Today revolved around one major activity for Squirrel and I. We went to our first court date for our kids. It wasn't that we had anything to do. We just feel like we need to directly know what is going on.
So... we get to the courthouse and we don't know what we are doing. We go to walk into the courtroom and a woman in a side room asks if we are the girls' foster parents. It is our new case worker! Yes, the woman who hasn't called me back since Thursday. She has the "oops, busted face" going on and has to do some pedaling quickly to come up with some answers. We chatted with her for quite some time and then who walks in but our legal liaison. Busted! He has not called back since Thursday either. Here we are with both of them so we were able to nail them down for some direct answers.
We had quite a bit of time with them as we waited before going into the court room. Why did we have time? Well, because biomom was a no show. Seriously? Who doesn't show to court when your children are removed from your home? Second no show for her... yet we have to make up today's missed visit on Thursday? That is messed up.
While we are waiting we got to throw a lot of requests at our case worker.
1. Speech therapy for both
2. FAS testing for Sissy
3. Suspended visits until biomom gets her lice taken care of
4. Visits not at the awful park
5. Regulated guests at visits (we had a crazy amount of people at a visit)
6. Play therapy for Sissy
Some of these requests were eagerly received by our caseworker, some not so much. She really balked at the FAS testing and the therapies. Really? I think these are some things that the girls really need. We can handle a not so great park and we can deal with having to do lice prevention all the time. These items will not harm the girls forever. If we don't tackle the speech issues that will continue. All the kids except the oldest of the 5 have the speech issues. The FAS isn't limited to Sissy. The caseworker for the oldest two believes that the 15 year old may also have FAS and is pushing for testing for him. We need the diagnosis for services. If we were to test and it comes back negative, great! If not we need to be ready to get the services that are needed.
What we were able to get at court... nothing. Since biomom did not show up there were no requests made of the judge.
What did happen: Their 7 year old sister was placed immediately with her biodad. A huge surprise to us. Last we knew he was not ready. It was not anticipated by her fostermom either otherwise we would have gotten together this weekend.
We also had a great conversation with the case worker for the girls' oldest two siblings. We now have contact info for their foster family so we can go visit them.
Having the 7 year old now placed with her biodad shifts the dynamics of the whole thing. A friend who used to be a reunification worker was talking with us this past weekend and was saying how they try to keep the unit together and as long as they were all in care that there would be reunification attempts. She also said that if any of the kids are not placed with the biomom that there is a higher likelihood that reunification won't happen. Who knows.
Really though, who has 5 kids taken away and doesn't bother to show up in court?
For us. Even though we have no results from the court visit for the girls our comfort level with the courtroom is there. We now know a little of what to expect. It is the little things, like the acoustics of the room that can throw you off. Showing up also shows all the workers around the case that we are serious about these girls.
The next court date is next Wednesday. Anyone want to place bets on if she shows?
No comments:
Post a Comment