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Two More Weeks
Newborn Meggie came into foster care because her mother tried to sell her. Meggie had seven illegal substances in her blood stream. When the attempted baby sale was stopped, the mother threatened to kill her and the hospital staff that intervened, “If I don’t get my payday, no one else can! I’ll kill her before you can have her. I’ll kill all of you!”
Meggie was the sixth child born to a crack addicted felon who didn’t have custody of her other children. Any sane person could see that the parental rights should be immediately terminated with no attempts made at reunification. Meggie bonded to our family, like any new baby would, and we were all set to adopt her. Then the judge on the case ordered her moved from our home when she was five and a half months old to be nearer the woman who tried to sell her so that they could be reunited, though the mother was in prison (again) at the time. Two weeks from now, this same judge will decide Baby J’s fate.
J’s case is horrific. I keep a lot of the details to myself, but those in the system who are privy to them wonder why they even tried to reunite him with a birth parent in the first place. Policy said they shouldn't. The …
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Another Family Torn Apart
I hardly slept last night. It wasn’t because I went to bed at midnight, or that I had to get up so early to get my boys from the airport. It wasn’t even the newborn squeaking hungrily every so often from the bassinet beside my bed. I couldn’t get my mind to stop replaying the scenes of the day, scenes of heartbreak and loss.
That evening I picked up a newborn from the hospital, not that unusual for foster parents, but this case is different. This baby is the brother of our other foster baby, and over the last months I have come to know the birth mother very well. The day after the new baby was born I brought Baby J to visit them in the hospital. Bonnie was so pleased and proud. She posted a hundred pictures of him. She hugged and cuddled, nursed and fussed over little Jason. We had all waited to see if CPS would intervene, and it appeared they were going to hold off and allow Bonnie to try to parent.
When they called me yesterday morning to say they were getting a court order to take the baby I cried. This baby coming into foster care is a guarantee of heartbreak. Heartbreak for Bonnie as her baby is wrenched from her. Heartbreak for a baby who can sense …