guardianship of my niece

[parsons92]

Here is some background: we live in Illinois, my sister supports the guardianship(I am the maternal aunt)-long story short, Child Protec Serv was involved, and the father has been uninvolved due to a mixture of lack of motivation and incarceration(jail website shows him there til 2012 . A few months ago I was granted temporary guardianship pending the dad's being notified. I sent a letter and form to the jail and today I received his response-a polite No. My question is "now what?" I go back to court next month and I am a little sick worrying what will happen-what could the judge possibly do?

 

[acmb05]

Here is some background: we live in Illinois, my sister supports the guardianship(I am the maternal aunt)-long story short, Child Protec Serv was involved, and the father has been uninvolved due to a mixture of lack of motivation and incarceration(jail website shows him there til 2012 . A few months ago I was granted temporary guardianship pending the dad's being notified. I sent a letter and form to the jail and today I received his response-a polite No. My question is "now what?" I go back to court next month and I am a little sick worrying what will happen-what could the judge possibly do?

If the father is in jail for at least another year there is not much he can do to object to it.

 

[mistoffolees]

Here is some background: we live in Illinois, my sister supports the guardianship(I am the maternal aunt)-long story short, Child Protec Serv was involved, and the father has been uninvolved due to a mixture of lack of motivation and incarceration(jail website shows him there til 2012 . A few months ago I was granted temporary guardianship pending the dad's being notified. I sent a letter and form to the jail and today I received his response-a polite No. My question is "now what?" I go back to court next month and I am a little sick worrying what will happen-what could the judge possibly do?

What could the judge do? A million things.

What is the judge likely to do?

Let's look at the options:

1. Force child to go live with your sister, overruling CPS. But if your sister is OK with you having the child, it's not likely to happen, but even if it does, she can let the child stay with you, anyway.

2. Force the child to go live with Dad. Not going to happen - Dad's in jail.

3. Give the child to you on a temporary basis (at least until Dad gets out of jail - in which case you'll have a couple of years of status quo established or maybe your sister will become more able to care for the child in that time). In any event, you wouldn't have to worry about it for some time.

4. Give the child to a total stranger through CPS. Not likely to happen when there's a fit aunt who wants the child and Mom supports it.

Aside from the fact that only option #3 makes sense, that's what the judge already ruled in the temporary order, so it's unlikely to change. But to be safe, I'd have an attorney go with me.