Happy Frickin' Holidays

[Lbox88]

This is kind of a long story, but it frustrates the hell out of me and there's only minimal things I can do about it so I hope you guys don't mind if I vent a little bit.

So to start, my wife has a friend she met in high school who is now a junior in college. We'll call her "Victoria" and she has 3 younger sisters and a younger brother, and the whole family was a wonderful model of how a family should be. About 5 years ago her mother became pregnant with what was supposed to be their 2nd son and 5th child. Everything seemed to be going fine, she was taking all her vitamins, making all the proper health visits, avoiding spicy foods, all non-approved medicines, fish, all that junk. Come time when the baby was born, they notice that he seemed very jaundice but the hospital said it would be fine, he probably just had newborn jaundice and with a healthy appetite and breastfeeding, it should clear up within a week.

6 days later, he passed away in his sleep of SIDS.

The family was wrecked from it, rightfully so, and had to go through the hardship of burying their 6 day old son. Shortly after, the mom began drinking cough syrup and consuming quite a bit of alcohol, as well as the dad. They made sure the rest of their kids were always safe and healthy, even though they could not console themselves right away. After a short period, they cleaned themselves up and everything was ok again.

Skip forward around 6-12 months, and low and behold looks who's pregnant again, baby #5 attempt 2. The mother RELIGIOUSLY follows doctor's orders on EVERYTHING, the pregnancy goes well and their 5th child, a beautiful baby girl is born. Everything seemed to be going well, the baby is healthy and they are a happy family.

Now skip forward to last summer. Kids range now from 2-20 years old, so they decide the go on a family vacation excluding the oldest(Victoria) since she was off at college. They go to a summer vacation town in state and everything is great. The second to last day of the vacation, Victoria gets a call from her mom. Apparently her dad tried to steal hundreds of dollars worth of items from gift shops for the kids and is sitting in jail. The police came to the hotel to get her mom, who was found passed out on the bed after doing a line of coke, with the kids in the room!!

The father serves his time in jail, the kids are removed and put with an aunt while their mom gets cleaned up. The whole time the kids are at the aunt's, she openly bashes both their mother and father about how terrible they are, and how the kids might not go back to them. Mind you, the kids at this point range from 2-16 years old. The mom gets her shit together, the kids move back in with her, and she gets a new job. After a while, their father is released from jail and gets a job. They were checked on every month to make sure they were doing right by their kids, keeping them healthy and fed and in school. Both parents at this point are only able to work full time at a pizza place, making just above minimum wage.

This goes on for a while, up until yesterday. The youngest girl is now 3 or 4, the oldest girl at home still is 17 and a high school senior. My wife gets a call from her friend at college, her parents were caught stealing again. Her parents had taken the kids to the mall, and while her mom was walking with the kids looking at things, she would pick something up and set it aside from the rest. The dad came along a little ways behind her, and was either pocketing them, putting them in a bag, whatever. What were they stealing you ask? Toys and clothes. They were trying to steal things for their kids to try to give them a good Christmas. Stupid I know, but I can at least see where their heart was pointed.

Victoria and my wife spend quite a bit of time on the phone last night and today while my wife is contacting people she knows that work for DHS and CPS to find out what might happen. With the past problems and everything, they start seriously looking at the possibility that the parents rights may be terminated, in which case the kids will go to foster care and most likely, get split up and sent all over the state. If they were lucky, they might get placed in pairs.

Victoria spends all night calling the on-call social worker, trying to get it in that she will take them and not let them go into the foster care system. The worker on their case is a new bitch who doesn't know what she is doing, so Victoria goes over her head and talks to the supervisor. The judge today declared the parents unfit, and stripped them of their parental rights to the kids. Since CPS would rather have the kids a: stay together and b: live with family, they look at Victoria's efforts and are awarding her full custody to her 4 younger siblings. Until she and her husband are able to get into a larger apartment/house, the kids are going back to the cumstain aunt and uncle.

At this point, my wife and I are beyond frustrated that these wonderful kids are having to go through all of this shit. Victoria, in college, paying her own way through school, married less than 6 months, her husband also in school and backing her choice 100%, getting a stiphon from the air force and guaranteed a job after graduation. And they are going to take on 4 kids. Victoria is currently living a 9 hour drive away from where the kids are now, so the oldest girl is going to have leave her high school half way through her senior year, leaving all of her friends and boyfriend behind just so she can stay with her family. They are looking at the possibility of her living with another friend or her boyfriend for the next 6 months so that she doesn't have to uproot so late in the game. The rest of the kids are still young enough they can move and make new friends and not be affected as much.

All I feel like the wife and I can do is throw money at them at this point ya know, a couple of Christmas presents for the kids and some money for Victoria and her husband to help cover bills. I just can't imagine having to suddenly raise 4 younger siblings while still working and going to college. The kids will never be able to be alone with the parents ever again without Victoria or her husband present, because if anything happened Victoria or her husband would be jailed for endangering the kids. I just don't know what else to do at this point, all I would like to do is get the parents in one room and the aunt and uncle in another, and take turns shouting myself hoarse with each pair for being such utter fucking idiots.

By the way, this is a pic of all the kids. Victoria is the one in the blue shirt, and all but the one behind her are the ones that will end up living with them for sure in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for reading.

[sprkn_ranger]

Man, it tears me up hearing about sweet innocent kids having to go through such an ordeal. My heart goes out to them. And I think sending money to help is the best you can do right now.

[B.E.N]

Now thats a hard story to read, until you find out the parents are burn outs and makes you happy the children get taken from them......all i have to say on the matter God(if you believe in him, i do) has a plan for victoria, and does what he does for a reason, and i believe she's going to be a much stronger woman for what she is doing and has accomplished so far. The road may not be smoothly paved for her, but it takes a special person to all the sudden take on 4 "kids", newly wed, and pay for school and whatever else she's doing, thanks for sharing was definitely a good read, and good on you and your wife's part for helping any way possible

[LT.Smoke]

Damn bro thats NUTS... Poor Kids have to suffer because their parents are pieces of shit... Glad to hear your wife's friend stepped up to take care of her siblings Kudos to her

[Lbox88]

See that's the thing, yes the parents fucked up... but only a couple of times. They always made sure the kids had a full belly, warm clothes, and knew they were loved. In comparison to my wife's parents, she would rather take the ones that did drugs once or twice compared to the psychological abuse she had her whole adolescence with her own parents.

With the exceptions of the 3 times they screwed up, they are great parents to the kids. Also, the kids can be taken away without the parents rights being terminated, as having their rights terminated is a little overboard.

[Kyblack76]

Shitty deal for all involved.

Cudos to "Victoria" and big cudos to "Vic's" new husband. Geeeezus, thats is A LOT to take on. Know what i mean?

Seems unfair,... in a billion ways..... and to a billion people...You and the wiffff included....

Heart breaking.....

Happy effin holidays.......

EDIT - and straight up yes on the parent deal. Id take a parent that makes a wrong move here and there with a addiction, way over a abusive (mental and or physical) peice of trash any day of the week.....

[Lbox88]

Talked to her last night, the uncle is willing to have the oldest girl at home live with him so she can still go to her school, and the aunt will take the other 3 but not the oldest because they will fight. This would be for a temp situation until Victoria can find and get into a new place, but still doesn't want them to go the the aunt/uncle since she knows they are just going to bash her parents non-stop until the kids move in with her. Such a shitty situation.

[Kyblack76]

Talked to her last night, the uncle is willing to have the oldest girl at home live with him so she can still go to her school, and the aunt will take the other 3 but not the oldest because they will fight. This would be for a temp situation until Victoria can find and get into a new place, but still doesn't want them to go the the aunt/uncle since she knows they are just going to bash her parents non-stop until the kids move in with her. Such a shitty situation.

Well, atleast they are all still somewhat together. She just needs to keep telling the others that what the aunt/uncle say about mom and dad is just ramblings, and keep at least a somewhat positive out look on the parents with them. If the kids are half as smart as they seem to be, they will see right through their bullshit comments, and just let em roll in one ear, and directly out the other.............

i hope them the best dude,...... you as well.

Shows your quallity (you and your wifes) bro,.... shows you carry a big heart, for others, and thats rare anymore......

dig it......

[Keith77]

Wow what a story... Poor Kiddos.. The good thing is that they have a great older sister.

If there is anything I could do for the kiddos let me know. im down to get them a few presents for Christmas.

[Lbox88]

That would be awesome, but I don't want anyone to feel obligated to help . We are still awaiting Christmas lists from them as of right now, and I think I just had a good idea. I think I'm going to get each kid 2 gifts, and have one of each kids gift's come from Santa. Or maybe both, I'm not sure yet. Idk, I'll have to wait and see the lists first to see what we're doing. I know Victoria is going to be tighter on cash, so depending on price and what the wife and I feel comfortable about spending, they might be getting quite a few boxes of stuff lol.