Friday, June 19, 2009

In my email

My name is Jennifer, I am writing in response to your blog. I have a story about CPS that you should hear, see when I was born I had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, my mother was an alcoholic. Cps spent almost two years pulling my brother and me from her care from what I am told. (A lot about our case is sealed for unknown reasons)

my brother whom is older and I went through the foster care system from the age of 2 to the age of 10 I was put in home after home, they tried to separate us and I kept standing my ground he was the only family I had left the only person I trusted, well after a long string of homes we were sent to a home in Oregon of the people who adopted us, My father is a great man and I love and respect him with all that I am. Our adoptive mother was strict and bordered abuse but all in all I turned out OK my brother was given back up to the state when he was 14. after I became an adult I left home and started my own family and within two years I had a son and a daughter, their father was abusive and I turned to those I had been raised to trust CPS ( in Florida) and they took my kids saying I was an alcoholic and my record now mirrors my real mothers. To date I have lost four children to the state one they gave back to her father (here in Texas) who sexually abused her and never charged him, they let him go. I am still fighting just to see her; I refuse to allow them to get me down so I am writing a book called
"Guilty by blood"

I had to give my youngest son up for adoption so I wouldn't lose him to the state. when they accused me of being a drug addict and alcoholic I had proof that I didn't do drugs and I am allergic to alcohol further more I am a security officer and have been one for over 6 years they told me that job was too dangerous to be a single mother.

I am attaching a poem I wrote called damaged goods its how us foster kids feel waiting to be adopted and I appreciated your ear and I pray somehow this story helps someone!
God bless
Jennifer


We have all read the poem “ A child learns what he lives”

Well here is a story for your mind.

Imagine a large tall building that reaches well into the sky, it spans the size of

several city blocks, It's stone facade creating shadows on all that

sits in it's path. Windows that are small covered in bars, dark shades

pulled tight. The title on the Building up so high no one can see.

You get a eerie feeling looking at it's menacing structure, upon entering it's

jail like doors you come upon a foyer large and rather plain. The receptionist

looks as if she hasn't seen the sun in 25 years, her face pelted

with frown lines, so bad that you aren't sure she has ever smiled.

Walking further down a narrow hall you see a sign plain and brown on the wall

that simply states “showroom --->”. you come upon a large set of double

doors dark and guarded by two men who check your identification and

open the doors, a haunting groan is heard as the doors open.

You enter a large room with shelves in neat rows each labeled

the first one you see says “ babies ages newborn to 12 months , race white or other”

your heart sinks as you feel a sick knotting feeling in the pit of your stomach.

You walk closer and begin to see exactly what the sign described each child

looks healthy and beautiful. But their eyes seem to show their

pain. As you round the first corner you see another shelf with a sign

labeled “ Clearance “ and you see children that are half grown

you see their questioning face knowing they are trying their best to look

the best and be the best deal for your money.

Now that is what the foster care system is like to the children who live in it....

And if some of us children are real lucky we

get a break and find a shopper willing to by damaged goods..

Thanks Jennifer, You rock!

LK

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:29 AM

    It has always been my hope that someday the children taken by CPS ( for whatever reason ) would stand together and sue each agency in thier own states. Because no matter the reason they were taken the children have a right to be treated as humans not cattle moved from one holding pen to the next. CPS from the beginning was poorly designed and has been horribly managed. The amount of class action lawsuits at that point would stop the system. Children who are taken by a government agency for whatever reason for any amount of time, deserve to be protected even if that means form the agency itself. So often I hear former foster children say, I was one of the lucky ones, I was only in two or three bad homes. The rest were OK, why is ok good enough. Why were they ever sent to the bad homes to begin with? There are no standards, there is no care, there is no love. When you look at a child and see money, as many foster parents do, as many social workers do, change cannot and will not happen. Jennifer's story needs to be told, Her brother's story needs to be told. Thousands of foster children have stories that need to be told, they only need the place to do so.

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  2. Anonymous1:19 AM

    I agree with Anonymous. My mother was abused by a man when I was a teen, which in fact was detrimental to her getting custody of my children. Why? It wasn't her fault. She did get rid of him, did she not. Although we were never involved in the system.

    My two daughters are seperated. I signed my rights away for an open adoption in which I was suppose to get visits. Well, DCF blocked that. I am grateful that our parents get to see them, but I always wonder if I would ever see them again. Furthermore, I wonder if they would sue the system for getting taken away? My oldest has already been brainwashed and my youngest has no clue.

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  3. Anonymous3:41 PM

    The problem with being able to sue them is that our case fell in two and possably more states and in both the states i know of our file is seal under court order i have to fight to get them opened and that is futil at best cause one state already told me they don't " keep " records that old.
    I am jennifer and i understand more then most people the real horror of CPS they have taken my family from me more than once, I am paying for my real mothers mistakes and i don't drink, i don't do drugs. But no amount of proof will clear my name. My children are growing up and I will never see them grow up. It's not the slander of my name if courts that i can't handle it's the fact that out there i have a 12 and a 11 year old daughter and son i haven't seen in almost ten years, they are what haunts my memory and what drives me to finish this book for if i can put a small dent in the system then change may happen.

    I lived my childhood being told what to wear to impress people what to say to make them want to adopt me and as an adult i refuse to bend to what society calls " playing the game" it's a fools game and CPS are the fools at it. Its all a horrible misunderstanding they tell adult foster kids ( those of us who actually make it to adulthood) but they don't tell the public of how little girls are raped in their care and how they " refuse to step into " a abuse cituation after a child has already been in the system. i pray that someday it will be true in my favorite song by
    Billy ray cyrus he sings a line of how " ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"
    it's on his storm in the heartland album that got me through the abuse i endured as a child and i say abuse because our adoptive mother was abusive my father wasn't i watched him work two jobs to support all the kids my mom wanted he genuinly loves us all. He is a Shining example of the foster parents.... He was a foster parent for over 20 years and if not for him i wouldn't be who i am today...

    to all my babies i love you always and forever!
    JENNIFER

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