Little Cameron's story
My husband and I have two
children. My husbands' son, Cameron, age four, and we have a daughter together,
Kendall Elizabeth, age 20 months. My husband has custody of his son, after a
very lengthy battle with his ex-wife, who was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder,
a mental illness that she suffers from. Our nightmare began when Cameron sustained
a bump to the forehead at daycare the week of September 12th, 2000. The caregiver
informed us of this when we picked him up that day, and since it did not look
that bad, and he had no complaints, we did NOT take him to the doctor. It began
to look better within a few days, and nothing more was thought of it.
The Maternal Grandmother, (my husbands' ex mother-in law), had asked if she
could pick him up on a Saturday to attend a birthday party. Since Camerons'
Mother was not active in his life, we had given the grandmother visitation every
other week, just like the mother would of had, so that she could spend time
with him. When Cameron was dropped off that evening the original bump on his
head looked much worse, and more swelling was around the area. The grandmother
did not mention that he had reinjured the area, if she even knew that he did.
On Monday, we made an appointment with Camerons' regular Pediatrician for Wednesday,
and the physician concluded that "it looked worse than what it actually
was", and sent us home with instructions. The grandmother had wanted to
take Cameron to the Doctor herself, and she was upset at the fact that we refused
her of this, explaining that it was our job, as the parents, to do this, in
case the doctor needed to discuss anything with us. Cameron also told the doctor
that he fell on the trampoline at the birthday party, so we assumed that he
may have hit the same area on the forehead twice.
Camerons' grandmother picked him up from our home on Thursday, the next day
after his doctors' appointment, for her weekend visit with him. The next day,
on Friday, we both get a call at work from Camerons' Pediatrician. They told
us that the grandmother had just called and attempted to make and appointment
for Cameron herself, and they explained that she needed to go through the father,
since she is not a legal parent or guardian. Ten minutes later, she placed a
call to the 800 abuse hotline, telling the operator that we had abused her grandson.
(We found out the times in between the two incidents from the copy of the 800
call that was placed, and what time she called the doctors office.--this was
in the "report of findings.") On Saturday, the next day, a social
worker from DCF showed up at our door, wanting to ask us some questions about
Camerons' injuries. We already knew at that point WHO placed a call to them.
If we knew then what we know now, this woman would have never entered our home
without a search warrant..but, our thoughts were "we didn't do anything
wrong, SURELY nothing can happen to us!" We could not have been more wrong.
The case worker ordered that Cameron remain with the Grandmother, and on Monday,
while we were both at work, she removed our daughter from the caregivers' house,
with the reason that Kendall was the victim of "threatened harm" due
to what happened to her brother. We knew nothing of what had happened, until
our caregiver paged us to let us know what had just took place. It seemed like
the entire world had stopped at that very moment, and thought to myself that
"this just cannot be happening."
Our daughter was placed in a temporary foster home, and even though we had several
court appearances over the next two months, no one had contacted us about visitation
with the children. We had not seen them, or made any contact with them in over
two months. When a judge finally realized that we had not seen the children
since their removal, he ordered visitations to start immediately. We have visits
with our daughter every other Tuesday for 90 minutes, and it is not only emotional
draining, but physically as well. It is a "tease" for her to see her
Mommy and Daddy, only to have to say goodbye to them after a very short visit.
This is emotional and mental trauma at its' worse.
We have not seen Cameron since December 12th, when our DCF caseworkder deemed
that "it is not in his best interest", and there were never a court
order to suspend the visits with him, this was done all on her own decision
making.We do have a private attorney assigned to our case, and it was explained
to us from the beginning to prepare for the fight of our lives, and don't expect
a miracle overnight.
Since we rejected a "case plan", we've asked for the case to be dismissed.
Currently, the burden is on DCF to prove we are unfit parents.
Since our nightmare began, it has been difficult to even step out in public,
and see little children. I could have swore on several occasions, I saw Kendall
in several different places, then realizing that it was only my mind playing
tricks on me, since I had wanted to see her so bad.
There has only been two occasions in my entire 37 years I have been on this
earth that I have cried uncontrollably--The first was tears of joy, when Kendall
was born. The second was when I realized someone had "kidnapped" her,
and I did not know where she was. I don't believe that there is a stronger bond
between humans, than that of a Mother and her baby. That is the way God designed
it, and for very good reasons. We will never get back the time that we've lost
with our children, but it has taught us never take the time we have with them
for granted.