Our tax dollars pay for this charade

No one who knows anything about R, her history or the case involving her neglect and endangerment of CD actually believes that R, after now over a year, will magically meet the criteria that the State is waiting for in order to reunify her with her daughter. The case manager doesn't, the case manager's supervisor doesn't, the law guardian doesn't. No one. They have all told me that they wish we could just adopt her.

The judge leaving CD to be with us for another 3 months until the next court date speaks to the judge's lack of confidence that there is any possibility that R will magically change all the circumstances that led to her first child's removal and now her second child's. He is just killing time, time which will lead a bonding assessment expert to be able to definitively write, "the foster parents are CD's psychological family and losing them would be more harmful to CD than would be terminating the rights of the biological mother."

This is all one big expensive charade.

We get a check to support CD. CD has Medicaid for her medical bills. Her daycare is mostly paid for (the rest we pay for out of the money we get from the State to support her). Her mother is getting train tickets to visit her. She is also getting services that take up 3 days of her week. There are four workers involved in overseeing CD's case, coming to our home and checking to see that we are maintaining a good life for CD. CD's mother gets a public defender. The judge and all the staff at the court get paid.

How much does having CD in the system cost the taxpayers?

I am all for government intervention for the sake of keeping children safe from abuse and neglect. I will gladly add my taxes into the pot in order for that to happen. Done. The government did that and saw this through both while CD was living with her bio mother and then for a year after she was removed, watching as R sat and did nothing to even see her daughter for the first ten months and now show up every now and then in the last two.

This is just absurd.

If everyone involved in this process believes that R has already shown that she lacks an ability to be a stable parent to CD, what are we doing? There is already an adoption plan in place. In this plan the State would no longer have to cut checks, Medicaid would not be needed, the public defender would not need to defend a woman who won't even show to court for a permanency hearing and all of the workers could move on to oversee cases in which they are needed. CD would have a forever family. No one would have to worry about her safety and security ever again.

Workers come to our house to be able to write on some paperwork that they came. They do nothing while they are at our house, unless seeing CD's room and looking in our refrigerator counts for anything. They chit chat and tell us how cute CD is, how attached to us all she seems, how nice her room is and what a good job we are doing. Does anyone really need another two years of this?

Who really cares how long it takes though? Does the judge? do the workers? Why would they? It doesn't harm them, take away their peace of mind. We are an easy family to deal with, we ask for nothing and CD is thriving so why not drag this out 'til kingdom come?