by Elsa Christensen
Part 1
It is Ascension day, Thursday the fifth of May, 2016. A mother walks through the gates of Vilde “Home for Mothers,” never to return. She takes her son with her, a boy of about five months. The next days will be the first days that the mother and the baby get to be together without any public surveillance in a governmental institution, surveillance by the CPS.
Mother and child had survived five months away from home, observed day and night in an institution with video surveillance. Their performance of day-to-day tasks had been continuously monitored. In addition, daily notation of facial expressions, mood, and development were recorded. And then there was the IQ testing.
Why was this Mother’s freedom to be in a normal social setting taken from her? When she was thirteen years old she was at school with her twelve year old sister. The authorities came in with the CPS and forcefully separated the two sisters who tried desperately to hold on to one another. The police also took their three other siblings.
“I was fine when I lived at home,” the mother remembers.
From that day, the five siblings never lived together, nor did they get to live with their parents as youngsters. The siblings were spread out, and the girl of thirteen was forced to live in a CPS institution. The other children in the institution were experimenting with several kinds of drugs. The loss of everything that was familiar to her made her seek consolation in the drugs she was offered. Her addiction followed her the next thirteen years. Then she got pregnant.
The day after giving birth to a son on December 1, 2015, it was explained to the mother that the CPS could help. She was told this because the goal was to remove her child from her. This fact was hidden from the mother.
Proposal of Help #1: Two CPS employees came to see her the day after she gave birth. They told her that the child was going to be moved to a foster home.
Proposal of Help#2: On the same day, the CPS promised the mother that they would not take the child if she agreed to admit herself for observation at the Sudmanske “Home for Mothers” in Bergen, Norway.
The mother accepted the “help;” she had no choice if she wanted to keep her boy. Most people would call this coercion. The CPS called it “voluntary acceptance of help.” After approximately a week in the hospital, the mother and child were moved to Sudmanske.
Proposal of Help #3: About two weeks later, two days before Christmas at midnight, the institution staff met with the mother. Instead of the expected discussion of her progress, she was informed that her son would be taken from her as a part of the third proposal of help. Up to this point, she had been breast feeding the boy.
The mother felt powerless after losing her living child, and she did not know where the CPS had taken him. She knew that the boy was taken from the person he belonged to and was a part of.
Proposal of Help #4: About five weeks after the baby was born, the mother was offered another proposal of help. The little boy would be returned to her immediately if she voluntary admitted herself for observation in the Vilde “Home for Mothers” in Horton, Norway. The coercive “offer” was accepted, the baby boy was returned, and the move was made to Vilde. The Norwegian CPS once again called it a “voluntary acceptance of a proposal for help.”
The Vilde “Mothers’ Home” is approximately 500 kilometers from the mother’s home in Bergen.
After four months of continuous observation at Vilde, the mother ended the fourth help proposal on her own initiative on the fifth of May.
*
For many decades, up until the 1970’s, children of wanderers such as gypsies, were taken by force from their parents. The CPS was assisted by the police to give these children what the government said they needed: a childhood without parents and siblings. They would be housed in institutions. Between 25% to 33% of gypsie children born between 1900 and 1960 were treated this way. Girls were IQ tested and sterilized. This was also done to some boys. In addition, whole families were interned in labor colonies. There, among other things, they were taught a “regular life characterized by tough discipline.” This was said to be “voluntary,” but clear threats to take away their children gave parents no choice but to except this existence.
“This is our near history. The last labor colony was closed in 1989. The last sterilizing was done in 1964. Later on, the government had to pay compensation for the abuse, and asked for forgiveness for destroying lives.” (Nina E. Tveter)
Does the mindset behind these actions live on?
Twenty-four years after the last forced sterilization in Molde, Norway, and about the same time as they closed Svanviken labor colony in Nordmøre, the social worker Kari Killén wrote a Doctoral Thesis. It was this work that made it possible for CPS to become as it is today.
After a study of only 17 children, Killen shaped the future CPS, a CPS based on measures of the parents’ functions. Killén told the social workers to evaluate “which parents can help children to survive!” (Molde, Norway, 19.02.2009)
The social workers in Norway and Scandinavia took her grand mission very seriously, and the results of their evaluations are catastrophic. The CPS and the police are now forcing 4-5 children each day out of their homes, most of them never to return to their parents. Last year this “protection” of Norwegian children cost the government 20 billion NOK.
The Middle Class Emotional Neglect
Killén, a social worker, is responsible for an important part of the curriculum for people studying to become social workers, and she has been teaching these courses for years. According to Kari Killén, 45% of Norwegian children suffer from emotional neglect. Her thinking is the foundation for the Norwegian CPS today: that 45% of our children will be traumatized by their own parents because of dubious bonding. When this happens, the CPS needs to “assist” people. Killén’s conclusion is based on this assertion: 45% of our children have parents that cannot help them survive without damage!
Killén argues that the percentage is so high because of a new type of neglect that she calls: “The emotional neglect in the middle class.” This is something that only some of the highly educated can understand: some health nurses, doctors and others may discover it from the time of the pregnancy.
Killen says that “Middle Class Emotional Neglect” is hard to discover and the damage does not show until the child is three to five years old, and particularly in the teen years.
A National Breakdown?
If there is any truth to Killén’s assumption, it would be a sign of a total breakdown of the Norwegian welfare state. Of course, this idea makes no sense and the result of the work that the CPS has done based upon it must be seen as one of the greatest tragedies of our time.
A Forced Stay in a “Home for Mothers”
It wasn’t that long ago that gypsies had the choice between moving to a labor colony, or losing their children and getting sterilized. Today, hundreds of women yearly get the choice between moving to “Homes for Mothers” for observation, or losing their children at once. Just like the gypsies before them, these “choices” are called “voluntary.” We find this enforced in the CPS statistics under the term “help.”
In our culture, women with newborns have traditionally been well cared for. They get help in the house, food served in bed, helpful advice on breast feeding, and care from women that are friends. In the institutions, the women are merely being observed! They are taken away and isolated from their friends and family, people with whom it is natural to share the joy over the baby.
Many women in these institutions tell stories of how they initially got a warm welcome so it was natural to open up and talk about themselves. Then the illegal video surveillance started and there were demands for detailed plans of their daily tasks. The requirement: their plans had to be noted every half hour. Any supervision and guidance came mostly in the form of negative criticism. Monitoring of the voice, facial expressions, hygiene, and lack of initiative were recorded. Finally, the lack of eye contact with the child and other signs of supposed lack of interaction were seriously considered. The things the mothers told about themselves in confidence at the beginning of their stay, was written in an “end report” that was unrecognizable to the mothers themselves.
“End reports” on the different mothers are strangely similar. Many mothers are in despair, often there with their first child. They have “let themselves” be institutionalized by force in a desperate hope of getting to keep their baby or of not losing it again. Most of them do not return home with their children.
The mother mentioned earlier in this narrative survived five months under observations just like these. Every time a child was taken, she remembered when her own baby was taken from her at three weeks of age. She cried every time a child disappeared. In her “end report,” her crying was interpreted this way: “the mother is unstable!” She had lost once and was afraid to lose again.
“End reports” from ” “Home for Mothers”
The “end reports” from “Home for Mothers” are the most depressing literature I have read during my study of the CPS. The heartless lack of concern that make their methods possible are reflected in written observations. A family therapist will deliver these “end reports” to be used by the Council Committee and judges, who need proof for decisions. The “end reports” have a huge impact on the lives of children, parents and whole families.
As noted earlier, the reports are strangely similar. Most things are interpreted in the worst possible way. They are full of symbols, meaning no direct accusations, that describe irrelevant circumstances. Circumstances that, if they were relevant, would discredit the parent and strengthen the therapist’s allegations. Just as enlightening as the things in the report are the things that are withheld on purpose.
In the report above of the woman who moved out voluntarily, breast feeding was mentioned as something she wanted to do, but it was not mentioned as something that she actually did. The fact that she was breast feeding the child until the CPS placed the boy with strangers is deliberately withheld! They did not mention that when the mother got her boy back in her arms after two weeks, her breasts were still not completely dry. They withheld the fact that the mother asked the public health nurse and the doctor in “The Mothers Home” if they thought that she could get the milk production back up, so she could continue breast feeding. They told her she couldn’t! Others knew that she could have managed it easily with some help and in a safe environment. A family therapist described the lack of eye contact between mother and child. She didn’t mention that the CPS kept them from developing the natural eye contact that breast feeding gives, and didn’t mention that they had the mother believing that she could never have this “free” eye contact again with the boy. (A baby’s eye sight is sharpest in the distance from the breast to the mothers face.) Another important fact that was held back was that the mother and child that they observed had just been reunited! The baby came from a two week stay in an emotional no-man’s-land (two weeks, in a lifetime of five weeks). The mother was scared and felt that she was in a dangerous situation after having lost her baby, having it back, and then being threatened of losing it again. The family therapist did not mention that the observations were made in the light of this dramatic break in the relationship between the mother and the baby.
Killén teaches that the people who do not have the necessary caring skills, will probably never learn them. This explains why the “Home for Mothers” is the exact opposite of what is normal in the rest of society. The “Home” does not give help when needed. They do nothing to strengthen and support people who are managing the best they can. These “Homes” merely observe and call it “help.” In reality, they are “helping” the child be torn from where it belongs.
The CPS in the Future
We know a lot about some groups of people in the government who would like to control family activity. Recently, a member of the parliament and social committee suggested that the CPS should start to prepare when the woman is pregnant. The CPS seems to listen to this member.
How many groups of people should be deemed unworthy of the parenting role? The gypsies were told clearly in their time to stop giving birth or be sterilized. Many people who have been involved with the CPS say that sterilization would almost have been better, (because then we would have known for sure that we don´t have a future in our own country.)
Time may be short before claims for compensation will come from the survivors who had their lives ruined by the CPS. It appears that it will be a tough battle. Until then, the CPS will use money from the 20 billion NOK they have at their disposal, for a very peculiar purpose; forcing CPS employees into the homes of families to restore the good impression of the CPS! The ones that are coerced to accept this “help” become traumatized families, in numerous cases, they may get their children back only after long battles with the CPS. As stated earlier, in many cases, they never get their children back.
***************************************************************
The true author of this real life story is Margaret Hennum. (She has been given the pseudonym Elsa Christensen in the article above.) Her identity became known when baby Caspian, was taken from his mother, Nadia, for no good reason whatsoever. Margaret was attempting to help Nadia and Caspian prepare for a normal life (something a good Samaritan would do). Margaret gave a speech at a demonstration against the Norwegian CPS only weeks before her world was rudely interrupted by the CPS. They came to her house and took Caspian on June 13th, 2016.
Speech held at the demonstration in Oslo May 5th, 2016
My name is Margaret Hennum. I am a pediatric nurse and have been working with children and with families in crisis almost my entire adult life. I am a mother of two, but I have never been involved with the Norwegian Child Protection service (CPS), “barnevernet”. So why am I standing here now?
Well, eight years ago I read a book called “Power abuse and miscarriage of justice” by Berit Aarset, a grandmother writing about how the CPS took away the healthy and sound one-year-old from the mother.
I, who hardly ever thought about the CPS before, got a wake up call, and couldn’t NOT stand her. After I read the book, I have heard of an alarming number of parents with similar stories. And I have seen that the Child Protection Service, with the word “protection” in their name, is not a protector, but have become a large threat to our children’s lives and well being!
The CPS has as an official goal to remove more and more children from their homes, and they do. But it is not the neglected children they take. Most of them are healthy, functioning children without any signs of neglect. “This can’t be true,” you say, “there must be something more, right?” Yes, there kind of is, but not in the way you would think. For the CPS thinks they are capable of judging who is able to raise a child and who is not. So even if the children are OK living with their parents right now, they mean to see the parents as a threat to the children in the future. Then they suddenly remove the child without warning, and thereby inflicts the child’s loss of parents, loss of siblings, loss of grandparents, friends and all what they belong to!
It is more than 50 years since health care realized that the parents should come with when children were hospitalized. They understood that the anger, despair and in the end the apathy the children showed, laying alone in the hospital bed, were reactions to loss, natural reactions to the loss of their parents. Now, 50 years later the CPS are taking more and more children from their families, and the child protectors are proud of it!
In the Ida case, the newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad presented recently, we can read about a girl who got aggressive only after the CPS got involved. Many times the CPS describes the children they have removed from their parents as aggressive, despairing and depressed. Lawyer Sverre Kvilhaug says that in all the cases he has been working, he has NEVER seen that the CPS has considered the possibility that they themselves could have created aggressive, despairing and depressed children; these natural reactions to loss of family.
Homeless, yearning and insecure children become damaged children. They are put back in development and prevented from having a normal and healthy development. The CPS, who are making more and more of this homeless children, can not know what it means to belong!
For decades they have gone out to other institutions, like health centres, schools, hospitals and the government agency for children, youth and families, in addition to children and teen organizations, asking them to come to the CPS if they have any worries about a child. Many people have done this, and are shocked when the CPS then immediately empties the home of children.
Last year barnevernet spent 20 billion Norwegian kroner! So, of course, we now have to ask the question: what went so terribly wrong? The barnevernmentor Kari Killén has told her students since 1988 that 45%, nearly half the amount of all Norwegian children, have parents not able to bring up their kids without the help and advice from barnevernet!
If this was not a huge lie, it would imply a total collapse of our welfare society model! But even worse than the billions of kroner spent, are the sufferings of all the devastated families involved. Still the CPS wants more money. But they should not have it; instead their budget will be squeezed. And their only responsibility that will be left for them, are for those severely neglected children, these who are let down by the CPS today. We do not accept that the CPS can be an intruder in the lives of normal, functioning families. The help that normal families need from the government are provided by other government institutions like health centres, schools and hospitals. And then we need to get the “housewife substitute” back!
Until the CPS has lost most of the current functions, we need to stop reporting anything but sure neglect.
The CPS is now not only a threat against those directly involved, but it is undermining the functions of important institutions like health centres and others, providing services that we all need. Because nobody should ever take the chance of showing their vulnerability to helpers instructed to be informers to the CPS.
I cannot think of anyone less trustworthy, and whom I will more strongly warn against, than those removing by force a 3 months old baby from its mothers breast!
These kind of people shall not take care of our children. Anyone who is deprived of their children must get the possibility of
having their case considered by a qualified investigating committee, and all those children who want it, must be allowed to return home to their families.
Finally, social media have lately revealed the inner workings of maternal homes, where hundreds of parents are forced into. Most of the parents leave without their kids. Those places are not a home for mothers, were you get advice and help. Those places are observation institutions, were despaired and frightened parents are kept, forced by the CPS to enter. If not, they will loose their child immediately! Just like the gypsies were forced only a few years ago. The only difference is, that the gypsies were sterilized by force. The parents today are not sterilized, but they are denied having a family! And like the gypsies, parents are painstakingly intelligence tested.
As strong as I can, I am warning you: never agree to go to those family centres or maternal homes! Flee abroad, hide yourself in Norway, fight for your child among people who want the best for you!
Posted by Chris 
Wings of the Wind 
BABY CASPIAN KIDNAPPED IN NORWAY…UPDATE #12
August 14, 2016August 12, 2016
Nadia was allowed to see Caspian for two hours on Thursday and for three hours on Friday.
Nadia has been given the reports from both visitations. They are much more detailed than previous reports. (Only a few changes in punctuation have been make.)
Visitation report Visitation between: Mother Nadia and Caspian
Date: Thursday, August 11, 2016
The mother came 10 minutes before and got the key to the apartment. We made an agreement that I would come in when the guardian (Barnevernet worker) came with Caspian. His grandma has become ill and will not be attending today. Y (Nadia’s friend and witness) has taken her place instead. Caspian arrives on time and I make an agreement with the guardian that he/she will stay with them until I come back (I was in a conversation over the phone).
At 10:15 the mother takes out a yoghurt that she will give to Caspian. She washes her hands, picks up Caspian at the same time as she finds the yoghurt(smoothie). “Oh how delicious!” she says as she feeds Caspian with a teaspoon. Caspian waves his hands in excitement and obviously enjoys the food. He stops and turns around to look at me as I sit on the opposite side of the table. The mother talks to him, and he shows he clearly enjoys the food he got. Caspian stop as he hears a bird. “What was that?” says the mother. “Do you hear a bird out there? I think maybe it is a crow.”
The mother says, “If I knew you where this hungry than I would have checked if you had a sandwich with you.” Y gets up to find the food Caspian had with him from the short term care home/stand by foster home. U.t. (the supervisor) gets up to make coffee and Caspian looks for me. The mother is wondering if Caspian is full and lays him down on the floor again. She sits down beside him and lets him explore on his own.
He crawls to the toy box with the big rubber puzzle game and the mother holds him so he can pick up a piece of puzzle from the box. Caspian gets up from the crawling. “Oy” says the mother. Caspian talks and gargles. He looks at his mother and crawls around her as he at the same time tries to get up in between. The mother sings “An elephant came marching…” while she solves the puzzle game (that becomes a big rubber mat). Caspian stops as he looks at his mom singing. Caspian gets to pick up the puzzle pieces as his mom keeps on assemble them.
Caspian makes happy sounds. The mother continues to sing as she tickles him. and Caspian laughs. She lifts him on to her lap and they study the toy box together. Caspian finds a blue balloon and his mom sings “I want a blue balloon…” Y’s phone rings and Caspian stops and look at him. Caspian crawls to a couple of playhouses and the mother follows. She says that she thinks she doesn’t know a song about horses. Y suggest’s “Fola fola blakken”, but than Caspian is busy with the train.
Mom sings “Nede på stasjonen/Down at the station…” Caspian crawls unto his mother’s lap. Mom drives the train around and Caspian watches. He looks at mom and smiles. He coughs a bit and his mom says “Maybe we should find some water?”. Y finds the bottle he brought and gives it to the mother. “How lucky we are to have a secretary with us to give us what we need”. Mom puts Caspian onto her lap and gives him a little water before Caspian wants to get down and crawl some more. He crawls onto his mother’s lap and wants her to lift him up. He makes a lot of sounds. Mom sings to him and Caspian hums with on his own.
Caspian crawls uneasy on the floor while babbling. He whines a little. Mom strokes him on the head and says “What a little charmer you are.” Mom wonders if she should find another yoghurt.” “You didn’t eat a lot,” she says. They get seated again and mom gives him more yoghurt. Caspian eats willingly and waves his arms. “Do you know what we talked about in the court case? What a nice and happy boy you are! That we all agree about.” “And still they say that he is uneven developed,” Y says. Caspian makes loud noises, smiles and looks at mom. Mom makes the same noises, he looks at her and smiles before he makes the same noises again. They talk like that for a while and Caspian laughs.
In between, Caspian bends forward, grabs his foot and tries to put it in his mouth. All of a sudden mom yells, there is a wasp buzzing around them. Y chases it out the window. Mom brings Caspian down with her on the floor and says she got good energy out of being around him today. Caspian crawls over to Y and Y takes his hands and picks him up and lets him play riding horse on his foot. He brings him onto his lap and Caspian grabs after his phone in his pocket. Y lets him hold it as he sits calmly on his lap. Caspian studies Y’s face and smiles at him. He tries to take Y’s glasses and Y says “No, these I want to keep in peace”. He puts Caspian down on the floor to his mom and mom puts on fake glasses. They continue to puzzle. Mom sings, “Maybe we should change the diaper soon?”
11:15:
Mom takes him with her to the bathroom to change the diaper. She comes out into the living room with him in only the diaper and sits down on the sofa with him. Caspian sits pleased in his mother’s lap while she plays with his naked feet before she starts to dress him in the rest of the clothes. Caspian looks pleased and starts to hum. They get down on the floor again. Caspian crawls under the table and to U.t.(the supervisor). He grabs after the toes to look at them (they have got nail polish on). Mom grabs him from under the table to pick him up.
Y says if he is going to eat the banana then… Mom carries him to Y. Y makes Donald noises and both see that Caspian is getting tired. Y’s phone rings and he walks out in to the hallway to talk. Mom carries him around on the floor while she lulls him. Caspian is quiet. Mom lays Caspian on the floor while she finds a dish and the banana. She addresses him while she mooshes the banana. Caspian whines. “Yes”… says mom compassionately.” Mom will hurry up..” and they get seated at the table again. Caspian waves his arms impatient. Mom sneezes and Caspian stops and looks at mom to than move his glance at the food again. Caspian starts to get uneasy on the lap. Mom gives him some banana and bread. They then finish the meal. Mom looks for the pacifier and finds it. She rinses it and gives it to Caspian. Mom walks with him in her arms and sings to him. Caspian sucks the pacifier calmly without a sound. Y takes pictures and Caspian looks at him seriously.
Ending: I tell them when it is 10 minutes left and mom continues to walk around with him. It is a calm and quiet atmosphere. I say that the doorbell might frighten him when the guardian arrives. Y offers to go out and look for Caspian’s guardian (Barnevernet worker). He goes down to open the door for her. Caspian is sleeping in his mother’s arms right before the guardian arrives. Mom continues to sing with him in her arms while she tidies the table after them. Y helps. She asks if he can check if there is something forgotten in the bathroom. Caspian’s guardian (Barnevernet worker) helps the mother to dress him while he sleeps. Mom has him sitting on the lap. She struggles a bit with getting the jacket on Caspian while he is sleeping on the lap. The guardian offers to put him on the thrust/puff but mom says she wants to do it like that.
Evaluation: A nice and maybe less hectic visitation. Even if Caspian is more active than usual. Mom follows Caspian and both are active on the floor. Caspian tries to get up several times and he “talks” right from the start this time. Mom sings to him and tries to find songs that matches the toys he find. Mom is calm in the voice and has full focus on Caspian through the whole visitation with an exception of when the wasp entered the room suddenly. Caspian is observant and catches all movement and sounds in the room. It seems as if he enjoys that mom responds when he makes sounds. No drug use suspected.
Friendly regards, Xxxxxx
Visitation report Visitation between: Mother Nadia and Caspian
Date: Friday, August 12, 2016
Mother and grandmother arrive 10 minutes before and I let them into the apartment. After I have greeted the grandmother, I inform her a little about my role. Caspian arrives with the guardian 5 minutes before and I help them in and up into the apartment. The mother stands ready in the door of the apartment and the grandmother a little in the background.
Caspian smiles at his mom and mom receives him in her arms. I couldn’t quite observe if he reached for mom with his arms cause I was standing behind the guardian. Caspian is in his mother’s arms when she says “You know grandmother?” Grandmother thinks he doesn’t recognize her. “They remember better than you think” says mom. Mom is wondering where they are on the sleeping and eating schedule. He ate when he woke up earlier (a little past 7:00 am?) and she doesn’t think he has had food after that.
Grandmother bought a wooden train for Caspian that they have packed beforehand. Grandmother sits on the sofa and Mom and Caspian on the floor. Caspian crawls around and climbs onto mom’s lap. Grandmother eventually moves down to the floor and participates in the game for a while. Caspian tries to get up and Nadia says “See? He’s getting up!”
10:09 am:
Mom begins to prepare food and grandmother sits a bit on the floor with Caspian. He plays with a pan set sitting on the floor and grandmother gets seated back on the puff. “Look how nice he sits” says mom to grandmother. Caspian plays and seems fascinated over the sound the pan makes when it hits the floor in the pretendkitchen/playkitchen. He looks at his mom and smiles at her. Grandmother makes sounds and he turns around to look at her. Mom gets seated with Caspian on the lap. She invites grandmother to sit opposite them on a chair so she can watch them.
Caspian waves his arms eagerly when he sees the food. He sits calmly and eats and looks upon mom and smiles. He reaches and grabs for his mom’s mouth and hair. Grandmother and mother make small talk and Caspian starts to twist a little on the lap. “What is it sweety? Are you tired already?” Mom gives him water from her bottle because she can’t find the cup he usually brings during visitation. They end the meal and mom puts him back on the floor.
Caspian plays a little while mom sits quietly next to him. He crawls towards his mother and onto her lap. He sits on her lap while playing with the pan. Caspian crawls towards the toys he knows next to the shelf and finds the horses. Mom asks grandmother if she remembers the song “Fola fola blakken”. Grandmother is not sure. U.t (the observer) finds the song on YouTube and offers to play the song for the grandmother. Mom brings Caspian onto her lap and watches the song and tries to sing with.
Mom comments “Are you tired already but surely we will play more on the floor first?” Caspian plays with the rubber puzzle game while mom and grandmother sits quietly and watch. Grandmother asks about the case/court case and mom explains. After a while grandmother lifts Caspian onto her lap. He grabs for her glasses she rocked him on her lap. Caspian laughs while she blows onto his neck. He “talks” with grandmother and plays with her glasses. She lets him, and he sits quiet for a bit on her lap. Mom leaves the room to make a phone call, and Caspian whines a bit.
Grandmother asks if he can hear her voice and they go out in the hallway so he can see the mother. Caspian tries to crawl to his mother. They come back to the living room again and mom says it’s not in her means to use the time on this but it is important and about changing her flight ticket. Grandmother says that he almost started to cry after mom when she left the room. “That was good to hear.” says mom. They get seated on the floor again. Caspian seems a little indisposed and mom lifts him up and cuddles him. They get back down again onto the floor. Mom crawls out to the hallway and Caspian crawls after in full speed.
Caspian and mom sit on the floor and Caspian crawls towards his grandmother and rises himself up by the puff. “Do you want to come here?” asks grandmother. She gently lifts him up onto her lap. After a while he gets uneasy and starts to whine. Grandmother gives him to the mother and she gives him the pacifier and walks on the floor while humming for him. He calms down and Caspian falls asleep like this.
11:20 am:
Mom lays down on the sofa with Caspian sleeping on her chest. Mom takes a picture and Caspian lifts his head but gets down again on mom’s chest. Y arrives 11.30 and grandmother gets ready to leave. She cries as she says goodbye to the mother and it might look as the mother cries too. The mother looks at me and smiles. Y gets seated in a chair after taking some photographs of the mother and Caspian on the sofa. The mother lies with her eyes closed and it seems like she also falls asleep in the end. After an hour the mother asks how long he has been asleep. She tries to wake him up, he opens his eyes than fall asleep again. Mom lies quiet as she takes selfies of her and Caspian.
12:35 am:
Mom tries to pry her way out of the sofa. She looks at me and says she wants to wake him up. Caspian opens his eyes looks upon his mother and smiles and falls back into sleep. She sees and smiles at him too. The mother and Caspian sits in the sofa until Caspian is fully awake. Than the mother delivers Caspian to Y and find’s the equipment to change the diaper. Y receives him and Caspian get’s a blueberry smoothie that he hold’s in his hands while they go to the bathroom. Caspian lay’s calmly on the changing mat and “babbles” while he moves the blueberry smoothie from one hand into the other. He says “ma-ma” and “røø.”
The mother comes into the living room, sits down on the sofa and gives Caspian the smoothie. The mother and Y discusses the case.
Ending:
I inform them that it is 10 minutes left. “Oh no, oh no” says the mother. “Maybe we’ll get time to eat some other food then?” The mother finds a yoghurt she wants to give, too. She says that the sandwiches he has with him where a little dry. Caspian looks for the food and grabs for the lunchbox. Mom tastes the sandwiches and says she didn’t like them. She wonders if she should try to give him the dinner food she bought but Y says she doesn’t have time for that. The mother says its bad if he leaves her hungry. Y thinks he will withstand it. The mother gives him a fruit yoghurt.
Caspian’s guardian (Barnevernet personnel) arrives 5 minutes earlier and apologizes that she is a little bit early. The mother says that you came 5 minutes earlier when dropping him off and 5 minutes earlier to fetch him. Then I am getting the 10 minutes back. Caspian is obviously more hungry and mom gives him the sandwiches he brought. Y comments that he now has his mouth full. The mother stands up with Caspian in her arms and we agree on another time around next week. Caspian babbles and is with good spirit. The mother dresses Caspian while sitting on the sofa.
Evaluation:
A nice and calm visitation. Mom lets him take charge and follows on his initiative. Caspian is active and seems to like it on the floor. He looks for mom while playing and crawls to her lap in between. In the first part of the visitation where grandmother is with the mother takes charge with a calm behavior and voice. Grandmother keeps in the background and lets her steer her. It seems like mother and grandmother have a good tone in between each other. Caspian slept for one hour and 15 minutes during the visitation.
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On Monday, after a lengthy hearing (9 1/2 hours), Nadia was informed that she will “not get an answer before the 17th of August” which is next Wednesday.
Nadia previously understood that if she received a favorable conclusion to Monday’s hearing, she would be able to have custody of Caspian until The County Council for Child Welfare and Social Affairs (Fylkesnemnda) hearing on August 24-26.
The Fylkesnemnda, scheduled for less than two weeks from today in Bergen, will determine the fate of Caspian’s future with Nadia.
Nadia has visitation scheduled for Thursday and Friday, August 18th and 19th.
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My thoughts:
I wanted anyone interested in the case to know that Nadia was allowed visitation this week after Monday’s court hearing. She apparently has visitations scheduled for next Thursday and Friday, also. The reports and pictures reveal that the visits have gone very well.
“Miss him every day. He is the first thing I think of when I wake up and the last when I’m going to bed.”
“We had such a fantastic time together today.. At the end of the visit he was tired, and I was carrying him around and singing him to sleep so he was sleeping in my arms.. It was wonderful.”
These comments along with the pictures illustrate Nadia’s feelings towards her child. She naturally misses the son that God has given her to raise. Caspian must miss her, too, looking at the way he snuggles up to her in these pictures.
I did ask Nadia about how the word “hectic” was used in Thursday’s report. I thought all of the pictures seemed calm and nice. I explained to Nadia that in English “The word hectic means to do things in a very fast way that may be very unorganized.” Nadia replied, “I don’t think it was hectic and I don’t think Caspian did either.”
I think the visitation observers did a good job. I have been a visitation observer myself and I have had to make notes about visitations. I appreciate that a general evaluation is included at the end.
There is something that puzzles me. Nadia had court on Monday (8th), visitation on Thursday (11th) and Friday (12th), and she is supposed to have visitation this coming Thursday(18th) and Friday (19th). This coming Friday is the 19th and the important court dates of the 24th-26th are only five days later.
Will Nadia have a chance at custody before the important court date on August 24-26th? Monday’s 9 1/2 hour hearing was supposed to be about custody before the important court date. So, either Nadia will get very little custody before the 24th-26th, or no custody, or there is the possibility that the CPS representative who picked up Caspian at Friday’s visitation didn’t coordinate with the CPS office. In any case, a mother who has been through very stressful events throughout the life of her young child is wondering once again.
As I have mentioned before, there is no apparent good reason for this child to be kept from its mother. Nothing has changed for me to come to any different conclusion. Hopefully, there will be a good decision regarding this family soon.
Chris Reimers
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