| Sunday 11 October 1998. 8:48 PM It's been a quiet day
today. Suzi was pretty upset this morning. Emotions are swinging a lot, but we
can talk our way through these things. I'm a bit up and down as well. I'm also
sick, but that doesn't slow me down - at all.
I heard from our Newcastle family today. The meeting between the Daughter and
Mother went very very well. I have hopes that the Daughter will be safely in her own
bed tomorrow (Monday) night.
I had a call from the Robinson family in South Australia. It's really nice when
people call and ask how we are going and share their stories with us. We've decided
to start building a National more formalised support network. The web site will be
announced really soon.
Suzanne and I spent some of the day in the front garden. We thought we'd better
get to our landscaping plans it might help ease our pain.
After we'd decided we'd done enough Suzanne was feeding AJ (for about the 200th time
today - and man this kid eats Bananas and Peaches like they grown on trees! - Oh they do
...) and said to me she was concerned that a neighbour (yeah that one) might see us
working so hard on our yard that we are now neglecting our AJ. (Remember the
complaint was that our yard was overgrown - OK the grass was 2.5 inches high - is this a
problem? In a household with a newborn?)
At least we can laugh - a little.
Support for taking Legal action is at an all time high. Just about everyone we
speak to says that any jury would grant our case without a hesitation, hey after all most
people have seen it on TV.
Action suggested (most commonly) are against the complaint maker and against DoCS on
the whole. All I can say right now is keep watching. Any action we take will
be in the millions of dollars - you can't replace a persons self esteem and dignity with a
$50 food voucher and a repaired front door.
I will say that I'm still hoping, and holding hope, that the NSW Police will settle
with me in the very near future without the need to press charges and even further
formalise the complaint. Right now we feel they are hoping it will blow over at the
lowest possible level, but after thinking about the meeting I had with the two Inspectors
(of which my notes will be put online shortly) I have serious questions relating to their
comments.
I'm also hoping that the local DoCS office will wake up and make some kind of offer
very very soon. The longer they leave it the more people tell us what we need, the longer
the demands list gets. Our Demands from DoCS will be published later this week.
Keep your eyes open on the site. We might even put up a web page where you
can add more demands you feel should be met.
I should point out, most of our demands don't relate specifically to us. The few
that relate financially will actually end up causing those monies to be put into a support
network for victimised parents. After all this is probably going to be the rest of
our life.
HAVE YOUR SAY |
