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Originally Posted By JaniceMy husband's 5-year-old nephew was born to an unmarried couple. Both parents are drug addicts. The father, my husband's half-brother, spends a lot of time in prison and the mother in jail. Apparently, my husband's cousin talked the mother into signing away her parental rights to the little boy when he was about 2 years old and was appointed as his guardian by the courts. Since living with this family, the child has been physically, mentally and sexually abused. When this guardianship took place, my husband and I lived in Oregon and weren't aware what was going on or we would have petitioned for guardianship at that time and eventually would have adopted him. When we moved back to California, we started going over to see this little boy and they were allowing him to go places with us. He was even allowed to stay the night with us sometimes. Of course at the time, we did't know that every time we would take him home and he was so happy. she would make his life miserable, spanking him, calling him vulgar names, etc. She calls him vulgar names in front of everybody. You can't imagine what this little boy goes through. Actually, there are three adults and five teenagers who are constantly punishing this child for anything and everything. (He's really not bad. He just acts like a little boy.) At one point I mentioned that my husband and I might be interested in adopting him at sometime in the near future. That was a big mistake because he hasn't been able to go out of the yard with us since then and that's been about six months now. He never gets a hug except from my husband, myself and a lady who lives down the street where he also used to get to go from time to time, but they don't allow him to go down there anymore either. For a while after I opened my big mouth, he wasn't even allowed to acknowledge me when I would go to see him. He just seems to be getting more and more introverted. Since the last time I turned them into CPS (they don't know it was me) and a sheriff went out to their house he has been allowed to give and receives hugs from us, but he still gets in trouble after we leave. The living conditions are terrible. He sleeps in the living room with at least four other people. Of course he has his own dirty couch to sleep on. His bedding smells like urine. About three months ago he finally got his own dresser to put his clothes in, which is also in the living room of this home. (Prior to that he kept them in a big plastic bucket.) The filth in that house is indescribable. I have called CPS several times and they just act like I'm a trouble maker. Nobody in that house works, which consists of 6 adults 4 teenagers, and 3 young children, including the little boy. The guardian told the lady down the street that not only did she get money for him from the Welfare Department, but that she also gets some kind of foster care money. I'm not sure how this works, but CPS insists that she is his court-appointed guardian. The only good thing this guardian does for the child is make sure he has decent clothes to wear to school. I am unable to adequately describe the living conditions this child is subjected to as they are so bad. What I'm hoping, is that someone out there may have an idea where to start as far as getting that child out of that home. I thought about going to court and petitioning for guardianship, but there's a good chance I would lose because these people know some of the teachers in their area that write good letters of recommendation for them. (Something to do with one of the teenage boys saving the district superintendent from drowning at one time.) I don't know what to do, but I do know that the longer this little boy is in that environment, the worse it is on him. As it is, he will need extensive counseling because of what he has already been exposed to. I even told CPS that we would like to have the little boy live with us and we didn't want any money as we both have very good incomes and very good insurance - his teeth are all rotten and his tonsils are so large that he has about a pencil-sized opening to swallow through. They keep saying he has appointments to have these things taken care of, but nothing has happened so far. Thanks to anyone who has any idea at all and may God bless us all! Janice
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