OK,
Yesterday was an appointment with the play therapist. (S) was really looking forward to it. She loves going there to play. Unfortunately, the therapist didn't show up. (S) was very disappointed.
and this was not the first time. I called the case worker and told her I wantged to find someone else as this person was unreliable. She insisted that this is very unusual and that this person is the best for (S). She said she would give her a call. I would have expected a call from the therapist by now, but nothing. I am not real impressed. I guess we will talk more about this on Monday....information on Monday to follow...
Today the GAL came by to see how things are going before the TPR hearing starts on Monday. He said it will ba a cast of thousands..actually I think it is going to be about 60 witnesses and they expect it to last most of next week. We have to be there Monday at 11:00am and then we will find out after that when we have to be back. I am hopeful they can nail down a good time so we don't have to sit there for hours upon hours.....unless they let us in. In that case, I will want to hear what is happening. If the TPR goes through then (S) will be available for adoption eventually.
Tomorrow we have a visit with her brothers at the local Mickey Ds that has a play place. They really enjoy being together and they play so well. They did get to see each other last week at the children's museum too. It is still undetermined what grouping would be adopted together or seperate or whatever...If (S) is alone, we will have to make a decision. We still havent been able to make a firm decision. After a year and a half, we have really grown to love her. It will be so hard to have her leave, but we have to be sure that whatever we do, we do it for her. We can't worry about the impact on our life. She is the important one now. So a busy few days. I have neevr been involved in this kind of a court proceeding so I am not sure what to expect. The GAL said we would just be asked how (S) was doing and there wouldn't be any difficult questions. This of course coming from a man who has been through literally thousands of these.
I hope we do ok. I will try to be better about blogging as the court proceedings move along
Showing posts with label visitation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label visitation. Show all posts
Friday, May 1, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
The Trip is On....No parental Visits for at Least 3 Months.
The trip is on......we are really excited and so is (S). Don't ask me why but she really wants to go to the "cowboyzeum" (Cowboy Hall of Fame and Museum). She is also excited about the water park and going to Alabama to see (B). We are also going to spend a weekend in Dallas visiting my sister. She has not yet met (S) and is looking forward to it.
So....... I get to court and there are a lot of people there. There are also a lot of Sheriffs there. Dad was sitting in the parking lot in an Escalade. (I think it belonged to his church President) When he finally came into the courthouse it looked like he bought a new pair of jeans for the occasion. Mom was not with dad and she looked really depressed and alone. I spoke to her briefly. She said that dad is not living with her and the house is very quiet. She is not a well woman and she doesn't work, so I can't imagine what this is like for her. I know she misses (S) tremendously. She asked how (S) was doing and I wasn't sure what to say....so I just reverted to the most sensible thing...I told her the truth........that (S) was fine.
Dad's lawyer asked to be removed from the case. Dad apparently had filed a complaint about him with the bar association. When the judge asked if it was ok if that lawyer was removed from the case dad didn't want him removed. That's right. He filed a complaint, but still wanted him on the case. The judge let the lawyer go and now a new one has to be named. The TPR trial is now set for April 6th, but it won't actually start that day. They will just decide if they are ready. They are estimating 3 days for this trial. There are no visits until at least after that. After that there is the potential that there could be just one visit to say goodbye. I can't imagine what that would be like. It saddens me just to say that.
Now we have been asked about adoption. We are very mixed on this one. On the one hand, we didn't get into this for that purpose, but if we are not going to adopt then it would make sense that they find a foster to adopt family to put (S) with until everything is decided. That means that (S) would be leaving sooner rather than later. We were all ready for her to go home to her parents when they were so close to reunification, but we really aren't ready for her to go with some strangers. I never thought we would be in this position, but we think we are probably too old to adopt a three year old girl. We would be close to 70 by the time she graduated High school.
Enough for today. My mind is turning to mush. Tomorrow I will tell you all the preliminary plans for our trip so you can all offer any suggestions about something we should do.
So....... I get to court and there are a lot of people there. There are also a lot of Sheriffs there. Dad was sitting in the parking lot in an Escalade. (I think it belonged to his church President) When he finally came into the courthouse it looked like he bought a new pair of jeans for the occasion. Mom was not with dad and she looked really depressed and alone. I spoke to her briefly. She said that dad is not living with her and the house is very quiet. She is not a well woman and she doesn't work, so I can't imagine what this is like for her. I know she misses (S) tremendously. She asked how (S) was doing and I wasn't sure what to say....so I just reverted to the most sensible thing...I told her the truth........that (S) was fine.
Dad's lawyer asked to be removed from the case. Dad apparently had filed a complaint about him with the bar association. When the judge asked if it was ok if that lawyer was removed from the case dad didn't want him removed. That's right. He filed a complaint, but still wanted him on the case. The judge let the lawyer go and now a new one has to be named. The TPR trial is now set for April 6th, but it won't actually start that day. They will just decide if they are ready. They are estimating 3 days for this trial. There are no visits until at least after that. After that there is the potential that there could be just one visit to say goodbye. I can't imagine what that would be like. It saddens me just to say that.
Now we have been asked about adoption. We are very mixed on this one. On the one hand, we didn't get into this for that purpose, but if we are not going to adopt then it would make sense that they find a foster to adopt family to put (S) with until everything is decided. That means that (S) would be leaving sooner rather than later. We were all ready for her to go home to her parents when they were so close to reunification, but we really aren't ready for her to go with some strangers. I never thought we would be in this position, but we think we are probably too old to adopt a three year old girl. We would be close to 70 by the time she graduated High school.
Enough for today. My mind is turning to mush. Tomorrow I will tell you all the preliminary plans for our trip so you can all offer any suggestions about something we should do.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Enough of This Llama Drama
.
So today was supposed to be a visit. They have gone back to being supervised and only twice a week for two hours each visit. We were within an hour of going to the visit when the call came. No visit today. The call came from the visit supervisor, not the case worker. She just said that there was a little problem today.
Later I got a call from the case worker. She said that now all visits and telephone calls were going to cease until after the next court date. That is next Monday. I asked the case worker what had happened and she said that Dad had done something he shouldn't have done and was in the hospital. She also said that both Mom and Dad were not very stable right now and they didn't think they should be having any contact with the children until they go before the judge and he makes a determination. (I'm not sure what kind of a determination)
Remember.....we are still in reunification though and we can't take her away for three weeks.
But I digress. Thankfully we hadn't said anything to (S) about a visit today so she didn't know she was missing anything. It has been a while since she really asked for her mom and at the last supervised visit last week the case worker says that she paid no attention to dad, little attention to mom and spent most of the time playing with her brothers.
Oh by the way......The case worker also told us that we should keep our eyes open and if mom or dad should show up on the street or at the house, we should dial 911. The only problem is she didn't tell us what to tell them......Hey, I didn't bargain for this when I got involved in foster care. I guess I figured in most cases there was not a problem with parents. I don't know if that is the reality, but certainly in this case it isn't. These parents really don't have a clue. At every turn something new comes up.
Wednesday is the day our case worker comes to visit and see how (S) is doing. I am sure we will get more information then. I also hope we will hear something from the GAL and that it is positive. My son has been doing some research about what is available in Birmingham that (S) would like. We are all excited about the potential of the trip but we don't want to get our hopes up too high knowing that the drama is...........
to be continued
So today was supposed to be a visit. They have gone back to being supervised and only twice a week for two hours each visit. We were within an hour of going to the visit when the call came. No visit today. The call came from the visit supervisor, not the case worker. She just said that there was a little problem today.
Later I got a call from the case worker. She said that now all visits and telephone calls were going to cease until after the next court date. That is next Monday. I asked the case worker what had happened and she said that Dad had done something he shouldn't have done and was in the hospital. She also said that both Mom and Dad were not very stable right now and they didn't think they should be having any contact with the children until they go before the judge and he makes a determination. (I'm not sure what kind of a determination)
Remember.....we are still in reunification though and we can't take her away for three weeks.
But I digress. Thankfully we hadn't said anything to (S) about a visit today so she didn't know she was missing anything. It has been a while since she really asked for her mom and at the last supervised visit last week the case worker says that she paid no attention to dad, little attention to mom and spent most of the time playing with her brothers.
Oh by the way......The case worker also told us that we should keep our eyes open and if mom or dad should show up on the street or at the house, we should dial 911. The only problem is she didn't tell us what to tell them......Hey, I didn't bargain for this when I got involved in foster care. I guess I figured in most cases there was not a problem with parents. I don't know if that is the reality, but certainly in this case it isn't. These parents really don't have a clue. At every turn something new comes up.
Wednesday is the day our case worker comes to visit and see how (S) is doing. I am sure we will get more information then. I also hope we will hear something from the GAL and that it is positive. My son has been doing some research about what is available in Birmingham that (S) would like. We are all excited about the potential of the trip but we don't want to get our hopes up too high knowing that the drama is...........
to be continued
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