Dear Leonard,
Please post my horror story on your site.

August 20, 2004

I’m 44 years old, my son’s father is 52. Christmas 2000 at the age of 40 I discovered we were pregnant. I was awestruck. I had been told at age 22 I could never have a child, so my pregnancy was not irresponsible or planned, however I was delighted and felt truly blessed. 

My son’s father’s (John) delight surpassed my own. This was to be his first and only son, visions of teaching him to fish and hunt immediately filled his every waking thought. We both were filled with awe and wonder at the possibilities. 

Our child … a child that was and still is very wanted, very treasured, loved beyond words. A child God created because we loved each other. We created him, I gave him life. We had eagerly anticipated his birth. He was born beautiful, alert , healthy and welcomed with such love into our lives. It was a perfect world. I was in love with John, he was in love with me and we were both in love with our new son. 

We both spent every moment with our son, No babysitters (he had never been away from us for more than a couple hours and had NEVER spent a night away from us), his daily care was not a chore but a reason to get up in the morning in fact it was comical the way we would compete with each other to care for him. John was determined to be in his son’s life and never shied away from a dirty diaper.

When our son was 21 months old we had an incident of domestic violence. While it is not my intentions to make light of an extremely horrible incident. I choose not to go into the gory details. I called the police … ENTER C.P.S. 

John was arrested. NO ATTEMPT was made to keep our son in my home with me or to place him with a family member (that was done 78 days after he was taken hostage). 

THEY LIED to me and told me they would let me take my son home if I would cooperate with their investigation. I DID- without benefit of counsel because the first thing I asked was “do I need an attorney present?” I was told “no”.

I agreed my family was in need of help to overcome the domestic violence issues we were facing. “No” I didn’t want to break my family up”. I wanted to get help. 

As soon as the interview was over THEY took my son who had never been away from me for a moment. THERE WAS NO WARRANT, THERE WAS NO ORDER they just took him, they didn’t ask me about his schedule, his medical history, his habits, nothing they just took him. 

I was forced to file for an injunction immediately if I wanted my son back. So I was left with the choice of choosing between the father and the son, both whom I loved with all my heart. I chose my son. I would do what was necessary to bring my son home. I was told I could go home. 

I was in a daze, home is where the heart is and my heart was in the hands of strangers. I floated through my existence for the next week while I waited to be bossed around by the agents of the state. I was told I had to move from my little Florida cracker style house, it was old and “unsuitable” for my child (and he wouldn’t be allowed to return there), we had power and water, food, he had his own room, it was clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be lived in and we had lived there peacefully and comfortably since his birth. 

So I MOVED OUT, having no place to go I moved in with a family member. 

Now comes THE CASE PLAN … 6 months of stable housing (my own) I got no credit for the fact that I had been in my own home for a year and that the only reason I moved was because I was told to BY THEM.  In fact, none of the POWERS THAT BE had even asked about my housing history. 

I completed my case plan in 4 months- even went above and beyond the call of duty by voluntarily taking another 12 week parenting class because it was geared towards domestic violence. 

I was told that I couldn’t get him back because “he hadn’t been in the system long enough and it was a process”.

So I settle for 1 hour a week supervised and watch my son die inside, withdraw from me, regress. The happiest and most loved baby in town was now a “problem child”. No one knew he wouldn’t go to sleep without his bottle and blankie and no one asked. So my son has been in 8 different placements in the past 14 mos. At the most detrimental bonding stage in his development, this is in the best interest of the child? I could just scream.

Meanwhile his father gets out of jail, goes to work full time, starts catching up on child support, enrolls in batterers intervention program, rides his bicycle 50 miles twice a week (we live in a very rural area with no public transportation) for the b.i.p and 1 hr. visits (the state suspended his license for non-support). He finally gets his license back, I try to be helpful and loan him my vehicle so he can get car parts for his, violating the injunction. He goes back to jail and has been there for the past 4 months with the possibility of losing his home, his job, his license again. 

I lost my home in Hurricane Charley and now I’m due to go to court in one week to be told I can’t have my son back until I have my very own home again even though I‘m staying with family and my son will have his own room here. 

My son will be three next week, he’s old enough to say “When can I come home with you mom?” He hasn’t seen or even spoken to his father in the last 6 months and he asks me where his dad is every time I see him. I drive 130 miles round trip to visit him once a week. 

Yes, the hurricane devastated me, I lost everything but I didn’t shed a tear until I was told yesterday my son won’t be coming home next week. Then I bawled like a baby. I’ll get over the devastation of the hurricane, I’ll never recover from the devastation inflicted on me and my family by D.C.F over the last 14 months. 

Would someone please remind me that we live in the land of the free and explain to me why my man is in jail and our son is held hostage by the state even though I’ve paid the ransom? 

Thanks, Wonda Marie Davidson.