|
We went through the process to foster our niece who was removed from her home and is still in the process of having the courts decided if her parents are going to go through reunification or tpr (after 1 year and 4 months). Both my husband and I were very hesitant about doing this - we decided when we got married we didn't want children. However, she is family and our hearts told us this was the right thing to do.
To make a long story short, and I don't mean to dampen your spirits, but the one thing I truly regret about the process is that we did not hire an attorney from the moment we had our first interview with social services. We were completely dragged through the ringer by the social workers, and set up for failure by the system. We believe that our niece's social worker did not like us and wanted her to be placed with a foster family that she worked with before and are her friends. They took our niece away from us last October, after only having her for 2 1/2 months, on some trumped up charges. That is when we hired our attorney, who verified that what happened to us and what we suspected was going on, truly was. Our attorney has established that the charge of not following their rules is completely false. However, until the court decides to offer reunification or start tpr, there is nothing we can do but wait. We are ready to go to court for guardianship as soon as the judge makes a decision. But because both parents are mentally disabled, the case just keeps getting continued.
gregorysparnets are so right on the money with everything they said. I know our case is different than yours, but the one advice I wish someone would have given me last year was hire an attorney from the very beginning and visit the National Foster Parent Coalition for Allegation Reform (there is a link on this website under Support groups). Here I found and I am amazed at the number of states that do not have a Foster Parents Bill of Rights (like my state, CA). Which means that as foster parents, you have no rights whatsoever. And I learned of the efforts by groups in various states (including mine) to reform the system. This is the one thing I tell everyone I meet who is thinking about fostering.
Please don't misunderstand me, I think that what you and your husband are doing is the most noble of causes and we definitely need more people like you in this world who are willing to make the sacrifices to give children a better life. But I encourage you to educate yourseves as much as possible on how the system works so you are better prepared than we were.
Bless you both!
Justine
|