Two young parents…

They took them away today. After four or five hours of a neighborhood block party in one neighbor’s front yard we all watched as a young mother and father were put into handcuffs and taken away in separate police cars.

This was a couple that has had tons of problems and didn’t seem to hold a job for very long. They had two children; Alexis who is three and a half and Autumn who was born in February. The girls were taken away in an ambulance…. they looked healthy enough but they were taken away from their parents and the grandmother was in tears. A lady we all assumed was a social worker followed in her little jeep along with another couple. So sad…

The parents stood beside police cars as the crime scene unit took up the space in the road between our house and theirs; amazingly the police only obstructed one drive way and a little part of ours. They went into the yard and house in hazardous material suits and took out things you wouldn’t think would have drugs in them but they were tested  right there in the front yard. Sherri was in tears through a lot of it as she leaned against the front of the police car; we couldn’t see Josh as he was at the other end of the street but we all think he had a full view of what they were working on. The handcuffs didn’t come out until much later; after most of the street was standing outside watching everything going on.

Friends of theirs stood with us for a bit; they suspected that CPS was called on the parents because they got in a fight with another pair of addicts and those people called out of retaliation.

There wasn’t anything that could be done by those of us standing by; maybe it wasn’t right to watch but it was hard to turn away. I sent my kids into the house so they wouldn’t be so exposed. Hannah is worried that we won’t see Lexi again anytime soon. I just don’t know what to tell her except that Lexi is safe from the drugs now. Maybe now Lexi will have  a better running start since she is away from that environment; maybe she won’t be so violent herself and won’t threaten to bite other children anymore. I feel so bad for those kids; Autumn is too little for this to impact her, but I worry about Alexis.

I think all that can be done now is to pray for this family. Pray that the parents see the error of their ways and they are eventually allowed to have their children back; pray that Lexi and Autumn end up with family or at least together until their parents can become a useful part of their lives. Pray that those who turned them over to CPS get the help they need if they are in need of it.