Fighting the System: A Foster Mother's Journal

© 2010 Lilly Star. All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 12/10/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4520-1283-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-1284-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-1285-8 (e)

The Library of Congress 2010907444

Printed in the United States of America

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Disclaimer:

This is a work of fiction. The characters as well as incidents in this book are imaginary or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

This is dedicated to all of the children and their families who have no voice.

Contents

1. The Decision to Foster Children

2. Austin, Belinda and Foster Children – The Early Years

3. Austin, Surgeries and Sammy

4. Mental Illness and Power Hungry Workers

5. Schools, Law Enforcement and Witchcraft

6. Sex, Alcoholism and Court

7. Infidelity, a Dream and a Tattoo

8. From Depression to Anticipation

9. David, Drugs, and Finding a Placement for Austin

10. Austin’s Removal, Sammy’s Regression, and The Agency’s Decision

11. Deaths, Thefts and Visitation Danger

12. Silver Things, Prison and an Overdose

13. Group Homes, Molly and Jeff

14. A Drunk, Austin’s Release and Fighting the System for Caleb

15. Annie

16. Inhalants, Dishonest Power People and Teachers of Confusion

17. Fighting for Sammy’s Education and Mr. Andrew’s Car

18. Fighting for Transportation, Education and Adoption

19. Church Camp, Incompetent Teachers and Injustice to Sammy

20. The Betrayal Begins, Exposing the Teacher and Investigations

21. New Friends, Fighting to Keep Sammy, Traitors in the Midst and the Trial

22. Accusations

23. Graduation, Manipulation and Clarence

24. Unqualified Power People, and Inaccurate Reports

25. Exposing Pearl and Matthew and The Children’s Removal

26. Credible Liars, Grandchildren and Clarence’s Arrest

Cast of Characters

Candy Jeffries is a middle aged woman who is determined to make a difference in foster children’s lives. As she struggles to maintain a sense of stability for all of her children, her own son is placed in foster group care and her eyes are opened to the abuse of power and corruption that is accepted by those working in the System. She finds that confronting those in charge and exposing their illegal behaviors, puts her at risk for losing her friends and her children.

Ben is Candy’s ex-husband. In the beginning he appears to like fostering children, but once he becomes involved with women other than Candy, he begins to put his own wants and wishes ahead of Candy and the children in their home. Because of his abandonment of his family, his children no longer want to interact with him.

Belinda is Candy’s daughter and has a close relationship with her mother. She is Candy’s main support throughout the time of raising the foster children.

James is Belinda’s husband. He suffers from depression and feels lots of grief when their daughter dies.

Annie is Belinda and James’ daughter. She is born with part of her brain on the outside of her head and only lives four months. The lessons that everyone involved learns from Annie’s short life on earth are irreplaceable.

Austin is Candy’s son. He has a tendency to be hyperactive, along with being a childhood diabetic, and also suffers from depression. His life is a history of accidents and health problems. When he is placed in group care, he discovers that those working in the System are not always honest and some do not have the child’s best interest at heart.

David is Candy’s high school sweetheart. After twenty years he and Candy get back together and embark on a life of helping foster children and their families.

Dylan is Candy’s brother. He is partly responsible for introducing Austin to a life of crime. He has a wonderful heart and would do anything for his sister. He just has a different lifestyle compared to Candy’s.

Grandma Bertha is Candy’s ex-mother-in-law and is very supportive of Austin and all of his problems. She and Candy have a close relationship. She babysits for Candy’s foster children.

Wally is Candy’s ex-father-in-law. Throughout her life Candy remains close to him, also.

Mary is Ben’s sister. She is close to Belinda and Austin’s ages and they all grow up together. She later babysits for Candy’s foster children.

Grandma Bernice is Candy’s mother. They are best friends. Bernice loves her grandchildren. She is unaware of the abuse that happened to her children. She is an ordained minister and raises her children to believe in the underdog and always be giving and accepting of others.

Grandpa Ralph is Candy’s father. He abuses Candy’s brother and sisters. He also teaches his children to be kind to those less fortunate than them.

Trudy is a friend from Candy’s high school days. She dies and leaves three children who have no one to permanently care for them. Her death is what causes Candy to realize that she wants to be a foster parent.

Grace is Candy’s good friend and Trudy’s sister, who attempts to take care of her nieces and nephew when their mother passes away. She has three of her own children as well as an adopted daughter who has a lot of health problems.

Jane is Candy’s first foster daughter. From her Candy learns about teenagers and their fantasizing, lying and smoking.

Kevin is Candy’s first foster son. As a teenager he teaches Candy about smoking, stealing food and the signs of struggling to find his sexual identity.

Davy is an autistic boy who Candy does not see as abnormal. By having the same expectations from him as the other children, he makes noticeable gains in toilet training, talking and following directions.

Joey is an eight year old abused child who is horrifically underweight and has lots of anxiety of not feeling safe. His father gets custody of him and they move out of state to try and make a new life for Joey.

Sammy is Joey’s half-brother. He comes to Candy at the age of 14 months. He has a different father than Joey and ends us going back and forth from his father’s custody to Candy’s for ten years. Candy ends up adopting him when his father dies. Sammy experiences abuse and neglect at the hands of the System. He does not get a fair shake when it comes to DHS and goes twelve years without a permanency. Candy ends up caring for Sammy all of his childhood years.

Chris is Sammy’s father. He struggles with alcohol and drug abuse. He and Sammy have a strong bond with each other. However, Chris is just not strong enough to put Sammy first. He and Candy’s family have a good relationship. He is accepted as family to them. He dies of a drug overdose and Sammy is left without a father.

Mark is the same age of Sammy. His mother is one of the fortunate few who has the courage and knows how to change her life and get her son back.

Jack is Mark’s father. He is homeless. He uses Dobermans and threats to intimidate. He struggles to take care of his son, but it is just not good enough to meet DHS’s expectations. He and Candy and her family have a good relationship.

Hope is Candy’s oldest sister. They love each other deeply and Hope is very supportive of Candy and her desire to raise foster children. She, like Candy always makes herself available when there is a crisis in the family.

Betty and Jill are Candy’s other sisters. They live across the state and are not as available as Hope and Dylan. However their bond of love goes deep with the rest of their siblings.

Aunt Susan is Candy’s maternal aunt who played a big part in raising Candy from a small child. Candy is able to return the love and devotion Susan gave Candy in her childhood years when Candy and Hope spend the last ten days of Susan’s life with her.

Dean is a nine year old whose mother is mentally ill and whose maternal grandfather attempts to raise him. Candy learns that even mentally ill people can be loving and caring individuals as her friendship develops with Dean’s mother.

Beth is Dean’s mother who has a mental illness. She is very appreciative of the time Candy spends helping her raise her son.

Lizzy is a teenage girl who has a therapist who teachers her about witchcraft. This is Candy’s first experience with this religion.

Doris is a social worker who also believes in witchcraft. She puts the move on David and the State wants to fire her. She has a good heart, but needs direction.

Rachel is a foster child who does Witchcraft. Candy gains even more insight about witchcraft and the people who practice it. Her mom is a prostitute.

Bonnie is a teenage foster child who starts Candy thinking about the sexual activities of foster children.

Angel is a teenager who hides in her school for two weeks. Both of her parents work in the public eye. Candy is introduced to parents who attempt to ‘pull strings’.

Paul is Josh and Jenny’s father. He shares with Candy that his DHS worker has attempted to come on to him. He refuses her advances and she does her best not to give his children back to him.

Sherry is the pastor’s wife who has an affair with Ben. This is the beginning of the end of Candy’s marriage.

Susan is Ben’s girlfriend.

Irene is one of Candy’s good friends and she does respite for Candy’s children. She was the first person to get Candy involved with the FBI.

Joe is David’s cousin and keeps Candy updated on how David is doing for the twenty years that Candy and David are apart.

Dennis and Joan are David’s son and his wife. They are largely responsible for partnering with DHS in an attempt to conspire against Candy and David to loose their foster care license.

Clarence is a family friend. He has no friends or family who care about him and comes to live with David and Candy. Even he is targeted by DHS.

Caleb is David’s youngest son. Like Sammy, the System fails him miserably and it seems he never has a chance to be successful in a family.

Vicky is Caleb’s mother. She tries to do everything in her power to keep Caleb from David. She works hard at giving false information to DHS in an attempt to destroy Candy and David’s reputation. However, she dies of cancer and Caleb remains with Candy and David.

Pete is Vickie’s live-in boyfriend. He threatens Candy and David, by holding them at gunpoint, using knives and belly bumping David. He is evil and someone who Candy and David keep their distance from.

Celeste is a beautiful child who has borderline personality disorder from her horrible abuse. She is loved and fostered at the Jeffries home. Her placement in group care gives Candy an insight of how some treatment centers are and can be operated. Safety is a big issue.

Ray is a teenager and it is his interaction with the courts that prompts Candy to send her first letter of holding someone responsible on the team in charge of Ray’s life. He leaves the Jeffries home suddenly when he makes sexual advances towards Candy.

James is a boy with pervasive development disorder. He hears and takes everything literally. His placement at Candy’s comes to a fast end when his doctors teach him how to relieve his stress with masturbation.

Peter and John are brothers who are up for adoption. Candy becomes frustrated when a decision is made to change therapists with these children in order for the agency to save money. Candy again experiences what it is really like working with the System.

Heather is Candy’s first babysitter. She lives nearby and takes the children into the community for outings and social skills. Her main job is to spend time with the children and see that they get fed.

Jeb is a fourteen year old who has been turned down by group homes and treatment centers. Candy takes him. He has a love for playboys, cassette tapes and cigarettes. His stealing makes Candy more knowledgeable on where to look for stolen items.

Holly is twelve when she comes to live with Candy. She has a lower IQ and a sweet disposition. She provides lots of adventure for the Jeffries household. She steals cars, anything silver she can get in her pockets and lots of pop and ice cream. She also likes to run away. Her happy disposition keeps her at the Jeffries longer than other children with similar problems.

Heather is Holly’s sister. She too has a sweet disposition. She is a natural flirter with guys and this gets her into trouble quite often. She is a poor driver and finds herself climbing out of ditches quite often. She is also a crazy liar and has the ability to vomit in her plate, but never run the plate over.

Peg is Sammy’s grandmother. She has a relationship with Sammy and the Jeffries. She and Candy stay in close contact when Chris is asking for money, or wanting sympathy. She loves her grandson dearly and is very disappointed when Chris passes away. But then, she gets cancer and when she dies it closes a chapter to Sammy’s life that can never be reopened.

Carla and Linda are friends of Chris’ who help him overdose and then steal his tax return.

Norman is a therapist and teaches Candy that everybody does the best that he or she can, but at times, it is just not good enough to keep their children.

Stan is a boy who teaches Candy about smoking at school. It is his placement that shows Candy, once again, that her school district chooses to have its head in the sand.

Molly and Jeff are siblings. Molly is convinced, by her teacher, that she needs to find somewhere to live that is far better than Candy’s home. Jeff is a huffer and a sniffer. Candy, once again, finds that the school is enabling both of these children to stay involved with illegal drugs.

Rose Mary is Candy’s second babysitter. She is a chip off the old block and is always ready for an adventure. She quickly becomes a part of the family and plays an important role in the family as she restrains Sammy, deals with a run-away and never misses a family get-together.

Doctor Clark is the family psychiatrist. She is knowledgeable of children and their emotional needs. She gives Candy and David insights on how to handle these special children. Although she and Candy don’t always agree on how to parent the foster children, they remain good friends and each respects the other.

Alex is Belinda’s second son. He develops behaviors like Austin and remains a child of adventure throughout the book. He is devoted to David.

Kirk Andrews is a school mate of Candy and David’s. Heather steals Kirk’s father’s car and once again adds excitement to the moment. Kirk remains an emotional helper to Candy and David. He is a person who gives totally of himself.

Sadie makes a hit list of students at school and loses her placement because of it. Her sexual behavior opens Candy’s eyes to what can and does go on at church camp.

Ronnie and Randy are two adoptive brothers that the Jeffries attempt to adopt, only to be stopped by the ‘power people’ at DHS.

Chrystal is a fourteen year old who Candy and David adopt. Her behavior demonstrates to the Jeffries that some children are best left unadopted. Chrystal steals money, jewelry and cigarettes. She has no conscience and no matter how much Candy and David give her, she still turns them in for abuse and runs away from home. She totally dissociates herself from her adopted family.

Tony is a teacher who is hired to teach Sammy. He teaches Sammy, but not the three ‘R’s. He gets his students involved in using illegal substances besides taking them to adult places. Sammy is the looser in all of Tony’s crime.

Sharon is the head of the agency that Candy and David work for. Candy cannot figure out why Sharon has believed the lies that DHS and extended family members have told her about her and David. It is devastating for Candy and yet Sharon passes it off as if it is no big deal.

Zoey is a beautiful red head who is quite outspoken and loves adventure. She has a good job, and has an over zealous nature of attempting to hold her peers accountable. She and Chrystal do not get along.

Casey is Zoey’s age and they tangle quite often. His grandfather who is the only positive male in his life passes away, while Casey sits at his bedside and holds his hand. He steals and lies and becomes attached to Candy and David emotionally.

Fran Dorchester moves into Candy’s community. Almost immediately she starts being friends with Candy. She teaches piano and is a substitute teacher. Candy trusts her new friend, only to have Fran turn on her and become involved with Dennis and Joan and DHS and one of the school cooks to see to it that Candy and David lose their foster care license. Fran does everything in her power to steal Candy’s identity.

William Dorchester is Fran’s husband. He is a youth counselor and works for a church in the city. He breaks confidentiality with his clients as well as feeds the information to Fran. Dealing with these people, Candy and David suffer intense anxiety by the lies they continue to spread across the community. Their pastor is the one who helps them through this devastating time.

Ethel is a cook at the school and lives in town. She corrupts some of Candy’s foster children and joins forces with the ones who want to destroy Candy and David.

Randy and his father have no relatives. Randy is a foster child twice at Candy’s. After a while, the police begin to call Candy when there is a problem between Randy and his father, and Candy drives the forty miles and picks up Randy. After a couple of days he goes home. In this way there is no paperwork and the police save a lot of time and money.

Pearl is the child who tries to destroy all that Candy and David stand for. She is able, with the help of the others who dislike the Jeffries, to convince a judge that Candy and David are abusers. However, no one agrees with the findings and there are no charges filed. Pearl has not won and she continues to fabricate stories for the community to hear.

Scott, Alex, Avery and Rachel are Belinda’s four children. They all learn about foster children and are very accepting of them and look forward to spending time with them.

Paige, Casey, and Austin Jr. are Austin’s children.

Mr. Long (LD) and Mr. Wilson (SCI) are teachers in the school system who do everything they can to parent Candy’s children, instead of educating them.

Additional characters:

Keith is the school friend of David’s who sells David some land and is in Candy’s dream.

Janet is David’s daughter.

Pastor Deitz is the senior pastor at Bernice and Ralph’s church.

John is Sammy’s classmate in Tony’s classroom.

Leo is Randy’s father.

Matthew is a fosterchild who has sex with Pearl.

Paula is David’s ex-wife.

Lily is Candy’s friend and is a hospital chaplain.

John is Candy and David’s neighbor who passes away with cancer.

Glenda is Candy’s best friend and has been since Kindergarten.

Tim is Glenda’s husband.

Prologue

When Candy Jeffries started to climb into the car, she turned to get one last glimpse at the institution and saw a figure standing in the doorway. Could he see her? Surely he must be able to read the State of Ohio lettering on the car door. It must be him, she thought. She wanted to wave, but the worker started the car and Candy needed to fasten her seatbelt. The emptiness she felt in the pit of her stomach made her feel nauseous. Why did she have to leave her son? At fifteen, a boy should be with his mother.

When she asked herself why this was happening, she thought she knew how the System worked. After all, she had learned a lot in the past seven years of fostering children. Now, she was leaving her own son hundreds of miles away from home, and she was supposed to trust that the System would help him and keep him safe. Now she had left her son with strangers and prayed that she would get to see him again, very soon. She waved at the person in the doorway. She was sure he recognized her and returned the wave. Candy hoped and prayed that, along with several professionals, they would be able to help her son piece his life back together.

When they started the next leg of their journey, neither of them had any idea, nor were they prepared for what lay ahead of them.

The Decision to Foster Children

Chapter 1

Candy had been raised with a strong sense of family values and convictions. Her grandparents had played a big part in her life. When she was very young, she had a major illness that left her heart weak. For a year, she had to be flat on her back in bed. Because there were other children at her maternal parent’s home, and Candy needed to have total quiet bed rest, she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents.

Although the illness was at such a young age, Candy’s body never quite completely recovered, and she required continual attention throughout her life. Candy had to undergo several surgeries. Her organs seemed to be weaker than most people, and wore out a lot sooner. Her aunt and uncles gave her lots of attention and she was pretty much raised as a single child with importance put on putting God first, and that nothing was really as bad as it seemed. By the time she started Kindergarten, she was living between her parent’s and sibling’s home and her grandparent’s home. This arrangement continued until Candy graduated from high school.

The family had a lot of humor and always made the best of a bad situation. They were taught to show kindness and respect to everyone, regardless of their social status. There were always extra people for special occasions such as birthdays and holidays and it was common practice to invite those who lived alone. With lots of loving people to be around, Candy was determined to teach her own children to care for and help others less fortunate than themselves.

When Candy first met Ben at her work place and they dated she had convinced herself that she could finally love someone she could spend the rest of her life with. Within six months they were engaged. The following summer they married.

They resided in a small neighborhood in Midwestern Ohio where both sets of their parents lived only a few blocks away. They felt fortunate that their parents were able to play an important part raising their two children, Austin and Belinda. Their family was involved in church, and they sent their kids to a private school.

***

The longer they were married, the more Ben seemed to pull away from Candy and the children, paying less and less attention to any of them. Candy could recall that when their daughter Belinda was born, Ben had told Candy that he was disappointed that Belinda was not a boy.

Belinda was a lot like Candy: calm, intelligent, happy, and helpful. But the child was asthmatic, and allergic to plastic. Cardboard and paper sacks caused a reaction immediately when they came in contact with her skin. Pets, like cats and dogs, were not allowed.

Belinda was a couple of years older than Austin. Even when Austin was born, Ben didn’t seem to want to spend time with him either.

Austin had been a very active loving child. It seemed that every time Candy turned around, she had to take him to the emergency room for stitches. Cursed with sleep walking, Candy kept a continual ear opened, to times he might walk outside.

It was around the age of four that Austin’s personality; his love for adventure and his rebel attitude for life seemed to develop. He wanted to play outside for hours. He went through a phase where he threw bricks through windows. Not just his house windows and garage, he even managed to break the neighbor’s windows too. He liked hearing glass break. Twice he was hit by a car and twice he had nearly drowned. It seemed like he was a walking disaster.

Austin wore glasses that were guaranteed for a year. However, the fourteenth time Candy took his broken glasses in to get a new pair, the doctor finally told her that he could no longer replace the glasses for free.

The older he got, the harder it was to find a sitter for him. Even his grandparents went through periods of time when they just had to say no when Candy would ask one of them to watch him for a while. When he walked into a room, everybody would leave.

Candy could remember the day in August when Austin was diagnosed with diabetes. He was only seven years old. Ben had spent the entire day in the garage crying, because he had become a diabetic a couple of years earlier, and he blamed himself for Austin’s illness. It seemed that after this, Ben almost hated his son. There was little interaction between them. To Austin it seemed like he couldn’t please his father, no matter how hard he tried, and Candy was the only one who accepted his hyperactive behaviors. It was at this time that Candy decided that God had chosen her to be a solo parent for Austin.

Grandma Bertha, Ben’s mother, was always a respite. Her youngest child Mary was the only girl, and only two years older than Belinda. Mary and Belinda and Austin grew up as siblings and spent a lot of time together.

***

Throughout high school Candy had a girlfriend, Grace, and they remained friends well after the two of them graduated. Grace had a sister named Trudy and the three girls spent a lot of time together. When Grace got married she and her husband found out that they could not have children, so they adopted a girl named Allison. Allison was a Downs syndrome baby who had a few other medical problems, including a bad heart and a weak immune system. Candy became her godmother. Several times a year Allison was a patient in the intensive care unit at their local hospital. The year that Belinda was born, Grace became pregnant. Six weeks after Grace delivered a healthy daughter, she found out she was pregnant again. Thus, she had two babies ten months apart while Allison continued to require constant medical attention. Candy and Grace continued their friendship and spent a lot of time together with their own children. After Austin was born, Grace didn’t mind watching him from time to time, though she was honest enough to admit he required extra supervision. When their sons reached eight years of age, Grace’s sister passed away from cancer.

Although there had been several children in Grace and Trudy’s biological family, those children had all been adopted out. Trudy and Grace were the only ones who were kept together. Grace was at a loss without Trudy, as well as Trudy’s two daughters and a son. Their biological father didn’t live with the children. When Grace attempted to take the three children, she realized that her hands were full with her own children. When things became more and more stressful, Trudy’s son ran away.

It was apparent that Grace needed help. With six children, Grace had no time to grieve, especially since one of them was a special needs child. Social Services called and asked Ben and Candy to take the son until they could find a suitable foster home for him. After he stayed with Candy and Ben for two weeks, and because they did not have a foster license, the boy was removed and placed in a foster home. It was hard for Candy and Ben to see the boy suffer placement in the hands of strangers and without the support or contact of his biological family. Candy’s heart went out to him. She knew Trudy would have shed oceans of tears if she had known that her son was living apart from his biological relatives.

The loneliness and sadness was almost too much for the boy to carry. Candy thought that the social worker cared and his behavior was simply a result of hopelessness and frustration.

When his older sister ended up in the psych ward at the local hospital, their maternal grandmother called Candy and asked if she and Ben would take her because Grace had too many responsibilities, and needed some support. After some deliberation Candy and Ben decided to take the older sister, Kate, who was a senior in