Have you ever had child protective services come to your front door? I have and it is a very scary situation to have to go through. When child protective services (CPS) feels like a child or children are in danger they step in to get the kids out of harm’s way. Let me tell you my story of how I made it through the system.


On December 5, 2011 I walked home from school. My mom was picking up my younger three siblings. My mom didn’t get home until about 4 pm. I remember looking in her eyes and seeing sadness and hurt. She then told me to get clothes for my little sister and I. I asked her why; she then had to tell me that we were being taken by CPS. The CPS workers took my brother and I to the DHS office.


When we arrived at the DHS office none of us were sure what was going to happen. The CPS investigator asked questions, about how we were being punished and who was doing the punishing. I will admit I was terrified and was not sure how to answer the questions. After the questions were asked, The CPS caseworker pulled me aside and told me that I would have to tell my brothers good bye. I wanted to scream as loud as I could, but I believed that it wouldn’t be a good idea.


My sister and I were loaded up into the caseworker’s vehicle and they took us to the foster homes. This is when I had to say good bye to my sister. I was very upset and scared for her. I wanted to stay with her, but could not. I had to push her away from me, as the caseworker was telling me come on we need to get going.


We left to go to my foster home. All I could think about was my little sister standing in front of the window crying. When we got to my foster home clear out in Gresham it was hard. I was with three other teenagers. We had to share rooms even though the house was good size. I had to do chores on weekends such as wipe down walls and my own laundry. We all had to take showers in the mornings, and be ready to go before 7:15 to get to school. I was never on time for school while I lived there.


One day, it was time to go see my parents. It would be the first time since we were taken. I was so excited to see them. We were picked up by the caseworker and we were taken to the DHS office. When we got there our parents were waiting. We spent an hour together. When it was time to leave my mom started to cry. We didn’t want to leave them again. We had no choice but to back to foster homes. It hurt all over again.


The next Friday morning I was told to pack all of the belongings I had and to take them to school with me. This is when I moved to the second foster home. The only good part about the second foster home was I had my little sister with me. I had to get use to new rules again. There was no visit the next day; we had to wait until Monday which was my birthday. We went to the visit and I had a surprise, my parents brought red velvet cupcakes and a gift. My parents told me that I couldn’t take the gift with me. They wanted it nice for when I came home. This visit was two hours long. We had so much fun considering all that was going on. The time went by so quickly and soon it was time to leave. We took my brothers home first.


My foster parents invited my ex best friend to come over and babysit. I wanted to yell at Lee, but I couldn’t because the foster parents told me not to. She was trying to boss me around saying that she wouldn’t change any diapers. She didn’t even feed the boys any fruit. Lee told me that I needed to get things ready to go to her house. She said that I was the problem. Not only did she do these things to me, but she even threatened to call the DHS hot line and tell them a huge lie. Lee would say that she was the only one who could read my handwriting. It made me so mad when she would say these things. No I am not home yet this is still with my second foster family.

We got to spend a whole weekend with our parents, at our new place. When we got home for the weekend it was just a fun time with us all being together for the weekend. We could still have people drop in on us at any time while there. When Monday came around we had a meeting with the caseworker and some friends of my parents. This is when we were told we would be coming home. We had to go back to our foster homes that day. We had two days to get things together and packed up so we could go home for good. On March 28th which was on my brother’s birthday, we got to go home and stay. This is the best birthday gift any one could ask for. But it did not end there.

Even though we were home, it did not end. We had to have monthly visits from our caseworker. We had to get permission to spend the night other places and to be able to go out of town. The caseworker had to have copies of report cards and go to meetings that I had at school. My parents had to go to many court hearings and meetings just to get us back.


When our grandma came out to see us she could only see Charles and Michelle. She couldn’t see Raymond, Michael, or Marie. This made Michael, Raymond and Marie very upset because they couldn’t see their grandma. She would buy all five of us something for Christmas. She would even send all of us money to spend for our birthdays. But in DHS’s eyes she wasn’t our grandma. She was only Charles, and Michelle’s grandma.


My conclusion is that CPS can make lives hard without realizing it. They may think they are doing well, but really all DHS did was make me so mad that they didn’t care as to what they did. When I was separated from my family I try so hard not to cry every night but it was not easy. The happiest part of my story is when we were reunited with our parents and when our case got closed for good.