By Yvonne

Thanks to Yvonne for submitting her story.  If anybody can offer some direction, please do so in the comments section below.

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I don't even know where to start concerning children services. I had temporary custody of my then 4yr old grandson and his 4 month old sister due to their mother not following court ordered rules and leaving her drug rehab center. This was the second time that the kids were taken from her.

Let me start from the beginning, in february the mother gave birth to another child on a friday, on Sunday I get a call from the mom saying dfs was there to take the kids because she tested positive for drugs in her system, her mom was there with her but couldn't have the kids because of a hotline call on her years ago that was never substantiated, so I talk to the caseworker while I'm trying to get to my son's house (he my grandson's dad) to help him get his apartment clean for an inspection by the caseworker since he'll have temporary custody of his son and I'll be taking a 3 day old baby home with me, well the caseworker asks a few questions about my background and then tells me to head to the hospital to pick up the baby because they were being discharged that day, now the mom was still allowed supervised visitation with the children ( i couldn't let her out of my sight while she was with her children).

To the chagrin of me and my son: In march they give her back custody of the children (there were so many other issues besides the drugs that made her an unfit mother), but the caseworkers felt since she was following all her court ordered requirements to regain custody they really had no reason to keep the kids from her.

Fast forward to May and I get a call to be ready to take the kids again, but this time I have both children because the judge deemed paternity needed to established for both fathers before they could have visitation, now paternity tests were suppose to have been ordered back in march and here it is May and guess what no paternity tests have been ordered yet," why you ask what takes so long to get the tests ordered?"

well if they can keep one caseworker on the case long enough to get things done and stop playing merrygoround with the caseworkers, maybe something could get done, in the 4 months that we had to deal with this issue, there has been 3 different caseworkers.

Back to my story, so May 3rd I picked the kids up with the social worker at the in patient rehab center the mother has been staying (did i mention that the kids were allowed to stay there with her while she went through rehab classes), the mother has no ideal we're coming to get the kids until we get there (they like for the other moms to see social services come and remove children from their mothers to drive a point home).

I feel bad for the mom but she knows the kids will be taken care of by me.  I have the kids and she's allowed a couple of visits with the children, the baby can spend the night but the 4yr old cannot, things are going find for a couple of weeks until the mother decides she can't take the rehab center anymore and walks away,  of course she backslides and proceeds to tell the court the truth, so she's ordered back to rehab but she won't go, so now her visitations are revoked.

In June is when all hell breaks loose, I get a call from the caseworker that there was a report that the mom was seen with the baby girl, I say no, the baby is here with me, well she was seen pushing a stroller and I say what does that have to do with anything," do you have any ideal how many friends this girl has, that could of been anybody's baby", so unless whoever made the report that they actually saw the baby, then they're wrong", she says okay, then 3 weeks later I get another call stating the same thing, but this time she won't give me any info as to what the complaint stated, just told me they were coming to pick the kids up and I would have to address the issue at the next court date.

By this time I'm so angry  I can't see straight, how dare they paint me guilty without even investigating the claim, they just went by hearsay and came and snatched the kids. Me and my son go to court 2 weeks later. of course the mother didn't show, so the judge addresses us and my son states he's the father of one of the children, the judge states she doesn't have any info on him, how the hell is that possible? he was given temp custody in Feb. and she asked about him a few times in court when he couldn't attend and I even told the judge his job was not conducive to giving him time off to attend court (he wasn't required to attend, this was drug court for the mom), but now all of a sudden you don't have any info on him! what kind of micky mouse court are they running?

So she tells him until paternity is established he can't have any visits with his son and tells the caseworker to put in the request for the test, hmmm you mean the same paternity test that should have been completed by now considering it's now June and this has been ongoing since Feb.

We leave the court room and I asked the caseworker what about me? I THOUGHT I would get to plead my case against the false allegation, the caseworker proceeds to tell me that the judge says I have to become a foster parent to get the kids back, SAY WHAT?  I have to be a foster parent to get my own grandchild back in my custody and then she states that means I'll have to get my own place (I'm staying with a friend a the moment), now I'm contemplating all this in my head and I asked her how did they come to that consensus and she says that's just what the judge ordered, so I asked her can I see some court ordered paperwork stating that requirement and she says she doesn't have any paperwork stating that, well I asked if its court ordered should there be something in writing and she just stands there looking lost, so I say I'm going back upstairs and ask the judge myself and she says okay, well we have to go back through security and she doesn't and I watch her high tail it up the stairs before me, by the time we make it upstairs she's out of breathe and states the judge is in a meeting and the judge said she didn't have to put it in writing, so I tell her she's lying and I walk off before I punch her in the face and ruin any chance of getting the kids back.

I didn't make the last court date because I can't trust my anger with this caseworker and again the mother didn't show, I do believe she doesn't care to get her kids back, but I do.My son finally got the paternity test done on Aug.15th so now we just wait for the results and see what happens. In the meantime I'm just worried about my grandson and what this has done to his mental state, it was bad enough when he kept asking to see his mom and he had me, but now he's with total strangers, tell me how that's helpful to him in any way.

I could go on, but I feel my anger boiling up again. If there's anyone who can offer any kind of advice it would be greatly appreciated.