So we we were at our daughters house hanging out with my two older girls their husbands and our grand kids when we get a phone call from my wife’s sister. Child Protective services made a surprise visit and determined that the kids were not in a good situation and they are taking them into foster system and if we would be willing to pick the children up. We had to leave right away and pick the kids up and take them into our custody. So now get this first we get the girls then we had to get certified for the foster system so for the first few months we had the children we were not getting any support from the foster system and these kids came to our house with barely anything just a few pairs of clothes and some toys for them.
Now the first few months the parents needed to test negative for any substance and prove they were getting help with the domestic violence that was reported not a physical but verbal was reported and fear of the drugs making it a gradual increase of violence. Unfortunately they did not participate wit the rules and guidelines that they were given and the case went ahead. In the process of us getting certified another social worker came out to check us out and thought since we were close relatives that it would not be a good fit for the girls as it would not help the parents get better. In her own personal belief they were removed and placed in another foster family.
When the court case for reunification came the judge asked the workers how the case was. The results of the parents not doing the requirements did not help their case and then the judge was wondering why the kids were not placed with relatives angered him and the social workers had no actual reason to have removed the children from our care. The judge ordered the kids to come back to us and were assigned to our care again and this time by court order so the state would actually start helping with the foster placement. Of course they will transport the kids away but not drop them back off so we had to drive to the other foster house to pick up our girls. when you are given foster kids they will come with a binder of information and time line of when stuff needs to get done.
The oldest girl was behind on all doctor and dentist visits her mom barely took her in and lied on the forms if the child was reaching the mile stones that are asked incase they do need help. so their was no record of her being behind developmentally or physically and her vaccines were behind. so in the first few months we were running around to all doctors and dentists to get her on track and some extra help. The doctors were concerned that she might be autistic and had the state psychologist make an appointment to diagnose her. Ok here is the funny thing we are past the covid era and yet this doctor only wanted zoom appointments. We had to go to a quite room and with a tablet and have her observe the oldest to diagnose. how can you fully diagnose a child threw a screen? I don’t think it is really possible unless their is some checklist she was pretending to do. So after the 2 hours of sitting in a quite room with a hyper 2 year old that does not want to be in the room and not paying attention to the doctor she said their is some delay and qualifies for G.D.D. (Global Development Delay ) a smaller level under autism.
We both disagree with the diagnoses and even her doctor agreed with us, but that is what the state said. HHMMM???!!!
The younger girl now about 6 months by this time was all caught up and doing great meeting all the mile stones for development and is healthy. The only thing with having her since she was about 3 weeks old is the fact my wife and my youngest child was 11 years old so we had about a decade since we have taken a care of a baby and oh man Starting Over is a thing had to get use to waking every other hour and the constant laundry and diapers was a thing but we loved it and was worth it both girls are so lovable.
Now the thing with foster care is the organization does a once a month check in and they come and check food sleeping arrangements and cloths. Now we never had to worry as we always had things ready and good to go. I guess they also did check ins with the original parents once a month and by this time the mother was clean and the Father just started his rehab they eventually got around to following the regulations that were set for them. From what they told us and i can remember is they had drug classes and domestic abuse classes and therapies they had to go to. The parents even had to do drug testing monthly maybe twice a month. These are all good things but I don’t believe enough of it was required. As we were required to get certified.
The courts required a check up every 6 months to see if the parents have checked every box and to see if reunification is on the table now the first six months court determined their was not enough improvement. The parents were not meeting all their supervised visits and i think one was still partially positive so the judge order another check up in 6 months. In order for the parents to meet the visitation requirements cps changed the orders to one supervised and 1 unsupervised to give them an incentive.
Thanks for reading another update on this soon
Any questions and or thoughts?
Original Orient Adventures 