My child was taken December 8, 2009 based on several reports I had made from about 2 years prior. Our living situation was too stressful and I had failed to move us into a better one because of financial fears and I still saw my parents as a necessary support. I had signed over custody because of an alcohol relapse on the advice of a Christian councilor. There was no CPS involvement at that time. But I was still her primary care-giver. I was trying, un-successfully, to cope with conflict and bickering between my parents and I. I did my best to sheild my daughter from the stress, but she kept displaying defiant behavior and would yell at us when we fought. I always thought she was more mature than us, sadly. She was always at the top of the power structure. I don't deny she was neglected in that way. I took parenting classes and brought her to a therapist, unprompted, who said my parents and I were the ones that needed therapy. I self reported all the times I had physically aggressed on my daughter and tried to address my own brief period of childhood traumas with my father, (who stopped drinking years ago). The case was closed. About 2 years later my daughter was taken when I was in the hospital with complications from a prolonged intubation. I had asked a family friend and my uncle and his wife to intervene in such a case, but for whatever reasons, they did not. My daughter, Heighley, was taken from the home when she was found wandering outside in her pajamas and my parents where asleep late on a Saturday morning.
She was transitioned to a family that became foster parents for the sole reason of adopting her almost immediately. The CPS team encouraged the foster mother to act as a councilor to my daughter and talk about me and about what had happened. They took her to Sea World, (glad she got to go). They also started having her call them Dad and Mommy Suzi and refer to the rest of the family as her siblings and her grandmother almost immediately.
Now I'm branded dangerous and mentally challenged even though I've done just fine by myself in my own clean apartment and have been financially responsible for almost 2 years. Despite having to have major surgery on my trachea and losing all contact with my daughter and not having a support system.
I'm working on rebuilding relationships with my relatives and they were more than happy to help. I took excellent care of a high-risk pregnancy. My doctors said they were impressed that I was able to achieve such tight blood sugar control during the pregnancy... which is extremely difficult for a brittle, type 1 diabetic even when they are not pregnant.
They took my son, claiming I'd never be able to take care of myself, that my daughter was severely abused, severely traumatized, doesn't want a thing to do with me. She was happy and giggling, talking about her newly pierced ears last time we spoke. She said she was proud of me. I told her I was proud of her too.
Now she doesn't want to talk to my parents either. That's a recent change. And they were never accused of any abuse.
They claimed I was prescription shopping. That was easily disproven. They claimed I used drugs 2 weeks ago. I requested a hair-strand test. They say my wanting to sign out of the hospital AMA makes me dangerous to myself and others when I only wanted to sign into the other hospital where I could have my son with me while I was there. They say it makes me negligent I even left him with my parents even though I had no choice because my life was threatened. But I had family and doulas that spent hours at the house the three days I was away. They took him on October 15th on these bogus charges and are keeping him based on the past, which I am not aloud to bring up because It's "in the past" when I bring it up. The policeman I called witnessed me giving a diaper bag full of his things to the CPS worker who picked him up, but they say I didn't provide anything for him. They've already decided he should be adopted out. I'm scared.
this is absolutely factual. This kind of thing happens all the time in Arizona because any social service is under-funded ... always has been that way... But, now there is a child abuse epidemic here and some children are sent home to abusive homes, some are taken away because mandated reporters have been known to embellish and sometimes just make up things... because they are convinced that is what they have to do to keep a child safe based on wrong information... It's a mess. In Pima County, where I live, at risk children are sleeping in CPS office buildings and if you google CPS and Arizona you'll find several cases of children being abused while they are in foster care by the foster parents... Kid's have been murdered by foster parents... that's no exaggeration.
The child protective service is child abusive service. Period.
Child protective service is child abusive service.