[Late Bloomer]

Hi all,

We are fostering a 4-mo-old we've had since he was 3 days old. We hope to adopt him, and are approved for adoption by the agency working for the State. Birth mom has been unable to finish her 30-day rehab, or to comply with a couple other things so far, but has continued visits with him pretty regularly. I think birth dad is out of the question, as he didn't take the opportunity to prove paternity. There was a hearing a couple months ago with a judge who for some reason deleted "adoption" from the permanency plan goals, leaving only "reunification". Tomorrow though, there is a foster care review board staffing where we hope "adoption" will be placed back into the plan. We've been asked to attend and the letter says our input is requested as to what we feel is best for the child.

Obviously, if we want to adopt him, we are going to say we feel it would be best for him to stay with us. I'm just wondering what else they might be wanting to hear from us? He shows no obvious physical or mental disabilities so far, seems very healthy and normal, although he was born cocaine-exposed. Perhaps we should come prepared to talk about the possibility of effects of the drug exposure that we're aware could appear in the future, and how we would handle them?

Any input would be appreciated - Thanks!

[Peggy]

I usually attended my daughter's by phone, and adoption was already the plan, and tpr had already been done. It was more or less a review, and a chance to answer questions, or ask any. You will find out what the workers think is best.

[Late Bloomer]

Well, at the Foster Care Review Board staffing yesterday we learned some things are in the works we didn't know about. Were under the impression that the only two possible outcomes were reunification with birth mom (drug user/prostitute, bipolar w/o meds, homeless & unemployed), or TPR and placing baby for adoption. For the first time yesterday it was mentioned that ** has option to "voluntarily relinquish" parental rights to a family of her choice, rather than waiting for the Court to TPR. That may well leave us out since she has another family in mind. Even the CASA worker was blindsided by this. Sigh. Am beginning to understand why not many people are willing to take this route...