Well, I couldn't help myself.
I told BioMom that "I shouldn't be saying this, but..."
I told her I felt it was unacceptable for the county to tell her that she has to wait an extra 2 months to get her child back at this point in the case. She agreed. She sounded hugely relieved to hear me say it and said she would ask her lawyer about that. (To be fair to her lawyer, I've never spoken to her and it could be that she would be reacting just the way I wanted her to, as soon as anyone told her what was going on.) By the time we were done talking, BioMom was going to call the caseworker as soon as we got off the phone.
I also sent an email to my agency caseworker in which I told her that I thought this was crazy and asked if there was anything we could suggest to speed things up. She responded with the same word I used. Unacceptable. It is unacceptable for CPS to use the court schedule as an excuse to drag out this case.
A few hours later, I got an email from the county caseworker. The final piece that they needed to do is complete from their end, although it has resulted in some small things BioMom needs to do. Once they are done -- a matter of a week or two, most likely -- we will move to overnights and petition the court to allow a hearing quickly, so S can go home sooner rather than later.
Today, when I met BioMom for a visit handoff, she told me the same news with a big smile. She said mid-July as a ball-park date to have S home for good. That's about one month from now, which sounds about right, considering we haven't started overnights yet.
It's not a done deal, yet, of course, because nothing in foster care is. But it sounds much, much better to me.
And I feel no guilt at all about being a bit of a squeaky wheel -- just glad it didn't backfire on BioMom. (I'll admit, when she said she was calling the caseworker, I got a little nervous. I hoped that I hadn't set BioMom up to behave in a way that was going to get the caseworker mad at her.)
GOOD FOR YOU! When I read the original post, I thought it was a bunch of hooey. We were supposed to take placement of two kiddos for a long weekend "until Tuesday court" because of an emergency removal from their previous foster home but the county worker realized how stupid that was and just made the decision to send them home immediately. The hearing was a formality of what they already knew...she was ready to get them back and there was no good reason not to send them since Mom was already doing three day/night visits! Way to advocate for your that little girl and mom!!
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