Court date #4..Snowbaby and Bubba
No changes to the case at this time.
Next hearing will be a permanency hearing, which has to take place around/before the one year mark of being in care. They will review whether the case goal of reunification is still appropriate and to review how the children are doing. This will take place about two months from now.
Just to give you some idea of how this case is going…there is another case that is following the same court schedule as us. At court date #2, Mom got visits extended to two supervised per week. At court date #3, she got visits extended to two supervised and one four hour unsupervised per week. Today, she got visits extended to weekend unsupervised visits, and a counselor was assigned to work with both the mother and children to help prepare them from the transition from foster care to living with their Mom again.
Bubba and Snowbaby still receive one hour of supervised visitation each week.
They have been in foster care for eight months.
October 19th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
it sure sounds like those kiddies might be staying with you. it’s sad their bio mom isn’t making progress and can only see them 1x a week, but they are so lucky to have you as their ‘everyday’ mom.
October 19th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
I hope for their sake they end up with you. I know the hope in social service land is for all children to be able to reunite with their birth parents in a happy living environment, but we all know they’re better off with you. We can also tell how much you really care about them also.:)
October 19th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Will you try to adopt them if the mom’s rights are terminated?
October 19th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Well, I think if the bio parents are with the program then I am all for unification, but when not…I hate for it to drag on and on for all of you. I hope that in two months you can perhaps get a little closer to resolution.
Question for ya: IIRC, Butterfly was a sibling to this family, right? Do the court procedings and unification plans include her? How is she? Do the kids get to have contact with her?
I know that it was a tough decision for you to find her a different placement, I hope things work out for all of you.
October 19th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Well, that is quite the contrast isn’t it. I am sorry for the kids that their mom is not making the effort. I don’t know how you explain that to kids in the future. That she just wasn’t able to? How does that fly for a preteen or a teen, or young adult?? Anyways, it would be very tempting to cheer at this news if I took a narrow view, cuz I too think they are in a happy family setting right now, and that you love them very much. Will you be adopting them if it comes to that? And yes, what about Butterfly? (though I read enough foster blogs to know that many siblings are adopted while their other, often older, siblings are not)
October 19th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Butterfly is a half sibling to Bubba and Snowbaby…the kids all have the same mom.
The court hears the case of all three children at the same time. Bubba and Snowbaby see Butterfly once a week at the supervised visits. She is doing slightly better. There are family members on Butterfly’s father’s side that would like to adopt her. As far as I know, the team still recommends that Butterfly not be placed in the home with the younger two.
If termination were to occur, I would absolutely want to adopt Bubba and Snowbaby. I love them more than I could ever say.
Of course, reunification is still the official case goal as of now.
October 19th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I am sad for Bubba and Snowbaby to be losing their biomom, and I am sad for her that due to her own choices she is missing out on such wonderful kids. I do know, though, that if they stay with you permanently that they will have a very happy life!! I will be thinking about all of you, including Butterfly:-)
BTW, I had a nice IM conversation with Bug today…LOL.
October 19th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Can we all say DUMBASS?? I am not part of the deciding factor, but if I were, she’d definitely received a “You blew it!” from me. I feel so bad that these two children have to deal with these facts later on in life, and I think the quicker we get this woman out of their life, the quicker they have to living a healthier life. How horrid for all, but today, my sadness does not lie with her, but with the young adult Bubba and Snowbaby, confused, angry, and hurting over this woman! Maybe we should pass a law that states a mandatory Tubal Ligation when your children are permanently taken from you. I do realize she may at some point change and become an upstanding citizen, but really, at this point, she sucks for hurting these 3 innocent little people….. Ok, I’m off my box.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:58 am
Is the other case going unusually well and Bubba and Snowbaby’s unusally poorly (as far as the reunification, I mean)?
I don’t have any experience with foster care, so maybe this is a silly question, but is it typical for either reunification or termination to happen within one year of kids coming into care?
October 20th, 2007 at 9:36 am
I would say a little bit of both, Mayhem. The other Mom has obviously corrected whatever problems she had in a pretty rapid manner.
The cut off is supposed to be 15 months. If a child is in care 15 out of 22 months (so that would also include if they went home for a few months and then went back into care) then termination is supposed to be filed OR they have to provide solid reasons why termination is not in the best interests. They make that 15 month mark clear to the parents, at least here, when the kids first come into care.
Of course, that is not the way it always works. I don’t know that they will change the kids goal to termination at the next hearing or ever, even. And even if they do change it, they will still have to set a date for the hearing and then we’ll have to go through that, and wait on a ruling from the judge…so we still have a ways to go and a lot of uncertainty still.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Baggage, just keep lovin’ them.
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:15 am
I’m glad they have you as a resource if mom can’t get her crap together. Would you stop fostering if you adopt them? What about Izzy, is that still the goal? Does she just have to do the independent living survey b/c she is still technically a foster?