Please Help if You Can - A Family is in Need

Sharing with permission in its entirety for a friend with a friend in need. It's a great injustice that's been done to this family, please help them reunite with their children. Every little bit helps.
Thanks! Original post: www.facebook.com/LifeOnTheMountainside/posts/411171279057764

I'm writing this on a Saturday morning because I know, statistically, there's a lot more people reading on a weekend than during the week. I've never posted anything like this here before, and likely won't again, but I am asking for help. Not for me, but for a very good friend of mine whom I view as a daughter. This is a very long story - please read it to the end.

My friend is between the ages of my own children, and I met her online through a group we both used to belong to, and a number of us developed a much deeper friendship- we are all friends on FB now.

I'm a rather private person - even people I've known since high school haven't been to my house, but this young lady has. That's how much I trust and care for her. I've known her through getting married, and through the birth of all three of her children- it's the circumstances surrounding the birth of her last child last spring that have led to this serious need today.

Last spring, she was pregnant with her third child, and it was a very painful pregnancy, pretty much rendered her unable to do much of anything else but see to the needs of her older two children. At the time, her father was living with them, as he had been pretty much their whole marriage.

Unbeknownst to her, however, her father was doing drugs. I get that the man was disabled and in pain, and that his pain meds were doing nothing for him. But also unbeknownst to her, he'd been arrested, a court date set, and he failed to show. So they came to her house and arrested him.

Because of her pain, her house was messy - some dishes in the sink, not been vacuumed, toys scattered, laundry not folded, etc. Pretty much the average messy that happens when you are sick and you're the only one doing the chores. But because of her father's drug arrest, and the messy, an immediate assumption was made that she and her husband must also be doing drugs, so the police called social services, her children were taken and so were her pets. She was given a week to get the house clean and have an inspector out, and was also told her first lie by social services - if the house was clean, she could have her kids back. Luckily, she was able to have them placed with her husband's family.

So the house was cleaned, Inspection was passed. But the kids did not come home. Excuses were made, and a lawyer was contacted.

Another excuse was made, another inspection had to be passed. The house was perfect, except one thing. A major storm had broken the tree in her front yard the day before, yanking the power line from the house. While the power company shut off power to that line, they weren't going to fix it for several days. So no power for that inspection. She and her husband were blamed for this, unfairly.

Second lie - she was told when her baby daughter was born, social services would not take her. Two days after the baby was born, they did. Luckily, she'd set up a situation with a friend, so she's been able to spend time with the baby ever since, even though she could not have her home.

Third lie told by social services, after the lawyer got involved - the baby could come home in September, the middle child in October, the eldest in November. No one can explain the arbitrary dates. The only child to come home was the second child.

Now, finally, almost a full year later, after telling my friend time and time again - if you pass the drug tests, if you take the parenting classes, all kinds of ifs, your children will come home. The court date is April 28th, and they are telling her that they plan to take her children away from her permanently, even though they have been in full compliance all the way along, because they STILL- even with the passing of numerous drug tests - do not want to believe that she and her husband are not drug addicts. This has been a very hard year for her - losing her children, having to inform her father he was never welcome back once he got out of prison, and now? Her husband has lost his job to top everything else off.

Realistically, the lawyer needs $1500 to pay him in full. He says as long as $1000 can be gotten to him before the court date, the rest can be done in payments.

Now if I had this, I'd pay him right now. But like many families, especially us homesteaders, our income is small. It covers our needs, but if emergencies come, well, we're making payments.

We started this fund last summer, and a lot of good friends have helped - we need a little more help.

I run two Etsy shops - if a straight donation is against your beliefs, that's cool - but buy something form one of my shops. Half of each sale will go straight to her fund. (I need the other half to buy supplies to keep making things and pay fees!)

Here's my shops:

ravenglass.etsy.com

www.etsy.com/shop/TheMountainsideShop

We have a GoFundMe set up as well. www.gofundme.com/ah2eu4
I will also take custom orders on anything to help this girl. She's been lied to and for no reason other than a messy house and a father who made some really bad choices, slated as must be a criminal herself. If A messy house is a crime, we'd all go to jail some days.
Whatever you can, please. $2 is $2 more than we had for this before.