[sonja vosloo]

Hello!
My two daughters 2years and 4 years ols was placed in temporary place of safety with my parents for two years. Next year may 2008 the two years are over. They were placed there because of drug use from my side. I went to rehab and have been clean for a year end half now. When the order was given, my parent took my children and moved 1200km away, which meant that I could only get to them once a month, and so the court order was agreed on by me and my parents.

I made every visit, although it costed me allot, and in July 2007 me and my fiancé (biological father of the youngest one) decided to move to where the girls where living because we missed them tooooo much!

When we came down there my parents were already involved with social services and my daughters were seeing a clinical phsycologist. We obviously joined their sirkel to work with the social services so that we can find out what our rights were and when we can see them and for them to answer all these questions, but when we came here, they said we can still only see them once a month, because that is what the court order said. I was very sad about this, but didn't want to fight them, so we just agreed and waited until things got better.

In the mean time, we bought an Internet café, and I am running a nail bar and things are going stable, we've been seeing their phsycologist every two weeks, paying for it ourselves and they even tested us for drugs and everything was fine, so we got an extra Saturday per month.

My dad and I do not get along and he hates my fiancé, and he was an alcoholic my whole life, and only stopped drinking when they moved here, and he uses my kids against me whenever he can.

Last weekend our car got stolen and I wanted to lend money from my parents to go and fetch the car where the police found it and my dad said he would rather lend us his petrol credit card to fill the car up, and we got into trouble with the police for using a credit card that's not in my name, and in the end the cad got confiscated and the police arrested me and my fiancé for the night, and to make a looooong story short, we obviously came back a bit later than planned, but it was honestly all because of the credit card, and I forgot to mention, we borrowed my dad's car, so in the end they thought there was drugs involved, but I can prove that there isn't, with police record, but they do not believe us! When we arrived back, my parents just gave us an email that stated that we could see the girls when the social workers tell us we can and until then no further contact! I have been phoning the social worker to explain my side of the story, but no one is getting back to me, and we have missed two visits now already!

My oldest really doesn't understand this, and we saw them at their school art exhibition and they both just cried wanting to know when are we coming to visit??

We were chased away at the school like dogs, because my dad has the social worker's on 24hour standby and they said we must go!

My fiancé and I have been running a steady business since we've moved down their, we have a two bedroom house, one room ready for them with Barbie decorated beds and the whole child safety thing going on at home, we've been clean for 1 and a half years and they have tested us by surprise and we passed clean, and now this!

Can anyone tell me what my rights as a mother is to all of this?
If there is any more info needed to help me in my situation let me know!
Thanks
Sonja!

[excon]

Hello Sonja:

You need to a family attorney. That's the ONLY way this is going to change.

excon

[ScottGem]

Does the agreement specify that is only for a two year period? If so, when the two years is up, you need to petition the court for a return of the kids. So you will need an attorney to do this for you. An attorney will know how to present the case so you are shown in the best light.

[sonja vosloo]

Thanks! So I recon an attorney is the best bet!

[ScottGem]

Almost always

[sonja vosloo]

What is the best way to get an attorney if I can't afford one? I live in South Africa

[excon]

Hello again, sonja:

Find a hungry one and offer to make payments.

excon

[sonja vosloo]

I live in such a small town... they are all hungry, but when they hear the word DRUGS they all run a mile!!