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POWER's first site
POWER is a support group for families fighting false allegations of child abuse, neglect, or dependancy.
People don't seem to realize it, but the removal of a child from a loving, stable home is also a form of child abuse.
Can you imagine the trauma of being taken from your parents and placed with strangers? Only being able to see them once in a while, in a small, cold room? You can't even go to McDonald's with them, or climb in bed with them when you have a nightmare.
You are tossed back and forth, from foster family to foster family. You are told that your parents don't love you, and that that is the reason you are going through this. Some of these foster parents even encourage you to call them Mommy and Daddy. How sick is that?
There is emotional trauma for the parents as well. I remember that I hyperventilated. I fainted.
The loss of your child is very difficult. I've never had to deal with a child dying, but I feel this is worse. At least with a death, it's over. We fight for our babies for a year. They don't come home. Then, we spend our lives with the knowledge that our children are out there... somewhere.
We don't know what they are told about us, if they'll try to find us, if they're even okay. We hear the horror stories about foster parents raping and killing children. We, who have been good parents, are helpless to do anything to protect them. We never have the ability to tell our children that we loved them, that we did everything we could, but we lost. The failure to get our children back puts an enormous amount of guilt on us. We have to wonder if it would be worse to kidnap our children and run forever or to let them attempt to lead normal lives without us.
All it takes is one ANONYMOUS phone call to destroy your life. It could be a stranger making a prank call, and your name and number is what they stopped on in the phone book. It could be somebody who doesn't like you, calling and claiming things about you just to cause trouble. It could be a misunderstanding. It doesn't matter how they (Child Protection Agencies) get your information. Once they have it, you can forget about your family, reputation, and sanity.
I have an acquaintance who was a caseworker but quit because of the system. She told me that many of the caseworkers take children that they know are okay, just because of the power trip. Think about that. Destroying families just because they can!
I've heard people say "If you are innocent, then you can prove it and get custody back." Children's Services said that I was hallucinating corpses while giving birth. Tell me how to prove this is a lie. It's my word agains theirs. Imagine being a judge. An agency says this happened, and then one person says it didn't. Who would you believe? Even worse, the agency said I was on meds for a mental condition. I brought in documentation proving that I was on no medication and that I didn't need any. The judge then ordered me to take the medication that they claimed I was on.
I created POWER in the hopes that we would get enough voices together to be heard. You don't have to be in the situation to join the war. You just have to care.
Below is the webring that I am creating now. Please join my webring, that we may have yet another voice telling the world what is happening. If you are a parent in this situation and don't have a website, please make one. They are often free and easy to make. They also help you to deal with your situation. Believe me, I know. I can't tell you how many times I have worked through my emotions by typing out my story on the WWW. After making a site, join the webring.
