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Reading your post, I started to feel sick. There is absolutely no good solution. I completely understand your desires to keep this little one with her bio-family, I feel for your sister and am glad she has remorse for her mistakes. Being a foster-parent myself I also can completely understand her fp's desire to adopt...they have undoubtedly fallen in love with her. And most of all I feel for the child. It's awesome that she is loved and wanted by so many, but she truly is in the middle.
As a fp, yes, we are told that it is temporary and that the goal is reunification, but as the 1 year mark moves closer the goal can change to either concurrent planning (with adoption as a back-up plan) or termination of parental rights/adoption. It is my understanding, at least in our state, that a family can file for adoption and if the parent does not respond to summons within 30 days they can proceed with that adoption as if there was consent. In order to do that the court, guardian, and dss must be in agreement that adoption is in the best interest of the child. They would likely not agree unless every effort for reunification had been met and it would not be able to occur in the near future.
I would just ask of you that you seriously consider not taking this child from her home. It sounds so cruel and I don't want to come off that way, but even if you should decide to intervene it could take quite some time before she is able to be with you. You really need the advice of a good attorney, but also some serious soul-searching. Sometimes I think letting go may be the most compassionate thing you can do. In the end only you can make that decision. Bless you for caring!!! Keep us posted.
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