After the mother failed to bring the children to the headquarters of the District Family Support Centre (PCPR), on Wednesday, 15 December, a police officer, a probation officer and a PCPR employee appeared at Natalia’s door. They did not take the children because their mother had hidden them, but, Natalia says, they threatened that they would return and that the children could be taken even while they were sitting at the Christmas Eve table with their loved ones.
Natalia wrote to our editorial office:
I am asking for help because I no longer know what to do. The court wants to take my children away, even though I have fulfilled everything the probation officer ordered me to do. Now the probation officer says that it is too late because, as she said: “The machinery has started and cannot be stopped, and an order is an order and must be carried out.” And the fact that I fulfilled the recommendations will be an argument for getting my children back. As if I were truly a bad mother, but I try for my children so that they have everything. They have clothes to wear, a place to sleep, warmth at home and food to eat. We may not live in luxury, but it is enough for us. At least that is what I thought, but for the probation officer it is not enough. The children are happy at home, where they are loved. They want to decorate the Christmas tree and their room for the holidays, but they cannot, because thanks to the probation officer they will not spend Christmas at home. The probation officer said that in their new homes the children would also have a Christmas tree and would be fine there. Will they be fine? Without their mother, without their own home? Far from everyone who loves them? How can this be a joyful period for them if they want to separate them from their mother? Please help. I am helpless and devastated, and I certainly will not give up my children, no matter what.
The attorney representing Natalia in court believes that the court does not want to harm the children and is acting solely to protect them, while placing the children with foster families does not constitute separation, as their mother can visit them.
– Even if such a court decision has been issued in Natalia’s case, it can still be changed. We will work to demonstrate to the court that there is no need to take the children away from Natalia. Nothing will happen to the children while they are with her, says the lawyer.
What will happen to seven-year-old Iza, five-year-old Gabryś and their three-year-old brother Adam? And why did the court decide to take the children away from their mother? This is discussed in the interview above.