[mylilangels]

I have read some posts and some have said that a child has to be in your home a certain length of time before you can be considered an adoption resource.I have been looking for our state but cannot find this. Does anyone for Ga what the time frame is? Our baby boy has been with us for 11mths, but April 7th will make a year. I'm needing to know this and any other info to determine if I need to hire a lawyer myself. Mom will tpr by summer but now an aunt is up against us after they said she was not an option..thanks so much

[Kate1129]

http://www.dfcs.dhr.georgia.gov/portal/site/DHR-DFCS/menuitem.76e501556de17147077a8110da1010a0/?vgnextoid=e5792b48d9a4ff00VgnVCM100000bf01010aRCR D


That's the page you need to look at. The CW54 tells you that 12 months TPR is set into motion. 15 months it should happen and adoptive family should be found within 30 days. The one thing you need to look at is what they deem as a bonding assessment. To show since the child has been with you the whole time, that now is the worst time to move the child. What does your SW say about this? The SW should be on your side as far as it's too late for the aunt to come forward.

[mylilangels]

kate..it's hard to tell what the cw thinks. i told her last week that if we don't have a problem with the race then we don't feel anyone else should, and she agreed. we are cc and he's aa. the aunt told me back in the fall that she wants him but dfcs says no. you see my baby is #9 and the aunt has the first 8 along w/ her child, and she's single and has a tiny home that won't fit anymore kids. dfcs has told me from the beginning that they weren't even looking at her, but now they say their honest opinion is that he'll go to her..surely the judge would see that he's bonded with us(they've had to call me up to the office during visits to calm him down or pick him up early) and they see he quiets down as soon as we get him..when i try to hand him over to birth family or cw's he starts screaming. i'm so scared of loosing him @ this point. thanks for the link..i have been looking and looking.

[msdoie]

We were able to adopt our son in Georiga (through DFCS) when he was only 11 months old. The birthmom didn't do ANYTHING on her caseplan and never showed up to court. He was with an older foster mom who didn't want to adopt so he was placed with us when he was 6 months old after the TPR had been done. All we had to do was wait for a few months of home visits then he was all ours in December!

I think as long as you are a foster parent to that child - no matter how long, you are considered a resource to adopt that child as long as their are no relatives to consider. He was placed with us for a week as a "foster child" ...just so we could say we were his foster parents... then we signed foster to adopt papers.

NOW we have his baby sister. We all thought we would be able to adopt her with NO problem but the birthparents are actually following their caseplan and the grandmom wants her! It's so frustrating! The birthmom has lost all 4 of her children. One is with another dad's mom, one is with her mom, the third is with us, and now the fourth will probably go to the dad's mom. How sad that none of them will be able to grow up together! We would love to keep them together but it doesn't look will can.

msdoie, GA DFCS

AS 13 months
FD 2 months

[8isenuff]

First, you have my respect and prayers. I foster 4 and am birth mom to 4. In PA, there is a limit to the number of children allowed in the home without a judge giving special consideration. Here it is six. The only reason I was given this consideration was 2 were in another foster home and the parent became ill, and I already had thier sis's. But they won't allow it to be a perm. situation. They have shelter hearings every 30 days.

[ajrl]

Becareful in GA. They feel that reunification should be w/ the family no matter the situation. This past month in Cherokee the Judge sent back 6 kids to their Birth families. 3 of which were in TPR and the parents had no home to go back to. The judge didnt take any of this into consideration. Also, I had a FC that was supposed to be legally adoptable and then a relative was found out of state and I was told that as long as I had my FC for 6 months then we could adopt. However when new family member was found the child was taken away and sent to the family member.

AJ

[msdoie]

We found out yesterday that our baby girl will definetly be going to the grandma by the end of this month. All DFCS will say is that they always want them with family... even though they showed no interest in the last child that we adopted.

[mylilangels]

I appreciate all of your honesty to my questions. I'm trying to relax about the whole thing until it happens. The mom doesn't care about TPR and she's told the panel she has nothing to say, so they're guessing she won't even show to hearing. The aunt said alot of things about though, we found this out last night from cw. We'll see, we're just still praying hard. Will it hurt us though w/ the judge if people write letters on our behalf? We have so many ppl at church writing for us.

aj and msdoie, i'm sorry for the your losses. this is so hard to go through. we know this was the risk we were taking but until you actually get into fostering you then realize just how hard it is. all hubby and i want is a baby, maybe 2-3..lol however many God sends us. sorry for rambling this morning. thank you both..

[kikibrando]

Originally Posted by msdoie

We found out yesterday that our baby girl will definetly be going to the grandma by the end of this month. All DFCS will say is that they always want them with family... even though they showed no interest in the last child that we adopted.

My son is the third of four. We'll finalize his adoption next month. We've been fostering his sister, S, for 11 months.

The mother, who did little or nothing to get Ben back, is now following her case plan after 11 months of doing nothing. This is likely because we are going to court next month for change of plan to adoption.

Now, suddenly, mother has a job at a fast food joint, doing dishes and wiping tables. The last court hearing, she claimed inability to work due to "anxiety disorder." I'm sure if reunification happened, she'd quit in a NY minute.

It annoys me that she did nothing for her son, and basically dumped two other boys on her parents, but wants this one because it's a girl.

[msdoie]

I'll keep you all in my prayers. This is a hard job and I'm so glad we have each other to talk to! I hope it works out for you and that the aunt will not be considered!

The hardest part of this job is not how it affects me, because I signed up for this and I knew what I was getting into... but how it affects my family members. They didn't sign up for this and I HATE to hurt them and have them get so involved and then to lose a child they've all learned to love.

[Sleeplvr]

I'm in Georgia. Cherokee county as a matter of fact. There are two judges that hear the DFCS cases one is pretty good the other one does some crazy things.

When they set the TPR hearing date you will get a letter stating the intentions of the state to TPR. You are required to sign it and note whether you want to be considered an adoptive resource or not.

The form will list the 3 options the state has after the TPR occurs. 1. Place child for adoption with a family member 2. Place with another non related adoptive resource. 3. Place for adoption with current foster family.

I was so mad I couldn't see straight when I got the letter. My little boy could potentially end up with someone else after all this time. The TPR hearing is scheduled March 15th. He will be a year old on April 15th.

They do not recommend you hiring an attorney at this point. The CW will let you know when the time is right.