Midwest VOCAL

  In a recent editorial in The Goshen (Indiana) News, an interesting fact came to light. Indiana’s Governor failed to follow the laws of his own state and solicited a worker from a non-profit agency to speak on his behalf. This is illegal (let alone, immoral) since her organization won a $12 million contract from Governor Mitch Daniel’s administration. Perhaps this is the only way child welfare agencies can make themselves look good–by illegally publicly thanking someone who gave them money. At least it makes the system look good on paper, though I can attest this is not always true.

  The editorial entitled “Pull the ad” is copied below:

  Good intentions can sometimes get a person in trouble. Just ask Sharon Pierce.

  Ms. Pierce runs The Villages, a non-profit agency that provides child and family services around Indiana. Non-profit agencies are barred by Internal Revenue Services from engaging in politicking. Pierce missed that rule.

  The Villages won a two-year $12 million contract from Gov. Mitch Daniel’s administration, according to The Associated Press. So when Mitch’s staff asked Pierce to talk in an ad how the governor is helping children and families, Pierce agreed.

  Now the Democrats are asking that the ad be pulled because of the no politicking rule. That is a reasonable request.

  Daniels should be given some of the credit for improving the lot of children and families in Indiana. The General Assembly approved funding for hundreds of child welfare case workers. Those hires were carried out by the Daniels administration and child deaths have dropped in Indiana. Daniels deserves some of the credit for that good news.

  But the Daniels campaign would have been better served by having parents or grandparents of children helped by the administration say so. Asking the head of a non-profit that just received a lucrative state contract to play pitchman for the governor shows someone on Daniels’ campaign staff didn’t think creatively.

  If the ad is pulled, the issue should go away. And the lesson learned should be that campaigns should never run testimonials by someone who is making money off the state.

  I, personally, wonder just how much good has been done. I am still aware of hundreds who have not received any help. Children and families are still in danger! The editorial states that there are fewer deaths now. One death is still too many! Perhaps, by giving money to the child/family welfare agencies, the governor was trying to hide the fact that not enough is being done. Thankfully, he did give money to hire case workers…but they need much more training. You simply dare not put a loaded gun into the hands of  an untrained hunter. Someone is going to get hurt…or worse.

before someone does something about this horrendous child and family welfare system!

The following is a copy of an article printed in the October 1, 2008 edition of The Goshen (Indiana) News:

        Welfare agency questioned about adoptions of slain girls

*Suspect was still collecting stipend after their deaths.

The Associated Press

  WASHINGTON–A Maryland woman suspected of killing and freezing her two daughters was convicted of a misdemeanor and had past financial problems, but was still able to adopt the girls and collect a monthly stipend for their care even after their deaths, officials said.

  The disturbing case has advocates questioning how the District of Columbia’s troubled social services agency evaluates potential adoptive and foster parents.

  Renee Bowman told investigators the frozen child-sized remains police found in her basement freezer over the weekend were those of her two daughters–age 9 and 11–both adopted from D.C. Bowman, 43, is suspected of killing them and has been charged with first-degree child abuse in the beating and neglect of a third adopted daughter, who is 7. The corpses were discovered after the 7-year-old apparently escaped through a bedroom window and was found wandering in a wooded area.

  Bowman was a foster mother to all three before adopting them in 2001 and 2004.

  “There is pressure across the board to get those adoption numbers up,” Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, said Tuesday. “My question is, did the D.C. workers have the time to look at it case by case?”

  It is the latest tragedy linked to the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, which has been reeling since the January discovery of the decomposing bodies of four young sisters in a home that had a past report of abuse.

  It is unclear when Bowman became a foster mother. Bankruptcy could disqualify a person from becoming a foster parent, Wexler said.

  Calvert County deputies made the gruesome discovery of the frozen remains Saturday in Lusby.

  And I, personally, have to wonder if “getting adoptive numbers up” is worth all this. God, save us all.

I never believed much in dreams, at least not in my own case. I know God communicated with the prophets of old in many ways and one of these was often through dreams. Even Christ’s birth was foretold in dreams. But I know I can’t compare myself to any of those fortunate ones. I am, however, beginning to believe that Someone is trying to tell me where I am to go and what I am to do but I as yet don’t comprehend it.

Just a few nights ago, I had a dream–a very vivid dream. Now I need you to help me decipher it. Maybe it was nothing but I am feeling deep inside that it is propelling me to do more to protect children/families from the destruction caused by the child welfare system.

In this dream, I was on a bus trip with many other ladies. I think it was just a vacation trip and not far from my home here in Indiana. Suddenly the bus pulled up to a curb in a busy street and Dan Quayle, former vice president of the United States, looked in the bus window where I was sitting. (I have met him on a couple occasions.) He pointed at me then turned to a person beside him and said “So you say only 1 in 10 families is affected adversely by the welfare system so we should leave the system alone, but I want to ask if you would feel the same if yours was that 1 family?” Mine was that 1 family. I think now I must try to contact Mr. Quayle or someone in political power to help me carry on this fight. Or am I just crazy?

Pray for me. I do understand that God will never take us to it if He isn’t going to lead us through it! Thank God for that assurance.

This website is not a prayer request site but, sometimes, I just can’t help but add those requests and you are invited to do the same. Perhaps soon I’ll have Brother Jeremy Sarber add a category to my others just for concerns and prayers. If it were not for the prayers of those I love, I would certainly not be where I am today. Thank God for the prayers of the saints.

Today I am begging you to consider praying for a friend of mine. He never professed to be a Christian but, I now know, he is. This young man voluntarily committed himself to a rehab center for alcoholics and asked the staff to throw away the key until they feel certain he can get along on his own (with God’s help) on the outside without alcohol. What a brave person he has turned out to be. And, just before he left, he thanked us, his friends, for their support and asked us to pray diligently for his recovery. Thank God for this person’s courage and now understanding that only with God’s help can he win this battle.

Another case has arisen. At this point, I can give no details so as to protect the innocent. Fortunately, the family involved told someone they knew about the tragedy happening in their family. That person was aware of the destruction caused in many cases by child protection (and I use that term loosely) agencies. A good lawyer was recommended before the children involved were removed from the home. Remain in prayer, please, for the children and parents involved as they continue through this debilitating process and pray that the family will be able to come out of this ordeal unscathed (or, at the very least, not destroyed completely).

My husband and I got back last night from a life-changing experience in Africa. Perhaps all the so-called child protection workers here should just go there. They’d soon learn our children are doing fine without their help. Many of the children there don’t have enough food, very little if any education, not even toilets. It should keep those so-called helpers busy in Africa just seeing that children have something to eat and they wouldn’t be taking our American children away from parents just because we make them go to church!

My husband and I are making preparations for a trip to Africa so I have not taken time to add to this journal. I do, however, continue to work on ways to help those in need. I never forget, even for a moment, how much I (and my family) needed in our time of tragedy. I want to be there for you when you are in need. Please do not hesitate to comment on these pages or e-mail me with any questions you might have concerning the child welfare system or a case in which you might be involved. I presently have legal representation on retainer and can ask questions of them on your behalf. I simply have not been able to put on paper the rest of our nightmare yet but I promise I will. Though it has been 18+ years ago, I still think of it every day. God is great and it doesn’t hurt as much as it did. Maybe it just took all these years to wade through guilt feelings and pain before I could look up with hope for my family…and hope that none of you will ever suffer at the hands of this immoral system. God bless you and yours now and forever.

Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.

I just saw this on the back of a card. What a wonderful reminder.

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.” –By John Wesley (1701-1791)

I’ll come back to the middle of my story in time but feel the urge to tell you the end or, at least, as far as the end ever comes. The child welfare system never did apologize or even admit wrong even after it was proved time and time again. It only ended as our daughter reached the age of 18. Oh, yes, they had made her a ward of the state years before at the beginning of our ordeal. They ended the ordeal only when she came of age and could speak for herself (for the first time so they said). She with an attorney prepared to bring a lawsuit against the system, the courts, everyone involved in the preposterous scandal that threatened to destroy our family…and, except for the grace of God, did come close to total destruction. The lawsuit close to being filed, the child welfare system simply dropped everything. No charges had ever existed or so they claimed. If that is the case, why did our family spend several years in the depths of hell, wondering each day if our daughter would be kidnapped again?Why did we spend every dime we had to pay court costs, lawyers, psychiatrists, etc. to keep the child welfare system at bay? Why did we borrow money to continue to fight the system and all its counterparts? Why did church people we thought loved us turn their backs? Because we were not street wise in the beginning. We ignorantly thought that these things could not happen (never in the greatest country in the world, America) and, of course, innocent people were not ever charged with horrendous crimes. That changed as our lives changed. We learned the hard way. My husband, I regret to say, finally left us years later. The ordeal took its toll. Our children grew up and moved on. But, even to this day, the horror hangs on. I pray daily for others who might innocently become victims. I work with those who call me and are going through the same ordeals. I do feel some things were changed for the better as we bravely fought the system. But there is so much yet to do. So many families  are still in grave danger in the system. Pray. Pray. Pray.