|
It not for myself. If I can take a few minutes of your time to vent, I ask your indulgence.
My two best friends lost custody of their great grand daughter yesterday, and the whole sordid story is heartbreaking. I'll try and be as brief as possible. Without going into detail, the mother and grandmother of this poor child are habitual drug users and are no strangers to the inside of a jail cell. Thew father of this child served time for child molesdtation and isa only the father through the rape of the biological mother. Enter my friends, Pat and Doug, two very fine people, upstanding in the community and the only solid and stable influence on Sierra (the young girl in question). From the birth of this child, these two people have raised her. The grandmother was serving time in prison and the mother was and still is a meth addict. She isn't interested in help, only using people. She willingly gave up Sierra to the great grandparents (Pat and Doug). She never wanted the child and rarely had contact with the child, through the years. To be very clear, these two poeople offered to raise this child in their home and did so for twelve years. They gave her a nice home, stable home life, an education, world travel, not to mention the Christmas' and birthdays. Most importantly, these two fine people gave this wonderful little girl plenty of love and a sense of belonging.
Admittedly, it hasn't been easy for them. Pat is 72 years old now, and Doug is 75. Pat has had dealings with cancer, but has beaten it. Doug had a heart attack years ago and had surgery. He is on heart medication. The two are quite active. Pat owned a small travel agency. She sold it and retired to devote more time to Sierra. Pat, Doug and Sierra have traveled the world. Their whole world now is that little 12 year old, and yesterday a family court judge ruled that the two were too old to look after Sierra and then rewarded immediate custody back to the mother. The mother, by the way, is currently in rehab for meth use, and when she gets out of rehab, she faces felony charges of selling meth to an undercover agent. HOW IN THE WORLD A JUDGE COULD EVER IN THEIR RIGHT MIND AWARD CUSTODY OF THAT CHILD TO THE MOTHER IS BEYOND ANY SCOPE OF REASON!!!!!
How a judge can ignore the history of the mother and not see that this is a play for power and control, nothing more, is beyond me. How a judge can uproot a child from a stable homelife, after twelve years is unconscionable. The child was placed in foster care, and will be placed in the custody of the mother, once she gets out of rehab. She currenly lives in a flophouse with junkies and whores running around the place. WHAT A COMPLETE ABDICATION OF RESPONSIBILITY BY THE DFS!!! This is not just heartbreaking, but it should be criminal to do something like this. My friends are literally crushed. My heart breaks for Sierra, who has been reduced by the court to nothing more than property. My friends said the judge never even asked Sierra who she would rather stay with. What is wrong with this world?
One of the last things Pat said to me today, as I visited was, "I'm taking all the decorations down. There'll be no Christmas this year. We both hugged and cried.
I just had to let this out.
|