[surromom]

Court was yesterday and I was toooo sad to post.

The judge overuled on what the county wanted. Instead of goal change to adoption, he is giving the parents two more months.(Parents are split)so instead of visits stopping, they are increasing and they are in the home. It is one last chance for the parents to prove if they can do it or not. Mom has 5 total to care for all by herself. Ages 7,5,3,2 and newborn. She is just 23 and has mental problems. The older two have serious problems, and my two are a handful. So, I am pretty sure she won't be able to do it, but Dad on the other hand has a new pregnant girl friend and she will be his safety plan 'cause he is an indicated perp. I am worried cause he this gives him more time to get that thrown out on a tecnicality. It has been three years since he did it, so hopefully the statute of limitations has run out.

Oh well, it looks like I don't have to make a decision right now at all.

Oh, by the way. The dad says that I filed adoption papers to take them away from him and that is why there was a goal change hearing.LOL

Vicki

[vesw01]

5 kids by the age of 23 - wow. I can barely handle it at 35...
Good luck with everything!

[straightblues]

WOW!

I feel your pain. We went through 4 different TPR hearings before the judge finally TPR'd. Each time giving the Parents more time to get their selves together. Well they didn't but the did mange to have another child (number 8 between them). My attorney tells me that judges do this to make sure that the BP are given thier rights so when they finally do TPR that the BP will have no "real" grounds for an appeal. I don't know, but I can tell you it felt like crap every time it happend in our case. So I feel your pain. It is horrible.

I am now in the appeal period. My TPR finnaly occured in June. I sure hope the judge was right. All I know, is that the judge gave my BP 4 more months than was even prescribed by the law and I hated the wait and heatache associated with it.

I hope it works out for you. Keep us updated.

[ldurham]

surromom: if the judge is giving two more months - how many months have they been in care?

[surromom]

They have been in care for a little over 14months/15months if you count a relative placement that went bad. Lets just say this is the third time the older two have been in care. It is the first for the two I have. It will be 17/18months they have been in care by the next hearing.
In our county, you can go for change of goal at 12months.
Vicki

[ldurham]

I don't know what state you live in, but I would suggest taking a look at the statues for termination of parental rights - you can get a snapshot summary from http://www.ncsl.org/statefed/cf/asfasearch.htm. In most states termination of parental rights can be sought if the child has been in care for 15 of the most recent 22 months - but there are exceptions to this. You can get more details from searching the Adoption and Safe Families Act or you can search The Administration for Children and Families (www.acf.hhs.gov).

Hope this helps - Research - you can never do enough!

[mj77]

How frustrating. I can relate some. My older son's bparents are working to regain rights to the 7th child! She's 34 and wants 16 babies now (was 13, then 15). She is now pregnant. Hell will freeze over before she is able to parent on her own, however, even though the judge, DHS and the state all support TPR now, there is a process and this case is dragging out! Bparents are given services still in the mean time.