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We adopted one child who is now 2 in Northern CA through CPS. Received placement of infant sibling (newborn) about 4 months ago. Brought child home at 1 day old. Parental services terminated, so no issue there. Relative then comes forward (aunt) and wants placement. Currently being assessed by CPS (Background checks etc). We have had the child now for almost 4 months, with a .26 set for Early Next year 2013. No other relatives out there, aunt is very young, no sibs of this child, can barely take care of herself. My question is this, which is stronger the sibling bond between the infant and the child we have already adopted and the fact that we have had her the entire timeORA relative who has no bond, visits for an hour a month with the mother, can barely take care of herself etc. Well, we are concerned that CPS could decide to remove the child and place with the relative, although they have stated that they do not want to do this. We all know what they state does not always reflect what they do. It makes little sense why they would place with the aunt, but we are nervous nonetheless. Please advise. This one is tough because we have sibling and family issues, but I think in this case we will be ok. Thoughts?We are also considering filing for De Facto Parent status, but we hear you have to be the parent for 6 months and we only have 4, however the child has not been with anyone else but us since day 1. If we were to file De Facto, when could we do it, the next hearing isnt scheduled until January, would we have to wait until then or do it now??
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OP I am so sorry you are going thru this worry and stress. I used to be an attorney for CPS in CA before retiring 6 years ago. In our county you would definitely be able to keep the baby. By law, CPS has to look into relative placement if a relative comes forward. However, given the fact that you have had your child since birth and have the sibling, the law is greatly in your favor. I would not do a bonding study because the baby is too young and common sense dictates that the baby is bonded to you and not the aunt. You can apply for defacto parent status prior to the hearing and should be able to get it. I will be thinking of you and wishing you well.
i am so sorry that you are going through this. I am going through something similar too. My Fs was placed with me at 4 days old last December. At the time of his birth they contacted his bio sisters foster mom and asked if she'd take him. She said no because she is a medically fragile home and she claims to only take medically fragile children. He was not mf so she declined taking him. To make a long story short now 11 months later they are taking this baby and placing him with his sister to be adopted. Our family is DEVASTATED!
I hope your case ends well!
They look at relative placements first. You have a biological sibling so you are included. You also have the baby. You have a one up on the aunt.
They told us when we were placed with our baby that he had a brother and if they wanted him they would be considered as relative. Then...he had a different worker who said no we don't want him to move so we don't care about the relative placement with the brother. Either way he stayed - and seeing as how you have a relative and are the placement I think you are good to go! Good luck.
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Oh and try and file for Potential Adoptive Placement. It is the thing that matters - not de Facto. It says - you are the first adoptive choice. File it on your own. They likely wont even mention the possibility. Do it now - if the judge says no he will likely state why and if time frame is an issue you will know how long you have to wait.
Well, we made it through to the Termination of Parental Rights, but now we are on to the appeal process. Mom decided to file an appeal which will slow down the adoption.
Anyone out there have any experience with the appeal, and how long it might take before we can finalize? It is my understanding that it would be very rare to have the mother's appeal be granted and the current state of the case to be overturned.
She will be of course appealing the placement of the child, because they did not place with a relative. However she is placed with a sibling, so I think we are good to go and now we just ahve to be patient. it seems to us that the the most difficult part is done. :banana:
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