Break My Heart for What Breaks Yours

Whew, it's been a very long couple of weeks. Izaih was triggered by some memories of past abuse from a worker at the residential facility he used to live at. His little language has been exploding, and he was finally able to tell me what happened; it was pretty clear that he wasn't making it up. It actually confirmed some major suspicions we have had all along, which is the primary reason we brought Izaih into our home in the first place. Needless to say, there is now an ongoing investigation, and due to probably a mixture of his stirred-up memories and all the interviews, his behavior began to get worse.

Not long after, some strange things began happening with a teacher at his school. Izaih started reporting some disturbing things about this teacher, including some alleged abuse. At the same time, someone in our lives came forward to inform us of once seeing one of Izaih's teachers hitting another child. Needless to say, another child abuse investigation began. One of the teachers actually admitted to the allegations, which is a relief, so Izaih has not had to go through anymore rigorous interviews pertaining to that situation. Thank GOD. So hence the "private" blog.

This is our third child abuse investigation to be closely involved with in the past year. The last one, the one with the school, is so disappointing because it is one of the best child development centers in the state. It is a therapeutic school and is super hard to get into, so you would think that child abuse would never occur there.

The other ongoing investigation is with a place that has an extremely good reputation in our community. It's actually a place where abused children go to be kept safe. When we met Izaih and saw the interactions going on there, our guts told us that there was a lot of bad going on there, and there was no way we were going to let this tiny child go back there if we had a good home to raise him in. I'm so glad God has given us that intuition.

And the last investigation we were apart of SUCKED. It sucked for so many reasons, but mostly because there was nothing we could do. We, along with the detectives and investigators working on the case, all agreed that there was definite abuse and horrendous parenting by the people we reported, yet those involved lied (who can really blame them?) there was not enough evidence, and we reported it too late. I don't know how to forgive myself for not reporting it as it was happening, but I sure as hell will not make that mistake again. And again, these people, too, have a great reputation in the community.

WHERE ARE CHILDREN SAFE?!?!?!?!

I will point out an interesting thing, though. The child abuse hotline and the Children's Division did not accept the abuse allegations pertaining to Izaih's school, although the teacher actually admitted to doing it. Of course the school fired her immediately, but that just goes to show that just because it is not accepted does not mean it didn't happen. We will continue to follow our gut and report instances when children are being abused and/or not being kept safe, and we will not be sorry. We will of course accept consequences for whatever that means for us (whistleblowers don't usually maintain friends or close relationships with those in whom they "rat out", wonder why...), and we will willingly take the heat. If we have to go through hell for the rest of our lives in order to keep kids safe, so be it. Does that sound a bit dramatic? Oh, if only I could tell you all of the details of what we've been through this past year because of it!

There's more to tell of what's going on, but I'm exhausted so will save that for another time. Please pray for Izaih. Pray very, very hard. And please pray for all the abused children out there who are shamed, scared, and manipulated into silence.