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BM rights to 1 child gone = rights to all children gone?

VedaFlashVedaFlash member
in Blended Families
Legal question.  BM had another baby with someone else and baby was taken by state.  Different state than ours.  BM signed away rights to baby (the father did as well) and baby is being raised (adopted) by paternal grandparents.  Does that automatically take away her rights to her other kids (my sk's)?  State contacted my DH as soon as all this happened and said sk's (his bio kids w/her) were not allowed to be with her for visitation until further notice.  (Never has been further notice so that's still the case)  Well now she is in more trouble and facing jail time.  The sk's have had very limited (and supervised) contact with her since even before this.  Mostly phone calls, if that.  They have lived with us for 7 years.  So now DH is wanting to be sure that legally everything is squared away.  All he has is the divorce decree from years ago, which neither he nor BM ever followed.  She has never been stable enough for any long period visitation.  DH thinks maybe we can contact this other state and have them declare her rights to her other children gone.  Do we need to contact the judge in the other state or go thru our state to modify custody or how do we go about this?  Does anyone know?  Really the only reason for all of this is, if something ever happened to DH we want to be sure sk's will remain where they are.  They won't be safe with her.  Even BM knows that but we're not sure if she will just sign her rights away, if she still has any rights.  Any help would be appreciated.
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Re: BM rights to 1 child gone = rights to all children gone?

  • kmartinez80kmartinez80 member
    Contact a lawyer.  I think a lot of the questions you have are really depend on the state that has jurisdiction.  Contact a lawyer and get everything worked out through the proper channels.
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  • fellesferiefellesferie member
    My instinct would say no, and that YH would be aware if her rights to their children had been terminated. But I would definitely get in touch with an attorney and go from there.
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  • Littlejen22Littlejen22 member
    Nope, she could lose rights to one of your SKs and not the other. 
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  • cmiller0623cmiller0623 member
    contact a lawyer for sure. i think each child is considered a different case so just because she looses rights to one i dont know for sure if it applies to all. hopefully everything works out for you!
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  • NineoceansNineoceans member
    Our lawyer says in our state you can be a terrible parent to multiple kids but a great parent to one so each case and each relationship with the kids is assessed independent of one another. Total bs but that's our case. For you guys I would definitely hire an attorney and get the "until further notice" in writing
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  • MrsBPOMrsBPO member
    Each child is separate and termination is made for each child separately.  If no court has terminated her parental rights to your SK's she still has rights to them.

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  • SueBearSueBear member
    In a situation like this, I would get everything squared away by a lawyer that works in your state and also knows the law in the state that BM is in (if her state has different rules). 
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  • Ginlyn0Ginlyn0 member
    Not necessarily. DH's aunt adopted 5 kids from the same BM. The BM went on to have 2 more kids whom she kept custody of even though her other 5 kids were removed from her care. The 6th kid was born within a year of the other 5 being removed. However, I would definitely consult a lawyer on this one.
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  • VedaFlashVedaFlash member
    Thanks for your help, everyone.  I guess every state is different so we will just have to look into it with a lawyer.  My DH said someone said to just call our social services dept. in our state and tell them BM has her parental rights terminated in one state and we would like her rights terminated in our state too.  I don't quite think it will be that easy but we'll start with a lawyer and go from there.  Thanks again.
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