Stolen Angel

Imagine that you were pregnant. A pregnancy not without complications and the inevitable loss of what was to be a twin pregnancy. However, upon birth and the first few years of your baby’s life, you grow to love her with all that you never even knew was within you. Yet, in the eyes of others that is not nearly enough and without warning, approval or legal rights a family member comes and takes your child from you. Well, this is what happened to a young mom in the state of Illinois.

Every new mom stands by judge and jury of its peers, family members and even on lookers in a local grocery store. Everything you do and say is being held against some imperial code of ethics that blankets us all, but yet we have yet to agree on what is included and excluded in the social laws. The worst prosecution is of ones self. A new mother is the toughest critic of her own abilities to love, care for and raise her child. As a woman who has worked in the social services field for over a decade and seen countless children being taken and returned to unsafe homes, it did more than rattle my cage when I learned of this case that I will refer to as “Stolen Angel.” The only crime committed by the mother in this case is that she is poor.

Not all mothers conceive their children in suburban homes, with white picket fences, two SUV’s and high tax bracket incomes. Children are born to all types, sizes, colors and incomes. That is just the case in Stolen Angel. The baby, who’s name will remain anonymous, was raised by her mother, loved by her mother, cared for by her mother and safe with her mother. The father was a non issue, as he left the picture. Denying paternity and dating an underage girl. Only to return at the child’s 9 month old mark, once paternity was proven. His family only asking for the child to visit them after paternity was proven as well, but they lived in another state. The baby had medical problems and as soon as the mother felt she was stable enough to travel, she allowed, against her own gut feeling, for the child to go with the family members, for what was supposed to be a few weeks. This turned into months and then papers were served to the mother, stating she had a court date to prove to a court of law that the child in question was wanted by the mother. Knowing full well that the mother had no money and was on public assistance, even though her child went without nothing, she could not pay to get across the country and appear in court. The next letter she received was terminating her parental rights.