adopted children
Money And Politics Trumped 3 Little Girls’ Safety In This Sad Adoption Storyâ€
When we read stories of adoption gone wrong, it is undeniably heart-breaking. No matter the circumstances behind it, children are being disrupted in a way that they don’t deserve. Sometimes, those handling the adoption do not have the children’s best interest at heart. To that end, there is a rather disturbing case unfolding in Arkansas involving State Representative Justin Harris and his wife, Marsha. They claim that the children they adopted, ages four and two, were possessed by demons and able to communicate telepathically and in the end, decided to “re-home” them. Yes, you read that right.
*A trigger warning — there is material regarding sexual abuse in this post and the original articles.
From the Arkansas Times via Jezebel, we have details of this incredibly sad tale. Apparently, Harris and his wife only wanted to adopt the four and two year old children but were pressured into adopting their six-year old sibling as well:
“Marsha and I always planned to have five children,” Harris told reporters. The couple already had three teenage sons. “We decided to adopt two girls. After initiating a private adoption, we were informed in a meeting with DHS, CASA, the attorney ad litem, and Ozark Guidance that we could not adopt the two children unless we also took their older sibling.”
As difficult as it must be to place older children with adoptive families, I do feel that siblings should be kept together whenever possible and I can see why these agencies asked the Harrises to take all three children. However, the foster family that had the children previously tried to warn the Harrises that these kids had suffered neglect and sexual abuse and that they probably weren’t up to the challenge of raising them. The adoption went forward anyway due to apparent political pressure from the head of DCFS.
As upsetting as that snippet of information is, that three children were placed with a family that the foster parents felt were likely unprepared to handle, the Harrises believed the four-year old, referred to as “Mary”, was possessed and could communicate telepathically. To that end, the Arkansas Times reporter claims that a babysitter working for the Harrises said the child was isolated from the rest of the family and confined to her room, monitored by a video camera. Holy shit:
The Harrises believed the girls were possessed by demons and could communicate telepathically, Goldsborough said. Harris and his wife once hired specialists to perform an “exorcism” on the two sisters while she waited outside the house with the boys, she said.
And this is why some people say religion can be dangerous. Instead of understanding and accepting that this child had been through severe trauma and any questionable behavior most certainly stems from that, they decide to perform an exorcism to rid her of “demons”. This is so completely unreal to me.
