Search Results for: blog glossary of special needs adoption related terms t z

An Abused Woman

While we were sitting there across from the biological mother of our children one thing was obvious. When you looked at her you see finger print bruises, hand shaped bruises and what looked like a belt mark across her arms. The case workers asked her husband to leave the room as he would have to now be included in the reunification plan and they need to do some background checks on him first. We also left the room and waited with Rebecca in a room while they finished the meeting with her. When we were all out of the room … Continue reading →

We Meet The Biological Mother

When our sons were in foster homes they had a great person working for the boys. She was a volunteer Child Advocate. Child Advocates fight for what is best for the children, they don’t have to follow the regulations for CPS they make decisions based on their hearts. She fought for our sons to be placed for adoption together not separated as CPS wanted. When we heard there would be a meeting coming up we called her to ask for her advice and if she thought we should get Rebecca a Child Advocate to help her stay safe. The Child … Continue reading →

The Visits Continue

We continued to go back and forth to the supervised visitations for a few months but there was no end and sight. So far the biological mother had been going to the visitations and was working the reunification plan. Because the biweekly supervised parental visitations continued and it was getting harder and harder for us to get out of work a half day every other week the CPS case workers offered to pick Rebecca up for one visit a month if we could drive her for the second visit. Given that we lived an hour and a half away it … Continue reading →

My Journal To Fight

As I have mentioned in an earlier entry I was told if we wanted to keep Rebecca with us and stop the reunification process we were going to have to fight. I am one who fights for what she loves so our fight began. The first part of the fight was providing the redacted record on the boys to the case worker for Rebecca. Step two was going to be writing everything down. If there is a written log that follows everything that happens we would hopefully have enough information to fight for her. I had bought a notebook and … Continue reading →

The First Visit

One part of the conversation that I had with Rebecca’s CPS Case Worker that I have not yet mentioned was that the biological mother was entitled to visitation. She was going to be allowed 1 hour every two weeks to have supervised visitation with my little girl. I did feel a little better that they would be supervised but I did still not like this. We lived about an hour and a half from the town where Rebecca was born so for the first visit we drove her down for the visitation. The case had been assigned a new case … Continue reading →

CPS Was Planning Reunification !

A few weeks after the New Year started we got a call from the case worker for Rebecca. She said that the biological mother was going to fight for custody of her. I immediately began to start crying. This sweet little girl had only been in our family for a few weeks but she already had a huge piece of our hearts. I cannot believe that the CPS case worker was actually considering reunification. I asked her how that could be the biological mother abandoned George under a car the end of July in Houston when he was two months … Continue reading →

Adoption Nightmares

Many Americans remember the “Baby Jessica” case. In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Michigan Supreme Court decision to return a child to her birth father (who was by then married to her birth mother) after two and a half years with adoptive parents who had cared for her since very soon after her birth. The case caused outrage across the country. Media accounts railed against the courts for failing to consider the best interests of the child by taking into account the trauma a move would cause her. The birth parents were portrayed as irresponsible and selfish … Continue reading →

“Wrongful Adoption” Lawsuits

Occasionally one hears of adoptive parents suing an agency for “wrongful adoption”. The parents usually claim that after they adopted the child, the child began to exhibit special needs and/or behaviors that were unexpected. For example, a child who sustained extensive sexual and physical abuse is considered at risk for attachment disorders. Children who were abused themselves also are at risk for becoming abusers of others. A child may have disabilities related to fetal alcohol exposure. The parents claim that the agency either knew about these problems, or factors putting the children at high risk for these problems, and withheld … Continue reading →

Insurance Blog Week In Review July 18-23, 2007

Insurance Term Of The Week: Homeowner Insurance Forms If you have read any of my guest blogs in the Adoption or Special Needs parenting sections or know about my personal life at all hopefully you can forgive my obvious lack of work the past several months. I love this gig but the responsibility of parenting a special needs child is overwhelming sometimes! Let’s hope I can stay back on track and writing about the exciting topic of Insurance. I wish I was not cursed with a mind that thinks Risk Management all the time, it makes it difficult to go … Continue reading →

Residential Treatment

It was just a few days after Christmas when everything fell apart and our nearly 9-year-old daughter Makala lost all sense of reality. We were getting ready to celebrate all of our birthdays, and other important dates. It was approaching the 4th anniversary of Gotcha Day. Worse still it was about to be the 5th anniversary of the day the police had taken Makala and her baby brother Jeremiah into foster care. January is usually a very stressful time of year for our family. But, this past January was looking as if we might not make it as a family. … Continue reading →