Adoption Under One Roof

If you haven’t been following the CPS investigation, you may want to read what happened prior to the 30-day decision to catch up. (Begin here; “ CPS Investigation: The Accusations”). The accusations were followed by individual interrogations of family members. (You can read them here; “ CPS Investigation: The Interrogations.”.)  Then reality hit, (You can read about it here; “ CPS Investigation: Reality and the Silence”.) After reality hit, so did the devastation over the horrible, incredible loss. (If you want to try to understand you can read here; “ CPS Investigation: The Devastation”.) Then the family waited for the 30 days to pass. (Read about that here; CPS Investigation: The Waiting) On exactly the 30th day, in the afternoon of course, the CPS worker finally called. She informed the mother that she had completed her interviews of collateral witnesses and found the family guilty. The mother, quite shocked, asked why the worker had never requested information from the psychiatrist who has worked with the allegedly abused children for six years.

Approximately 1,500 babies are born each year in the United States with spina bifida. Hispanic women have the highest risk of giving birth to an infant with spina bifida at 4.17 per 10,000 births, while non-Hispanic Blacks have the lowest risk at 2.64 per 10,000 births. Non-Hispanic white women give birth to a child with spina bifida about 3.22 times per 10,000 births. When a woman consumes adequate amounts of folic acid prior to becoming pregnant and during pregnancy she can significantly reduce the risk of her child being affected by neural tube defects (NTDs), such as spina bifida. The recommended dose of folic acid for all women of childbearing age is 400 micrograms (mcg) daily.

First a CPS worker had shown up on a Tuesday morning unannounced at the family home with a list of accusations (you can read them here:“ CPS Investigation: The Accusations.”) and then the CPS worker began interrogations of every family member. (You can read them here:“ CPS Investigation: The Interrogations.”.) After the interrogations, the family waited in silence to receive notice of the outcome as the reality of the situation hit home. (You can read about it here:“ CPS Investigation: Reality and the Silence”.) After reality hit, so did the devastation over the horrible, incredible loss of a close friend and the family’s relationship with the close friend's young children. The friend informed them the same day that CPS investigated that contact with the accused family was no longer desired and that she was the one who had reported them to CPS.

After the CPS worker finished reading the list of accusations (you can read them here; “ CPS Investigation: The Accusations”) she began the interrogations. She looked expectantly at the husband and wife waiting for a reply. Feeling overwhelmed by such a long list of accusations, and betrayed by obviously someone close to the family, they began. Since the list was not in front of them, they did not actually respond to everything.

The girls are not treated the same as the boys. (Correct, they are not. Their issues, partly due to prenatal drug and alcohol exposure, and partly due to older child adoption through foster care, are completely different, requiring different parenting. )