Who is protecting the children? Nana and Isabelle's story
This nonfiction book encompasses the life of Grace Ford and her family. Grace was a licensed social worker with twin daughters, Ella and Emma. The setting takes place in the piney woods of East Texas and begins with a couple falling in love and building their family together. But seven years down the road and their fairy tale marriage ends when her husband commits suicide.
At the time of her husband's death, Grace was an investigator for Child Protective Services. She specialized in child sex abuse investigation. She had been with the state over six years when she became overwhelmed with things she was seeing within the agency. She needed a change and that change would move Grace and the twins 60 miles south to the neighboring town of Tyler where she would begin her work with the mentally ill population.
As the girls finished their junior year of high school, tragedy stuck when Ella went into a grand mal seizure and it was discovered that she had a brain tumor on her right frontal lobe. The biopsy came back as benign and a decision was made to leave the tumor in place until she graduated from high school.
There was nothing easy about getting Ella through her senior year but Grace was so happy when both girls graduated. But at that point, Emma and Ella took on two different paths. Emma focused on her studies, first attending her local junior college and then moving to Houston to finish up her Bachelor's degree. Emma followed in her mother's footsteps and immediately went to work for CPS, sexual abuse unit.
Ella on the other hand was a different story. Grace took her back to the neurosurgeon who explained to Ella what they would need to do in order to remove it. He stated they would start with shaving her hair. Ella wasn't down with it. She wasn't letting anyone shave her hair off. She told the doctor she needed to think about it and would get back with him. Ella was an adult now and in charge of her own medical health. Although Grace wanted to get it over with while she was still on her insurance, Ella insisted it wasn't happening.
Ella got a job at the local pizza place where she met up with some unsavory people. She seemed to spiral out of control. Shortly after graduation, Ella announced she was pregnant. Because of her medical condition and the father's lack of involvement, Ella made the decision to place her sweet newborn child up for adoption. This would later take a heavy emotional toll on her.
Four years later and Ella would have her second child, Isabelle. Ella's relationship with Isabelle's dad ended before she was born. There was no way that another child would be placed up for adoption so Grace did what she could to help Ella in raising her. The first three years went fairly smooth. Ella settled into a job, got a place for her and her daughter and seemed to be doing fairly well. But in 2008, Grace learned that evil had moved into Ella and Isabelle's life. There was no amount of social work training that could have prepared her for what was to come.
Grace found herself knocking on the door of CPS for help only to be told that help was not available. She was now on the side of the fence with all the others who turned to CPS for help only to be ignored while the child/children continued to suffer.
This is just one of many examples where the system failed the child. Please journey with me in reading, Who is protecting the children? Nana and Isabelle's story.
