Thanks for the reply..Sorry, been off of the forum for awhile.
Here is a brief version of the situation.
My husband and I are raising my nephew. He is 2 1/2 years old. When he was 6 months old, my sister agreed to let us take him "temporarily", while she "got her life together". As soon as we took him, she cut off all contact with him and us. She knew where we lived, our phone number, etc. She never called ONCE to check on him, and she NEVER visited him once. She also never provided one single dime to care for him. Then, when he was a year old, she called one night and said that she wanted him back, because her oldest son (at the time he was 7 years old) said that he wanted him to come home. We realized that we didn't want to give him back. She never cared enough to call, he knew us as mom and dad, had no idea who she even was (the only time he ever saw her was during family funtions that she happened to show up for), and it made us sick to think of how his life would change for the worse..So we hired a lawyer to try and get guardianship. She fought it until she realized that she would have to attend a hearing, and that her ability to take care of the other children she had would be looked into as part of this. The very day that she heard that, she signed the papers. That was over a year and a half ago, and she still has never called, helped financially, visited, etc. I can count on one hand how many times she has seen him since he was 6 months old.
His father-
Yes, we do know who the father is. He is in Prision at the moment on forgery charges. He is scheduled to be released in the beginning of 2006 sometime. He has not seen his son since he was about 2 months old. He immediatly signed the papers from prision to give us guardianship, as soon as my lawyer assured him that we would not try to get child support from him! He is married to my sister, only because neither has the money for a divorce. She has had restraining orders against him many times in the past. I have no reason to believe that he would have any interest in trying to get his son back. But I cannot be sure of this.
Brian (my nephew), is being raised as our son. I cannot put into words the love that we feel for him..He is, by all accounts, our son. We have had 2 other children since we got Brian. He will be starting preschool next year, and we would like to adopt him before then. It makes me sick to think of him having to write a different last name in school..I believe that when we suggest this to my sister, she will NOT be willing to sign the papers to let this happen. She has made comments to other family members that imply she intends on getting him back someday. I am prepared for her to fight this. Not because she really wants him, but because that's the type of person that she is. I do not know exactly what type of information would be considered in trying to get her rights revoked, if it comes to that. But her is some additional info. that may help elaborate a little better..
She has no job
She lives in a 1 bedroom apt. (after being kicked out of Govt. housing) with her 3 other children (an 8 year old boy, 3 year old girl, and 8 month old boy)
She gets a visit from someone with the Division of Family Services about 2 times per month at the least.
She has no car, or drivers license
She has no criminal record that I know of
Her oldest son cannot attend public school, because the school board feels he is too disruptive (he has a teacher come to their house a few hours per day instead)
My husband and I took her 8 year old for 2 months about 4 months ago, because she was homeless, and had to either find someone to take him, or put him in foster care (she was willing to do either!!). So we took him, enrolled him in school, bought him all the things that he needed, etc. That situation had to end after he began physically hurting my other children (one of which was 6 weeks old at the time). Of course, he was heart broken everyday for those 2 months because she had no contact with him what so ever!!
I just want to know how hard this will be if she takes it to that point. I am willing to do whatever I have to do to keep my son. I will fight for years if I have to. We are in the state of Missouri, by the way. Any help or advice si greatly appreciated. Sorry for such a long post...
