Temporary Custody vs Permanent

[grandmothertobe]

I have a situation where my husband and I have been granted temporary custody of two young children as a result of their mother's lack of taking medication for a mental illness, her consumption of alcohol and her leaving her children in our care for more than 24 hours at a time and us not knowing where she is. On each of the children's birth certificates, no fathers are listed. The mother is my niece and she and her children have been living with us for a year. We have not been able to have the mnother served the papers from the first court appearance and notice of the second court appearance because she is hiding from us. She has not seen the children but once since we were granted the temporary custody and she has supervised visitation rights. My question is how long does the court usually wait until they go ahead and determine custody becuase the mother will not surface? She knows the next court date was suppose to be on Sept. 8 because I sent the date in an email and I have proof she read it.

Our lawyer has printed the notices in the newspaper in the county where the childrn were born for fathers to have the right to be acknowledged; so far no one has stepped up.

[tbyte]

So, how many years have you been caring for these children, and it never occurred to you that you should find out who their father is?

[grandmothertobe]

Their ages are 18 months and the other is 3. They have been living with us for a year. We have asked the mother for the names but she will not tell. There is one man we thought was the dad but he says he is not. There is no are no maternal grandparents as both have passed away. She has been diagnosised as bipolar for 10 years.

[tbyte]

A tough situation.

Just make sure you are aware of the laws, you follow them, and you document your actions in case things blow up later.

[grandmothertobe]

What do you mean blow up later? Once a permanent custody is set, how is it changed?

[tbyte]

The father shows up and claims that he was unlawfully excluded from the proceedings.....boom.

[grandmothertobe]

What else can we do but put the legal notice in the newspapers. There is one man who she said was the did but he has said it is not his.

[tbyte]

If he has been informed and took no action, then you do not need to worry about him.
I don't know what other things you may need to do to cover yourself. This is not an area of law that I have dealt with. I just think you should check with an attorney and document your actions.

Good luck.