a second nightmare

I need to sit down and write my thoughts before everything gets carried away. I'm writing them on my blog as proof and also so that others know what happened and rumors don't spread.

Abby ran away... again... this evening. This afternoon we were moving boxes from our garage into our front room. When we finished we failed to notice that we didn't lock the front door as we were carrying boxes in and out. Later, I was up in my room trying to do chores and clean up, etc. when I heard the phone ring so I went to answer it and then shortly after I heard a door open but was not sure which door (whether it be a bedroom door or the garage door or the front door-- I didn't know). So I dropped what I was doing, and went down stairs to find the front door open and the dogs about to escape. Then the phone rang again and I didn't answer so that i could grab Abby before she ran off too far. Well... I was too late. Abby ran off with our cordless phone and someone saw her by herself and stopped the car. They tried to call us, (but I didn't answer) and as I got to the two ladies, who had her, they were hanging up with the police. They said they tried to call but I didn't answer so they called the police with OUR phone. They said the policed tracked our address from the phone and knew where Abby lived and would be over shortly. I took Abby, said I appreciate the concern and walked back home and they drove off.

The police showed up to our door about 20 minutes later. And lo and behold, one of the two cops was the same officer that was with Abby the first time she ran away. I had Andrew answer the door, as I don't do well with authority and I was shaken up from the experience. And they talked to him about two minutes and then only wanted to talk to me. Andrew sent me out while he changed Abby's diaper (Abby was in time out for running away... and screaming/bawling her head off... which of course never looks good to the police).

The police officer then disrespectfully yelled at me. Told me I was a bad mother, said that the child ran three blocks away (where I then corrected her and told her it was two houses away, when I caught up to her running. as they weren't there to know the facts and I didn't want it to look worse than it was... it's bad enough already). The officer said that I needed to look up sex offenders in our area as she claimed there are a lot and that Abby would likely be taken by one (Andrew and I looked into it this evening, there are 10 in our town and none near us from what we could find on the internet without having to pay money). She said that I should have a dead bold high on the door (which I DO, and we found out that, no, she can NOT open it). She told me that I was irresponsible for not having a dead bold to keep Abby safe, as we were standing RIGHT in front of the door to prove that i DO, in fact, have a dead bolt! She remembered Abby as being half naked last time and told me that I should not be taking care of my child. She looked at our house and asked my age, and told me I was too young to be a mother. I would like to note that she was talking to me as if she was a drill Sergeant. She said that last time she was with Abby for 20 minutes before we showed up to find her, which was false and I politely let her know that. And she said that she could prove it by looking into the log records and I told her to go ahead because it was not true. So the second police officer who was in and out of the conversation looked into it and they didn't have any log records of it. The Police officer told me that I was not listening to her and not understanding how serious this is that she has run away twice in a month (even though, I told her several times that I know it's serious and that I do not let her run out in the streets and do not want her running away. And I told her that I try to do everything in my power to make sure she doesn't). She told me that she "believed my act before, but now she's not going to fall for it" and accused me of lying.

When Andrew finished changing the diaper and brought her out, because they wanted to look at her, she then told Andrew that he was a bad parent for sleeping during the day and not being able to watch her responsibly (even though he works night shifts-- and yes, we did let her know that). I told her that I felt she was being rude, disrespectful and not professional. She replied with a, "I'm not listening to her" and then said she was going to file a form for child protective services. She also stated that she was going to do everything in her power to make sure that Abby did not live with us any more. I shrugged my shoulders like, go ahead, we're great parents and we do what we can, they won't be able to find anything on us because we aren't bad parents! (I wake up all the time in the middle of the night, in fear the door is unlocked and she'll get out, and it's, of course, always locked, but I always check. I'm pretty paranoid and was shaken up about the first situation so I check ALL the time) -- which of course made her more mad. They then took two pictures of Abby for child services, then left.

And that's about the gist of it, more or less.

I guess we'll go from there. I will be going in to the police department to file a claim against officer Aragon, for false accusations, intimidation, disrespect and not accurately finding facts or looking into things before accusing me. Any other suggestions of what to file against her or how to do file a claim would be helpful.

We wish she wouldn't try and run away to the park. She was just at the park for an hour or so this morning... so it's not like she doesn't ever get to go.

Anyway, I'm sad, brokenhearted, hurt, sick--like throwing up sick, by things said and done. Prayers for us would be great. Hopefully they won't take Abby away, as we love her very much.