Help!!!

I don't know about your rights to appeal; I think your best bet would be to ask a lawyer about that. I am wondering about your concerns that Gma will let her son see the baby. Has she done or said something that leads you to that belief? If so, have you shared this with the SW? SW should definitely be made aware of any information of that sort. Also, it is not necessarily the case that as a registered sex offender he can't (either now or ever) have any contact with a child he did not offend against - depending on his counselors and probation officer, he may be allowed supervised visitation at the discretion of the legal guardian. I know that it doesn't seem like a lot of time Gma has spent with the baby, but I think about my son's relationship with my mom (he is not quite 17 months), and even though he doesn't see a ton of her (once or twice a month, and has never stayed with her alone), he does have a really strong bond with her. It would absolutely be detrimental to him to lose that close relationship, so I can see why that was a concern for the team. Are you on good terms with the Gma? Can you remain a part of the child's life and a potential resource if Gma is unable to continue parenting at some point due to age/ health considerations? You may also want to think about what else you can do to support both child and Gma so that you can remain a part of her life and a protective factor for her.

I would advise you consult an attorney over your situation. I would think that a strong case could be made that the very high likelihood that GMA will not be able to raise this child to adulthood should trump the limited attachment that they have after only 9 months of twice a month visits, especially if you were to agree to allow visits to continue.

We have been in very close contact with Gma. She had told us if we were the chosen family she would relocate to our state. She has not been the most truthful in any of this. She wrote letters when the baby was born to the courts tht she was to old and could not care for the baby. She also wrote letters to other family members about not being able to care for the baby. She says that she will have something written up and they the baby would relocate to us if she couldnt care for her. We dont believe that!! Has anyone ever appealed the decision and if so how did things go??

We had this type of situation happen to us but in our case we are the relatives and the previous FP's got the therapist involved to change CPS decision to place with us. They had a therapist, whom never met us nor spoke to us over the phone, type up a 2 page letter stating how detriminental a move to our home would be to our daughter (niece). I think most of the issues were with the FP's fighting us to be honest. Even the transition was awful. All I can say is get anyone involved in the case on your side. I think in our case the CASA was pushing for us which helped greatly. Does this child have a GAL or CASA? Contact him/her if you can. Hire an attorney if needed. They can at least tell you your chances. Call the Governors office and ask for help. We had to do that too regarding our ICPC being dragged out. Be prepared to show proof it's not good for her to be there. Do you know gma is gonna let her son see the child? Don't go on assumptions. Do you have his arrest record and know what he actually did? Sometimes stories can change...Just saying have proof of all this. Luckily the appeal the FP's tried didn't work. She eventually came to live with us and she is now 13 (was 6 when moved here) and is a straight A student and doing great! But we are relatives that don't associate with her bioparents. She is across the country from them and we have no contact. I won't allow it cause they are both very unstable and not safe. I'd consult an attorney (free consult?) and at least see where you stand.

This is where CASA or GAL comes in handy. If you can get them to (which we did) they will provide you with EVERY court document (including letters written to Judge) as much as they can. Our CASA was a lifesaver. The SW didn't care one bit but CASA was great. She is still my friend after 7 yrs on facebook LOL...And she is awesome!

Hi Everyone Thanks for the reply. We ended up hiring an attorney. She said that she found out the only reason the decision was reversed was because of attachment. We however never said that we were going to break off contact with Gma. My husband is her nephew. He did call to tell her of the appeal and needless to say she is very mad at him. We are goig to write a letter for the review team. Things sound positive as out attorney did speak with a few people close to the case and we have alot of support on our side.

That's what we had to do to. We wrote a letter to the review team. I sent it to everyone involved, including the governors office, adoption worker, CASA, SW, DCF director, etc...anyone I had contact with. We had to dispute everything that they were saying would cause harm to our daughter if moved here and explain what our intentions were. Good luck!