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Hello everyone. My husband and I have been foster parents to a relative's child for the last 7 months. We have had this amazing little boy since he was 7 months old. The parents are not complying with DCS at all. They are to have visits every MWF, but they seldom come...maybe twice a month. This baby has no idea who these people are that I am leaving him with! It is awful. They were to get stable housing, jobs and income...but none of this has happened. The baby's mother somehow manages to pass the drug screens given at the visitations. They are oral drug screens and I have been told by her boyfriend that she passes them by using mouthwash prior to the visits or just avoiding the visits all together.
My question is this...We are going to have a permenancy hearing in January. What will happen at this hearing? Also, what can I do to present a good strong case that this child has bonded so well with our family and has a life he would never have known if he had never been taken from these horrible people? Will the judge terminate parental rights considering they do attend an occasional visit? i just don't know what to expect!
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No to the tpr question. He cannot grant termination at the perm hearing. You need to talk to the case worker and find out what they are recommending. Ours has been pretty open with us. She told us when she was recommending reunification and when she was changing to TPR. She changed the permancy plan to reunification with a concurrent plan of adoption. It didnt really change anything.
At the hearing, DCS will say what the parents were required to do and what they have been doing. The counselors, if any, will say what progress the parents have been making. The judge may ask the parents questions and he may ask you questions. You do not really speak unless you have specific facts. The bonding with the foster parents is supposed to happen. You absolutely cannot go into the hearing with the thoughts that this is your child. As hard as it is to hear, This is not your child. I know because I have been there and I am living it each and every day right now. This is not a competition between who can give this child a better life. It is obvious that you can do that however, the parents have the right to raise their child and as long as they are working parts their plan, the judge will be very hesitant to even consider termination this early in the game. It would be too easy to overturn on appeal.
I have had G since he was 5 weeks old and he is now 18 1/2 months. Up until June the plan was reunification. He went home for his 3 month trial home and I cried every day! His mother didnt have a job. she was pregnant again. she was living in a house that the state was paying for, i bought all of the stuff he needed, i bought all of the stuff she needed for her kitchen, she was still with the abusive father on the side and she had her brothers family to include drug abusing wife living with them and DCS still let my baby go home to her! I was livid. In 3 months, her case was going to be closed and that baby was going to grow up in the gutters and perpetuate the same life he lived growing up. Low and behold, one week after he was returned, I received a collect call from jail. She had been arrested for shop lifting. He came home!
Now, TPR was filed in September. Intial TPR hearing was held September 25. Another TPR hearing October 15. We doubt the parents agree to sign the adoption agreement so we expect TPR trial. New baby is due November 15 and no one expects her to be able to keep him either. G will more than likely be at least 2 before his adoption is final and that is if the judge doesnt decide to give her 6 more months to work her plan.
Its hard and disheartening but it takes forever.
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