Monday, January 17, 2011

way to long since a post


I haven't posted for so long because I have felt like life with everything has just not moved..... I hate roller coasters and this feels like a never ending one.

Flowers case is now at a stale mate as the dept feels they do not have ENOUGH paper work to take it to court to revoke the order. So they need to get all reports done NOW (because of slack case work before hand)

Flower is now the crash test baby


As THEY work out what paper work is needed and no idea of what when and how this will all end..

Well there is on date they have to do something at the very least by February 2012 because that is when Flowers orders run out....

TO add to this Flowers bio parents put this article in the paper! Which caused a bad time with the small town gossip asking so many more questions,,,,,,,,,,,

DoCS reneged on deal
to reunite family: dad

By Andrew Robertson

A Broken Hill couple who lost care of their daughter shortly after her birth has accused the Department of Community Services (DoCS) of reneging on an assurance that the family would be reunited this year.

The girl, who is now 14 months old, was removed from her parents soon after she was born and placed in foster care under a court-approved care plan which recommended a two-year restoration period.
But the girl's father said staff from the department's local office told him and the girl's mother they could expect to be reunited with their daughter in 12 months' time, which would have been August 4.
"That never happened," said the father, who does not want the identity of the family revealed.
"They just stuffed us right around and did not give us any indication."
In order to get their child back the parents have to meet a number of requirements, including attending parenting classes and curbing their alcohol use, which the father said they had done.
"We changed our lives, everything's back on track but they're still giving us the big stuff around."
He said the department's only explanation for not returning his daughter has been that she smelled of cigarette smoke after returning from her visits, and that the couple's cats posed a risk.
Shortly after she was removed from their care the couple had unsupervised access but the father said after 12 months that suddenly changed. Now they are allowed to see her three days a week for three hours during supervised visits.
He said they had spent about $7,000 on equipment and clothing for the child which was never used and has since been given to a neighbour.
The father said his daughter was removed because he and his partner were going through a "rough patch" which involved weekend drinking sessions when they would get into arguments with each other.
He said the alcohol had a serious effect on the girl's mother who takes medication for epilepsy.
"She was having seizures."
He said his daughter was never in danger of being physically harmed.
"But now we don't drink at all."
He said he and his partner, who have a second, older child who is also in foster care, were now "100 per cent capable" of caring for their children.
In a statement DoCS said the safety of the child had to be its priority.
"Community Services understands that these parents are looking forward to having their daughter returned to their care and are working towards making changes to their lives or this to happen," they said.
"In all cases, however, the wellbeing of the child must come first and our role is to ensure birth parents are in a position to safely care for their child before a restoration takes place.
"While the restoration of this little girl is proceeding, the process has been delayed because the parents are not yet at a point where their child can be returned safely."
The department said the parents are dealing with a number of complex issues that have contributed to the decision to delay the restoration.
"The process has not been delayed simply based on the reasons given to the newspaper."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so sorry this has been so hard for you guys. We had to get out of fostering because of the issues with our department of human services. It is so rough for us because we care so much about these children. Just enjoy Flower as much as you can!

Kate said...

Newspapers shouldn't be allowed to print this sort of sensational nonsense!!! Of course the &%#$@ birth parents are going to say the kids were removed for no reason and that they're model citizens.
The trouble is that the media - and most members of the public - can't comprehend that some people can treat children as badly as they do and care so little for their well-being.
Hang in there! xx