A CALL TO PRAYER FOR AYN VAN DYK

Please join us as we gather here in prayer to ask for an abundance of blessings for all who are in charge of Ayn’s care. May the Lord’s love guide those who are responsible for making the decision that Ayn be taken home to her family as soon as possible.

When you come here to share a prayer would you invite a friend, who will then in turn invite a friend, each sharing a prayer. Let’s begin an ongoing prayer vigil that will extend around the globe until Ayn is home again.

A CALL FOR PRAYER FOR AYN VAN DYK

by Laurie Hatton

who inspires others to join her in prayer...........

I believe in the power of prayer. I believe in a loving God who cares about us and our pain. I know that many others have been praying for this situation since it unfolded, or since we became aware of this need. This document lists some things to pray about & gives you the opportunity to record your prayers in the comments section for this dear girl, her family, and the system that has removed her from her loving home. Here are a few things that I am praying for. I ask you to join in agreement with me for a miracle in this case:

Pray for Ayn – that she would be well cared for, and that God would spare her from the negative effects that often come with children being removed from their families. Ask that God would spare her from the many potential side effects of the drugs she is being given (against her parent’s wishes).

Pray that Ayn will come home very soon! The legal process is very lengthy & not designed to give parents the opportunity to challenge unnecessary removals in a timely manner, or for judges to rule in favor of a return to the parents until many months or years after the child has been taken. MCFD can make the decision today, and return Ayn. Pray God will soften the heart of the Director of MCFD who can make things right. Her 10th birthday is on December 14th & it would be wonderful if she could celebrate at home!

Pray for Derek Hoare (Ayn’s dad), Amie van Dyk (Ayn’s mom), Wyatt & Lyric (Ayn’s brothers), as well as her extended family (aunts & uncles etc), who love & miss her very much! Ask God to give them strength & wisdom to deal with this. Pray that they will experience and feel God’s presence and love.

Pray for Mary McNeil, the staff and social workers who work at MCFD in British Columbia, and at CPS or CAS organizations around the world. Pray that they would truly have the best interests of families and children at heart. Pray they will have good policies & procedures, and that they will be followed for the child’s well-being.

Pray that the proposal Derek has written & is planning to submit to MCFD today will be accepted. Pray that money will be raised to pay for a lawyer and/or expert witnesses to testify if this case actually goes to trial. Pray that a great lawyer with a heart will offer to do pro-bono work and help out.

Please feel free to add your prayers for Ayn & her family below in a comment, or to quote favorite Bible quotes that come to mind when you hear about Ayn or this call to prayer. Blessings upon you for taking the time to be informed about this situation, and doing what you can to help.

I know Matthew 18:20 (NIV) says

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

And James 5:16 (The Message) states

“The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.”

I invite anyone to record their prayers below in a comment.

Obviously you may pray directly to God on your own, or at your local place of worship. Many of us have been doing this for months. However, by typing our words & sharing them here, some may pray more who wouldn’t normally know what to pray.

I also hope people will share the link for this blog & invite others to join us. I feel there is power in coming together and sharing our petitions we are raising before God. It will be our way of praying with each other, and asking God to intervene for Ayn.

DEREK'S NOVEMBER UPDATES

November 13 (Derek's Birthday)

Want to know what hurts the most about today? Ayn knows when my birthday is, Ayn knows when anyone's birthday she has ever heard is, she remembers them all... She knows the date... but she wasn't invited to a party and certainly did not get to host one for me. I love you Ayn. She used to listen to this version of the gummy bear song just because it mentions my birthday and she would pause it right after it says it, and look at me and laugh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=astISOttCQ0

Admin Note: Ayn's 10th birthday is in 27 more days. What a gift it would be for the family to celebrate this day together with Ayn living at home again. MCFD could easily make this happen, so we have to hope they will see the light, have the empathy needed and do the right thing very, very soon.

November 10

Had an incredibly difficult evening, Wyatt and me decided to tidy up the garage and began to stumble across memory after memory. Over the years I have kept so many of Ayn's precious things; from notes, cards and artwork, to hair, baby teeth and tiny articles clothing. Was unbelievably painful, we spent the evening together, and in many ways Ayn was there too. Eventually along with Lyric we passed out in the living room. This morning has been very hard as well, though no tears have been shed yet. It feels like a death, her beautiful sing song voice echoes in my head.... "Daddy I want a treat!", "Tickle mee Daddy!"....."It's ok Daddy, everything is going to be ok.". So much for no tears. Going to spend a couple hours hugging my son and trying to explain to him how it is that the world is not just a scary place. That though pocked with pain and sadness it is full of joy and triumph as well. I'll be back soon.


Nov. 4

My daughter Ayn was removed from her school by the Ministry of Children and Family Development of B.C. on June 16, 2011. I was told it was to ease my burden of responsibility but this action has had an opposite affect. It has been more than four and a half months since she was apprehended.

On December 14th ten years ago when I laid eyes on her for the first time in the delivery room, my heart was hers. I have given my all for her. I would never harm her, nor have I been accused of such. I have dedicated my life to nurture and understand her.

She has been torn from her family for no apparent reason other than a perception that she was an unmanageable, deteriorating child and that far from the truth. Ayn is a wonderful caring child. It is true that she is autistic and that she has a difficulty explaining what she wants but she has an astute understanding of body language and she has a very strong will. Although Ayn is verbal and possesses a large vocabulary, she still struggles to share with others her desires, fears, and thoughts. Presently, she continues to ask for me and she continues to assert that I am coming. She knows I would not abandon her. Yet the Ministry of Children and Family Development continues to keep her from my care and custody.

On Oct 18 the government sought court approval for temporary custody for 90 days. I refused to consent to this and since this is my continued stance, an effort will be made to determine if trial is necessary or whether mutual consent can be achieved between the parties. This step is called the Case Conference and has been scheduled over 90 days away.... on Jan 23rd. If this is the case, why ask for 90 days? Why even pretend to ask? My reasons for refusal will not be heard. I continue to wait for hearing after hearing, never being given the opportunity to even speak. At the conclusion of each meeting, another one is scheduled and in effect we are shuffled to the back of the line struggling to merge schedules to obtain the next suitable date.

While in care of the Ministry, Ayn has escaped twice in four months. At the second escape she was naked, drugged, wet and wandering as far as the "main street." Police were called and she was located and returned her to caregivers. Information is not provided to me, or, I receive what the MCFD chooses to tell me. I am frequently told, "It is under investigation." However, considering that the first escape incident was months ago one should assume that something is known by now? How difficult can the investigation be about whether in her drugged condition Ayn was being watched under the care of a 15 year old fellow foster child? How much more investigation is required to determine why the window of the bathroom in which Ayn was bathing was not locked?

When the MCFD is purportedly educated to identify emotional abuse, why can abuse be ignored when MCFD is the actual source of that abuse? At home Ayn was in no greater danger than her disability naturally initiates. I am asking that she be returned to my care immediately. If MCFD is obliged to investigate then expedite that inquiry rather than separating us for over four months already with no social worker as yet asking me how Ayn was when she was in the family home, the very place from which she is being withheld. She has been returned to the school where the "deterioration" was observed. She has been returned to the foster care home from which she has twice escaped.

MCFD has offered to me unsupervised access effective immediately and yet MCFD will not return Ayn to me. This is a nightmarish power struggle for our family with an institution whose stated function is family development and whose guiding principles are: "a family is the preferred environment for the care and upbringing of children and the responsibility for the protection of children rests primarily with the parents" (CFCSA 2b) and "decisions relating to children should be made and implemented in a timely manner" (CFCSA 2g).

I have devoted my life to my children and I continue to care for my sons, one of whom is also autistic. I do this cheerfully and have never once complained about the complexities and problems I face raising two severely autistic kids. All three children and most certainly the two autistic children are happy and thriving children and there is nothing to suggest otherwise.

I am angry. I am in pain. I suffer and yet the truth is that this does not matter – Rather, my daughter Ayn is all that matters. This young girl does not deserve this traumatic interruption. Instead, she should be viewed as a citizen in the same sense as you or I, and as the social workers involved in her case and as the different judges who are giving oversight to this process. However, she is being treated like property. The sadness she experiences because of my absence from her is used against me as is my advocacy for her to get proper services. During all this time she sits in a basement wondering where her family has gone and not understanding what has happened or why. She may wonder whether she did something wrong, or whether we don’t want her anymore. She has no capacity to comprehend the Ministry's legal squabble. She knows only that she has been forcefully removed from those whom she loved and who love her and with whom she has be every day of her life before this horror. Is the horror to be regarded as acceptable because Ayn has been placed with various caregivers who are nice people? It is still not commendable that good people do the wrong things. Even caregivers are uninformed as is the public and as am I. So now we wait, past her December 14th birthday, past Christmas and New Year, for a “Case Conference” in which I will still not have opportunity to argue for her return. Instead I will receive a scheduled date when that will happen, a date which in all probability will be a year or more away. Of course this cannot be what our community expected when we created this child welfare institution.

Please help to tell Ayn’s story and thereby help her to come home. She is very special. She is a sweetheart. She needs to be with me her daddy, with her mommy and with her brothers. We love her so dearly. I will never concede, or all of this will have been for nothing and the net result will be a little disabled girl who will never know why or when she could be snatched again.

Derek Hoare
778-240-6373
iconoclast_ensues@yahoo.com
justiceforayn.com

AYN GIVES MY PICTURE A BIG KISS WHILE IN CARE

A BULLET CLIP – AMMUNITION MEANT FOR MCFD

by Ron Unruh

 

The Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) has exhibited its already notorious failure to abide by its own policy and legal timelines in the case of Ayn Van Dyk. Ayn is ten years old and... she is autistic. The policy which both empowers MCFD and gives direction to its operations is called Child, Family and Community Services Act. CFCSA specifies clear timelines for speedy processing. Speed has not characterized the way Ayn’s case has been handled following her removal. Ayn’s father Derek Hoare is presently in the centre of this agency’s ineptitude. Assembled below is a clip of dum-dum bullets.
http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws_new/document/ID/freeside/00_96046_01

• MCFD’s Failure to comply with timelines is true in Derek’s and Ayn’s case but not unique to their case but corroborated repeatedly in the experiences of other parents and children.
• Ayn was heavily drugged soon after her apprehension without reference to a medical history from her father. MCFD prevented doctors from communicating with Derek. Although CFCSA expects medical documentation to be delivered to the parent, Derek has not received that.
• The separation of a child from her parents and siblings is governed by specific directives and timelines, but Ayn was not granted visitation with a parent for two months. Without physical or mental anguish concerns about the father relative to his child, MCFD has generated excessive anguish for this family.
• The Presentation Hearing must begin within seven days of a child’s removal. Ayn’s Presentation Hearing was three months late. Ayn was removed on June 16, 2011 and her Presentation Hearing was not held until September 1 and followed up September 26. “Article 34 (1) No later than 7 days after the day a child is removed under section 30, the director must attend the court for a presentation hearing.”
• A Case Conference is a formal meeting at court with the judge to see if a solution can be reached without proceeding to a protection hearing. The Case Conference results when at Presentation a parent does not agree with the SW’s application for a court order. If there is not progress toward agreement, then there is further delay as a court date for a Protection Hearing is scheduled.
• 98% of parents do not get their children back at this stage in a case, even when it is evident that the child’s removal was inappropriate. A temporary supervision order by the presiding judge would have been the preferred option.
• The Protection Hearing is late, already five months late as of Nov 11th, 2011 and the next court appearance is not until January 23, 2012. This hearing should have technically happened by August 14. And if you mark 45 days from MCFD’s deferred Presentation Hearing date of September 26 the Protection hearing should be no later than November 17th. “Article 37 (1) At the conclusion of a presentation hearing under section 33.2, 35 or 36 (2), the court must set the earliest possible date for a hearing to determine if the child needs protection, or confirm any date previously set for the protection hearing, unless the court has made. Article 37 (2) The date set under subsection (1) for commencing the hearing must not be more than 45 days after the conclusion of the presentation hearing, and the hearing must be concluded as soon as possible.” “Article 42.1.(7) When an interim order is made under subsection (6), the court must set a date, not more than 45 days after the conclusion of the presentation hearing, for a hearing to determine if the child was removed in accordance with section 42.”
• Derek took all reasonable precautions to safeguard and protect Ayn while he cared for her and still she wandered from her back yard not defiantly but curiously as a product of her autism. She was removed from her own father. Two foster parents did not prevent Ayn from wandering from foster care even though she has been medicated for many weeks with anti-psychotic drugs. She was returned to foster care.
• MCFD possesses unilateral ability to return Ayn to Derek’s care but typically makes an offer of a graduated return over a four month period, even though MCFD took the child in one swift action without first notifying Ayn’s father.
• Derek demonstrates to MCFD a cooperative spirit to plan for Ayn’s future care. Now MCFD has proposed resources far superior to those he was given while she was in his earlier care.
• Derek’s and MCFD’s opinions about Ayn’s care differ dramatically, that is, love and attention contrasted with mood controlling drugs.
• MCFD’s stated intent to affect assessments with regard to Ayn and any valid reason to retain her have not been conducted and there are no plans to do so, so no reason exists to retain her in government care.