I was walking away from the visit with my son today and the song that kept coming to my mind was "Walk Tall" by John Melloncamp. So it's my first song of the day. Yesterday I heard a little girl, this beautiful girl who was 7, play violin outside with her case open. I did a double-take at her bravery and heard a few songs and sat with her mother who was born in England but lived here forever. I got to hear some pieces from Handel, including Judas. Judas was the last one she played, which is about Judas Maccabe, her mother said. I thought it was great that her mother was free-spirited enough to let her follow her own mind. She reminded me of the little girl in the Harry Potter (which I've not seen) movies, Hermione. These very large wide-spaced brown eyes, a narrow chin and dimples at the corners of her mouth, under her lower lip.
Oliver was doing a lot of acting today. He seemed to be practicing his facial expressions and moods to match. He made this sad face where even his eyes got red and I thought he was about to cry but then he looked at me and grinned.
When I was first in, he wanted to do spider rides. So we did this forever and he was laughing and I sang the itsy-bitsy spider song several times. Then he wanted to play on the imaginary monkey bars and have me slide with him. Then he was kissing me and knocking me over kissing me. Very contact oriented and affectionate today. He kept pressing his cheek to my face and hugging me. He said he saw "Bambi" again today and Bambi was in the blocks still, and making toys I guess, and making Strawberries & Pancakes for him. He then wanted to pretend it was night and we were under the stars. He pointed up and said, "Look at the stars! They're getting bigger and bigger!" I asked how many and he counted them out, "One, two, three!" Then I asked what color they were and he said "Red, green, and white." I asked if he saw any animals in the sky and he said "Yes" and when I asked what kind, he said, "A pig!"
I have wondered about imagination and how much fantasy or reality play is alright and I did a lot of research on child development in this area recently, and it's all healthy. I wanted to be sure he wasn't confusing the two, but he's not, and it seems this is play that's really encouraged and applauded by the child psychologists and specialists. I think Oliver's a little bit advanced, for his age, in the imagination stuff, from what I was reading, but it's very normal and healthy so if he enjoys it, I'm playing along and encouraging this.
It was very cute. We read a Winnie-the-Pooh book which he chose, and sang songs and he climbed onto my shoulders and wanted me to recite the "it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a boy standing (or flying) high in the sky!" A lot of laughing and then at the end I drew a calendar so he knew when we were meeting next. He said he wanted to see me "Today and every day, every day" and kept saying he wanted to see me all the time. At the end of the visit, he looked really sad and I asked him if he was sad because he was going home and he nodded and said "yes". I told him people were trying to help us see eachother more (what else can I say?). He said, at the end, that I had to stay right there, and not go anywhere so I would be there when he came back. Then he tried not to leave the room but he had to be pushed or guided out. He kept turning around to go back to me as he watched me through the window in the room. He did NOT want to leave, it was obvious.
I noticed bruising on Oliver's legs again. A few which looked normal but the small circular fingerprint bruises again and again, on his left leg (my right, his left). He had one to the side of his knee which was similiarly shaped on his other leg and about three fingerprint type bruises on the one leg. They're always the exact same shape and size, the ones that look like they're coming from a tight grip. Not very many though, and I glad to see this. The monitor thought from playing because they were on his shin, but playing bruises, in my opinion, are more irregular and not always showing up on a constant basis n the same form.
I was prevented from taking a bag into the bathroom stall with my son, because the monitor said CPS told her not to let me. She said CPS told her I was taking photos in the stall, of my son, basically, the ones of the CUT and BRUISE on his face from his "beating" at the "party." So CPS doesn't want me to document his injuries at all.
The only people I told how those photos were obtained were my attorney and the guy from Canada last night, who wanted to talk to me. I didn't tell anyone else. Well, there was one or two who helped me with the technology.
CPS, Great Protector of Children's Interests, was downplaying all the marks on my son and even his cut and bruise and got an order from Judge Hotchkiss to not allow me to document any of this. Judge Hotchkiss said to me, "If you have any photos which show marks or what looks like might be abuse, I'd like to see them."
So the order is specifically not to take photos or videotape DURING MONITORED VISITATION. I knew someone was going to harm my harm and think they were getting away with it, so I kept a camera with me. I would go to jail for my son, and I told the Canadian guy that, but I found a loophole, and that is that "bathroom breaks" are NOT "monitored visits". They are not "monitored" in any way, shape, or form. The monitor doesn't bring in her clipboard and take notes or document anything in the bathroom. She also doesn't go into our stalls and my son wants to go with me and wants me to help him. They are NOT part of the "monitored visistation." My lawyer didn't want to use the photos at all, because she said the Judge would get mad, and I said, "How can ANY Judge see THESE photos which show something like a switchblade was used on him and my son SAID some guy beat him, and then allow CPS to get away with claiming I'm the one who is delusional and that my son only had a minor scratch???" She said, that's like letting a mother take the kids and run because she knows the kid is being sexually abused. I said, "Hey, if a mother has a VIDEOTAPE of her child being sexually abused, I don't think any JUDGE, JURY, or PUBLIC, will fault any parent for doing the right thing and trying to protect their child."
I told her I absolutely wanted to have these shown to Judge Hotchkiss because it showed CPS wasn't doing their job and was actually trying to cover up harm of a child and prevent my documenting this. She said it was iffy and I said, "Hey, the bathroom stall is NOT part of the "monitored visitation so I didn't violate anything and I DO believe Judge Hotchkiss would be interested in seeing this." I told her CPS should have specified better, the parameters of "monitored visitation" if they are including bathroom stalls.
I am a mother, and I love my son, and any good parent will agree with me, that any court order which is directly an attempt to OBSTRUCT JUSTICE is invalid. There is law and then there is moral law and I know right from wrong, and in this case, I found a loophole which enabled me to protect my son while also protecting myself.
I told my lawyer, when I was on the East Coast, I was getting anonymous calls from a Seattle phone number, of my son crying out in distress with what sounded like a party environment in the background. I could hear Mexican music, and lots of people talking, and I could hear my son. Once, the caller just had me listen for over 15 minutes until I finally hung up, and it was my son, and he was being told to "dance" and sounded like he was in obvious distress. I looked at where the call was coming from and it was a 360 area code. It was live. I was at a foundation for latin america in Washington D.C., at the time I got the call to my cell phone. It wasn't the first time but it was the first time it was very disturbing. Then, at the same time, I had government workers in Maryland area telling me to go back to Washington because I needed to "protect your son". I didn't know what was meant by this. I started getting this impression something was very wrong, and that my son was being physically and/or mentally harmed in some way, but I don't know who by, to this day.
I thought it was a call somehow from Washington D.C. and then I and this other guy looked at the area code and he said, "Isn't that Washington State?" and I realized it was. I wondered why a 360 number when my son is in Dryden and in this area, it's not 360.
All I know is that my son needs to be under my direct supervision.
My lawyer agreed with me that I was probably okay and within parameters for taking photos of my son because it was outside of "monitored visitation." I have to write a declaration for this.
However, today, this morning in fact, CPS told the visitation monitor not to allow me to go into the stall with my son. Not because of any claim I'm taking "inappropriate photos" or doing anything improper with my son, but because someone TOLD them how I obtained the photos of my son's injuries and CPS doesn't want documentation of any harm that manifests visibly and can be captured on camera.
Why would my aunt say my son did this to himself? She told the monitor and also told me, iEven email that my son gave himself this "scratch" in the car leaving from church. It doesn't add up, when you look at the photo, that my son did this to himself.
Tell me, can anyone tell me once again, what the POINT of CPS is?
As soon as I heard my son over this phone, cross-country, I made every effort to get back to Wenatchee, which I was already trying to do, but couldn't do once I was in the middle of all the medical issues which left me in no position to travel (the miscarriage stuff and how long the bleeding and problems dragged on).
I don't think my lawyer said anything, obviously, but someone talked to CPS and I didn't even violate any order and yet they tried to come up with new ways to prevent me from writing photos, saying I could go into the stall with my son, but not take any bags (which might contain a camera).
I do NOT believe my aunt or uncle did anything. I just don't. But if someone from their church or someone at a party did this around the corner, I think it's possible my aunt's family would try to "forgive and forget", thinking mistakenly that it is the christian thing to do. I also think they just might NOT KNOW, period, if he's out of eyesight. It only takes a moment.
We're going to try to get the court order amended or removed so my son is better cared for and things can be documented or another person present to witness.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment