- Jurisdiction
- North Carolina
It's a long story and please, if you need more information ask.
We started doing foster care more than three years ago. Mom TPR'd almost immediately three years ago. We adopted the children in May.
Prior to the adoptions ... we realized the oldest child (Now 11) was having some true issues but we were hopeful time, therapy etc. would help. Thus far nothing seems to be working and it's been over three years. We do love him and this is heart breaking for all of us.
During this time we have been able to become quite close with his birth aunt. She's a lovely young woman who is married and recently adopted her stepson. Our son spent the summer (2 months) with them in another state. Not only was his behavior better but they had none of the problems that we seem to have. (violence, back talking, destroying his belongings, threats, physical attacks on his siblings)
Prior to adoption there was talk of moving him but through a crappy DSS worker (She was fired just as this was being discussed and gave a negative opinion although she had seen our son only 4 times for about 10 minutes each time.) and the discussion was removed from the table. (His therapist, 3 social workers from our agency and our GAL (these people had grown to love our son and had worked with him extensively) suggested moving him to a different family as they felt his two younger sisters were a possible trigger.)
So my questions: After discussing it with his aunt, his therapist, him and our family (he's been begging to go back and live with his aunt) we feel that giving his aunt guardianship may be a solid option. Is this legal? How would we go about this? Do we need to consult the courts or can we simply use a lawyer? We do receive adoption assistance which we would give to her for his care and we would also provide for him as needed. We want to remain his parents but feel that working with her might be a good idea since he seems so much less stressed with her. Thoughts? Ideas? Opinions?
We started doing foster care more than three years ago. Mom TPR'd almost immediately three years ago. We adopted the children in May.
Prior to the adoptions ... we realized the oldest child (Now 11) was having some true issues but we were hopeful time, therapy etc. would help. Thus far nothing seems to be working and it's been over three years. We do love him and this is heart breaking for all of us.
During this time we have been able to become quite close with his birth aunt. She's a lovely young woman who is married and recently adopted her stepson. Our son spent the summer (2 months) with them in another state. Not only was his behavior better but they had none of the problems that we seem to have. (violence, back talking, destroying his belongings, threats, physical attacks on his siblings)
Prior to adoption there was talk of moving him but through a crappy DSS worker (She was fired just as this was being discussed and gave a negative opinion although she had seen our son only 4 times for about 10 minutes each time.) and the discussion was removed from the table. (His therapist, 3 social workers from our agency and our GAL (these people had grown to love our son and had worked with him extensively) suggested moving him to a different family as they felt his two younger sisters were a possible trigger.)
So my questions: After discussing it with his aunt, his therapist, him and our family (he's been begging to go back and live with his aunt) we feel that giving his aunt guardianship may be a solid option. Is this legal? How would we go about this? Do we need to consult the courts or can we simply use a lawyer? We do receive adoption assistance which we would give to her for his care and we would also provide for him as needed. We want to remain his parents but feel that working with her might be a good idea since he seems so much less stressed with her. Thoughts? Ideas? Opinions?