My brother and sister-in-law are about to lose their home/utilities/phone service and neither are employeed currently. To prevent my niece (4yo) and nephew (7yo) from entering foster care as my brother felt it was his only option, my husband and I offered to take them when this "event" occurs. We already have a child of our own, a home with plenty of room, my husband has a steady job, I am a stay-at-home-mother working on my nursing degree and we can provide a steady/loving home. My brother and his family live in Ohio and we however live in Iowa (so over 700 miles away from each other).

My question is, how do I go about taking them in until my brother and sister-in-law can get back on their feet? Do we need to go through the court systems or can we do this informally? I do not want to "take" custody or guardianship as it would remove their parental rights, this is more of a temporary yet necessary thing (I am the ONLY person who can take my niece and nephew in our whole family). My nephew is enrolled in school and I am pretty sure I would need some type of documentation showing I have the consent of my brother and sister-in-law to be their caregiver so that I can enroll him in school here and also get their insurance, etc...

What do I need to do? No one wants children to become homeless and it's absolutely unnecessary for them to go into foster care when I have a safe home for them to come to.

Do we need to go through the courts or can we do this informally w/ a notary? This is very urgent as well, as this will be happening within the next month as they have roughly a week to 4 weeks before all utilities are shut off and their home is seized.

My brother and sister-in-law are about to lose their home/utilities/phone service and neither are employeed currently. To prevent my niece (4yo) and nephew (7yo) from entering foster care as my brother felt it was his only option, my husband and I offered to take them when this "event" occurs. We already have a child of our own, a home with plenty of room, my husband has a steady job, I am a stay-at-home-mother working on my nursing degree and we can provide a steady/loving home. My brother and his family live in Ohio and we however live in Iowa (so over 700 miles away from each other).

My question is, how do I go about taking them in until my brother and sister-in-law can get back on their feet? Do we need to go through the court systems or can we do this informally? I do not want to "take" custody or guardianship as it would remove their parental rights, this is more of a temporary yet necessary thing (I am the ONLY person who can take my niece and nephew in our whole family). My nephew is enrolled in school and I am pretty sure I would need some type of documentation showing I have the consent of my brother and sister-in-law to be their caregiver so that I can enroll him in school here and also get their insurance, etc...

What do I need to do? No one wants children to become homeless and it's absolutely unnecessary for them to go into foster care when I have a safe home for them to come to.

Do we need to go through the courts or can we do this informally w/ a notary? This is very urgent as well, as this will be happening within the next month as they have roughly a week to 4 weeks before all utilities are shut off and their home is seized.

My brother and sister-in-law are about to lose their home/utilities/phone service and neither are employeed currently. To prevent my niece (4yo) and nephew (7yo) from entering foster care as my brother felt it was his only option, my husband and I offered to take them when this "event" occurs. We already have a child of our own, a home with plenty of room, my husband has a steady job, I am a stay-at-home-mother working on my nursing degree and we can provide a steady/loving home. My brother and his family live in Ohio and we however live in Iowa (so over 700 miles away from each other).

My question is, how do I go about taking them in until my brother and sister-in-law can get back on their feet? Do we need to go through the court systems or can we do this informally? I do not want to "take" custody or guardianship as it would remove their parental rights, this is more of a temporary yet necessary thing (I am the ONLY person who can take my niece and nephew in our whole family). My nephew is enrolled in school and I am pretty sure I would need some type of documentation showing I have the consent of my brother and sister-in-law to be their caregiver so that I can enroll him in school here and also get their insurance, etc...

What do I need to do? No one wants children to become homeless and it's absolutely unnecessary for them to go into foster care when I have a safe home for them to come to.

Do we need to go through the courts or can we do this informally w/ a notary? This is very urgent as well, as this will be happening within the next month as they have roughly a week to 4 weeks before all utilities are shut off and their home is seized.


They have medicaid in Ohio, I don't know if perhaps we could get it switched to this state... We don't exactly know when they will get back on their feet, it could be years. My brother and sister in law are very lazy and have not really held a job (she's never worked and she's 26) since my nephew was born 7 years ago.

This is all sort of sudden.

Thanks for the advice.

If it is just temporary then you can use a notary to verify everyone's signature. The main things your going to need to do is be able to care for them and for schooling. So you will need their permission. Those statements and others should be in the documents you ALL sign. But your going to have a problem by going the long route. There will be no support and you won't have medical for the kids. So if they need something medical or dental your going to have to figure out how to get it. If you go through the courts for guardianship then at least you can apply for medical benefits in your home state and it gives you more authority without so many questions.

There is more to consider then just providing shelter for the children. They may also want to put an experation date on the paperwork so be aware.

Here is the thing that your going to run in to. Most likely they will be out of contact for great periods. The children will become attatched to you and your spouse. The 4y/o may not remember mom and dad. So you will be the surrogate. You too will bond and it could get very messy. So best now to lay the foundations and make the rules. Or later you can pay for it in spades. For now guardianship and your going to have to keep in mind that someday you may adopt these kids. Another thing as far as the medical goes Im not sure how that is going to be handled and that is something you can call to their state and ask.

All threads on this subject should be combined -

Please stop posting a new question, I have merged them, "answer" your own question to add more info.

I had my sister daughter for 2 and half yrs she lived in fl and I live in Wyoming I flew down to fl and just picked my niece up my sister wrote a note that I had guardianship of her for school and medical purposes and I signed it and she signed it and we had it it notorized that was without anyone involved and it worked for us I put her in school had no problems at all then 2 and a half yrs later my sister got her life together and my niece is back with her mommy and they are doing great that's what we all wanted and yea we all grew very attached to her and her to us but she belonged with her mother and she comes to visit us every summer so everything worked out as planned good luck honey and god blees you and your family