The Vulnerable Adult people are WONDERFUL!

First good suggestion is that we can start the process from here by becoming licensed for foster care.

Secondly - "The county is required to assist families in filing a complaint." and we have been told several times that "There is no complaint procedure" for either Marlene or the public defender, Doug. There still isn't a way to fire Doug N, but I will still be formulating a hate letter to the North Dakota Bar Association. Ick!

Brainstorm -- In Minnesota, they actually have a pretty good program for the protection of Vulnerable Adults. A Vulnerable Adult is someone that is has an impairment, mental or functional. Although SIL does pretty well, and can do things - I do believe that she has several reasons do be considered a Vulnerable Adult, regardless of if she wants to admit it or not.

Isn't it neglect that Fargo (Cass County) social services have allowed her to live in a trailer with no running water and try to handle a bad divorce on her own? Isn't it abuse that they then punish her for making bad decisions when they know that qualifies for help?

Hmm. The contact that just voicemailed me is The Human Services Center from http://www.nd.gov/dhs/info/pubs/docs/aging/aging-vulnerable-adults-factsheet.pdf We'll just see what they say about investigating if this case is handled correctly and if M should have been getting help all along instead of being treated worse than a drug addict.

(No, not being rhetorical. If a mother abuses drugs, she can get her kids back after completing rehab, so in a month or two. SIL has been separated from her children, not allowed but a couple of visits and no private phone calls for almost 2 years. Fact - not rhetoric.)

Posting up here is already getting something done. I wish that I'd done it earlier. A note this morning from a great advocate says, "Tim Eissinger who oversees the DBGRs and he's just not sure how the breakdowns happened with communication because truly what's happening the DBGR in Bismarck or Western Plains is going to be serving youth who don't have the dual diagnosis per se, they are moving those children to the Minot campus to be served because of referrals and the need for having more youth to serve in the community locally, so what they've been doing is talking to parents and custodians one on one by phone or during staffing their direct meetings with the case managers, so they have been accommodating parents and custodians on time frames and the moves and the comfort levels and also you know how they're wanting to not mix the populations so the youth who have the dual diagnosis can get more specialized treatment up in Minot. They've been also meeting with custodians and providers either direct or by phone too and they've have been giving presentations to the field they targeted about 55% of the state by talking with county directors, PATH, DJS, human service directors and other providers who have children under their care, so I talked to Tim this morning cell phone..."

That is a big, fat, racist lie. To begin with, we were told point blank by the social worker, Marlene Sorum, that our nephew was going to placed with us. Period. I wrote an injunction and told Marlene that nephew should not get bounced around again, and I told the lawyers that I had an injunction that needed to filed before the deadline to stop him moving to Minot. He's now in Minot. The grandparent's also objected strenuously to moving this child even further away. Especially when there are services and homes in the Fargo area where members of the family do live, and where more family members travel to the VA, and visit.

It also bothers me "wanting to not mix the populations;" I want to know the racial and religious demographics of Minot. They aren't wanting to mix WHOM? And further, " the need for having more youth to serve in the community locally;" Serve in the community? Like inmate cleanups? Lock up your own d^mn black population and leave my nephew out of your "need for youth to serve." My nephew needs speech and language HELP!, not to be picking up trash by the side of a ND road.

Ok, new post. I didn't want to conversate about the crap that hit the fan, but now I really don't care. North Dakota can't really do much worse to us than they already have.

Firstly, SIL (call her M) had a bad divorce. She was living in a trailer without running water, switching schools, so she had her kids taken away for dirty, not in school, blah, blah, blah. There were reasons, but nothing worse than usual and the kids were "not in immenate danger" (That's spelled wrong, but blogger isn't helping.) So, MN would only help her do better, and ND actually took them away.

Ok, nephew (the one on the main website's banner on the far left) was in foster care with the other SIL (call her K). Ok, fine. Well, the poor child reported a bomb threat and was dragged to juvie. (Being BLACK in North Dakota?) He has a major speech issue, so that was probably enough of it. But, he was evaluated when he first went into care as not depressed, not bi-polar, not ADHD - no need of meds. I have the paper.

So, tell me why ND still has this child in juvie? He wasn't permitted to visit his mother or FAMILY at all until his great-grandmother's funeral. He finally got a visit after about 13 months. It's now at 20 months, and all the social worker does is spout crap about parenting classes, how to speak proper English classes and the like. SIL has done them and still isn't "fit." I've finally realized that she is just refusing to give this child back to his family no matter what happens. She says that he could come with us (Hello, I'm licensed to work with disabled people and help 30,000 people a month!), but no paperwork has ever been filed - NOTHING has been done. Even worse, I've been told that this social worker is one of the better ones in the system.

Does it get worse? Oh ya. The lawyer who canceled court so that the social worker could go on vacation and never told the family. (Take a 3 hour car ride to go to court - and how po'd would you be?) Tried to fire him, and apparently, he can't be fired and there is no way we can even make a complaint against his performance. (He also called SIL the wrong name in court - IN COURT! On the record!! DUH)

3 hours one way to try to help with the IDIOTIC Cass county, North Dakota court system isn't bad enough of a trip - the state wants to hold him in Bismark (5 hours) and threatened to move him to Minot. I wrote an injunction so these papers could get juggled for him to come with us, with uncle J, with auntie M, with any of the hundreds of clan around Dakota and MN. Nope - it was totally ignored by the lawyers, and he got moved to MINOT. The place for children with "serious problems" (see paper that I have above - not bi-polar, not ADHD - no need of meds.)

So, I've had to give up before I got postal. The scary part is that people have told me where this woman lives, where she trolls for men and gets plastered (no, not kidding), and then they laugh at my good impulse control. So, now the world knows why I've been quiet - why I'm mad, and the reasons that I'd rather hide in a corner and mumble to myself then do the stuff that I want to accomplish.

Does this get worse YES! I've been asking for the papers - with several privacy releases, and have *NOTHING*. The social worker actually lied to her boss, Chip - I'd watched M sign a release at a BS meeting, she said she didn't have it. So, we got another, "No, I can't send that to any of the agencies, you need a release for each agency, no copies." Nothing that I asked for from the officials. I dug thru the "files" of both SILs, and they don't have a treatment plan, they don't have a plan of what M needs to do to get her kids back (NOTHING!), there isn't even the federally required education plan. Nephew says that Dakota Boys and Girl's Ranch (DBGR) has bounced him ahead two grades, but the few papers say how disabled he is, how he needs strong meds, how horrible he is. By law, the parent is supposed to have all of these things. There was a meeting with the parents, aunts, grandparents where the family is supposed to say what all is supposed to happen - ya, none of that has been done.

Meanwhile - he is drugged to the freakin' gills. He's had two psychotic episodes from *DRUGS* that they've handed him. He's said that they tell him all the time how much he deserves to be there, and how his mother doesn't want him. DBGR has told his mother that she's not allowed to talk to him without speaker phone, and that she cannot discuss court with him. He's dragged to their church and pressured to "get baptized", and not allowed to do his reservation type stuff (tobacco offerings, blessings, sweats, songs).

So, now it's public that my SIL isn't Suzy perfect and had a rough patch. It's not a secret that my nephew has been locked up for 20 months for being a black kid that reported a bomb threat in the Enderland School district. It's not a secret that Cass County, North Dakota will not help families, steals children, and lies in their conversations and paperwork, and that Marlene Sorum is nothing but a bully with a cheesy degree and a bad power trip (and alcohol problem). Doug Nesheim is a f^cking moron, and the court personnel isn't much better. (Oh, and the "guardian ad litem" will go to a special circle of hell. I was asked to train for that program, and I know she's a waste of space, going to lunch with the prosecutor, classist pig.)

Did I mention that when I and hubby showed up, dressed very well, with three very well dressed children and briefcases how the entire team got extremely polite? And how I was requested to write a paper to "inform" the staff about the rare genetic disease? (Ya, ME!) The same thing that they were informed of since the beginning where these morons never bothered to even contact the University of Minnesota genetic program where nephew had been seen? (Thanks, UofM for checking on that for me!)

Ya - North Dakota is a third world country where children really do get seized for being black - we're not the only ones!

Well, It's been far too long since I've posted. I've been being boring again. I'm procrastinating on learning Dreamweaver, so I've been knitting like it's an addiction. Even worse, I've found enablers at a wonderful community called Ravelry. It's for any fiber hobby-ist, but it's still in beta, so you have to request an invite.

It's been so nice to just sit and knit and read. But, I feel like I should contribute by actually taking pictures of what I've done. Only, it's been too cold to be outside unless I'm moving wood, or just not sunny enough to take good pictures. I really don't want to be playing with light boxes, so it's all just on the "to do" list.

A minor bit of unboring - the lawsuit for the toxic waste site is finally into the deposition stage. MIL is all worried that they might order us to release our movie footage and research, but I really don't think that they can. The only parts of it that are released to the public are all on the website, so I don't think that they can ask for everything.

So, back to ignoring Christmas and cleaning all the UFO (unfinished objects) out of my closet. If I really want to propagandize - I'm really doing a deep clean on the big closet, right? Yay, me!

The second collection were things that were being blocked and finished in a big rush for the fair. I got distracted when sweet hubby accidentally *FELTED* a lace shawl, but I can't kill him - it won first place.

Picture one and two - same blanket - lace made of baby yarn. I really should spring for the good stuff, but the new mommy was just thrilled that it was washable. Third and fourth are a white yarn with pink and blue speckles. Five and Six are of one of my favorite sweaters. It's a poncho with arm shaping and turned out pretty well. I do get nice comments on it when Niki or I wear it. I'd like to do that again, but when I went to look for *SUBTLE* colors, I got distracted by pretty clearance yarn. I'll blog about clearance yarn later.

7 and * are a really nice blanket. I wish I'd put more work and thought into it, but blindly following an interesting pattern with cheap yarn got me an almost indestructible blanket. The cat has clawed it and slept on it. It's been tossed behind the couch and come up with no snags. I've worn it as a shawl around the house and it's almost too long for that, but perfect for a lap robe.

The last is the long storied map blanket. Yet AGAIN, it didn't make the fair because I can't find what safe hole I stuck the cursed beads in! Someplace perfectly safe and so secure that I can't find them again. Ah well, they are still lovely and kicking around someplace.. At least it's finally sewn, washed, blocked and has the tassels complete.

Ug, now I remember why it was so hard to keep a knitting blog. I really jump around too much to just keep one going. Firstly, I have a collection of projects at Wierd Kids http://www.wierdkids.com/gs/knitting.htm

The first is the Viking Turid sweater. It's a GREAT pattern, and I can't find it. Going thru the closet of UFO land, I've found several things that I put aside. And, most of them are things that I really do want to finish. Bottom left of the third picture are 2 peach Elizabeth Zimmerman Dickies. They are really comfy, but are from "antique" yarn so they don't really match anything that I wear. Then, a dark grey one that has been used, and a rainbow one for "What was I thinking". But it does look "cool". (picture 4 is closer)

Then, the socks - picture 5 is closer. Grey tweed and purple is a pair, Red and white, black and rainbow (very comfy), the white top and peach/purple is a mistake that I can't find (maybe the heel is just too short or the plastic managed to shrink?), and the first of the striped socks. The long brown sock is my absolute favorite. It's plastic, but it's a very soft one that was given to me without a label. It's PERFECT for cuddling with a book, especially if you don't want to walk anywhere. (Ok, it falls down like a brick). But, it's SOOO comfy... The two green hats were a strange plastic, but thin so they could be beaded, and they both were sold. The yellow and green fit with one of William's coats, so it's stayed here. Down the left side of the circle are various swirly hats. It's the simplest pattern of increase until the colors line up, knit and watch gauge, then find someone to fit the hat. The pink and light blue in the middle are Lopi. The grey with red intarsia is Lopi and plastic, but match one of my coats. The red and pink was made for Niki, and the pink and purple was a checkerboard experiment. It went tight, so it's one for Vanessa. Picture 6 is more hat detail; picture 7 is a closeup of Vanessa's hat. Picture 8 is my hat. 9 is Will's (he wanted to put it on consignment, but then pulled it out of the bag.)

Pictures 9-13 are my first cable. Silly me worked the pattern in the round and totally messed up the shoulder shaping. I'm proud to say that I only made one mistake and it's right in the center of picture 13. I left it because it reminds me to pay attention when I cable.

Pictures 14-16 are Niki's Salish style cardigan. It's from a Priscilla Roberts-Gibson book that I found in the library, and I've probably borrowed it four times now. 17 and 18 are an attempt to do a swirly sweater. I haven't take pictures of it finished, but I've worn it several times and so has Niki. The varigated is a suede feeling, and the body style is a long tunic. The last few are some of the hats and wristlets that were sold. It's Nature Spun wool and the patterns are Salish again.