[Badgrkrik]

My wife and I are a white couple. Last July 07 a mixed race sibling group of three was placed with us as pre-adoptive.(NOT FOSTER) although we are licensed for both. Acording to GAL(the children's attorney), DHS, my wife and I, and the in-home study worker,it was great match,and we wanted to adopt. November came and the oldest girl (age 4) was ,what we thought regressing, come to find out her older brother age 6, was touching her and making her do things she didn't want to do. We(my wife and I) after a couple weeks of placing alarms and keeping watch , decided this was not the healthy way to raise a family. We got both the older children in therapy. After seeing that the 4 yr old girl was declining and very stressed,hair falling out,rashes on her body, loss of appatite, clinching her teeth when talking, decided to have her brother removed from our home ,and figured he would do better in a single child home, where he could receive more attention and help. DHS agreed at the time but the judge and GAL wasn't so much in agreement. Janurary 08 the judge ordered a attachment evaluation to see if long term seperation of the siblings would be more harmful . The therapist decided it best to keep the girls seperate from the brother, and we were all in agreement that they should have a (normal as possible lifelong relationship)just not in the same home. And the therapist after spending only 4 hours with the children diagnosed the 4 yr old girl with an anxious attachment to my wife and I. We figured this was understandable, since the children were placed 5 times before coming to us. To make a long story short, the therapist and the judge last week April 16th 08 (after almost 10 months with us)decide it is not a good match and they want to remove the girls yet once more. They placed the brother in a single child home.The 2 reasons they are telling us is the attachment issues the 4 yr old has(which her therapist feels can be fixed with time , and moving her would only worsen her issues). And the second reason is RACE, that they should be raised with an African American family.They knew we were white last July. According to the Multiethnic placement Act of 1994 and the Interethnic adoption provisions of 1996 , DHS should have helped us more, or they could be at risk of loosing federal funds. We so much want to adopt these little girls, does anyone know who might be able to help us, do we have any rights, an appeal process, I think Race Discrimination just hit a new level.