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My husband and I have permanent legal guardianship of my biological grandson. He is 5 1/2 years old, and he calls me mom. We have had him since he was a little over a year old. The judge found my daughter guiilty of neglect and abuse. When he was a newborn she wanted to snap his neck because he cried too much. Now she is with another boyfriend, and has 3 other children. She is now saying that she is going to take me to court and get my grandson back. All the while we have had him she has not sent him a letter, card or anything. I am scared, and scared for him. He doesn't get any mail, because she keeps changing his mailing address to hers. She uses his ss number and tries claiming him on her taxes every year. And uses it for state aid in the state that she lives in. How hard is it to legally adopt a grandchild?
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Well, that's why I would never go for guardianship...because the bioparents can try later on to get the child back. It's just not fair to the child because there is really no permanency. I'd consult an attorney to find out where you would stand. I'm sure (I hope) she'd have to show she's a fit parent in order to get him back. It's really up to a Judge to determine what happens...since rights were never terminated she can try to get him back.
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I'm not sure what the laws are in your state, but it seems if she was convicted of abuse and neglect she would have had to complete a parenting plan set forth by the judge before it would be legal to even have more children much less get back the one she lost. Did she do that?
I had a friend in a similar situation in TN who had had her granddaughter for 8 years and when the mother was in the process of losing her other two children she told the judge she wanted ALL children to go to her mother and the judge ordered it, even the one who had been with my friend since she was 7 months old. Fortunately the other grandmother didn't want her and sent her back in 3 days!
I would definitely talk to an adoption attorney, that is the only sure way to keep her from taking the child.
We chose guardianship of our cousin because we did not want the CPS involvement of becoming foster parents. Our custody was ordered by the court so bio-mom will have to petition the court to get Happy Baby back and then she has to prove she is clean, has housing, etc to the court/judge.
Since this is not the first child she has put thru this we know that more than likely bio-mom will relinquish before she will jump thru the CPS hoops. She also knows that if she relinquishes (instead of TPR via courts) that she will be able to keep any other babies she may have.
Virginia introduced a new adoption law in July 2012;
With the signing of House Bill 445, the law now eliminates the need for parental consent for an adoption in cases in which the birth parent has not visited or contacted the child for six months prior to a petition for adoption.
You should contact an attorney and find out what you would need to do in your state for adoption. We took custody of my cousin's child and after one year of no contact and/or no child support we were able to petition to adopt him privately. After you adopt you might want to look in to changing his social security number as well.
Ians mom
After you adopt you might want to look in to changing his social security number as well.
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I would seek an adoption attorney asap. As for the bmom using his ss# for her taxes or any other type of benefits that she might receive, that is illegal because she cannot show that she supports him by more than 50%. You have the legal power with your court order to put a halt to that type of ss use.
