[Lynard1210]

Hadley, i can see you feel passionate about this topic. I don't advise people . .i make recommendations to the judge in what is the child's best interest. Here are my choices for recommendation: Temporary custody, Legal Custody or return to the parents. Now, after rights have been severed, adoption is a recommendation. I have seen it a thousand times while working for lawyers and in the courts, the ATTITUDE of the caseworkers is: legal custody, case closed. I'm not saying this is a GOOD idea for relatives - i'm only saying it's an option that they apparently like because i have never seen adoption as an option in any case i've worked on - NOT ONE! As I have mentioned, legal custody is not an option I personally took for our family because we didn't want any of the risk involved that you mention in your posts, but we didn't have an open child services case. Other people I personally know have chosen legal custody for whatever reasons they have. Do I think its smart? Absolutely not, but I figure lawyers go to law school for a reason and they are advising clients to go legal custody in the state of Ohio for a reason. I don't claim to understand what that reason is.

If you are in a situation where you do not have to deal with the system (lucky you!), there are options that SOME families might choose . . .not saying they are better because obviously adoption is the safest most permanent method. That's all I'm saying. But thank you for the information, because you have motivated me to call my local CASA office today and ask if I can talk to the relatives about adoption instead of legal custody . . it has never come up before in any one of my CASA trainings but it is an avenue i will now explore . . .i will let you know the outcome!

PS Have you considered becoming a CASA yourself?