I know that stuff has happened between the July posting and this one, but here is the latest and greatest information. This is as of October 11, 2011.
Hello everyone, this is a long blog so if you don't have time to read it, do it later. There is a lot of information in it.
Ok, we have been in court for the last two days and we really appreciate your prayers. Court yesterday consisted of CPS changing their goal for what to do with Jody. Their goal for the past 16 months has been for an unrelated adoption (or secondarily reunification with dad). Then yesterday in court they announced that they were going for only for reunification with dad. This sent everyone for a tailspin, including the judge, who was mad to say the least. He then promptly postponed the case until today.
So, when the judge left court yesterday, we (being the grandparents, the aunt who has had custody of Jody for 16 months, Jonathan and myself) all stayed back and talked to the ad-litem attorneys (court-appointed to represent the child). The ad-litems then informed us that at this point CPS could come back today and drop the case and we would have no standing. Jody would go back to his father. This was not an option for any of us. So the ad-litems then went into action and told the aunt that she needed to get her own attorney and file a petition for intervention. So, I spent from the end of court (5:30) to about 9pm coordinating the meeting that we were going to have this morning with the new attorney for the Aunt.
This morning, the aunt and I went downtown and met with the new attorney. We loved her. She told us what to expect today and she gave us hope that we could win this battle. The aunt and grandparents are paying for the new attorney, which gives an indication of how motivated they are for Jody to go to a good home. Up to this point, all court costs have been covered by the state. So, the new attorney filed the petition for intervention as well as a petition for continuance. When we got to court at 1:30 today, she handed the paperwork to the other attorneys involved and you could see the surprise on their faces. When it was our turn before the judge, all of the attorneys spoke and the judge made some "recommendations" that we all think are great, because it will hopefully hold the birth father a little more accountable. Then the judge granted both of the petitions that our lawyer put before him. He also granted a new mediation, which is what our attorney recommended, and a new trial date.
So, here is what comes next. We do NOT go to trial next week. The dad has to fill out another financial form, because the judge stated that his belief is that the dad was not indigent and that dad would have to make payments back to his lawyer (!). This thrilled us, because he is no longer indigent and would be responsible for covering his own costs. Then the judge spoke to the lawyers and recommended to the father's attorney that he should try and make his client take a deal at mediation because if he doesn't he could be going before a "firing squad" at trial. So this is also good news for us. So before the end of the year, we will be heading to mediation again. This time with an attorney speaking for us. Our attorney will also be investigating the father and all allegations so that she can be best prepared for mediation and for potential trial. The outcome that we would like at mediation would be for both mom and dad to terminate their own rights. This would be the best case scenario and unlikely given all that has occurred so far. The other compromise they could make would be them granting the aunt, primary managing conservatorship (PMC). Once that is granted the aunt has custody of the child, but she can then designate if she wants someone else to be guardian. She can have him placed with us and CPS would be off the case, which is the plan if PMC occurs. The parents would still have parental rights and would have to pay child support and do visitations. The next step would be that we would keep Jody in our home full time. If, as expected, the parents don't fulfill their responsibilities with child support and/or visitations during the next year from the time of pmc, then we could file for termination and be able to adopt. So, it could go on for another year without final adoption, but we could get Jody in our home by the new year.
Keep praying for us
