In March of 2010 I left my house for a total of 3 hours. In it were my daughter Evie, she was a month away from being 2, my fiancee who had recently moved in, his two children whom were 1 and 2 at the time, and a 17 year old girl whom had been staying with me off and on for about a month.
I returned home around 11pm that night and the toddlers were all sleeping as they were when I left (Evie in her own room and his children in mine since they were not yet used to the house.) My fiancee was also asleep and awoke barely when I got home. I peeked in Evie's room and saw that she was in her bed sound asleep, and I went to bed as well. The 17year old had gone home at some point.
In the morning my step children awoke first, waking me and my fiancee up, he got up and went to class, I stayed with the 3 babies. About 10 minutes after he left Evie also woke up, she came and opened her door like every morning, I heard her sleepy little voice asking for cereal. I came from the right side and picked her up, kissed her cheek and sat her on the couch with the other two... Then I saw it.
The left side of my baby girl's face, and I mean the entire left side, was purple and black and swollen beyond your nightmares. Her eye was swollen shut and her ear was disfigured. I took a step back and burst into tears, I asked her over and over what happened and she just said, calmly, "Evie got owies" and didn't appear to understand how. In fact, she hugged me and asked me what was wrong. That was when it kicked in, she couldn't see mommy scared. I had to be strong like she was, I had to get to the bottom of this. I called my fiancee and he had just gotten to class, I told him to get home immediately. I then called my parents and told them I had no idea how this had happened and asked them to come take us to the hospital. My fiancee showed up first. He reacted exactly as I did, Evie hugged him as well. Then moments later my father showed up and Evie and I were off to the ER. My fiancee stayed with his kids, I told him I'd call as soon as I knew anything.
In the ER the nurses took Evie from my arms and placed her in a separate room. A DHS worker and 2 police officers came to my room. The police had me write a statement, the case worker told me that I had done this or I knew how it had happened and was lying. She told me I would never see my daughter again and I was the worst human being on the planet basically. I was in shock still. I told them over and over where I was and who was at my house. No one seemed to believe me.
Workers and police also went to my house, they took my step kids into custody since they were in the home during the incident. They'd taken Evie as well. My fiancee and I spent nearly 5 hours that day being questioned by the police. He said he had been working in the back yard. Which he had. He was making a barb-q pit. So he had left the 17 year old in the house by herself for most of the night. She left as soon as he came back in without saying a word. He thought nothing of it and went to bed.
One week later we took polygraph tests. She failed hers and admitted to all of it. She said Evie had woken up and wanted me and did not want to go back to sleep. She'd pushed her down on the kitchen floor on the left side of her face and her left arm. The doctor said that the story matched the bruising. (It luckily was just busing, Evie was fully healed less than a month later and continues to thrive.)
You'd think DHS would have closed the case then.
You'd be very wrong. I lost custody of Evie completely to her father due to 'bad judgment of character'. And his two kids remain in foster care. The only reasoning the worker can give us is that there were 'older bruises' on the kids that are unexplained. (There consist of a scrape and tiny bruises on their knees, ect.) From my experience, and that of any parent, all toddlers get those. DHS says they think it's suspicious and will not accept that.
To make it worse; about a week after the girl was arrested I discovered I was pregnant. We asked our case worker over and over if there was any cause to take my son when he was born, they told us no and not to worry. Thus we did not. He was born in December 2010 (he was in perfect health) and just hours after the worker was there and took him into custody as well. The only reason, the 'unexplained' marks on the toddlers from 9 months ago. He was not allowed to stay in the hospital room with me, he was kept in the nurses' station. I am allowed only supervised visits with all of the children to this point. Evie recently turned 3, and my son Connor is almost 6 months old. We have taken parenting classes and counseling and paying child support as requested by DHS, and still no sign that they will allow us to have our babies back.
Might I add that the house is in immaculate condition, we have plenty of food, diapers, toys ect. And the children even would each have their own bed rooms. And we also have tons of witnesses coming fourth that we're great with kids and that I babysit for them on a regular basis.
I thank you all very much for taking the time to read my story. :)
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