Advertisements
I need a little advice from others experiences and how I should be preparing my heart. I'm recently a little worried. Here's the story: My partner and I have been fostering a little boy since he was 3 days old and he's just over a year now. BioParents were seeing him 5 days a week until June 2017 when they both became incarcerated. Neither parent had completed anything on their plan up until that point. DCF filed a TPR petition in June as well. Bio Mom was let out of jail in July but was put on an ankle bracelet in a neighboring state and not allowed to leave the county she was in (though it's just across the border from where we are). Visits were to be restarted once a week at the Family Services in her county/state. 4 months later still no visits have happened. Bio Mom went back to jail for a few weeks in September and is now back out. BioDad is still incarcerated and now has new charges brought against him so most likely wont be getting out for at least a couple years. Stepping back for a minute, we went to a status hearing in July and parents apparently were never served with the TPR petition so another status was scheduled for September. We went to that status and parents lawyers still claim they were never served so be were scheduled for another November 1st. Just went to that and lawyers are still claiming no service of petition. Bio Mom was served at court but because of incarceration BioDad was not present. Now we are scheduled to return on Nov 27 in hopes that everything will be done as supposed to so we can schedule a TPR trial. Here's where I get worried. Because everything keeps getting pushed back, Bio Mom is getting more time to get herself established. She's now working on her plan goals, and meeting most of them. She has an apartment (though with her mom when she was supposed to do it alone. Her mom claims she is only there to help her get on her feet), she has a job, she's attending the meetings and counseling that she is supposed to. She is pregnant again though and due in January. With all this extra time she is getting, she is looking more and more stable and able to parent. My partner and I are worried that because of all the push backs, the judge will see what she is doing and not grant the TPR. We want so bad to adopt this little boy we have grown so attached to over the last year, and up until recently we believed there was no doubt we would. Now we are scared we will lose him. What experiences have you all had with these situations and what should we expect?
Like
Share