The baby's visitation was cut short today. The transporter (who also supervises the visits) said that the mother was clearly impaired. She was worried the mother was going to drop the baby. The transporter said that she is cancelling the visits for the next two weeks unless the caseworker wants to supervise them herself and take responsibility for whatever may happen. Of course, I was told this off-the-record. The worker said that in her 3 years doing this, she'd never seen something like this. I asked her how many newborns with drug-addicted moms she'd seen. She said she'd seen a few--and the mothers were usually trying to clean up. It wasn't anything like this. Meanwhile, the baby arrived in her carrier with the top harness latched but the bottom one--the stronger one--was not. The mother had put the baby in the carrier and I guess the worker was so flustered she didn't even double-check. She said that even she forgets that latch is there sometimes. (?!?!?)

I had spoken to the caseworker earlier in the day to get the results of last week's court date. They still had not received the file from out-of-state to investigate the "red flag" that showed up on the grandmother, but apparently the judge decided that with the charges that existed against the maternal grandmother (charges?!) there was no way she was a consideration for custody. So the grandmother is out. I wonder if the mother was banking on HER mother getting custody so that the birthmother could have access to the baby without having to clean herself up. Maybe this news sent her off the deep end. I don't know. I can't even pretend to understand.

I asked the caseworker about the prospect of the birthfather getting the baby. She said that right off the bat: 1) she had no request or contact from the father expressing interest; and 2) the father was not here to sign the birth certificate--so they'd have to establish paternity before anything else was done. I e-mailed the aunt to tell her that if the father was interested, he needed to speak up. But I wonder if the aunt would relay this information... hoping that her niece will get her act together to take the baby instead of the baby going out of the country where the family will never see her again.

And in other news, the birthmother refused to take her last drug test; but the caseworker said it really didn't matter much because the judge will assume it's going to be positive until the mother is enrolled in a program. Apparently, the mother didn't understand that the drug testing was related to her custody case. (????) And while she complied with doing the substance abuse evaluation per her case plan, she did not enroll in a program like she was supposed to. There was apparently an insurance problem since the mother doesn't have Medicaid. But I got the impression that there was more that the mother could have (and should have) done that didn't get done. And I found out that the state will not pay for her rehab. They don't do that. So I have no idea what's going to happen.

I don't know how long they will give the mother to get it together. There's that whole "15 of the prior 22 months" guideline that they don't HAVE to follow... (if the child is in care for 15 of the prior 22 months, they can terminate the parent's rights). Someone on the foster parent board said that where she is, the judges give parents of newborns 1 year to get it together and then they terminate. I know that the documentation I've seen says that they do a review at 5 months, and then again at 10 months and if the child is still in care--they start moving into a permanency plan. By the same token, I know of at least one case here where the baby is about to be 3yo--in care since birth--and still not finalized for adoption. Very frustrating. I don't know if it's my state, or the county handling that case. I know that county-to-county, things vary GREATLY.

Speaking of which, I got my first check for the baby. I have no idea if this is the increased rate or the regular rate for her. I did NOT get a check for the girls! I'll wait until tomorrow before I call about that, but I'm livid because I thought they might try to stiff us! They pro-rated our pay when they came in 6 days before the end of the month. There's no reason they wouldn't prorate it when they left 9 days into the month. I had to feed them! (and with those two, that's where most of our pay went... there and the $300 water bill that I just got).