Case plan review

So today we had the second case plan review for our foster daughter. This is where, in theory, the social worker sits down with the parents and goes over the case plan that lists the goals they need to meet to regain or maintain custody of their child or children. Last time we had one of these, neither parent showed up, and today only the dad did and he came 40 minutes late.

 

So we got to chat with the worker and the very nice independent moderator and ask questions and stuff. They did ask us to confirm, again, that yes, we’d adopt the baby if the parents surrendered their rights or had them terminated. They went over the items that the court requires for each parent to complete before the child could be placed with said parent. They discussed whether any progress had been made since the last Case Plan Review (no, not really) and what new updates there were on the case (grandma has filed for custody of the baby, which neither the county nor the dad support; mom has missed two appointments for a particular evaluation and the facility won’t make another for her for six months because of it).

 

Then the dad showed up and had a long list of reasons about why he hasn’t seen his daughter since March 27 and told us all about how busy he is. He says he’s currently planning to move to a very small town about forty minutes away, to get away from the drama caused by both of his baby mamas. I’m really hoping that he doesn't mean it, because housing is a big part of the county’s reason for not returning the baby to him. However, the dad has told me several things that have never materialized (regarding visits and his housing situation) so I’m trying hard to see this through that lens.

 

He told the worker that he had missed the baby’s doctor’s appointments and a court appearance because the baby’s mom had been messing with his mail. The worker reminded him that she had also left him many voicemails and that he had been present when they set the date of the court appearance, but politely asked if there was a better address to use so she couldn’t mess with it. He said he’d look into getting a P.O. Box. 

The baby was SO EXCITED to see me when I walked into daycare and it made me really happy because I felt the same way.