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Ok, we had our first placement this summer for 2 months - a beautiful 20 month old little girl! She went home to live with her aunt in July. Her aunt is very nice and will send us pics and give us updates, and is very appreciative of how we loved "Pistol" while she was with us. The email updates have gotten further and further apart, but on November 6th I got an email from her asking if we would take Pistol if need be because their rent was due tomorrow and they didn't have the money to pay it because her husband didn't have a job or a car, and that made it hard to get a job. Then, a couple of hours later, she emailed again saying she solved the rent problem.
I emailed her and told her I was worried about them and asked if they and food to eat and did Pistol need anything, and she replied that they had food to eat, and that was it. I was going to leave well enough alone, but then the weather turned cold here, and I worried that without any income, they wouldn't have enough money to pay for heat. So, I emailed her caseworker and told her what I knew and asked her to go check on her. She immediately called me and said she was very concerned because she knew none of this. As far as she knew they had a brand new truck and the husband had a job. Pistol's case had changed from reunification to adoption by them, and now she is concerned because they are saying they can't take care of her. I felt so bad because I felt like I was "tattling" on her aunt, but I truly was just concerned about them and thought that maybe the caseworker could get them some help to pay their bills if need be. She said now she would have to do an intake. So, what do you think? Is this reason enough to remove Pistol from their home - if there is no source of income and they lied about it? When they did their home study he must have had a job because the caseworker said all their finances would have had to be checked. I know I'm asking y'all to predict the future in a very uncertain environment to begin with, but just wondering what your opinion is - will they let a foster child stay with a family member with no income?
No tattling here, you have a true concern for the child. Removal could happen if the aunt cannot care for the child, and may end up back in dependency. Social services will not intervene, unless there's something wrong, and they take child welfare very seriously. Home study's can get very lax with it comes to unification with kin. I would diffidently keep in touch with the CW if you are seriously interested in possible having the child retuned to your home; it would be less stress on the child. I hope this helped a little...
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They might look into it, But people lose jobs, so this might be temporary. Maybe he can get employment benefits or help. Or another job soon.