Submitted by Sheryce

Late last night my 2 month old daughter was taken into foster care.

She was born 4 weeks early weighing 7lbs 9oz and was discharged from the hospital with a light heart murmur and jaundice but otherwise in good health.

After a few weeks, she wasn't gaining weight even though she was eating. (I breastfed) So we were at the doctor 3-4 times a week since she was born getting her weight re-checked and speaking with lactation consultants and physicians.

2 weeks ago (she was 6 weeks) one of her doctors admitted her to the hospital for monitoring. We spent 2 weeks living in that hospital with her feeding her around the clock and having weight checks twice a day. She gained, lost, gained, then lost again. She got up to 9lbs 1oz and when she was discharged she weighed 8lbs 6oz. but the doctors felt she was ok to leave because the bottom line was, she gained weight.
Well CPS came to the hospital a couple days before we left and said we needed to find someone to come live with us for up to 45 days because we were being accused of not feeding our child. So I called a friend of mine from back home in Illinois (we're in NC) and she took off work and spent the money to fly out immediately. She was checked out by CPS and given the go ahead to come out here to stay with us to monitor how we feed her at home.

Well the day after she got here we had a safety meeting at the DSS agency where we were told that she no longer was approved because she didn't have kids of her own. Ok, understandable. We gave them a couple that lives on base (we're military) and have a 5 month old child. They approved them at first but that lasted only a few hours. They denied them for "unknown reasons".

Now it's a few days before Christmas and not many people are able to just drop their family or their lives to come live with us for an undetermined amount of time. We were given a short amount of time to come up with as many names as possible. But no one we know is willing or able to come out here. We live over 1000 miles away from home and not everyone has the money to drop on an immediate flight out here.

We have documentation showing just how often we went to the doctor and how often we had to get her blood drawn for her bilirubin testing (for the jaundice). I went to her doctor's office and requested her ENTIRE medical file since the day she was born. I asked for every doctor note and nurses name that weighed her and on what days. I showed this to CPS but they don't care now that my husband and I are proving them very wrong.

We now are spending Christmas trying to find a lawyer able to take our case over the holiday and selling my car to pay for the lawyer.