Leading up to the mediation with Rebecca’s birth mother we sat down and gave a lot of thought to what we were willing and not willing to do. The CPS case worker talked to us and explained the whole procedure to us and gave us suggestions on what the biological mother may request and what we should and should not consider.
Given the fact that she had lost her rights to George and Steve we had a feeling she was going to want them tied into this mediation agreement somehow. Legally she has no right to ask for anything to do with the boys but we knew she would ask for it.
When we walked into the mediation we went in with very low expectations. We were not expecting anything to come out of today and we thought for sure that she was going to fight to the end to keep custody of Rebecca. Rebecca was going to be her last child as she had her tubes tied when she was born. We fully expected to have to get an attorney and fight for custody of Rebecca.
The biological mother started off saying that she was not willing to relinquish her rights to Rebecca especially because she had already lost her rights to the boys. We explained to her that the boys are extremely bonded with her; they love her and would be lost without her in their lives. We asked her what she would need in order to consider doing what was best for Rebecca by relinquishing her parental rights. The biological father had disappeared shortly after her birth so the courts have already severed his rights.
The biological mother requested visitations with all three of the kids. We were not surprised by that at all we were prepared for to ask for that. We told her that we had already talked with a counselor for the boys and it was determined that it would be detrimental for them if she was to visit with them. We also explained to her that the counselor also feels that visits with Rebecca would not be beneficial for any of the kids as it could cause resentment with the boys and could cause emotional harm to Rebecca as she got older.
She seemed to understand our position on visitation but she did seem a little a little disappointed and honestly I totally understood her position but I had to do what was best for the kids, my kids.