My husband and I met with the caseworker, foster parents (Cammie and Austin Jewell), and one other worker just the other week. Every so often that your child is in foster care they do service plan reviews. The foster care worker, Paula Dew, started off by saying that the judge did order the goal to be for my daughter to be freed for adoption (which is true, although he did order a psych eval to determine whether she will be adopted or returned to me). She went on to elaborate that my 14 month old daughter has been showing a decrease of interest in playing with me lately, shown by her physcially turning away from me for a second here or there (which is true, and I do manage to turn that around so she is happily playing with me and is actively participating in our visits). Paula Dew said that she believes my daughters actions are because she is making a decision that she does not want to be with me and would prefer to be with the foster parents. She said that if I continue to pursue getting my daughter back that the courts can use the court ordered psych eval against me and I could loose my son (who is in his fathers custody NOT mine) and my stepson (who lives with his father and I). She went on to say that if I was willing to sign my daughter over to them then that she can get me out of the court ordered psych eval and they would "let my get one letter a year and one picture a year about my daughter from them". She then said " I even talked to the foster parents and they might even be willing to let you have more than one a year". She said then "Have you thought what would be in your daughters best interest" and kept trying to resay that throughout the visit despite my adament desire to get my daughter back and fight this out for her. The foster mother, Cammie Jewell said when the discussion was brought to the fact that my family lives on public assistance because of physcial or mental disability at this given moment that she "would hate to see [my daughter] be returned to a home where the main income is public assistance". I responded to the statement by saying that "I might not come from money like you or your husband but I love my kids and would do the best I can to provide for them. There are alot of families on Public Assistance and they have there kids. I dont see why I cant be one of them." Austin Jewell, foster father of my daughter, responded by saying " That's not what we meant." By this point the foster father was crying. I was crying as well and made the statement " I dont want my being emotional to be used against me right now. I'm crying because I'm upset. This is my daughter we are talking about and I love an want my family back and I pray that God does the best thing in the interest of my daughter and returns her to me."
Illfight2theend
plattsburgh, New York
U.S.A.
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