A Word Of A Three Year Old
Hello
I have three beautiful girls. Our girls have been removed from our care. For almost a year. They were taken, because we were fighting, bed bugs.
I had a court order for DHS to help get rid of the bugs. It took them four months and the removal of my children before DHS stepped in to do anything. All DHS provided was a dumpster. The sprays the gave didn’t work and on top of that we were battling head lice as well.
They claimed it was due to an unclean house. However the day the children were removed my house was clean. Maybe not spotless (due to the ages of my girls) but clean.
At the first two court hearings. I heard how my three year old thought, I was bad for spanking her butt and using hot sauce. A little bit of why I had to use those disciplinary actions. My husband and I were homeless. Living in a motel room when she was born. We were in between jobs and really were stuck in a cycle of addiction.
So DHS stepped in and took them away for Chronic Homelessness and Substance abuse. We got clean and sober and took us almost two years of finding an apartment. My middle child was 10 months. When she was taken. And was almost three when she was returned. DHS never provided any PCIT after the reunification process began. Shortly after the girls had returned. That case was closed. And there were no other services for us. I got depressed very fast. Between taking care of our baby. Who was approaching her first birthday. And taking care of my two older daughters who were not listening. Calling me and their dad jerks and wrecking my home. I had no energy or desire to keep up with housework.
DHS stepped in right after my middles third birthday on accusations of abuse and neglect. Stating that they had reports that we had no food in our home. And that I was spanking my daughters hard enough to leave bruises.
After cleaning everything in my house up. We started noticing bites on both the older girls and myself. Shortly after we found that we had an infestation of bed bugs.
After reporting to DHS that we needed help getting rid of the bugs. And also getting a court order for the help they still took four months to help.
The case opened with my previous worker Kelly Packard. Another lady with the name of Dominick. Then was transferred to Hannah Davis. It was Hannah Davis who was the caseworker. When the kids were removed the second time. Her supervisor’s name is Jennifer Nye. Although, Hannah wasn’t present the day the kids were removed. The people who were involved that day. Were Jennifer Nye and a woman who I have not seen before or again.
In trying to prevent my children from being traumatized. I asked the last foster from the previous case to take them again. She agreed and still has them.
Right now my husband and I are again in a motel room. Because we became homeless due to how long it took for DHS to provide the dumpster.
We moved into this motel on March 28th. We were assigned to receive help with Adapt Navigator from Josephine county. That ended June 1st. We were really still in need of the help with housing the agent was working with us for housing. His name is Matthew A Eldridge. He was an amazing asset. He has stated that he closed our case as partially successful. Because we haven’t accomplished two things. One is housing. The other is my husbands updated psychological evaluation. I say updated because we have both did one during the previous case two years ago. We have two different attorneys. Mine is Greta Lilly with Southern Oregon Public Defender. And my husband’s is John Hamilton from John Hamilton attorney at law. Both are pro bono.