Permanency Hearing/Report and Review

Last Wednesday we had MrMonkey's first permanency hearing and MrBrawn's Report and Review. At this time the judge reviews what the Foster Care Review Board has presented to him; along with everything that is presented that day. The Foster Care Review Board had recommended severance and adoption, rather than reunification.

Court is an interesting thing. The children are present. They have all sets of parents present, along with a bunch of grown-ups that they are comfortable with. They spend a good deal of time running from parent to parent, and from one adult to the next. It is quite crazy!

CPS presented the fact that both parents have been working a case plan for over a year. They still have no home, no jobs, no vehicle, and the father has not completed parenting classes, despite being enrolled three times. CPS also presented individual finds for each parent. An interview with the father's probation officer revealed that he is believed to be an unlikely candidate for successful completion of probation and of substance abuse counseling. Mother was given a psychological evaluation and there are some "points of concern" but the caseworker did not go into detail.

Then it was time for "others" to speak. The parents' attorneys spoke first. The mother's attorney stated that she had been turning in several applications around town, at Cracker Barrel, Family Dollar, and Hastings, and had picked up divorce papers while she was at the courthouse. The father's attorney stated that he is scheduled to begin substance abuse therapy and also parenting classes and he is eager to show that he can be a good parent.

The judge then asked for input from the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), her supervisor, their mental health counselor, and me. All of them basically said It looks like they are not going to get their act together, and they are in danger of losing their children". Of course, I have no authority to make those types of remarks so I spoke briefly about the children; I told the judge that they are no longer lactose intolerant which is great, their behavior has improved, and they are wonderful children to have around.

All of this took less than 30 minutes. The judge ordered a concurrent case plan, which means CPS now officially has been told to work towards reunifaction with the parents and severance from the parents and adoption.

Protocol states that CPS must try to place the children with a biological family member before putting them up for adoption, so CPS is currently doing a background check and home study on a family member. Rumor has it that this family member is the last chance as the serverance plan has been started for their older half brother, who has been in care for over a year,and more than 14 family members were background checked and none were approved.

MrBrawn had some pretty crazy behavior for the two days after court. Even today, 4 days later, he asked me if I was going to "keep him at this house forever". I will be calling the mental health counselor in the next couple of days for some advice.

"God was on this!"

My big kids are in a stage of circles and x's. If we like it, we circle it, if we don't we x it. They're sitting at the table doing some coloring and activity books. Mr Brawn just yelled "Mama come look!" When I get to him he's pointing at the word "two" written in dashes in order to trace it. He pointed at the T and says "God was on this."
I didn't understand, so I said "It's OK, you can write on it." (I thought he wasn't sure what to do).
He said, more emphatically, "No, Mommy, God was on THIS." and pointed to the T.
Then I saw it, a lower case T looks like a cross.
I said "Oh, yes, Jesus was put on the cross."
He jumps in and says "Yeah, those mean guys put him there and he was stuck."
"And then what happened?" I asked.
"He died"
"And then?"
"And then, and then, Him comed back ALIVE!!"
...As I walked away to get a baby wipe I heard Ms Brains say, "we should x that, cuz it was mean" and Mr Brawn say, "No we should circle it cuz he came alive"...

Ahhh, about fifteen minutes ago I was ready to sell all my kids on Ebay. And then My Heavenly Father decides to show me this.