Family Drama....

I haven't been able to post much lately because I have been exhausted. My cousin and her 19 month old son are staying with us, in our two bedroom apartment. Her husband kidnapped her son and wasn't going to give him back. Apparently since they are married its not called kidnapping and he was totally within his rights to do so. She finally got possession of her son and called the police. Since he was being violent, and has a history of violence they let her keep her son. He was already arrested once for spouse abuse. She filled a restraining order and was granted temporary custody. However, now she has no where to go. She is in the processes of filling for medicaid and WIC and food stamps. She has also called for legal aid. Get this they are going to call her back at a scheduled time for an on the phone interview to see if she qualifies then if she does, which she should, they will set her up with an attorney. But they aren't going to call her back until the 29th of this month. That is crazy. I guess you need money and lots of it to get any real help these days.

She was given a court order for the restraining order, temporary custody, and to get her possessions from the house. When she went to the house with an officer. Her husband refused to let her in. He should have been arrested, due to the court order. The officer told her he didn't want to get into a fight over clothes. He told her she needed to go to the court house with the police report he filed and get a court order. She believed him and did as he said. At the court house they were horribly rude and told her she had a court order, and then highlighted the area to show the officer. It did say that the officer was to escort her onto the premises to get her and the baby's stuff, and if her husband didn't comply he was to be arrested. So either the officer was an idiot or just plain lazy. Either way look at what we have serving and protecting us. That's so reassuring!!!

Why am I involved? If the same thing happened to me I would hope that people would help me. I couldn't imagine not having my kids for a day!