Text messages pick up again in the second week of March. I don’t recall the content.

March 19, 2009 (Thurs): Mother advises that her sister is being evicted and that they all have to leave by Monday. Her sister will live with boyfriend while niece and nephew will stay with friends but she and Cookie have no place to go. I’m uncertain whether to believe her and wait to see if things change over the weekend. At some point today or prior to today the mother states she expects an IRS refund. I advise her to use this money to secure housing for herself and Cookie.

March 20, 2009 (Fri): CPS caseworker returns from maternity leave and calls me to get contact information for the mother. Caseworker says that the case was not closed for lack of methadone clinic information—which leads her to believe the mother is using drugs again. I tell the caseworker that I had no indication that the mother was using and in fact I saw the mother think clearly and rationally during a time of crisis. I told the caseworker that to my knowledge, mother was working, attending methadone maintenance and had her daughter enrolled in daycare.

Caseworker attempts to hunt the mother down through social services in their current state and contacts the daycare center. Daycare states that the mother came to see the center but never returned. CPS (CPS1) says they are requesting the other state's CPS (CPS2) to do a courtesy check with a drug screen to ensure the mother is not using drugs again. Caseworker states that the mother has been convicted of her third drinking and driving offense at some point after regaining custody of Cookie (in our state, she is now facing mandatory jail time for this offense).

I text the mother to advise her to call CPS and give the clinic information. Mother states that she already did this and I advise her to do it again to close the case. Mother insists the case is closed and now believes that I called CPS based on her pending eviction and lack of housing. I text the mother a few times noting that I did not call CPS when she was “homeless” in February and I would not do it now. I don’t hear from the mother again until Sunday night.

March 23, 2009 (Monday): The maternal aunt contacts me to say that the mother’s family is concerned about Cookie and are arranging to fly one of the mother’s nieces from her home to where Cookie & her mother are to take Cookie and fly to my state where they will meet up with one of the mother’s sisters, who will take Cookie to a family one state north of us where she will be raised with the mother’s sister serving as childcare provider. The grandmother asks the maternal aunt if she should contact CPS1. I tell the maternal aunt that the grandmother should contact CPS1.

I contact the caseworker who says she will contact the grandmother at her home to see if she will talk to the caseworker.

Cookie is removed from mother’s custody later in the day.

March 25, 2009 (Wed): Mother contacts me to discuss the baby’s removal. She says that she went to methadone maintenance Monday morning and her nephew was babysitting Cookie. When the mother returned to the house, the sister said that she would not hand Cookie over to her mother. The mother left the house and returned after her sister went to work. Upon getting access to her daughter, she “calmed down” by doing some cocaine offered to her by her niece. The court affadavit states she admitted to doing cocaine Sunday night (before her methadone maintenance).

At the time that she calls she is out with someone whose house she is staying at looking for something to cleanse her system before taking a drug test required by CPS2 by Friday. She says that the person with her is a retired NY City police officer.

Text messages say that she’s unable to go through this and doesn’t have her child.

March 26, 2009 (Thurs): Mother finds out the drug test is a hair analysis. Her texts now lament about how it is over.

March 27, 2009 (Fri): Mother gets to see baby. Cookie’s foster mother (the mother’s former foster mother) states that the mother was arrested at a local bank for disorderly conduct under the influence and uses $300 of her tax return money to bail herself out. The foster mother had been holding the tax return money for the mother and states there had been $1,400.

March 29, 2009 (Sun): Mother sends multiple messages about losing the baby, the possibility of moving to her own mother's state (which she claims CPS2 is aware she is planning), and that if she is unable to have custody of Cookie they will return to my state where we will have custody of Cookie.