Have you ever felt like David fighting Goliath? Have you ever felt small and powerless as you stepped up to face the giant? That's exactly how my husband, Bill, and I feel.

We are licesed foster parents in SW Washigton.  In the last year, we have had twenty five children in our home. Broken children that disrupted out of other foster placements, that we counted an honor to love and care for for as long as they were with us. 

It is our heart to work, particularly, with special needs children. (Please watch the YouTube video to learn more about my background in working with Adults with Intellectual Disabilities. I left my coffee business working with special needs adults to work with special needs children as a foster parent).

Last December, a fourteen year old developmentally delayed girl was wrongfully removed from our home against her will. In the course of events to follow, we unknowingly exposed gross misconduct within our local DSHS Children's Administration office and some state workers were removed from that case.

Since that time, we have been targeted with retaliation from those disgruntled workers and their cohorts. We are under constant investigation from repeated  false allegations.  Other children have been removed from our home as well. (A newborn with down Syndrome and a teenager with Cerebral Palsey was prevented from coming to our home).  In fact, the last child was removed today. (He was picked up from school and taken to the DSHS Children's Administration office where he sat the entire day for there was no one to take him. He was absolutely thriving in our home). It is heartbreaking for the children and for us, as well.

It would be easier to hand over our foster care license and greatly reduce the stress we are experiencing. My husband has just completed eight weeks of cancer treatments. It is very tempting to just hop on our motorcycles and ride away. But, in the end, children suffer. And, we are not okay with that.

The foster care system is on the verge of collapse. Department staff and quality foster parents are leaving faster than the Administration can recruit replacement workers and homes.  Children are sleeping in CPS offices for lack of foster homes. The level of corruption and abuse of power within the system is enormous and our children are the commodity.

It has been said that the Department of Children's Administration will only respond to litigation and bad press. Together, we can  give them both.

I am asking for your help. In order to fight Child Protective Services to retain our foster care license, we have had to hire a powerful attorney out of Olympia, WA who has much experience and success in this arena. It is our hope to have those children that were wrongfully removed from our home returned to our care. We are confident, with representation, we can more effectively battle this sinister giant. But, this battle is costly, both in terms of our peace of mind and finances. Funds are needed immediately.

Unfortunately, we are not alone in our mistreatment by CPS. As Foster Parents, we have no voice. We have no power. We have no recourse. We have no representation within the Department.  And, ultimately, children pay the price.

If a foster child survives the trauma of their own families, it is a triumph. If that same child survives the trauma of being in the foster care system it is an ever bigger triumph.

Help us be triupmhant over this tyrant of the vulnerable. Help us hold Child Protective Services accountable for their abuse of power and the innocent.

Winning this battle would put us in the position to help others; foster parents, bio families and children, that have been abused by the system. "Alone we ca do so little; together we can do so much." -Helen Keller.

Thank you for your consideration.
Bill Onthank & Robbie Banks-Onthank
North Bonneville, WA