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Mandy couldn’t be held for very long, she would get fidgety and need to get down. Although she was warming up in other areas, she interacted with her sisters better and one morning when Dawns friend came in Mandy got so happy and yelled out her name! This was a very member able thing for all of us. Things seemed to be going along pretty smooth, other then on visit days. The 3 girls still had to go for visits with their mother. Now I would have # children fighting not to go with the worker. After visits Mandy started showing some big reactions in her behavior. She started waking in the middle of the night with night terrors. Great now we have another one, we had one child that could not sleep anywhere but in our bed and now another that couldn’t sleep through the night. We would later find out the extent of abuse that Mandy lived with. Then to top it all off the worker was taking the girls for visits at the very house where this all happened. NOT GOOD! Thank God once we figured this out visits switched to a park. They still had some reactions but not as bad. Sandy didn’t seem to be bother by the visits much at all, we figured she was still young. As the case went on and the girls got older the case plan finely switched into severance mode. This meant that the visits lessened to only once a month for only an hour. Their mother was still fighting with the workers about getting her children back, but they were filing all papers. Mom then met yet another man and became pregnant again. Fawns father was still refusing to do any of the tasks given him. Court hearings and meetings continued for what seemed to be forever. Mandy’s father was listed as a John Doe; Sandy’s father came back into the picture to finely decided that he could better serve his child by signing off on all his rights. Leaving the way for us to adopt her. After a year the visits stopped, Fawn was 3 ½, Mandy was 2, and Sandy was a year. It seemed that the case sat in limbo for a long time but at least the girls could become adjusted the being in our family. We ended up taking Fawn and Mandy to counseling; Fawn was suffering from what the doctor called P.T.S.D., which is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is what the vets from Viet Nam suffered from. The condition stems from extreme stress. This was a rare yet noted disorder in small children. Mandy was having trouble with her attachment and bonding. Mike and I went to many classes to get some input on how to help, and try to turn things around. This went very slow. In this time we changed workers again, new ones seemed to drag their feet. Mom gave birth to her new baby, a boy. The workers contacted us and ask us if we would think about taking him into our home. We had to think about it a bit, but decided that we couldn’t take in all the children that this woman would be giving birth to. So we told them that No we would not take him. This was a hard and easy decision my heart was confused; yet I knew that it was for the best. A family in an adjoining city took him in. Finely after 5 years we were going to be going into court to sever the rights of mom and of Fawn’s father. We are finely on a roll to Completion ...WE THOUGHT! Just before the hearing date Fawn’s father decided that he had wanted his daughter. Just when we thought our fighting for these children was over, we found out it had just begun for Fawn. With the changing of so many caseworkers nobody seemed to know what they were doing. The one person who felt the incompetence of the system was Fawn. The new worker said that she had to go back to counseling to be informed about this other father she had, who wants her to come live with him for ever. SATAN CLIMBED OUT OF HELL! And right into our lives. Fawn would live the next 5 years in constant fear she would have to leave the only family she has ever known. They set up a couple visits with him and Fawn, one time he even brought along his 2-year-old son. The only response from Fawn to this man was “ I want you to let me stay with my mommy and daddy!” All of her trauma started all over again. This poor child lived each day one minute at a time. Through several more new workers, shuffling of papers, searching through file records, the attorney General found a new law that had been passed. This law stated that the time that had passed, that this father did not involve himself in this Childs life served as grounds for severance. It took a little more time and timing sent from God, but we finely got our severance. On Feb.18, 1999 we were in court finalizing our adoption of 3 beautiful little girls, who now were not so little. Fawn was then almost 10, Mandy was 9 and Sandy was 9. Our family was now complete. We could now go on with our lives.