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My situation is rather complicated, so forgive me if I do a poor job explaining... My half-sister (whom I did not grow up with) has two children by two different men. One is now in kindergarten, the other is almost a year old. Someone called social services on her. The youngest tested positive for Cocaine, as did my sister's roommate. The older child's test has not come back yet. I just found out today so I do not have many details as to what is currently happening, legally speaking. I do know that the kids are currently in the state's custody and that they are staying with my great-grandmother and my grandmother. Neither of them are in the physical condition needed to take care of two young children for an extended period of time. I may be staying with them for a while, to help care for the kids.Looking ahead, I am seriously concerned with what may happen to the younger sister, L. The older sister's father is fairly active in her life, so I'm sure that he'd be willing and able to take her. L's father, however, is not exactly the best candidate to take care of her. He was living with my sister at the time that social services was called, and I strongly suspect he is doing drugs as well. Worrying about this may be premature, but nobody in the family wants L to go into the foster care system if it comes to that. We would all much prefer it if she could be taken care of by a family member. Currently, I am the only remotely viable candidate. I'm not sure if I'd even qualify, though. I am twenty-one years old. My husband and I are still newlyweds, and he is in Basic Training. (He has yet to hear about any of this. He is not allowed phone calls yet, and mail takes at least three days to get to him.) He is enlisted, so we are not exactly well-off, financially speaking. We have no kids of our own. And due to his military service, we have no idea where we may be living six months from now.What usually happens in cases such as these? What should my family be doing, legally speaking? If the worst happens, would I be considered eligible to foster or adopt L in the first place? I have absolutely no clue where to start here... Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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If this case goes to adoption you would be a good candidate! You are family. In the interim it will depend on where you are stationed as the children will need to stay close to their parents while they try to work their plan. It would be great if family could keep the children while the parents are working their plans.
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Contact your county's child welfare organization (here it's called "Department of Family and Children", some places call it, "Department of Human Services", other places different names). Tell them you have a family member that has been removed and you want to be listed as a placement possibility -- ask who you need to talk to.
Best of luck.