TPR/Adoption Timeline
Just got a call from R., Cookie's SW. Here's the latest word on timelines:June 1, 2006: 161 Paperwork was filed with the court (2 weeks late - no idea why)
June 16, 2006: R. comes to our house for our June meeting
June 20, 2006: Cookie turns 6 months old
August 1, 2006: Deadline for the courthouse to assign us a hearing date - date will probably be about 2 weeks after they call R. to let her know
~August/September 2006: We will have a TPR hearing for Cookie
(Biomom has requested to tell her side of the story to the judge, so it will be a longer case)
R. says she has had judges prefer to study the case more before issuing a ruling. She says her longest case the judge took 2 months. To this day she has no idea what took him so long (but that was a different judge).
R. says her best guess is the judge will rule to grant TPR on the spot. BUT he could also rule to postpone TPR and give Biomom more time. As she has had two other involuntary terminations in the past, this is not likely - BUT anything can happen.
Biomom will have 30 days to appeal the judge's ruling. R. says if she had to guess, she'd guess Biomom will not appeal. If she does, R. says there is no way it would be overturned.
~November, 2006: Once the 30 days is up, our case will be assigned to the adoption worker, who fortunately is in Lexington. The homestudy stuff will start all over again, but this process should take less time.
R. is getting together all of the family history and family dynamics and working with workers in the other counties to get a total picture for us, should Cookie want to know (or we want to tell her).
Biomom has not requested a visit with Cookie, though she is legally entitled to one visit a month. At this point, R. has told me they are not offering to bring the baby to her for visits, but if she asks them to bring her they are bound to do it. This was my "advance heads up" which I greatly appreciate.
Biomom is in her second treatment center - I guess she went to the first one, and they transferred her to a more long-term care facility. R. says she is making progress, and wants Cookie back and wants to tell her side of the story.
In a way I feel for her, but where do we draw the line? When is enough ENOUGH?
Our home is also one that was chosen for audit for upcoming accreditation of the program. Yippie! I am grateful for that, because in addition to our home being under the microscope (and we have nothing to hide), so is Cookie's case. That means everything has to be done right - down to the fine print.
This is a long, hard road. It is so worth it. But it is hard.
Please courthouse people, process my Cookie's case. Schedule it for a court date NOW. Please, please let our paperwork find its way into someone's hands quickly and let that person responsible be quick to process it.
It's funny that someone like me with the patience of a gnat would choose to foster-to-adopt. It's funny that my way of dealing with it is to write, when in the past I had to be beaten into submission (figuritively) to make me do my homework. It's funny that I think our case is drawn out, when I realize she hasn't even turned 6 months old yet.
December 20, 2006: Cookie's 1 year birthday. Will she be our daughter by then?
Stay with me and I'll keep you posted on the adventures of Tamara, Michael, and Sugar Cookie.
posted by No Longer In Crisis @ 6/13/2006 01:17:00 PM
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