Chelsea Update: Earlier this year, on November 4th, I posted my initial posting on the Chelsea situation. If you go to the bottom of this posting and scroll up I have re-posted the dozen or so updates (the original posting is on the very bottom.) Earlier today, the Court granted our Motion to Intervene. The prospective adoptive couple was on hand, as was the foster mom and the biological maternal grandmother. There is no such thing as smooth sailing in the adoption world, BUT in this case, the high seas are behind us. The next set of hurdles will to equip the prospective adoptive couple with all the information and help we can to transition the children from their current foster home to their new home. As I type, I suspect the couple is meeting some or all of the children for the first time. No question, today their lives will be changed forever more. Please keep in mind that there are a number of sides to his story - the adopting couples, Chelseas, the birth fathers, the foster moms, the grandmothers, etc., everyone needs to keep the children in their prayers this Christmas season and send whatever comfort you can to Chelsea. At the end of the day, she has given her children the greatest gift. Mark 12/09/14 *December 5th Chelsea So, the Motion to Intervene in the four oldest childrens dependency cases were filed today. The Court will wait until Tuesday before calling up the matter. It is the 11th hour and filing motions at the 11th hour are frowned upon. However, I believe that almost everyone involved in the case will be supportive of the intervention. Should have more definitive news next week. If we can get past the legal hurdles, the next big issue is how to introduce the children to the new situation. Some integrations go well and quickly and others can be a bit more problematic *December 4th Chelsea: so, last week she executed the necessary consents. Due to the age of the children she had three business days to rescind her consent...which was Monday. Over the weekend I received a text which indicated a change of mind. Today I received word from her attorney that someone had stolen her phone and that she not changed her mind and the text was not from her. The exact wording of the revocation text over the weekend seems to consistent with her assertion that her phone was stolen. Therefore, first thing tomorrow I will be filing the Motion to Intervene. The prospective adoptive family remain cautiously optimistic. Stay tuned *December 1st ...and speaking of interventions, Chelsea contacted me over the weekend and, as was within her rights, rescinded her consents signed last Wednesday. Yet another drop and twist on the rollercoaster. MRM 12/1/1 *November 26th Chelsea: So, the birth father (of the middle three children) signed earlier this afternoon. So all that is left is for the deadlines for them to rescind to pass, file the motion to intervene and get before the Court for a ruling sometime next week. I will provide updates *November 26th Chelsea: As mentioned yesterday, she executed the paperwork to start the private adoption intervention process. Due to the age of the children (all four to be adopted are over 6 months of age), she has until Monday to rescind her consent. I attempted to get the birth fathers consent executed yesterday but it is not always easy to rely on prisoner transport (from the Courthouse to the jail) when trying to schedule a face-to-face. After a long afternoon of hoping to meet, I elected to start over and try this morning. His deadline to rescind will be Tuesday....(three business days.) As an aside, the Courts dont like these last-minute interventions. But in this case, mostly because the foster parent is not seeking to adopt AND we are keeping the children together as a sibling group, I do not foresee any issues getting the motion to intervene granted *November 25th Chelsea: So, late yesterday she contacted me and asked if it was too late (Court being set for this morning.) Mind you, this is about the tenth time she has put me in this position. I told her if she got with me in the morning, I would be willing to meet her at the Courthouse. I did not expect to hear from her today but I did and she asked me to come to the Courthouse for her to sign. We went and she has signed. I am now off to meet with one of the birth fathers and if all goes as planned, we may be able to stave off the involuntary termination of her rights and craft a placement consistent with her wishes through a private placement. The family in Tallahassee is standing by *November 24th Chelsea: I have not heard from her since late Wednesday. At this point, I am assuming is not able to or not interested in going the private adoption route. In legal theory, she does have the option to make this private intervention decision any time PRIOR to the entry of the order terminating her parental rights, so even though the trial commences tomorrow, there is typically a period of time before the start of a trial and entry of the final order, there remains a small window of time for her to change her mind. MRM 11/24/14 *November 19th Chelsea: Thank you for your prayers for her and the children. After some reflection, she contacted me last night and indicated that she does want to meet with me today. We are set to speak at 2 p.m. today. Keep the children in your thoughts *November 18th Chelsea: So, the Florida couple that Chelsea spoke with over the phone last night drove into town this a.m. to meet with her. She was late and when I first saw her, she was bound and determined to sign the paperwork today and I had a court reporter present to make it all happen. Her mother and grandmother (who came in from Michigan) were there and tried to convince her against the private adoption route. Three hours later, Chelsea decided that the outside chance that her grandmother (the childrens maternal great-grandmother) would get a positive home study was worth going for. She may change her mind again, but I suspect that she is going to allow her rights to be terminated and hope that her grandmother can pass all the clearances. The prospective adoptive couple and myself wish her and the kids the very best going forward. They have an uphill battle ahead of them. I am trying to tell myself that their life with great-grand-ma will be as good or better than the life they may have had with the couple that drove in this a.m. *November 17th Chelsea: She came to the office today and reviewed the information provided by the interested families. She is very interested in Family H, a couple 32/29, that lives in Florida - they have no children but have fostered children in the past. A formal match has not been made. The couple needs to review the file materials and a tentative meeting has been set for tomorrow morning before Court. The plan appears to be back to the placement of the sibling group of five at the same time, but there are some loose ends that need to be tied off before anything definitive can be determined. * November 14th Chelsea (intervention situation with 5 siblings): I am planning on meeting with Chelsea on Monday and see about having her execute her consents on the four older children and then meet with Father No. 2 on Tuesday at the Courthouse before the hearing for his consent on the three middle children. There are too many timing issues to contemplate or outline. I will have a better idea on everything once consents are signed. At this time, 9 applicants have sent in materials (hard copies) as instructed for Chelsea to consider. I assume more will come in tomorrow and Monday. If you are one of the eight couples that sent me information, please email me tomorrow at miller@fordmiller and state, We are (or I am) applicant _ and I will send you an application packet that will need to be filled out and sent back to me via email over the weekend (of the original 8, only 5 have responded.) Family A resides in Florida and they have 16 children (nine child not adopted and seven adopted) ranging from 2 to 22 years in age. Family B resides in Washington and they have 8 children ranging from 13 to 2 years. None were adopted. Family C has 15 children and it appears that 5 were adopted and they are between 22 and 2 years of age. Family D has one child, he is five and not adopted and they live is Missouri. Family E has seven children (all adopted) and they live in Pennsylvania. Family F has one child (step-son age 14) and they live in Georgia. Family G is a single parent with no children and she lives in Pennsylvania. Family H is a couple that lives in Florida and it is hard to tell from the information they sent in if they have no children or perhaps a son around 5 or 6 years old. Family I is a couple that has three daughters, all adopted. They did not disclose where they live, but some of the photos had snowfall on the ground. Family J has 18 children between the ages of 17 -5 and they live in Kansas. *November 13th Chelsea (intervention situation with 5 siblings): I met with the incarcerated father of three of the five children - I will refer to him as Father No. 2. He is supportive of the intervention (not his first choice, but his most prudent option at this time). I believe Chelsea will execute consents to the four older children on Monday and Father No. 2 will sign his consents on Tuesday. If the intervention process goes as planned, the parental rights of Father No. 1 (the father of the oldest child has been uninvolved in the process) will be dealt with on an abandonment basis. It remains to be seen who the father of the youngest child is. It is either Father No. 2 or she could be the daughter of Father No. 3. As stated in an earlier post, Chelsea has an infant (about three months old) and it appears that she is going to attempt to complete her case plan for that child and, unlike with her older children, she does have time remaining on her case plan to do so. At this time, Chelsea has information on 8 couples. See below. I suspect that she will want to have more information of one or more of the couples over the weekend and certainly by Tuesday, the next court date. If you are one of the eight couples that sent me information, please email me tomorrow at miller@fordmiller and state, We are (or I am) applicant _ and I will send you an application packet that will need to be filled out and sent back to me via email over the weekend. If I get any more informal packets tomorrow, I will send them to Chelsea and she should see them on Saturday. I will continue to update on my Facebook page, so stay tuned. Family A resides in Florida and they have 16 children (nine child not adopted and seven adopted) ranging from 2 to 22 years in age. Family B resides in Washington and they have 8 children ranging from 13 to 2 years. None were adopted. Family C has 15 children and it appears that 5 were adopted and they are between 22 and 2 years of age. Family D has one child, he is five and not adopted and they live is Missouri. Family E has seven children (all adopted) and they live in Pennsylvania. Family F has one child (step-son age 14) and they live in Georgia. Family G is a single parent with no children and she lives in Pennsylvania. Family H is a couple that lives in Florida and it is hard to tell from the information they sent in if they have no children or perhaps a son around 5 or 6 years old. Family I is a couple that has three daughters, all adopted. They did not disclose where they live, but some of the photos had snowfall on the ground. *November 12th Chelsea: This is the intervention case involving the 5 siblings under 6 years of age. There have been a development. It appears that due to timing issues and other legal issues, the State will be proceeding on the termination of parental rights for the oldest 4 of the sibling group and a case plan will be developed for the three month old for possible reunification. It is complicated but the bottom line is that Chelsea is very interested in finding a family to adopt the four older children AND in the event she cannot successfully complete the case plan for the youngest, she wants the family who adopted the older four to be prepared to adopt the youngest, should that be necessary (and that may be in a month or a year from now.) At this time, I have received four informal packets of information that I am sending to her for her review (see below). At this time it is not 100% certain that she will go forward but I have made plans to meet with the father of three of the children tomorrow - he is incarcerated. At that time, I will have a better idea of the timing issues and a clearer picture of the legal issues. In the meantime, I will continue to forward to her any informal information packets that come in (sans identification information). *November 10th Chelsea: She is still in the decision phase of which direction to go in but she is still leaning towards the intervention process. At this time, four families have sent in unofficial applications for Chelsea to review. I am in the process of setting up a meeting for her to see what types of families are out there willing to adopt her children as a sibling group. Family A resides in Florida and they have 16 children (nine child not adopted and seven adopted) ranging from 2 to 22 years in age. Family B resides in Washington and they have 8 children ranging from 13 to 2 years. None were adopted. Family C has 15 children and it appears that 5 were adopted and they are between 22 and 2 years of age. Family D has one child, he is five and not adopted and they live is Missouri. *November 4th - Good Morning, This is an exploratory posting only. “Chelsea” is a very young African-American single mom of five children under the age of 6 (6, 4, 3, 2, and 3 months). The State has placed the children in a foster home and the case is getting to the point where the Court is going to set a trial on the State’s Petition to Terminate her rights based on allegations of neglect. There are three different fathers - one for the six year old who is basically avoiding the situation and is in South Carolina, one for the middle three who is in jail and will likely cooperate with a private adoption and the father of the youngest who is “objecting” to any talk about adoption but is not availing himself to the legal system and his options there. “Chelsea”, of course, does not want to “lose” her kids to the foster care system but also is having a difficult time deciding to voluntarily relinquish her rights. From an outsider’s perspective, it is clear that her indecisiveness may get her to a point where all of her options are gone and the State is going to go to trial and prevail. At that point, she loses all say in the process. To help her make a decision one way or the other, she has asked me if she could meet a family/couple that would be willing to adopt all five in a sibling group. Logistically speaking, setting up a meeting with a family is a very difficult step for me to pull off. However, I think there may be a way to let her see who is out there that is interested in this situation. This is not the perfect solution but it may lead us in the right direction. I am going to ask any couple or family who MAY be interested in adopting 5 African-American boys and girls as a sibling group to send me their profiles. I will provide the profiles to “Chelsea” as a way to show her who is out there willing to adopt in this type of situation. At this juncture, I am going to provide limited information. Of course, no one is committed to anything going forward but I would ask that those of you who do send in a profile have a home study ready and that is specifically states (either in the body of the home study or an addendum or a letter from the provider) that you are suitable to adopt a sibling group, including an infant. If you are not sure if your h/s is sufficient, please contact your h/s provider and ask for a letter of clarification. If this situation does proceed, we are not going to have the luxury of time on our side. There are so many factors that I cannot list here that will come into play so I do not expect anyone to commit to anything. I am just looking for families that are in a position to and are interested in this situation. Once “Chelsea” makes a firmer decision, we can go to the next step. The children were born in 08, 10, 12, 13, and 14. They are b, b, g, g, g. The oldest is six and seems to be dealing with some developmental issues. He is very high functioning but there is a preliminary diagnosis of Autism. The other four seem to be doing well. The current foster parent is unable to adopt the five. There are no suitable family members the State is willing to approve. Assume for this email that all three fathers’ parental rights will be terminated. Assume for this email that ‘Chelsea” is interested in some level of communication going forward. AND PLEASE do not ask me about adopting the infant only or otherwise separating the sibling group. Assume for this email that legal fees and costs will be less than 15K. Assume for this email that any and all benefits these children may be entitled to through to State would end in a private placement. Please, I know anyone who is even slightly interested is going to have (and rightfully so) dozens upon dozens of questions. We are not there yet. With the assumptions listed above, assume everything else is a non-issue and if you are interested please send to me (at the address below) your profile book (which I never have asked for in the past – so if you don’t have one, make a quick disposable scrapbook that you can send me) and a way to contact you by email. I do not have a set deadline but I assume I would need these in hand by this time next week. Please write CHELSEA on the exterior of your envelope. Again, I am not asking you to commit. I am asking you to let me know if, all things working out favorably, you would be interested so I can show “Chelsea” the number and quality of interested families out there. DO NOT ENTERTAIN THIS SITUATION WITHOUT HAVING MET WITH OR SPOKEN WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS DONE SOMETHING LIKE THIS IN THE PAST. THIS IS NOT AN EASY WAY TO GROW A FAMILY. THIS IS A HIGHLY REWARDING LABOR OF LOVE THAT COMES WITH A HIGH COST AND INCREDIBLE COMMITMENT. (Final word – if you have strong feelings about why I should or should not being doing something like this, I know the arguments.) Mark R. Miller, Esq. Fl. Bar No.: 935883 Ford, Miller & Wainer, P.A. 4028 Blanding Boulevard Jacksonville, Florida 32210 904-390-1970 904-354-9922 fax 904-477-6677 cell/text miller@fordmiller
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 18:03:44 +0000
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