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I will try to keep this as short as possible.
My niece was taken into care at 9 months of age.
My step mom, her paternal grandmother, was denied custody.
The maternal grandparents had minimal involvement in her life because according to their daughter, the child's mother, the child is biracial.
They told caseworkers they had no interest in providing care when she was first taken and have only seen her once in the past 14 months and only four times in her 22 months of life.
She was in a foster home for 9 months, before being placed with me 5 months ago.
I am required by court order to give the mother and father supervised post termination visits until adoption.
The wealthy paternal grandparents, who left their daughter homeless while 8 months pregnant with her and my half brother's second child, are now speaking to their daughter again after she lied to them and said the child she just gave birth to was not biracial and was not my brother's and cut off all contact with him.
They invited me to have visitation at their home a couple of months ago, since that's where the mom was living at the time. That was the first time I met them.
During that visit, the gave me a "gift" of $300, which I tried giving back. The grandparents insisted I keep it and said they had "plenty of money and could always make more." They said it was for the 5 hour drive to visitation and it wasn't fair for me to have to pay for the visits alone.
2 weeks later, they filed a motion to modify the termination order and are asking to be made possessory managing conservators to a child they wanted nothig to do with.
They say they are in fear for her physical safety and emotion well being because they allege I begged them for their "gift" to buy food and pay for utilities and they feel I am incapable of providing for her financially.
That conversation did not take place.
They are also asking that my half-brother be banned from any contact with the child.
The caseworker, her supervisor, my ISeeYou worker, my kinship worker, the former ad litem, and the CPS attorney are all all on my side.
They have all said I have nothing to worry about.
My kinship and ISeeYouWorker's have written letters on my behalf to be subitted to the court on Wednesday.
The CPS caseworker in the county of origin and the CPS attorney have said and are willing to say on record they feel the reason these grandparents want her is to give her back to the mother whose rights have been terminated.
They have even bought the mother a new, fully furnished house with a room for my niece.
I know it all comes down to the judge's, who has a reputation for playing by her own rules, decision.
Has anyone ever dealt with a situation this crazy ?
I know no one can predict what a judge will decide, but how likely do you think a judge will be to move a child based on these allegations, although I have letters from two CPS representitives who do seperate monthly home visits ?
The grandparents filed within the 90 day window.
Thank you for your time.
my half brother's second child
child she just gave birth to was not biracial and was not my brother's
It looks as if you are talking about 2 different children here. Has paternity been legally determined via DNA testing? If not, I would encourage your brother to pursue this. If he is proven to be the father of one or both children and his parental rights have not been terminated (and hers have) he should be given a case plan to work.
They told caseworkers they had no interest in providing care when she was first taken
asking to be made possessory managing conservators
If it was properly documented when they said they had no interest in providing care for your niece the judge should ask why they want to have conservatorship of her now.
gave me a "gift" of $300, which I tried giving back. The grandparents insisted I keep it
they allege I begged them for their "gift" to buy food and pay for utilities
It may depend on what you did with the 'gift'. If you can produce receipts showing that the money was used to purchase things for your niece it should help. If you didn't purchase anything with it, but put it in a savings acct for your niece that should help.
The letters should help the judge get a better picture of what is happening here.
Good luck.
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We had a friend of the biological family decide suddenly they wanted our youngest dd. They had been given the option when she first went into care, but declined. One of the things we did was have letters written by everyone who worked with our dd. This included daycare, early intervention, as well as the social workers reports and such. They judge looked at it and said, "It looks like she is where she needs to be."
It was more complicated then that, but I do think the letters documenting that dd was happy, attaching, and doing well helped.
The G'Parents attorney said in court they felt she was in immediate harm, so the cw and ad litem had to drive 5 hours for a home visit, that day, after court.
They took pics of the entire house and found nothing wrong. I then had to drive 5 hours for the continuance the next day.
With the testimony of CPS, and my own testimony, the judge said she saw no danger and had no intentions of moving her.
She said instead of a legal fight, they should be helping more because I am doing this all on my own, with no help from anyone.
She said it was a shame that the family has fallen apart over this, called it a sad situation, and said she wants this moved to adoption ASAP.
The GP's still had a day and a half to file anything new before the 90 days were up. I hope this is the end of the battle.
Thank you all for the kind words and advice.
Yay for a level headed judge! I will pray that the GPs can see this child with their hearts more than their pride. I will also pray that this is the end of the drama and the beginning of a whole new life for you and the little one.
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