October 25, 2016
On October 25, 2016, I welcomed my son into the world. The joy of holding him for the first time should have been one of the happiest moments of my life. But instead, it was marked by fear and uncertainty.
Because of the ongoing case involving my older child, my son was not allowed to be placed in my arms without supervision. He was taken from me almost immediately after birth. I was not even allowed to feed him or hold him without someone watching me.
This should have been a beautiful day, a new life coming into the world. Instead, it became one of the worst days of my life, as I was forced to watch my child be torn from my arms and separated from his family.
As if this heartbreak wasn’t enough, the custodian who was supposed to take my son decided that day she could not care for him.
There was a scramble to find a safe placement for him. Thankfully, my son was not placed in foster care, unlike my older child, who had been removed and placed there earlier.
But the struggle didn’t end there. My family and I had to ensure that my son was placed with relatives, so he wouldn't have to endure the same system that had already affected our family.