You’ll remember that we were awaken on a Tuesday morning by the arrival of a CPS worker with a list of accusations (you can read them here; “ CPS Investigation: The Accusations”). The accusations were followed by individual interrogations of every family member. (You can read them here; “ CPS Investigation: The Interrogations.”.) After that the family waited for weeks to hear the outcome as the reality of the situation hit home. (You can read about it here; “ CPS Investigation: Reality and the Silence”.) After reality hit, so did the devastation over the horrible, incredible loss of a close friend and the family’s relationship with her young children. Some found it hard to believe the devastation considering no one was removed from the family home by the CPS worker. (If you want to try to understand you can read about it here; “ CPS Investigation: The Devastation”.) The family was still waiting for some kind of information from the CPS worker.

First a CPS worker had shown up on a Tuesday morning unannounced at the family home with a list of accusations (you can read them here:“ CPS Investigation: The Accusations.”) and then the CPS worker began interrogations of every family member. (You can read them here:“ CPS Investigation: The Interrogations.”.) After the interrogations, the family waited in silence to receive notice of the outcome as the reality of the situation hit home. (You can read about it here:“ CPS Investigation: Reality and the Silence”.) After reality hit, so did the devastation over the horrible, incredible loss of a close friend and the family’s relationship with the close friend's young children. The friend informed them the same day that CPS investigated that contact with the accused family was no longer desired and that she was the one who had reported them to CPS.

First the CPS worker arrived unannounced at the family home with a list of accusations (you can read them here; “ CPS Investigation: The Accusations”) and then she began the interrogations (you can read them here; “ CPS Investigation: The Interrogations”.) Once she finished the interrogations, she left, as suddenly as she had appeared, alone. Shortly thereafter, the reality of the situation hit home. The reality was that someone very close to the family had viciously attacked them and on a very personal level. While the CPS worker had left alone, the results could have been very different, considering the severity of the charges. In fact, when the mother first heard the accusations she thought the day would end in one of three ways. One, she would be taken to jail. Two, the children would be removed from the home. Three, the teenager daughter would be taken to a “safe home.” So what were they all to think now that the worker had left alone?

After the CPS worker finished reading the list of accusations (you can read them here; “ CPS Investigation: The Accusations”) she began the interrogations. She looked expectantly at the husband and wife waiting for a reply. Feeling overwhelmed by such a long list of accusations, and betrayed by obviously someone close to the family, they began. Since the list was not in front of them, they did not actually respond to everything.

The girls are not treated the same as the boys. (Correct, they are not. Their issues, partly due to prenatal drug and alcohol exposure, and partly due to older child adoption through foster care, are completely different, requiring different parenting. )

The morning brought a greeting from a CPS (Child Protective Service) worker. Only this time, she was not delivering a foster child to the door. She came to investigate allegations someone had made. She made it clear that she needed to speak to both parents. As the children left the room she began to read through a long list of allegations. (Note: These are allegations that were given to CPS from an outsider, not an actual list of occurrences in the home. The “girls” refers to two teen daughters, adopted from the foster care system during their elementary years.)