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The Oregon DHS’s demand that a low-IQ couple prove their ability to parent echoes a past we thought we’d left behind.
After a four-year fight, Oregon residents Amy Fabbrini and Eric Ziegler can finally begin raising their own children after a county judge ordered the Oregon Department of Human Services to return their sons to their care. Hunter, who is ten months old, was able to go home shortly before Christmas, and Christopher, age four, will be gradually phased out of the foster home he has lived for almost his entire life and into his parents’ home.
Jamie Gerlitz, Fabbrini’s attorney, spoke to The Oregonian after the ruling:
I think the system is broken. DHS has a lot of power and it’s really scary that it’s taken these people four years to be heard. I’m glad the case was successful, but it shouldn’t have been this hard.
The couple may have ultimately won their legal battle, but no judge can give them back the four years of parenting that they have missed. No one can make up for the fact that from the time that their children were just days old, the only time they have been allowed to spend with them is in a stranger’s home, with the indignity of constant “supervision” from watchful case workers waiting for them to do something wrong.