The Days of Our Lives

The next morning I began calling the hospital in order to have a plant or balloon or something sent to BirthMom's room only they didn't have enough volunteers and kept telling me to call back in an hour. I wanted to get something positive to the BirthMom before she got the bad news. Several attempts later and the SW called to tell me the Birth Parents had been notified that the adoptive mom was not a sufficient placement and that the baby would be going into foster care. I hung up the phone and got in the shower for this day was the one where The Daughter was to go far away to a doctor that might be taking her tonsils and adenoids out. With one leg shaved and the other furry, I got out of the shower to answer the phone. It was the Birth Parents asking me to take the new baby in foster care. They said the SW told them that they could work a plan and get her back. I told them what the SW had just told me which was they would ask for No Reasonable Efforts just like with BabyBoy and would seek TPR ASAP. We discussed private adoption. I let them know that I was to be at the hospital at 7pm the next day to take the baby home.

But first I had to drop some papers off at CPS regarding BabyBoy's adoption. That's when I found out that our placement meeting was canceled. They were vague about scheduling another meeting. They said they were "uncomfortable" going forward without all of BabyBoy's medical records. You know, records they said they had months ago. I went to the pediatrician and retrieved the medical records for them. They also said the new baby could be adopted right away, then reneged and said she would have to be in foster care for 3 months AND we would have to be reassessed to see if we could handle all of the kids. When I asked if we could privately adopt her, they encouraged me to get a board payment on her and get the zero subsidy like BabyBoy is getting. And the final blow, they said they would refuse to let us use our homestudy through CPS in order to adopt the new baby. Oh, and by the way, if I couldn't get to the hospital in just a few hours to pick up the new baby, they'd have to "make other arrangements". It all felt ... sketchy.

So I lawyered up.

Wait, let me back track a little. While I was waiting to see the lady who needed the paperwork, the CPS Director saw me and began trying to convince me to become the Foster Parent Association President. You know the drill, they tell you wonderful positive things about yourself in order to trick talk you into doing something that you don't want to do. And I used that opportunity to let him know that apparently The Women In Charge didn't feel the same way about me as he does. This lead to me filling him in on our situation. I kind of implied that he would be more likely to get me to do what he wanted (be president) if he were to do what I wanted (make BabyBoy's adoption happen without any further delays as it's been 1 year since TPR).

Then I went home and called the lawyer whose open house Christmas party I recently attended on behalf of the Foster Parent Association. The party where I drank too much "naughty punch" and hobnobbed with all the judges, business owners, lawyers, GAL's, directors of organizations, law enforcement, and politicians in this county. Turns out all this thankless volunteering finally paid off. Within 4 hours the lawyer met me at the hospital with paperwork and had already done the politics dance with both CPS SW's and lawyers and the adoptive mom's lawyer. The BirthParents signed a revocation of the Pre Birth Consent and took home papers about legal guardianship. And I took home the new baby via CPS pickup order.

I'm leaving out all the drama about the BirthParent's not having a ride home. Hospital SW not allowing us to leave together thereby preventing me from taking them home. CPS threatening me by saying if I took them home it would be endangering both me and the baby. The rent a cop who couldn't hurt anything but a skeeter he was so skinny but escorted me and baby out of the building for our safety. Taking The Daughter to visit the new baby and her crying saying how sad it was that the Birth Parents were loosing their baby. Having BirthDad take The Daughter and BabyBoy out of my sight to get vending machine food and how unbelievably freaking nervous that made me.