Hi Laura, 
Your story was so heartwrenching.  I wish I could explain my situation
to you, but I can't, unless I wish to be held in contempt of court.
Hopefully soon I will be dealing with the after effects myself.  Dealing
with that would still be a better alternative than the current situation
I am in, but I feel for you and my heart goes out to you.  Please know
that you are not alone.
A dear friend of mine, Shannon, lost her baby to CPS for one month last 
year.  The baby was injured accidentally by a friend of the family, named
John.  The baby has an incredibly high pain threshold, and she is very 
fiesty when she wants to be.  John was holding the baby (then about 10
months old) while Shannon went upstairs to get dressed.  The baby started
thrashing about, and John was afraid that she would fling herself out
of his arms, so he tried to hold her tighter.  The tighter he held her,
the harder she squirmed.  John wasn't used to dealing with little ones,
and didn't know that he could encircle her with his arms and still keep 
her contained, he thought he had to secure her.  As a result, John 
restrained her too tightly, and Mimi was injured.  It wasn't until that
evening that anyone knew she was injured.  Mimi did not exhibit any signs 
of being hurt.  She wasn't crying or fussing, other than during the time 
that John was holding her.  When she got up from her nap later that day, 
Mimi began to favor one arm, and it began to swell slightly.  Shannon and 
her husband took Mimi to the emergency room right away.  X-Rays were done, 
and that's when it was discovered that her right arm was fractured, her
left wrist had avery minute crack, and a couple of ribs were cracked.  
They were lucky, they ultimately got their daughter back even though CPS
tried to charge them with "failure to protect".  The charges were then 
changed to "parents MAY have left the child with an inappropriate care
taker".  
To this day, Mimi has a hard time going to sleep without mommy in the room
and she MUST speak to daddy every day.  Daddy is in the Navy and can't
always be there, so that makes things difficult to say the least.  Mimi
is a wonderful little girl, and  I personally have seen consistant 
evidence of Mimi's high pain threshold.  For example, one day Mimi walked
into my table and clunked her head really hard on the edge of the table,
she turned around, looked at me, put her hand to her forehead, and said
"Ow." then smiled and walked away and began to play with the other kids.
Any other 18 month old would have been howling in pain!  There are still
plenty of other little things that they are dealing with as the aftermath
of this nightmare.  Yes, Mimi does have nightmares, horrible ones, where
mommy is gone and Mimi can't find her.  How long will the aftermath last
for her, who knows?  
Another friend of mine, Zaynab, has her own horror story to tell, but she 
will tell you if she wishes to.  I'll see to it that she reads your message.
Good luck to you, and in a short time I plan to begin a research project
to investigate the long term effects of situations like this.  I would
like to include you if you are interested.  Just let me know.
Valery
~~~ ReneWave v1.00.wb2 (unregistered)
--- Mankind = One Family
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