Dear Judge,
I am an attorney and so I mean no disrespect whatsoever in writing you.
I am also a foster parent.
I am also a mom.
I am also a person who has seen a deep injustice firsthand, and my only goal in writing this is to possibly prevent another injustice of this kind from happening to another child.
Many children’s lives are held in your hands and I do not envy your position at all. I am writing to tell you that one special child, who I love dearly, has suffered an injustice however; and I cannot sit quiet on her two year anniversary of entering “the system”.
You see, not only does this mark two years for her being in the system…it also marks the day that she has now been in the system for longer than she has been out of the system in her precious little life.
My brother…this should not be!
The law changed for a reason and a line was drawn in the sand to prevent children from growing-up in limbo. Way too many children have spent years of their lives in and out of foster care with no forever home in sight…and no end to the suffering of this in-between-life.
When the one year mark came around for this dear child you had two options. You could have ended her time in the system or you could give her mom another chance…and I propose to you, Your Honor, that you made the wrong decision in this case.
I am trying not to be biased but I will put forth a number of the facts that support my theory.
At the one year mark,
Mom did not have a job.
Mom did not have a house.
Mom was taking out student loans and not attending school and living off of them.
Mom did not have good mental health.
Mom was testing positive for controlled substances!!!
Mom had one entire year of this child’s life, spent apart from her, to clean up her act and get these things together.
Mom spent the tax payers’ money and attended counseling and parenting classes and drug treatment programs and court hearings…only to fail!
Precious little girl had been in two foster homes at this point…both of them would have loved to adopt her.
You decided to keep precious little girl in the system and this, your Honor, was a mistake.
Today, another year has past, and precious little girl’s mom is still testing positive for controlled substances. Precious little girl is still in limbo and she is suffering Judge, she is suffering!!!…for example, she is four now and she still cannot control her bladder.
Let’s re-live this past year of her life so that you can see just how this decision has impacted her forever.
Precious little girl went on to another foster home, with family, who would have loved to adopt her.
She was making progress and at the same time, mom was fooling the system. Mom is now engaged to a gang member, who she would rather go and bail out of jail, then attend a visit with precious little girl.
CPS was called in when precious little girl was complaining about abuse and mom was still given more chances.
Precious little girl had to move into another foster home to facilitate longer visits with mom and be closer to her. Mom didn’t put any effort into seeing her more.
Precious little girl was put back into “mom’s” home only to live with her grandmother…which is the home she was removed from and in the midst of drug addicts and a sex offender…and the court is failing to keep track of this.
Your Honor, please do not allow this to happen to another child.
Sincerely,
JJ’s Voice
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