Thus Says Suzanne...

gas prices around the world

Want to compare what you're paying what what others are paying (just to keep things in perspective)? 

Nation	City	Price in USD Regular/Gallon
Netherlands	Amsterdam	$6.48
Norway	Oslo	$6.27
Italy	Milan	$5.96
Denmark	Copenhagen	$5.93
Belgium	Brussels	$5.91
Sweden	Stockholm	$5.80
United Kingdom	London	$5.79
Germany	Frankfurt	$5.57
France	Paris	$5.54
Portugal	Lisbon	$5.35
Hungary	Budapest	$4.94
Luxembourg		$4.82
Croatia	Zagreb	$4.81
Ireland	Dublin	$4.78
Switzerland	Geneva	$4.74
Spain	Madrid	$4.55
Japan	Tokyo	$4.24
Czech Republic	Prague	$4.19
Romania	Bucharest	$4.09
Andorra		$4.08
Estonia	Tallinn	$3.62
Bulgaria	Sofia	$3.52
Brazil	Brasilia	$3.12
Cuba	Havana	$3.03
Taiwan	Taipei	$2.84
Lebanon	Beirut	$2.63
South Africa	Johannesburg	$2.62
Nicaragua	Managua	$2.61
Panama	Panama City	$2.19
Russia	Moscow	$2.10
Puerto Rico	San Juan	$1.74
Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	$0.91
Kuwait	Kuwait City	$0.78
Egypt	Cairo	$0.65
Nigeria	Lagos	$0.38
Venezuela	Caracas	$0.12

101 degrees

The forecast for yesterday was for 101 degrees F.  I'm sorry to report that the forecast was accurate.  Today's forecast is for 100 degrees, Saturday 102 degrees.  I feel cranky.

$4 a gallon

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have complained the other day about gas being $3.87 a gallon.  The local paper says the average price of gas in town is four bucks a gallon, with at least one station selling it for $4.10.  While I realize that other countries (including the Netherlands - as reported by Tink) have it worse, I'm still not amused.

I telecommute to work.  I trip combine.  I conserve. 

Before fostering I would fill the tank maybe once every six to eight weeks.  My old truck never cost me more than $20 to fill.  Now because of all the out-of-town trips to various appointments for the youngster I'm filling up about every ten days at a cost of about $60, $65.  Once upon a time buying fuel for a vehicle was the least expensive part about driving...not so anymore.

FLDS reunification (service) plan

Since this situation started I've been outlining what the service plan will be.  Details of what is being included in the plan are coming to light:

• The service plan goals say the parents will understand what abuse is and take steps to protect their children. They also ask parents to cooperate with DNA testing and providing identifying papers to establish paternity and family relationships.
• For parents, tasks include participating in parenting classes, psychiatric evaluations and following the recommendations of counselors.
• Establish safe living arrangements for children and provide verification to the department of living arrangements, including methods of support the family is receiving from all sources.
• If the judge is not satisfied that you can provide a safe place for your child where they are free from abuse, the judge may decide to limit or even permanently take away all of your rights as a parent of a child.  The child then could be placed in permanent foster care or be adopted.

(Update - View a copy of the actual service plan.)

This is pretty much what I said would happen.  If you want to compare the plan with what I predicted it would be:

FLDS raid
FLDS raid - part 2
FLDS raid - part 3
FLDS raid - part 4
FLDS raid - part 5
more on the FLDS 
an open letter to Maggie Jessop of FLDS

$3.87 a gallon

I filled up the gas tank today.  Ow, ow, ow.

an open letter to Maggie Jessop of FLDS

I read the letter in today's Salt Lake Tribune which is purportedly written by you.  I'm not here to bash you...I'm here to help you, but the help comes in the way of information which you may not welcome.  Your situation is grave and I'm concerned that you may be doing things that are actively going to hurt your efforts to be reunited with your children.

Admittedly I'm making some assumptions here, the largest one being that you want your children back.  As a foster mother I've seen how the system works and because you are new to the system I want to help you better understand how serious this situation is.

• Once the children were removed from your care and placed in state custody the clock started ticking.  The court has a year to make a decision about permanency.  That means that you have a year to satisfy the court or the court will change the permanency plan from reunification to termination of parental rights.  You're already more than a month into that year.  Visitation is generally supervised by a social worker, and they are documenting everything that takes place.  If you make poor choices during your visits your visitation may be suspended or terminated.
• If after a year the court terminates reunification services to the parents that typically means you will no longer be offered services through CPS, including visitation with your children.  Once reunification services to the parents are ended, State Adoptions will be asked to look for pre-adoptive placements.  If an adoptive home is identified the children will likely be moved to their new homes while the court terminates your parental rights.  The court can extend the case six months but please remember that the children remain in state custody while this is happening. 
• If this worst-case scenario is not bad enough, once you've lost custody of multiple children the state will in all likelihood take an immediate interest in any future children you may bear.  If CPS thinks the situation that led to the removal of the first children is unchanged, they will remove subsequent children and potentially place them on the fast track to adoption. 

Once the court outlines the reunification plan you will either follow the plan exactly as it is set out or you will have your parental rights terminated.  What others may not tell you is that beyond what is required of you in terms of specific tasks like counseling or parenting classes the court will ultimately want to see that you view the situation differently and that you have made changes to your life that reflect this different understanding. 

If you don't do exactly what the court requires, then by this time next year you could be looking at termination of your parental rights, with your children being scattered all over the country.  Here are a few things to consider:

• It's unlikely that adoptive homes would be found that would keep the largest sibling groups together which means that not only would the children not be going home to you but that they would be separated from each other. 
• Courts generally leave it to adoptive parents to make arrangements for continued contact with siblings but not all adoptive parents are willing to do this.
• In my experience, parents in the foster/adoption world come into the system with their own religious agenda.  Once children are adopted, their adoptive families make the decisions about their religious instruction.
• Older children are generally harder to find adoptive homes for.  This could mean that your older children do not get adoptive families but finish their childhood as wards of the state being mainstreamed into group homes.

As a foster parent, I've seen how the system works.  If you want your children back, you will need to choose your strategy carefully. 

progress in the kitchen garden

Remember earlier in the year when I said I planned to use this area as a kitchen garden?  Well, thanks to some help from my family the bones of the garden are in place and there are seedlings emerging.  I still need to fill two of the containers but my schedule has been too tight to get to the store to get what I need. 

more on the FLDS

I've been voraciously following the case about the FLDS raid and subsequent removal of the children.  There are a lot of die-hard commenters on other blogs and newspapers that insist that there were violations of the constitution in the removal of the children.  There is a lot of inflammatory language about the children having been "kidnapped."  I'm not getting into that other than to say that this case is playing out like every other CPS case in that unless and until the requirements of CPS have been satisfied the children will not be going home.  Period.  I didn't make the rules, I'm just telling my readers how it's going to play out.

Many comments suggest that the FLDS parents should keep a journal of their interactions with CPS workers, and have their attorneys present for every interaction.  They're certainly welcome to do that.  However, CPS is not there to be friends with the parents, they are there to document compliance and attitude.  If the CPS workers feel the parents are focusing their attention on being "right" rather than on complying with the court's orders the court will not view that favorably.

One comment suggested that "what is happening now will not look  good ten years down the line when there is a regime change."  Ten years from now their children will have long since been adopted by new families if their parents don't complete the court's plan in the here and now.  It will be cold comfort to everyone involved ten years from now to look at anyone's journal written today about why they didn't follow their plan.

What kind of things might the parents be required to do as part of the court-ordered plan for reunification?  It's a good guess they will be required to participate in therapy.  And, they should not have any expectation of confidentiality because the therapist will be required to submit reports on progress to the court.  They're going to have to address their housing situation.  Before people get worked up over this I'm going to say that this is standard in CPS cases.  Parents are required to have a regular place of residence and CPS will pay particular attention to how many people are living in the home.  Parents will also have to show they are able to support their children financially.  If they do not have a high school diploma they may be required to obtain a GED.  And, while this is going to be hugely unpopular, they will probably be required to renounce polygamy.  This could be a deal-breaker for a lot of people but as a point of fact, polygamy is not legal, and when parents voice the intent to continue illegal behavior they can expect their parental rights to be terminated. 

While it seems clear that the original phone call which prompted the initial warrant to search the ranch was bogus, once the children were removed this case took on a life of it's own.  Whether people agree or disagree with the actions of CPS the only way for the FLDS parents to get their children back is to do what the court requires and as quickly as possible.

Parents who expend their energy on politics and being "right" will find themselves shortchanging their efforts to work their plan and the clock is ticking.  The court has a year to made a permanency plan, with an option for a six-month extension.  After that the parents can be "right" all they want but if the court decides they didn't do enough their parental rights will be terminated and new families will be found for the children.  I cannot over-emphasize the importance of focusing their attention on working the plan laid out for them by the court.

FLDS raid - part 5

The other night I watched Larry King's interview of the women from the FLDS group in Texas.  The next night he commented that many of his viewers were writing in to ask "where are the fathers?"  Because genetic testing is already being done on the children in an attempt to determine which children are biologically related to each other (foster care tries very hard to keep biological siblings together) it occurs to me that DNA testing for the men could be a double-edged sword.

Everything I see on the news suggests the fathers very much want their children returned to them.  Because of the confusion about which child belongs with which parents DNA testing will be done to match them correctly before they can be released back to their parents.  However, if the DNA testing also reveals that a man is the biological father of a child born to an underage minor he's in some serious trouble with the law.  If this is the case, then even if the children are returned to their mothers, there could be men facing hard time behind bars.  Additionally, if a father is not identified, his parental rights can be terminated on grounds of abandonment. 

Having sat through a number of hearings in family court I know from personal experience how drawn-out the process is, and that every objection means another delay and perhaps another continuance.  While attorneys hash out the legalities, the children remain in the custody of the state.  A continuance usually means scheduling the next court date a month or more away.  Meanwhile the clock is ticking (remember the court has a year and a half and then must make a decision). 

The sad fact is that when parents do not work within the system by doing what the court requires, the parents find themselves living out the rest of their lives without their children.  And, to raise the stakes, when parents have parental rights terminated for multiple children, the state takes an immediate interest in any future children born to them.  If circumstances are unchanged from the circumstances which led to the removal of the original children, the state will remove the new children and often fast-track them to adoption. 

Once again, I'm not getting into a discussion about religious persecution here.  I'm trying to offer some insight on how the court is likely to respond to the facts before it.

FLDS raid - part 4

Apparently my blog has (for this week anyway) become source for FAQ's about foster care and how the situation for the children removed from the FLDS group will play out.  For the record, I'm not getting into a discussion about the rightness or wrongness of the sequence of events that led to the children's removal, or about religious persecution.  I'm simply talking about how the courts will respond, and what is on the horizon.

Richard asks, "On what conceivable grounds does this tyrannical judge Walther conclude that a child 5 years and 1 day old is less deserving of having its own mother to be with it, than is a child 4 years and 355 days old."

Normally the court doesn't make this distinction because normally no mothers are permitted to stay with their children once the children are placed in state custody.  In my experience this is an unprecedented act of compassion within the foster care system.  Additionally, I've seen parents have their weekly visitation with their children suspended for months at a time because the DA found they were attempting to tamper with a witness (the child). 

When I watch the interviews with the mothers who were with their children but have returned to the "compound" they sound like just about every other parent with a child in the foster care system.  Their circumstances are tragic indeed, as it is for every other parent whose child is in foster care.  They do not answer a lot of questions when questioned by the media about their lifestyle, and certainly in this context that is absolutely their right.  My concern is that when they get to family court they will continue to refuse to answer the same questions when questioned by the court.  Because this case is being built around their lifestyle, the lifestyle is going to be the meat of the state's case.

I hear righteous indignation in their comments and I can certainly sympathize.  The court will not.  These parents would be best served by knowing that they have just experienced the beginning of a life-altering event.  Until the custody issue is resolved their life is not their own.  They will be required to submit to a lot of things they will not want to.  It will be hard.  They won't like it.  They will either do the things required of them or they won't. 

If the parents continue to be evasive about their lifestyle, if they continue to focus on what they perceive to be an unjust seizure of their children, if they refuse to work the plan laid out by the court, they run the very real chance of losing their children forever.  I hope the parents of these children understand the seriousness of what they are facing and how their actions will affect their children.