Amie Van Dyk asserts that her child Ayn should never spend one day disconnected from her mother. She concludes that the resultant damage of these nine months of government seizure and custody is irreparable. Who can disagree with that? Ayn is constantly on Amie’s mind. She loves her daughter. During this forced separation, visitation has been permitted but irregular and infrequent. Scheduled visits have been called off with little notification time and for reasons not always openly disclosed. Amie may be told that Ayn had a meltdown, or became ill, of developed a rash. Visits were disallowed for a significant number of weeks due to what MCFD alleged was Amie’s failure to appear for a visit. There has been communication confusion and Amie contended that she was not informed that the visit had been scheduled. You see that’s the way it goes. Games. It is not a game to Amie. She has told us that herself. This is very serious. It’s serious when her child in someone else’s care and she learns that Ayn is itchy and perhaps that she may have chicken pox but she has not seen her and cannot see her. It is humorless when Amie has a photographic image in which there is the hint in changing skin tones around her eye that she has suffered some kind of injury. No explanation is provided by the Ministry. However minor it may be, the failure at full discretion by this ministry to the child’s mother is blameworthy. She has come to understand that answers to some of these questionable situations will never be forthcoming. Nevertheless, the visits she has with her girl mean so much to her. She lives for these visits. When they are together these two girls, the mommy one and the ten year old little girl one are so thrilled with one another that they play and laugh and love.
