Visitations between Rebecca and her biological mother are over. The biological mother has agreed through mediation to voluntarily relinquish her parental rights to Rebecca. Now we have a mediated agreement in place but she still has to go to court to make it official. The CPS case workers have warned us that there is a chance that she could retract her agreement and that the mediation agreement is more of an honor agreement than a legally binding one.
The court date was set for her to appear in front of a family court judge and tell him that she officially relinquishes her parental rights. Given how unstable the biological mother has been so far we were a little concerned that she would decide not to give up her rights and that she would try to fight for custody. We had decided to attend the court hearing for two reasons; the first being we hoped that if she saw us there she would be less likely to change her mind but also when the judge accepts her relinquishment we could petition for a court date.
The biological mother had not been in the court waiting and we had not seen her so we were thinking she changed her mind and was not coming to court today. If she did not show it would have been rescheduled and then she could fight for custody. Right before her case was called she came into court. Her husband was not with her and honestly I felt bad for her coming in by herself to basically give away her child. I can only imagine how tough it must have been for her.
She kept her word and relinquished her parental rights to Rebecca. When she did I hugged her and said thank you. I don’t think thank you is even enough to say, she is allowing us to raise her daughter and she put Rebecca’s wellbeing before her own. She finally showed a little emotion when she told me to take care of her kids for her.
My heart was sad for her but was extremely happy for our family. This meant that we could officially adopt Rebecca. Time to petition for a court date !!