Kinship Care Question

msditz00

I posted last week about possibly my husband and I taking in a relative's two year old (M) until the relative is able to have her again.  We have been taking her out on the weekends, and will be getting her full time starting Wednesday.  We even have her flight booked for Disney, quite excited!

I have a few concerns, and I am hoping someone here who has experience can help me out.  We have a letter stating that we can seek medical treatment for her.  That's it.  Temporary custody was signed over to the girl's grandmother a couple months ago.  But the grandmother wants to be grandma, not a full time caregiver.  I understand that, which is why we are happy to take her.  But shouldn't temporary custody/guardianship/something be signed over to us?  Can this come back to bite us in the butt if we don't have it?

I'm so confused, and just want to make sure we are covered appropriately.  I don't even know if I can sign her day care paperwork... My husband's family is so difficult to deal with, you can never be direct with them.  It is beyond frustrating.

I will be contacting our social worker tomorrow, hopefully she can help answer some questions.  Although M isn't in the system I guess, so I don't know how much help our social worker can be.

 

MagickalNarwhal

Wow! How awesome they you are able to be there for her.

Is Disneyland in another state from you? I know that while we had custody of our son but before the adoption was final, we needed very specific written permission to take him across state lines.

I wish I had more to share but I don't have any experience with your situation. Good luck!!

msditz00

I was thinking we may need something in writing to take her to Disney.  I will make sure to get it within the next week or so so we don't forget.

We are assuming it will be at least 6 months, but who knows.  I really feel uncomfortable not having temporary custody legally.  I can't even explain why - it isn't like it will benefit us financially to do it, but I feel like if she is living with us full time for at least 6 months, we need some kind of legal paperwork to support it.

I will definitely try to bring this all up with the grandmother (who mom did sign over rights to - but it seems silly that she is keeping it like that if she isn't keeping M!).  It is so frustrating because as soon as we found out that the situation had gotten bad with the mom, we offered to take her, but the grandmother had other plans.  Now that the other plans turned out to suck (poor M was living with someone who cannot wait to get rid of her), we are scrambling to get everything set up.  Had we been the ones to take her initially, her mom could have just signed us over rights at the probate court hearing.  Thanks for your input, both of you!

irismorning

I would work with the social worker to get at least guardianship ASAP. As someone who did "kinship" care for months without official paperwork and with no ability to contact the biological parents, it can be difficult. Keep in mind that in different states, guardianship and legal custody can mean different things. Please ask the social worker which you would need in your state. I had this problem in my home state (which was different from the biological parents state). They signed one document which didn't translate the same in my state.  

msditz00

Thank you so much, this information is all so helpful!  I will work on getting the appropriate status (guardianship it seems), so that we don't have to jump through hoops in order to do basic things for her, like day care.