One of my close friends adopted his foster son last year. Just about the only thing the bio mom was able to have a say in was whether he could be taken across state lines. Which where we live could honestly be 20-30 minutes away! My friend had a family home one hour away in Maine and he wasn’t able to do an overnight there until after the adoption!
I think that it has to do with the fact that different states have different rules governing guardianship and different statues, so the bio parents should have the right to consistent governance.
I’m sorry. I wasn’t clear. I was wondering if they could say that OP could not have DD2 go to respite and the rest could go. I thought that was part of their position.
Dd2’s family cannot dictate what the rest of us do with our time off, if that’s what you’re meaning. They will have to either accept her going to a respite home for the week OR let her come with us. There is no in between where we’re concerned.
His bio family has approved DS5 to go on theDisney trip! Now we wait to see what DD2’s bio parents say about her staying in a respite home. I wrote them a letter explaining why we’d like to take her.
In other news, we tried both kids out with characters at a church Halloween party on Sunday, and they were too cute. DS5 gave Sparky, the fire dog, a high-five and stood beside him for a picture. DD2 ran right up to Chase from Paw Patrol and hugged him.
Keep the prayers and pixie dust coming, folks. This trip is looking more and more like it will actually happen!
I’m so grateful DS5 can go, and you and DH can have a wonderful time with him there.
I do hope that DD2’s parents recognize her traveling to WDW with y’all is likely better for her than time with respite (strangers?). I do understand that they are probably thinking that they would like to take her for her first trip someday. But she won’t remember all that much, and as you have been taking such good care of her while they do the work to get her back, I hope they would prefer her stay with y’all vs a new family (who I am sure are fine).
But - either way - what a wonderful opportunity to take DS5! Maybe it’s meant to be his special trip alone with mom and dad.
Why did they get to say vs. the courts, if I might ask. In OP it sounded like the courts had the say. (I apologize if I am prying. I just don’t understand that system.)
No worries. It’s a very confusing time right now with him. The social worker and GAL team are going to move to TPR (terminate parental rights) with him later in December. If we had to move the trip to the spring, it would have been DSS’s say in his going or not.
DH and I have talked at length about this and decided that they would likely never get to take DD2 on their own due to financial diffiulties. That’s a major player in their struggles in getting her back right now. They did specifically request that we don’t take her to a beach because they want to take her there for her first time.
We actually wrote a letter that we plan to give to her parents on Friday explaining why we thing she should go with us instead of going to a respite home.
