The Supervision is lifted

We finally have our letter stating that we are not being charged with Sebastian's injuries. It's a relief to have that in writing. In the letter CPS explains that they cannot list this incident as the accident that it was because they have a signed affidavit from the Doctors saying that Sebastian suffered significant trauma and that there was no way it was an accident. Well, hell we know it was a significant trauma. We were there. We rushed our little bundle of joy to the hospital and prayed day and night that he would pull through. We stayed by his side until CPS banned us from his room.

We know it was most likely a fall he had taken the previous day that most likely caused his injury, that coupled with the vaccine he had received the week before and I think we just got caught in a one and a million scenario that allowed a fall to cause so much injury. I am purely speculating here because no one ever tried to find out exactly what happened to Sebastian.

It makes me angrier than I've ever been, to see how little regard the doctors and nurses, charged with taking care of us, had for us once they believed they were better than us. I don't know how many times we told doctors and nurses that Sebastian had a history of falling. We told them about the vaccine and the information we had found online from Medical Sources. No one believed us or cared. They had made up their mind and they weren't going to investigate any further. It was sheer laziness and a disregard for the general well being of our son that put our family on this path of trials and tribulations.

The quality of care we received was definitely much different than that of the other patients in the PICU. Both doctors and nurses got by with telling us as little as possible. Any questions we had were either dismissed, ignored or answered with the barest of information. CPS never once visited our home or the hospital to check on Sebastian. Here they were making Life and death decisions for our Son and our Family, yet they never had to courage to show up and see if their accusations were well founded or to even see the impact their decisions were making. They made decisions which adversely affected our son without so much as a visit to see what kind of impact their decisions made in our son's recovery. Little Babies should not have to cry for hours and hours on end with no Mom or Dad to comfort them in scary hospital with tubes and electrodes stuck to them. All because some idiot in an office thinks he knows what he's doing.

So yeah, I'm angry and hurt. We all are. But we'll survive. We'll move forward and put all this ugliness behind us. And that's in part to being able to get back to normal. We can finally get back to being a family. My parents can go home and spend some much deserved quality time with each other. They've been flying back and forth for the past 4 months, 1 parent here and the other one taking care of my grandfather in El Paso.

I'll finish my Protective Parenting classes. We'll go through a visit next week and then again in January and hopefully by the end of January the case will be closed. I won't count on that, the State is notoriously slow but it's a target date and it's something to work towards.

Some Good News....finally

Today was a weird day. We got the weirdest good news from CPS.

Back in September, I filed an appeal with the CPS Office stating that we did not agree with their findings and that we wanted a further review and investigation of our case. Well....We finally heard back from them.

I didn't really believe that they would review the case or that anything would come of the appeal but it made Weldon and I feel better. We were able to do something to try and defend ourselves. CPS and the laws don't really give you a whole lot of opportunities to defend yourself so you take any little thing they give you and hope for the best but never really believing anything will change.

We got a call from the Administrative Review Board (ARB) and they are partially changing the findings in our case. After further review, the ARB determined that they did not have enough evidence to charge that Weldon and/or I physically abused or deliberately injured Sebastian. They are removing our names as the perpetrators of the abuse.

The Administrator who called today told us that they didn't have enough evidence to say that we abused Sebastian but that they also didn't have enough evidence to say that we didn't do it. They also have a signed affidavit from 2 of the doctors at Children's Hospital stating that Sebastian's injuries could not have been caused by an accident. Because of this affidavit, Sebastian will still have a CPS record stating that he was the victim of abuse by an unknown perpetrator. The only way this gets removed is if the Doctors who accused us of Child Abuse recant their original findings. We all know that's not going to happen so we take the good with the bad.

Weldon and I are in essence being cleared of abuse charges but the record will still indicate that Sebastian was abused and as a result suffered severe head trauma.

We should be getting our letter in the mail sometime next week detailing this change in our case.
I don't know yet if this will change anything with our current circumstances. I guess we wait to see if they are going to lift the restrictions placed on us and if I still have to go to Protective Parenting classes. I've got 4 classes left, so I might still finish out the classes just because I think the women in this class could use a different point of view. I don't know. I've learned that it's never good to hope for something with CPS. You just take it one day at a time with them otherwise you spend a lot of time crying and getting your heart broken and trampled on over and over again.

This is some good news that was really needed. I'll post again next week after we meet with our CPS caseworker.

Have a good weekend everyone! We're going to say a prayer of thanks and keep on trucking down the path of healing and restoration. It's good to know that faith is still working to bring about good things.

A change of pace....sort of

So, I've decided to keep the blog running. But now instead of concentrating on Sebastian's progress and updates, I'm going to keep you all posted on the latest happenings with our CPS case and the nightmare that has been our lives these past 5 months.

Is it only 5 months....it feels like an eternity.

I'll still post updates on the kids but most of the new posts from here on in will be about the case (the little that I can talk about) and how we're all doing.

CPS still calling the shots

Last week we met with our CPS caseworker. Nothing new. No changes.
It seems that they were taken by surprise that Weldon's Protective Parenting class was finishing up. They were also not prepared for Sebastian's therapy to be over. Basically they weren't prepared to do anything but leave things they way they have been and forget about us for another month.

It's extremely frustrating to do everything that is being asked of us and then being forgotten. We have asked for the supervision to be lifted. We have asked to have them move things along and get the case closer to being resolved. We are still waiting.

The CPS staff review is today and supposedly our caseworker is going to discuss this situation with her supervisor in that meeting. I have very little faith in the system but I can't help but hope and pray that they lift the Supervision restrictions. It's not fair to any of us that we are still living in this state of limbo. I would really love to be able to let my parents stay home together for the holidays. I'm not sure that my mom can handle not having my dad home for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure my dad can handle the added stress that comes with the holidays and being separated. I'm not sure any of us can handle it with all that's been going on the last half of the year.

I'm getting tired of being ignored and forgotten until the end of the month when our caseworker has to visit our kids and see them. By law she has to see the kids at least once every 30 days. So basically we go about our business and then wait for the call that comes about 5 days before the end of the month so that our caseworker can set up a visit with us.

Anyway, we will hopefully get these restrictions lifted soon. I'm not optimistic that it will happen but I hope that it will. Send some positive thoughts our way today. We could really use it.

No more Therapy

Well it is official. Sebastian has been discharged from all of his therapies. We met with the physical and occupational therapists last week and they gave Sebastian the all clear. They say he looks great and that he's doing things that are age appropriate. We can't ask for anything more. Sebastian's motor skills appear to be just fine. The boy is freakishly strong. Add to that his love of climbing and lack of fear and I think I have a Diver or Gymnast on my hands. A mother's heart attacks never end.

We have been done with speech therapy for over a month and in that time Sebastian has added a couple more words to his vocabulary. Of course most of his and Rachel's vocabulary is "Twin Speak". They have been developing more and more of their own language. It's a trip to see them talk to each other and even argue. I can't understand a word they are saying but it's funny to listen to them.

So we now have a very busy household with 2 toddlers walking every which way and then trying to climb whatever they find. If it has a hand hold and a toe hold Sebastian and Rachel will find a way to climb it. Here's the part everyone warned me about. Independence has run amok in the Phillips house and I couldn't be happier.