[Loving Aunt]

I have posted here a couple times. I feel like I am in a dilema. My husband and I recieved Legal Custody of my great nephew in July. I recieved the court papers and it stated that the visitation w/mom must be supervised and only allowed if both parties agree. Well...My neice is a drug addict. Children Services then went forward to say that the visitation must be at my house, 1 hr a week, superivised. Neice called and called stating she has the right to come to my house to see him. It told her no and then told Children Services that they must have fell off their rocker. Hubby and I have 3 kids of our own...there would be huge safety concerns. Neice called again and threatened me...so I called the police. Then she called again speaking in cokenese (that's was hubby calls it) because we couldn't understand it due to her cocaine habit.

My question is....Can we adopt him? We would love too! He had just went to the neurologist and the intial diagnosis was Hemiplegia, he has weakness on the right side. He is going in for an MRI at the end of the month. The Dr. ordered PT,OT and Speech Therapy.

Any advise would be helpful! TY

[2boyz1girl]

If the birthmom still has visitation rights, and you refuse them, you could be interfering with your chances of adopting him. But you should be able to at least get the visits moved to another place that you are more comfortable with. (Maybe at social services, or at a therapists's office.) If she's been ordered to have supervised visitation, somebody other than you should be there to supervise. That is necessary if social services is to file for TPR -- they need to be able to support their case. When a child is placed in foster care the bparents are given a treatment plan to complete, and their rights aren't terminated until they have had every chance to complete it. The treatment plan usually consists of VISITATION, drug tests, therapy, holding down employment, showing an ability to provide a stable home, etc. If you are getting in the way, it will only slow things down. I would contact social services and tell them that you feel that her coming into your home is a safety threat to your family, but that you are willing to work with them toward visitation somewhere else. The visitation can be very harmful to her case if she doesn't show up, or is not appropriate. But without the visits, she can't show that. I know it's hard because it is probably the last thing you want to do, but it will help your chances of adopting in the future.

[Loving Aunt]

Ok...I did suggest to the Social Worker to amend the case plan and have visits at children services. They won't amend the case plan. See...What I don't understand is why would children services give a new case plan that involves everything you had stated then close the case and give her 90 days after they close the case to start her case plan. Confusing, huh. But after the 90 days she's SOL.

I will try again...

[2boyz1girl]

If you don't like the way social services is handling the case or don't understand what is going on (doesn't make sense to me either), contact your nephew's Guardian Ad Litem or CASA. That was what I did every time social services made me mad, I ended up building a very close relationship with my dd's GAL's secretary because I called so often. How old is your nephew? Several states now have expedited permanency laws that give social services only so long to have the children under three in permanent homes (they often don't stick to it, but you can get the GAL or CASA to fight for it). If he's only been away from his bmother since July, they'll still probably give her a while.

[Loving Aunt]

He's 2. My nephew was taken away back in Jan. from his mom along with his brother. Children Services gave Temp. custody to the legal grandma and then we fought for custody because we believed the courts errored in granting custody to LG. Pat. tests were preformed and LFather was not biological therefore LGrandma was not Bio grandma. LG wasn't taking very good care of him either. He was dismissed from the Dr. Office because too many no shows...the list is endless. We were given physical custody in May and we where under the impression we were only getting temp. custody in July, but they awarded us legal custody till 18. The GAL told us that if we don't trust her around our children then most certainly don't trust her around him.

What floored me was Children Services only gave her 6 months...not really even 6 months. This was strange because I thought they give parents a year....but I look at the situation I am in now. Children Services kind of dumped her in our laps.

[2boyz1girl]

Ahhh, yes! This is making sense now. That is why they try to find kinship placements vs. regular fost/adopt. I don't understand it, I know when our dd was a year old (we've had her from birth) her bfather's cousin and his fiancee stepped up as kinship placements. They wanted to take her so the bfather wouldn't lose his rights. For some reason, if the child is placed with family, they don't terminate parental rights. Doesn't make any sense. Now I'm in over my head with your case because I don't know much about kinship placements. Does she have any chance at ever getting custody back? I'm not positive, but I believe that you yourself can file for termination of her rights, then adopt. You'd have to talk to an attorney about that one.

[Loving Aunt]

Your right....I applied for a name change on him and I know that we have to have him for a year before we can change his name. (last name) but this is where it is confusing....I called an attorney about adopting him and she said we could do it right away. From my understanding of this system if children services would have stuck it out for 6 more months they could have terminated her rights. From what the Judge said his mother could only get custody back if there was a substantial change in MY home. The GAL said she could win the lottery and nothing would change. The case plan is only going to be good for 3 months after the case closes. These Ohio Laws are pretty confusing at times.