Welcome Home Party

Rembises Reunited. Welcome Home Party.

Health Impact News and MedicalKidnap.com Staff

Seeing families reunited and rejoicing once again, after being unjustly separated by Child Protective Services (CPS) is the passion that fuels us to continue to expose the destructive activities of CPS agencies and Family Courts throughout the United States (and even the world). Their rejoicing is also our reward as we rejoice with them.

It is with great joy that we share this story of the Rembis family in Texas being reunited and rejoicing with their 10 children!

No More Foster Care

Rembis children happy to be together again at home.

“No More Foster Care.” Rembis children happy to be together again at home.

Once again laughter, love, and little ones fill the Rembis home.

As of August 11, 2017, the 10 Rembis children who were taken into CPS custody in Lubbock County, Texas, last year (after their young daughter snuck out into their front yard alone), have been returned to their parents, Claire and William Rembis, and they couldn’t be happier.

For background of this story, see:

Homeschool Texas Family Terrorized by CPS for Speaking Out and For Having Too Many Children at Home

When the children arrived home on Friday August 11, 2017, the youngest exclaimed:

“No more foster care? I’m home mommy, I’m home?”

Claire assured her,

“Yes baby, you are home for good. You will live with us forever now!”

Bubbling with joy, the Rembis’ youngest daughter hugged her mommy’s leg and started jumping up and down and laughing. Then she ran off and told her sisters,

“Mom is here and we won’t have to leave again!”

As the kids were bringing their belongings in, they were excitedly telling each other,

“No more foster care! We get to stay home finally!”

Children Home Gathered in Parent's Room, Just Like Old Times.

“Within an hour of them walking through the door they were in the master bedroom just sitting around & talking. Our bedroom has always been the family hang out and the kids gathered together like always – despite the nearly 1 year apart.” – Claire

In Desperate Times, Family Turns to God

Like any parent whose children are seized by CPS, Claire and William were angry, confused, helpless, and fearful that harm would come to their children while in Foster Care. Only by completely and totally surrendering the battle for her family to Jesus, could Claire continue to have hope that her family would be restored.

Claire was feeling overwhelmed and exhausted in the battle to bring home her children, and feeling discouraged that they were, for the first time ever, spending Christmas (2016) apart from their children.

Attorney Joe Churchwell Takes Rembis Case

The Rembis parents continued to pray and seek God’s will about how to get their family back. They prayed for a good attorney, and in March they contacted Joe Churchwell, and their prayer was answered. At the Rembis’ Permanency Hearing on May 24, 2017, attorney Joe Churchwell became legal counsel for the Rembises.

Attorney Joe Churchwell has appeared in other articles we have covered on Health Impact News. See:

Arkansas CPS Attorney Writes: “What Happened to my Country?”

Processed with MOLDIV

William Rembis, Claire Rembis and their attorney, Joe Churchwell.

Churchwell is extremely pleased with how quickly things moved forward toward family reunification after he began representing the Rembises after the Permanency Hearing on May 24, saying:

“[Although] the children did not return home immediately, [Judge Hart] did increase visitation between William, Claire, and the children, and for the first time since the case was opened, ordered sibling visitation between the younger 5 and older 5 children, who were living apart, in different group homes. The contact between children and parents tripled immediately each week.

Judge Hart ceased individual counseling and ordered the children’s counselor begin family sessions. William and Claire were ordered to complete homemaker services, and prepare and submit a parenting plan for the children’s return home, and to maintain stable housing and employment.

Judge Hart set review hearings to monitor compliance and stated that if the order was followed the children would be able to transition home within approximately 60 days.”

1st Unsupervised Visit – Children See Their New Home for First Time

In less than a month after the May 24th hearing, the Rembises had completed and complied with all requirements set forth by Judge Hart, and at the July 20th Review Hearing, CPS had submitted a reunification calendar that began with a 7-hour unsupervised visitation starting the following day, July 21st.

Processed with MOLDIV

The Rembis children see their beautiful new home for the first time on July 21st, 2017, after being in foster care for nearly a year.

Claire says the children were delighted to see their new home for the first time! It was a welcome home celebration like no other.

They RAN into the house & then ran all over the house for about 10 minutes, yelling, laughing, screaming in delight, jumping up & down & a few were crying tears of joy. It was amazing.

The kids wanted to stay up all night talking about their time away. They talked about how excited they were to play in the huge backyard, to plant a new garden, to decorate their rooms, what they could finally do again when they came back & how “cool” their rooms were. They are so excited about being together again.

Processed with MOLDIV

Rembis girls loving their new bedrooms in their new home. Happy to be HOME.

Children Home for Good – Parents Regain Custody

The following week, the Rembises got an unsupervised overnight visitation, and then the next weekend they had a full weekend visitation from Friday to Monday, with the children remaining home full-time with their parents under monitored placement as of Friday, August 11th.

After completing some paperwork on Monday August 14th, Claire and William Rembis have custody back. Claire happily declares,

“the children are no longer considered foster children.”

A final hearing is scheduled for October 30th and should close the case for good, ending all CPS monitoring and oversight.

Giving God the Glory

After what has been the most difficult year of their lives, Claire says,

It feels like I can finally exhale. Now we can re-group, heal & move forward as a family. It felt like our life was put on hold – but now we can all continue down the path that God has planned for us. God will use this tragedy for good & we are humbled to be a part of it.

God has spoken incredible things into our lives even from other brothers & sisters that don’t know us. We have an incredible testimony filled with grand miracles that only God could’ve done.

We are stronger because every day we live, every crisis God overcomes, every situation we go through draws us closer to the heart of God. God is good no matter the situation at hand.

Relaxing at home with the family.

“It feels like I can finally exhale,” says Claire, thankful to be able to just be a family again – all together again in their own home.

Claire is thankful that even the children stayed strong in the Lord during this trial:

I prayed several times a day that God would keep them & that the enemy wouldn’t be able to use this nightmare to lure our children away from their solid rock – Jesus.

I constantly told the kids that Jesus was with them even if we weren’t. They would express some terribly grave concerns that we had no power to fix. We encouraged them to speak to God constantly.

The enemy can use things like this to draw Gods’ children away from Him. Not only did that not happen, our kids now have a stronger understanding of exactly what God meant when He told His children that He is all we need.

By the grace of God, our children have a ton of testimonies about their relationships with Jesus & their experiences with answered prayers.

Having a Thankful Heart

Throughout this ordeal, there has been tremendous heartache, but Claire has been able to overcome tremendous pain by looking for things to be thankful for.

One extremely painful memory of the violent way in which the children were removed by police force in Colorado to be brought back to Texas, was ironically comforted by her cousin, a retired police officer who served for 25 years in the Lubbock Police Department. After the children were taken into CPS custody, Claire reconnected with her cousin, and together they laughed and cried, and Claire’s heart healed:

When we shared with him what had happened to the kids, he cried. Then, through his tears, he asked me to promise him that I would teach the kids that not all officers are bad, like the ones the kids had recently encountered.  I told him I would. I meant that & I still do.

See:

Colorado Police Help Texas CPS Kidnap Rembis Children and Bring Back to Texas – Father Jailed

William Rembis with Claire's cousin, Theron French, a retired Lubbock Police Officer.

William Rembis with Claire’s cousin, who “was a good & fair Lubbock officer.” Her cousin went to be with the Lord on April 5, 2017, but Claire plans to keep her promise to him to teach the children that not all police officers are mean.

Claire’s Advice to Fellow Families – Put Your Trust in God Even During Difficult Times

Claire acknowledges that it is terrifying knowing that CPS can remove your children, even when there’s no abuse, but she says the biggest thing she had to accept during this trial was that God’s Word applies, even in this situation.

Her advice to other families in the trenches of a CPS battle?

Love God with ALL your heart, ALL your mind, and ALL your soul. CPS can be a distraction from that.

God says to pray for your enemies & to do good to those that persecute you. What I’ve learned time & time again is that God will soften your heart towards those you pray for – anger melts into compassion & something clicks. When Jesus’ light infiltrates even the darkest of situations, evil scurries away & with it goes the lies. Social workers are no longer the enemy – Satan is.

It’s not our job to fear everything, to stay up all night worrying….  That’s God’s job!

God put your family together. He wants your family together. He’s advocating for your family.