My day with Timmy!

This is from Andrea: I haven't seen Timmy since this latest incident. I couldn't actually picture him the way Shelby was telling me he was acting. All I know of Timmy is this incredibly tender hearted little boy. He is ALWAYS smiling, always giving hugs. He talks and laughs and runs around and plays. He loves the other kids, he loves our dog. He LOVES to eat.

Today Nicole and I went to pick him up after church. He silently got into the car and the first thing I noticed is no smile and his eyes looked like he was drugged. He had a far off distant, dislocated look. He barely acknowledged us when we said hi. I then asked if I could give him a hug, he crawled forward and hugged me and started to cry, I think he would have hugged as long as I would have let him. Next thing I noticed is he was visibly shaking. His whole body was shaking violently.

We tried to engage him in conversation and he just wasn't speaking. We took him to eat and he definitely wanted to order food, so he got fish and chips. His food came and he picked up a cucumber slice and kind of licked it. He touched NOTHING else on his plate!!! He then sat back and fell asleep in his chair, at the table, in the noisy restaurant.

We needed to do some grocery shopping so we got a cart and put him in it, he slept the entire time we shopped! We walked thru the shopping center and he never got out of the cart. He slept on and off between going into shops. I would say he slept 80% of the time we had him out. When he wasn't sleeping he was silently weeping. He slept and cried. He was NOT Timmy!

It made me angry! ANGRY!!! I know this is post traumatic stress syndrome, but what I dont understand is what kind of abuse does a child have to endure to disconnect, to just shut off from the world and sleep. He is a 12 year old boy trapped in a 7 year old body with the mind of a 5 year old and we pushed his weeping, sleeping body around in a grocery cart!

It's hard to see our little buddy suffering! My heart breaks and I want to do better for him. I want the system to do better. We need to do better for him and all the other little boys that are just like Timmy. There is NEED, we have VISION, whose with me?