SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Jayden leaned against Nana’s leg as she teased coconut conditioner through his wet curls with her fingers. The two-year-old clapped his hands, looked up and said “bottle” in baby babble.
“Not yet, sweetie,” Rochelle told her grandson, giggling before she continued in a singsong voice. “Almost J.D. Not yet though.”
After the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services took them from their parents, this became part of the morning routine for Rochelle and her two grandbabies. In quiet moments like these, the nana focused on her grandkids instead of the challenges she faced.
State officials promised to help Rochelle, but that aid never arrived, came late, had strings attached or did not match the support given to strangers who take in foster children. As a result, Rochelle faced foreclosure on the brick suburban home in San Antonio that sheltered them. She came to fear caseworkers would remove the kids instead of helping her.
“The public only knows that the children need to be protected and believes the agency tasked with such protection would also protect the family and not cause additional harm by telling them one thing and doing another thing,” Rochelle wrote in a August email to a state caseworker.
