cebii

court court and more court

Yesterday I went to court with my partner and kids. Foster kids have their cases reviewed by a family court judge every six months, and somehow all four of the kids we have living at home were scheduled on the same day. CPS probably did it on purpose so that we only had to go once, but it sure made for a long day. I don't often go, but Holly would have been seriously miserable trying to deal with two babies and two grumpy teens at the same time, all day.

The judge was great. He played with the twins and gave us advice about their adoption. He let my seventeen year old change her name, and was so impressed by the letter she wrote to request the name change that he asked to keep it for his records. He laughed with us when we showed up for the third time for S's afternoon session. CASA has been putting pressure on us to adopt her. We will adopt her, but are concerned that, as she continues through adolescence, she will at times revert back to some of the tantrums and aggressive behavior she displayed when she first came to us. We handled it ourselves in the past, but now she is taller and weighs more and we want to be able to send her to our agency for a 'tuneup' if it comes to that. If she gets as difficult as she has been, because of her size, we would probably have to call the police if we can't send her to SH. Holly explained this to the judge and he said there was no hurry. S is in a safe environment and thriving and he'd didn't want us to adopt until we were sure we could handle what situations came up. He basically shut the CASA down. Can't argue with the judge.

The only really bad thing was that K's mother didn't show up. She was devastated about that. The other three's parental rights have been severed, so we are the only family they have. K wants to maintain a relationship with her mom. She called her mom afterward and the mother said she hadn't been notified. We knew that was a lie because the state sends the notifications by certified mail and the caseworker had the receipt. We didn't push that with k, though. We let her setup a lunch date with her mom for next month. I wonder if her mom will show up. I wonder if K will tell her that she is planning to let us adopt her after she turns 18.

posted by cebii @ 8:24 AM