Should we intervene?

At a yr you have more chance than family of keeping kids in TX as I understand it. Of course as we have seen recently in the Dallas area (at least over the last 4 yrs), some judges do not much care what the law says, so it might still be an uphill battle. I would talk to your CM if you are with an agency. We lost a kid, because I made the mistake of talking to the CW, rookie mistake.

Have they been with you a full year? If so, you CAN intervene in TX. Our lawyer said we did not need to intervene until there was a positive homestudy and to hang tight until then. We have now had the kids for 20 months and counting, so we have hired a lawyer. He is filing a petition to adopt because he sees no one else with any standing at this point. If I were you, I'd consult a lawyer but not move forward with intervening, yet. If you haven't had them a full year yourself, you have no standing in TX. It is the first question the lawyer will ask.

My fellow foster mom friend had a baby from birth to 1... Then a relative came forward and CPS tried to place w family and did not support her. She hired her own attorney and won and has her daughter . That baby had never met the family and thought foster mom as her mom. This varies from state to state but Texas is one of the better ones for this kinda stuff. I would have an attorney ready and fight. My friend did Leave CPS and went w an agency and still fosters today .:)

I would consult an attorney that is in same area/county and has worked with the judge on other cases. They usually have a decent idea of your chances. If tpr has been filed you can have attorney file a petition to adopt. I wish you the best of luck. Hope things work out for you.

Yes, but if this relative is just an average person who doesn't know much about the system, she might think that if she doesn't step up, then the child will be advertised for adoption like an unwanted dog at the Humane Society. The fact that she waited so long indicates that while she cares, it's probably more of in a distant kind of way. Does that make sense? I mean, I have grandnieces and grandnephews that I've only met a few times, I see pictures of them on facebook, I care but I don't really know them that well. If they needed a home and I was in a position to take them in, I would- but I'd honestly rather they be with their parents. My ex-SIL, on the other hand, got to the point in infertility treatments where ot became apparent that she'd never have a baby of her own, and she started wanting my kids. She kept a scrapbook of pictures of my kids before they even came into care. It seemed creepy. She didn't have much contact with me or their father, she didn't want to just be an aunt and see pictures online and hear cute stories about them, she wanted them to be her kids. The minute they came into care, she offered to adopt. She got angry at me for working my case plan. So, based on the fact that this relative didn't come forward until TPR was imminent hints that she's more like me than like my ex-SIL, which means that if she realizes that the foster home that's had him all along wants to adopt him and would be open to contact with her, she might be content with just seeing pictures of him on facebook, maybe showing up at a birthday party, sending presents at Christmas, etc. This isn't her kid. If she was more like my ex-SIL, then you'd need to hire a lawyer- but she would have been circling like a vulture just hoping for the parents to slip up in the first place.

I have a ? For u .. If you don't mind answering .Ive seen you post several times and you don't seem to be supportive of foster parents but more supportive of family and bios and this is a foster parent support forum . So I'm just curious , does this forum help you heal from your past hurt ? I am not trying to be ugly I promise . I have been wondering since I read your story . Btw Im sorry for your loss . I wondering this same thing on the What to expect app I go on online has an area called support for adoption and former birth mothers rule the pages with negatively telling about how horrible adoption is . I was just curious why you would be a member of a forum where we mainly talk about TPR with excitement etc. I would think that would only hurt you more . What's your take on this ? Obv this is a forum and anyone is welcome but wondering from your view

Here is your answer:[url=http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/FA/htm/FA.102.htm]FAMILY CODE CHAPTER 102. FILING SUIT[/url]...I read another case where the foster parents had NOT had 12 months (the child was under 12 months) but instead of filing an ORIGINAL intervene request, they were granted the right to intervene on the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (“TDPRS”) . See here starting at page 9:[url]http://www.juvenilelaw.org/Education/2009/Presentations/Elizondo.pdf[/url]I can't find the statute now, but I previously found where both TX and NY are supposed to give preferential placement to the foster parent over kin at the time of picking an adoptive home AFTER TPR. That is the key. Most of the states will try and place the child with kin to avoid filing TPR. If you were in my state, hate to say it bluntly, but you wouldn't stand a chance in H. We have had many cases of children in foster homes from birth until toddler and being removed from foster family to go to kin at the end of the case against the bios. Quite often you run into a scenario where the kin don't want to deal with the bio parents themselves so they wait until TPR happens to step forward. Likewise, you have cases where there may be some distant kin, or even fictive kin, who are wanting to adopt, they find out about the child, and come forward. In my state, almost always even in those cases they have preference over the foster parent. All that said, if family comes forward for my BE if we get TPR, I will hire an attorney and try and fight it. I may lose, but I may win and set legal precedent. Good luck. I noted you said child had been in care for 12 months, but how long in YOUR home?Oh, and don't mistake me for coming across as anti-kin placement. You need to remember that often times the kin believe that they are taking the right action because they don't want the child out of the family, or "lingering in foster care" as the media seldom perpetuates the thousands and thousands of loving foster/adoptive situations out there. In addition, when the kin is out of state, they can't really take the child until the determination is made to terminate services to the bio because otherwise the bio could not work a plan.

All of this is making me really nervous as an out of state kinship possibility who is fighting tooth and nail to get baby girl placed with us! She is my son's biological sibling. We have an ongoing relationship with their birthmom AND her extended family. We are head over heels in love with baby girl and have wanted her and expressed that we wanted her from day one. So it is terrifying to me that because I am out of state and can't get her right away that a foster family could petition to block placement with us once ICPC FINALLY happens!I know our case is different than the original poster and I do feel for foster families who love kids and then have to let them go! It just makes me worry. Right now I have been told she isn't with a foster family but a private group home so I guess I'm borrowing worries....Sorry for sort of de-railing the OP's thread though!

I think the big difference is you aren't coming out of the woodwork after the child has been in care for a year or more. You have made yourself known and hopefully, didn't I recall you planned to go visit the child? With hope, they have shared all of that with the foster family too.

Thank you so much for all of the replies! I have so many moral conflicts about this whole situation, as I'm sure we all do. I have major qualms about fighting an immediate family member (which this is). Before I got into this, I swore I'd never do something like that. Then my heart got involved, and these kids love and need us. At this point we are not intervening. I may write a letter to this family member explaining who we are and that we ARE interested in adopting. Like eomaia pointed out, they may not even know that! They may just be under the impression that these kids will just be put on a state photo list to be adopted and never heard from again. I was able to get clarification from CPS that if this (or any other) family member passes a home study, the children will be moved UNLESS we file an intervention. So, we can wait and see how the home study is going and if it looks like they are going to pass then we can intervene. I just don't want to miss our chance. In the meantime, my husband and I are going to do some serious soul-searching as to whether or not we could live with ourselves intervening to fight this family member. No one can prepare you for making these types of decisions!! :( Oh, and special thanks to TemporaryMom! Thanks for researching and sharing the info! Incredibly helpful.

We have the same problem. DMan has been with us for 15 months now (since shortly after birth) and barely knows his siblings in other homes. But, because the person who came forward is family and we are not, we will lose him if they are approved. CPS is family first, always. We spoke with an attorney in Austin who is very, very good at this. He said we would win if we fought it...but we don't have $50,000 to intervene, which would be the cost if it went to trial. There is no way we can come up with that. Also, the family who wants the kids has a ton of money, so we would have to fight them, and we couldn't start to match their money. So, I will lose my baby simply because of money. If you have had the child since birth, you can intervene prior to 1 year in Texas. At the 1 year mark, you can file for defacto parent status. If you find a good attorney then you would have a very, very good shot, and many of them only cost 150-300 for a short consultation to tell you your options.

My experience as a bio parent with a case out of Dallas, TX has been the the judges are SUPER pro kinship. In fact, in our case, we have done our case plan, have documented proof that are children are being physically abused/groomed for abuse in my parents' home and TX CPS flatly refuses to acknowledge it. I sent emails all the way up the chain of command and received responses like "you need to try harder to get along with them." I am now trying a new tack in my efforts, but my point is, it would appear to me that they favor kinship placements over almost anything else. It also looks better for them on paper, when they are able to achieve permanency for a child within the bio family. This affects funding, etc etc.

In NY... Foster*parents*have*a*first*priority*to*adopt**even* over*relatives*֖*if*the*child*has*lived*in*their*home*for* more*than*12*continuous*months*before*being*freed* for*adoption.**Social*Services*Law* 383(3)

You may want to think about other possibilities as well. If you write to them, could you let them know how much you love these children and that you would like to remain involved if the children are placed with them, that you believe it would be in the kids' best interests? As well as that you would (if this is the case) welcome them to remain involved in the children's lives as the relatives that they are if the children remain with you? I get what you say about having said that you would not fight a relative but experiencing things differently now. When our emotions and real-life situations get involved, theoretical plans don't always seem to fit. I'd like to say that I wouldn't fight a relative, either, and that I wouldn't want to. I have seen a couple of friends have some truly beautiful relationships with kids (and their families) who have been in their homes for a long time and who RUd with relatives, and these relationships could not have happened in the same way if they had fought the families for custody. Again, not telling you what you should do, but I just wanted to offer some other ways to look at the situation and planning for it. I'm sorry you are having to deal with such a hard situation and hope it works out best for the kids.

My amazingly attentive CW kept saying, "we are not looking to move the children" so they wouldn't even entertain any other family members. Back when my FS was moved at 6 months of age to his uncle, I was quite surprised the CW at that time approved him. They lived in a one bedroom apartment with his wife and three other children! I think a lot of it has to do with the individual case workers. Oh, and another time, my two foster daughters were put in the custody of their 80 year old great grandparents. Now there is another example. My current CW doesn't understand how that was ever approved. In the end, they all came back to me and now parent's have surrendered. I wish I had some advice for you. I think it has to do with your caseworkers.