Today Amy has another court hearing regarding her son Chris, the child she says she wants us to adopt. Amy told my friend, Chris' foster mom, that she was going to talk to the SW about us adopting Chris before the hearing. A few days later she told my friend that she didn't know if she would or not - that her attorney wouldn't "let her".
I do believe that Amy is genuine in wanting us to be Chris' parents. I really do. I believe that she knows that she simply can't provide for him. I haven't had any indication that Amy has wavered for even a moment since she approached my friend about this situation.
What I think is happening is that her attorney is reigning Amy in for the time being because having a child in the foster care system probably allows her to receive certain specific services through the state. If Chris is placed with us and the goal is no longer reunification, I would imagine that those services will disappear.
This attorney has also come to care a lot about Amy and I'd also imagine she's having Amy hold off as long as possible to make absolutely certain that this is what she wants to do.
The problem is that if the judge gets fed up and moves for TPR (or if Amy screws up in the meantime), she will lose her right to have any say in where Chris is placed. By default, she also loses the opportunity to know what happens to Chris. If this goes to TPR, Chris will be swept away by the foster system and that will be that. Taking us completely out of the equation, I would absolutely hate that for Amy. She loves her son an awful lot.
So today could go any number of ways:
1. Amy doesn't even attend the hearing. She didn't attend the last one.
2. Amy attends the hearing and not a word is said about us, which means at least another month of waiting to see how this will play out. At least.
3. Amy finds the courage to tell the SW about us and we should prepare for things to kick into high gear.
I'm guessing it's #1 or #2. I hate to be cynical, but things typically don't work in our favor when we're this close to having a child come stay forever.
But who knows, maybe today really is THE day.
***UPDATE*** Hit the "post" button and ye shall receive an answer. So no, NOT today. Court case is continued for a couple of months and then, if Amy doesn't complete her plan, it will move to TPR.
