In Midland, Michigan an adopted child attacked and killed Faith Baden’s son, Justin Baden, age 17, early in August, 2009. Justin and his younger siblings were removed from Faith Baden’s home by CPS and eventually adopted out to Jessica Pribbernow, a Michigan child-collector.

The newspaper reported that Pribbernow had custody of five boys adopted from foster care. The accused, known as Steven Jeffrey Pribbernow Jr., 15, is not the biological brother of the boys he is said to have attacked.

Two others boys, both sons of Faith Baden, were injured severely in the knife attack.

Faith left a number of news articles, emails, and comments on FightCPS yesterday. You can read them here and here.

Faith, my heartfelt sympathy to you on the loss of your son, and prayers for the healing of his younger brothers. We here at FightCPS do understand that your children should not have been separated from their loving parents.

Obviously the child collecting adopters were not capable of keeping the children safe. This is one more sign that the foster-adoption system in this country doesn’t work. I wonder if these children, in particular the one said to be the attacker, were on medications as “special needs” children. Many pharmaceutical medications given to foster and adoptive children are believed to have produced suicidal or homicidal tendencies. One of the emails posted stated that Jessica and her husband were unemployed and living off the adoption subsidy payments received for adopting the boys - a clear indicator that these were probably medicated children.

A fine way our country pretends to keep children safe.

A few days ago I found Kit and Nancy Hey’s amazing photograph on my Gather Family Rights group, and asked for permission to post it here:

I spent some time looking through Kit and Nancy’s website and all Nancy’s articles on Gather.Com. I was especially touched by her photographs of Sabrina on their website, and by the videos of her speech at the 2008 DC Family Preservation Rally.

In her speech Nancy stated that a CPS social worker detained her child, not because Sabrina was in any immediate danger, but because she was miffed that the Heys wanted to consult an attorney before allowing any further intrusions against their privacy.

Sabrina was born on April 3, 2005 and detained at the age of only twenty-two days; the reason given was ‘failure to thrive’ although she was under doctor’s care and eight pounds at the time. Later Sabrina’s mother was accused of having a learning disability that would interfere with parenting, but when I see Nancy Hey on video reading her statement, and on Gather.Com writing articles, I can’t see that there’s any evidence of her being handicapped to the extent that parenting wouldn’t be possible.

This looks like a clear-cut case of injustice, and I hope everyone here will join me in prayers, good wishes, vibrations, energy, or whatever you can give, for this persecuted, wrongfully attacked family. The case is currently being appealed and all visitations have been cut off.

You can click on the picture above to go to Kit and Nancy’s website.

More information about the DC Family Preservation Rally: 2008, 2009. (The 2009 site appears to be under construction.)

[Update: Today I found this link: Child Snatcher Judge - with a photo of the couple little Sabrina was given to. Apparently they had their own baby and Sabrina may be neglected in favor of the natural child.]

I really don’t like to read stories like this.

Last Friday a couple felt compelled to leave a hospital in Michigan with their newborn infant because CPS social workers in Saginaw asked Lucas County CPS social workers to interview them.

If I remember right, CPS in Michigan is called FIA - the Family Independence Agency - or have they changed their name again?

My feelings are always so divided when I read about things like this. I scanned the article for clues to what led this couple to make this life-changing decision.

The results so far: The couple and baby are on the run. CPS now has legal custody of the baby according to a Toledo police sergeant, William Wauford, though before they left CPS had tried to get a court order and failed. And there are warrants out for the arrest of Fredrick and Margaret Badenhoop.

Why my feelings are divided:

I never advise parents to run with their children because I know, over the years, that in most cases where this happened, the parents were apprehended and the children ended up in foster homes anyhow. Plus I have a policy of never advising a parent to do something illegal, or something that would get them in worse trouble with the law. I believe that staying firm and fighting CPS in a court of law is a better choice. But this may be one of those cases where it wouldn’t have worked to do so. At the end of the article it says, “Child Protective Services had taken at least one other child from Margaret Badenhoop.”

According to a law passed in 1996, the Adoptions and Safe Families Act (ASFA), if anyone has had their rights to another child terminated, CPS can take future babies without benefits of any kind of service plan or visitations. This can lead to incredibly cruel and heartrending scenes in hospitals where CPS worker have walked in and pulled infants from the arms of loving mothers, for no reason except that another child was already taken.

I swear I cannot help but hate social workers who allow themselves to be the agents of such cruelty. Why on earth would anyone want the bad karma associated with someone who would do such a deed?

I don’t know what the issues are with the Badenhoops, or what their motivation was, but I do know that their problems are severe and they need all the prayers we can give them and their child.

I really, really don’t like it when things like this happen. My heart hurts so much for the people involved.

Source: Parents take their baby, flee hospital, face charges by Lania Coleman for The Saginaw News published on July 23, 2007.