and I will do whatever it takes to get our kids back. Even if it means being humiliated and belittled by the very agency that has ignored us up until now. They were so concerned about the safety of our kids that they never checked up on us. Never interviewed anyone close to us. They basically formed an opinion based on 1, yes 1, doctor's opinion after a 10 minute exam of Sebastian that did not include any kind of medical history other than his current injury.
In the meantime, Weldon and I are still not allowed to be alone with our kids. We still have to find somewhere else to sleep at night. My parents have to remain here in Austin with us indefinitely at this point. (They love being able to spend time with the kids but the not knowing is really beginning to get to them. ) Weldon's parents give up their weekends to come down and help my parents out, so that they can get out and take a break. Then of our parents are taking care of an aging parent, so my family has to make sure my 92 year old grandfather has someone at home to take care of him and Weldon's parents have to make sure that his 86 year old grandmother is getting the medical care she needs. We are thankful for their continued Love and support and help. We have the most amazing families.
We have no idea how long this next phase will take but hopefully we will get some of these restrictions removed very quickly. I don't have any real hope that it will be a quick resolution. Nothing CPS does is quick, unless of course it's taking your kids away. Then they are moving at lightning speed. They say that they are an agency devoted to keeping families together but I just don't see how that is possible. They are overworked. Understaffed and inadequately trained. They also don't have any motivation to return kids to their families. Their main motivation as far as I've seen is to take kids out of situations, not get them back to a normal existence.
The system is broken and I don't think that there is any hope to being able to fix it. The problem is a National issue and the only time people care about this issue is at election time or when some poor unfortunate kids is killed or lost while in the system.
My heart breaks for every family that is having to go through this nightmare. It's more common than anyone thinks and none of us are really safe. All it takes is 1 doctor saying that an injury was caused by abuse or neglect and you find yourself lost in the same system that is supposed to help keep families together.
posted by Weldon & Martinique at 7:25 AM
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