[LoViN_LiFe]

My husband and I have had our lil princess (tech great neice) who is 16 months for a year now. TPR is to occur on Tuesday. Paternal grandmother had her for 2 days after removal, and she was removed from her care by CPS because it was not a safe place. Well since then she has NEVER called to check on baby, NEVER sent cards or gifts, NEVER contacted CPS showing any intrest. Now she wants to "invoke her grandparents rights" to try for custody or at least visitation. GAL said that he is pushing for that NOT to happen because its no were near the best interest of the child. I dont worry about her getting custody, she has warrants out for her arrest, has alot of medical problems, and we have had baby for a year. But the thing that concerns me if the court does allow her visitation, she lives 8 hours away and bio-dad and mom live with her, not to mention my little girl does NOT know this women. So question is...if visitation granted will they allow g-ma to take our lil girl all that way with her? And how often would they let these visits occur? Im not a bad person and would not mind EITHER of bio's parents family having contact...if they had shown interest in the beginning. My husband is bio-dads uncle, and so the part of the family that he is related to has see baby ALOT, including bio-dads DAD and Step-mom, they are a constant part of her life. As well as both of bio-dads siblings. Bio-moms family shown NO interest with us or CPS.
Any advise would be great...btw we are in Texas!

[feelingreyt]

In TN grandparents have no right, not sure about Texas.
Relative adoptions are so complicated. I wish you all good things and pray the Judge looks out for the best intrest of the child.

[Lynard1210]

If the GAL does not think it is in the child's best interest, you have this on your side. He/she can recommend against visits to the Judge and the Judge will decide. The GAL holds a lot of weight in Judge's decision. I would get a lawyer who insists that these visits be supervised and at a location that is familiar to the child. If grandmother is really an uninvolved type, she probably won't want to drive very far or be put through much trouble. My mother-in-law lives 10 minutes away and finds it inconvenient to see her grandkids. If she is like that, you may not have to worry about her at all - even if she gets visits - she may not follow through with them. Stay in good rapport with the GAL and provide as much documentation as you can re this grandmother so info can be put in report about her.

[momagain5]

my understanding is if birthparents are tpr,then no family has rights to child either.weather ,they can have contact with the child,is up to the adoptive parents.if there are birth family members that the child is close to and that you feel contact would benefit the child,then you can work something out with them after the adoption.

[2manyks]

when we had guardianship of a niece and nephew we were forced into visitation with a bio gma. the judge gave her every other weekend, every other holiday and 4 weeks during the summer. she lived with her son who molested niece. our lawyer advised us to adopt so we didnt have to comply with visitation any longer. so we quietly adopted having my brother, biofather, willing sign tpr. the judge didnt care that it was an unhealthy situation. he just said for everyone to get counseling and that was that. no supervision, so one tracking making sure gma attended therapy sessions. the adoption did the trick and now i call the shots when she can visit, which is only at my house with me or DH supervising. and her son is not allowed to come.

good luck