PHOTO/DONATED
NILAND, CA — On January 3, 2015, my family parked the camper van we have been living in near “Slab City” in Niland, California. Slab City is interesting. Travelers, homeless people, and “slabbers”— people who live there all year around—created a unique community of alternative ways to survive and thrive.
We became homeless after what was already one of the most trying times a family can endure. My husband Krishna had a job and I was a stay-at-home mom when Krishna’s mother fell ill with cancer. Doctors gave an estimate of two weeks. We quickly headed to Oregon. She hadn’t met her granddaughter, Tara, and I was pregnant with Mira. Hoping to bring her some smiles in her last days, we arrived too late.
After giving birth to Mira we planned to live in Krishna’s mother’s home until we got on our feet. That didn’t work out. We bought a camper-van and headed south (to avoid the bad winter.) Mechanical troubles found us in “Slab City.”
Within just a few days, we discovered an entire community of support who came together at the same camp to share resources and meals. I began to feel like everything was going to be alright. Everything changed one day when Krishna took Tara on a ride in the RV. Krishna was detained by police. Tara was taken into custody by Child Protective Services, and the RV was impounded. When finally returning to camp, we were followed by a social worker and an officer who picked up more police on the way. Knowing they were there to take my children, I ran with them into the desert, as dozens of squad cars and fire engines turned their spotlights on, looking for us. Terrified, I began having flashbacks to a book I had read by a holocaust survivor who had to run and hide through potato fields in Poland to escape the Nazis after they killed her mother.
A judge ordered our children returned and we eventually went to Colorado where friends offered us their guest cabin. It all came crashing down again. We had an appointment to get food stamps and medical. A social worker and police officer came with warrants to ARREST our children. They were taken back to California and put in separate foster homes.
I am very frustrated at dealing with a system that seems designed with children’s best interest at the BOTTOM of their priorities, and making money for agencies they have contracted with at the very top, causing the destruction of thousands of children in our country.
Editor’s note: Amber’s full story can be viewed here: https://adaptandevolveblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/19/40/
