Child Protective Services review: Heartless 1

On 8/22/08 I became ill during the night and almost died. My 6 yr old son noticed the problem and went next door to get a neighbor and call 911. I was taken to the hospital where I lay on a ventilator, nearly comatose for two days. That night, CPS took my children, who were already scared and worried, and placed them with a foster home. They never tried to contact my husband. It was not until my husband got to the hospital that he was informed about what was going on with the kids. A few days later, we were able to have the kids placed with a family friend. While I was in the hospital they held a meeting with my husband asking him to keep our kids in 'voluntary care' so that he could attend to me and aid in my recovery. He agreed based on what he was told by the caseworker that they would return our kids after my recovery. The caseworked came and saw me in the hospital for 20 minutes to sign some papers and told me he would call me later, because he had to leave for another appointment. I was discharged over Labor Day weekend. Neither my husband or I heard back from him for five days. When we did get some news, it was in the form of papers telling us that they were now taking us to court and the kids were now in temporary custody. We called the lady our kids were with and found out from her that our visitation had been revoked. Today we finally had a meeting with the caseworked and his supervisor and were told that this was happening because they felt I tried to [censored], a history of domestic violence, and neglect. They are bringing up things from several years ago in order to keep our children. We also found out that they switched our son's school without notifying us or the actual school. We are a military familly. My husband had been on orders, and was deployed for three months. He was able to come home on emergency leave. Now, he can't see his kids that he had been missing for all that time. And in turn, they can't see thier daddy that had been gone for awhile. Our 3 yr old daughter was fully potty trained and has now reverted beck to diapers due to the stress. They cry for us to take them home. This situation is causing stress on our marriage and my health, and we are worried about how this is going to affect our kids. CPS has ripped our family apart and doesn't seem to care about the actual people involved or our feelings and emotions. Bianca Vail, AZ